Muskegon Brewing Company — Restaurant in Muskegon

When first walking in my husband and I were told there would be a wait for inside so we chose to sit at the bar. No problem. There were plenty of seats open. I wished the seats swiveled.

It took 2-3 minutes before we were greeted which started to feel a bit long but the staff was kind. My husband got the red right beer and I got a water. He says it was alright but he wouldn’t have ordered a second one.

I am a foodie and love good food. The menu options were okay but I wasn’t excited but anything specifically. I did think it was strange to pair butternut squash ravioli with brussel sprouts with blue cheese. Didn’t seem like a good pairing. But I can’t say for sure because I didn’t order it.

We decided to keep it simple and ordered the fries as a starter that came with an aioli. The fries were crispy but not seasoned well. And the aioli was lacking complexity. It had no acidity and tasted like I was just dipping my fries in mayo.

For dinner we ordered the grilled cheese with bacon jam and a tomato bisque sidecar and the smoked salmon blt. I was craving a comfort type meal and that sounded like it would fit well.

We didn’t have to wait very long for the food. It arrived with the order paper on top of my sandwich, which I was not excited about. It also arrived behind us and it was an awkward delivery. Not the waitstaff fault. It just should be commonplace to deliver it by the bar staff.

My grilled cheese was underwhelming. It was a slice of cheddar cheese and a slice of a white cheese with the crumbled bacon jam that could have been distributed better. The bread was barely grilled and lacked much color. It was too soft and just didn’t taste well made. It came with more fries that I didn’t eat. And a tiny serving of soup. The soup looked good but when we tasted it we both agreed it tasted watery.

My husbands food was better but the blt came on an untoasted roll. Just felt undone.

First time I’ve ever gone somewhere and didn’t want to get a box for my leftovers. Only ate half the sandwich. Took it home only because my husband said he would eat it tomorrow.

The bar staff needed at least one more worker. My water wasn’t refilled the whole meal but the two bartenders were very busy. He truly was a very kind server.

The views of the lake were nice and we got to see the sunset. I liked the windows all around to see the full lake. It would have been nice to have a small viewing area on the deck but I understand the need to fit as many tables as is comfortable in the space.

The worst part of our experience was unfortunately sitting next to the owner of the restaurant. We quickly learned who he was by him boasting of his success to his two friends that joined him. We couldn’t help but overhear the conversation because he was loud and it caused us to have a poor experience. From him boasting to all his friends about the best steak you’ll ever have and having them try it. Which looked to be overdone to his asking. To conversations about how he doesn’t want to have young women vying for his affections but likes the older women. Said in less suitable terms. Very aware of what he was getting at. He kept saying over and over again how well the business was doing with all the people, yet we were having a terrible experience and not great food the whole time. Then we heard all about how guys with 5” inseam shorts must swing for the other team and something about jumping the fence. He also swore and said the f word multiple times.

My advice, if you own a business you should be walking around making sure the customers are having a good experience not sitting down and having loud inappropriate conversations.

We were completely put off and will not be...

I'll start by saying that Ryan and Emily have made a great addition to Muskegon with Adelaide Point and MBC. Some folks won't go here because they're angry about some serious errors that were made in the development of what had been a largely inaccessible trash heap. Both sides could do better, and I'm only here to rate the restaurant.

First, I've been here 4x over several months, so this is a compilation of those visits. The 2nd floor restaurant has a lake view that most places can only dream about. You could come here to sit at the ample bar, or out on the huge patio, have a beer that's brewed for MBC by local powerhouse Pigeon Hill Brewing, and pretty much be in heaven. If Google would let me break up the stars in more detail, this part would be 5 stars. (period) Sadly, that can't happen, and they lost a full star because the echoes and very loud crowd indoors brought things down to 3 stars at best. That averages out to 4 stars, so here we are. I think that the addition of a lot more sound dampening materials would help tremendously. Of course, so would booths, but there's no way they should sacrifice the view for some booths.

The food is good, but at least twice it has taken forever to get it because the place was very, very busy, and they appeared to be understaffed. Emily was helping a lot, but it still took at least an hour to get our food. Mine was a bit cold on both visits where they were crushed, but it tasted good, I was hungry, and IMO, it wouldn't have helped anybody to send it back. I wasn't the only one in our group with that experience, so 4 stars, since they definitely got it "5 star" right at my other 2 visits.

This last time, our server was awesome. They need to clone her and solve the staffing issue. She warned us about the delay at the outset, kept checking in, and was doing the same elsewhere.

Go on a nice day and sit outside, or at a slower time of the year, and sit inside. You won't be disappointed.

The attached pics were taken over the past several months, as the site has become more complete. You can ride your bike here, since it's on the bike path. You can also walk out to both points around the marina, since they have smoothly paved, handicapper...

I don't normally write reviews, but my experience at this place has been bugging me all week so I hope that by writing a review I can get it off my chest and hopefully help someone else. I will probably never come back to this place. The food was ok but not worth the price, but it was actually the service that was horrible and why I will never go back here again. After calling 3 times to let them know we had a large group coming (twice one week prior and again the day of) and being assured we would be ok and they would be able to accommodate a group of 14...we get there and they would not seat us together. I mean we were kinda close... like seated in the same area but separate tables... and they would not allow us to put our tables together. I asked why we could not push the tables together and was told by our server that it was kinda hard to do that... like they could but she didn't feel like doing it. Then they charged us as a large group by including a 20% tip even though they sat us as smaller groups and we all paid seperate just like if we were not a large group...it was really wierd. She barely came by to check on us so we had to flag down different servers to bring us water and clear plates and we even had to go get condiments and such for ourselves multiple times. I get that it can get busy, but we were there early on a Tuesday so it wasn't that busy. It's upsetting because a few of us were visiting from out of town and this was our one chance to visit and to catch up with our family and we had a hard time doing that having to sit seperately (not to mention how loud it was). I just don't think anyone who is planning to go here as a group will be happy here (there are plenty of other places to go that would have better food and lower prices and definitely better service... that I would skip this place). I know I will never go back even if I wasn't in a group. Not worth it. It's unfortunate because we come to town yearly and are always looking to for places to meet up with the family... oh well....