Mad Mike's Burgers & Fries — Restaurant in Newport

Skip this and just go to 5 guys. Way better.

I came to this place on 12/20/16 at around 5pm after reading such positive reviews on google maps.

I had an entirely different experience and will not recommend anyone go to this establishment.

For starters the restaurant building itself: huge ceilings and cheap owners means the place is freezing cold. there is an awfully tacky graffiti mural the tile work is awful, half missing and what's remaining is half unglued. The owners have utilized copious amounts of tape instead of properly fixing issues even on the stairs. Just dangerous and lazy. it's dimly lit and the environment is clumsy at best. Just plastic bins with ketchup and other condiments placed haphazardly on a ledge seemingly as an afterthought. *the tables were all sticky and wobbly - I tried a few. Nothing in the decor really matches. That may be petty and inconsequential IF everything else was great. But it wasn't.

The service: the menu is in two places. One on the wall when you first enter to the right (can't been seen when ordering) and another menu behind the cash register which is mostly illegibly hand written in dry erase markers and also dimly lit. I order food and a drink and I receive no cup. I had to wait until someone as I stood there looking ridiculous trying to garner attention for 5 minutes. I finally shout at someone and they reply from the back, just shouting as well "just grab a cup, that's fine." Perfect. So I reach over and grab my own cup. *the kid making my fries had to be 14 and was clearly over his head. *the real kicker; IT TOOK 30 MINUTES TO GET ONE BURGER AND FRIES. and the restaurant was EMPTY. Totally ridiculous.

The food: cripes it was bad. I'm totally willing to suffer through poor service and climate for great food. This was bottom of the barrel food. It's a burger. After a 30+ wait I received a cold hamburger with a scant amount of BBQ sauce and onion straws (an upgrade I paid $3 over a regular burger for)(see my pic). It was so insulting on top of the coldness of my food. *the soda machine (for which I paid over $2 and had to wait for, ask, and retrieve my own cheapest least environmentally friendly styrofoam cup was awful. Each flavor was worse than the one before. It sputtered and gave out either too much syrup or none depending on your choice. I literally gave up and drank water. my girlfriends fries were greasy, cold, and drowning in generic gas station quality nacho cheese. It was offensive for the ~$5 price tag. I say generic gas station because it's the same Machine they have at all speedways. I go to ask for more cold onion straws (idk why I even tried) and after waiting forever to even see a face again, I asked for more and the lady responded with, and this sums up the whole restaurant experience:

"I know, I'm sorry. We were just in a rush and you had been waiting a long time."

So you gave me worse food since I waited? How is that even remotely acceptable? How does that make sense? Why would you ever make that excuse/argument? Literally everything about my meal was atrocious and you're gonna say that you knew and you actively made low quality food in a rush to compensate for how long I've been waiting?

Literally the most idiotic customer service ever.

Let's review? This is a restaurant trying to appear to be a premium burger restaurant, yet has an atmosphere worse than most fast food establishments, slower, terrible service, and awful food.

If you want low quality food in a ugly restaurant with the worst service then go here. I'm sure they'll find a way to disappoint.

Bonus: while I was dinning in, two customers came back to complain about their to go orders they'd picked up. One of which was a large order for a business downtown using a third party delivery service and this poor delivery driver had to drive back to Newport (at 5pm mind you) to get the food he was missing. They sent him with a whole box of food. They must have sent him with at least 7 orders missing. Totally unbelievable.

I wish I could give...

OK Cincy/Newport, we need to have a serious conversation about your restaurant and, in particular, burger standards! I have made 2 visits to Mad Mike's on 2 different trips to the area and I am completely baffled as to how this establishment has 4.5 Stars!

First, the food. The hotdogs and fries are actually quite good and the only reason this is a 2 Star review and not a 1. However, if Mad Mike's is a standard (judging by its high rating) of what a "good burger" is in this area, I would suggest a nice burger-cation for your next travel plans!! I am from the Atlanta area, and there is no way the dry, tasteless burgers being turned out here could keep a restaurant open in that market!

Now, can we talk about restaurant cleanliness standards for a moment? This is a direct commentary on Mad Mike's but, unfortunately, applies to many of the restaurants I have been to in the area! A clean table to sit at and a clean chair should be the standard, NOT the exception!! On both of my trips to Mad Mike's, I've had to wet napkins at the drink fountain and clean my own table so I was not getting tacky, partially dried ketchup and mustard on me. Judging by the stains that would not clean off, this is the usual condition of the tables not the exception on my visits.(Also, just a note to the staff- when working with food all day, the classic white T-shirt should NOT be your go-to fashion choice! I do not want to see all the colors of your menu displayed on YOU as I order.) Unfortunately, this has been a recurring theme in visits to several restaurants in the area. If you are travelling to this area, just expect lower cleanliness standards. If you live in this area, PLEASE start holding your restaurants to a higher standard! The area has a lot to offer. However, travellers eat out a lot, and they are more likely to go home and talk about what disgusts them about your area than what pleases them! It's...

We had the worse experience ever last night. This was our first and last time visiting. We were out celebrating my sister birthday. We were looking for a place to eat before we went to the bar. It was 10 of us total. We called upon arriving to make sure they were open and could serve us all being that it was about 8:30pm. When we arrived we all were amazed at all the different burger options. Fast forward... I sent my fries back because they were OLD. They were cold and soggy, I ordered a drink and when I went to get my drink there were no ice in the soda machine. The guy working said "use the ice in the bucket" there was a blue bucket half full of ice just sitting there (so tacky and unsanitary) the kind of bucket used for like cleaning. My burger was so nasty it was old and overcooked, my cheese wasn't melted, my bacon and fried onion was so burnt. My burger tasted burnt. 9 out of 10 ppl did not like their food. My sister boneless chicken wings were BLACK! The worst food ever. The guy that worked there heard us talking about how nasty the food was because he made it his business to stand next to the condiments and listen but never once said anything or tried to fix it. Just horrible! BTW I'm a food blogger (I do food reviews on social media) but I'll do them a favor and just leave a review on Google instead of posting it on my...