Bear Lake Tavern — Restaurant in North Muskegon

We vacation in the area every summer and eat at Bear Lake Tavern at least once or twice a week. Last night, Thursday August 27th at approximately 6:30 pm, we stopped in to eat and we were seated inside as they were not using the patio due to a pending storm. After getting settled at the table, ordering our food and beverages and making conversation, I realized that I had a direct view of the kitchen/prep area. One out of the three that I could see in that area was wearing his face mask properly most of the time. The woman had hers on sometimes below her nose and sometimes completely below her chin. The younger male never had his on properly as it was hanging below his chin. All 3 that I could see were actively preparing food. It bothered me and I went to the bar and asked for a manager. A young woman identified herself as a manager and I asked if we could step outside to talk. She agreed and I voiced my concerns to her. She told me that she would get the kitchen manager to come talk to me. The kitchen manager came to our table and identified herself. This was the same woman who was not wearing her mask while preparing food, although she was wearing it when she came to speak to me. She asked me what the problem was and I explained my concerns to her. She first said that they had been open the whole time [COVID] and that there had not been any problems with staff or customers. I told her that it didn't matter to me [how was I supposed to know if this was fact or not] and that it was unacceptable for staff preparing food to not be wearing a mask, while the servers were wearing masks. She then asked who wasn't wearing their mask and I told her that she wasn't, the male with the black hat wasn't and the third male in there had it on almost all the time. She turned and looked into the kitchen and the male with the black hat clearly didn't have his mask on. She then asked if she was not wearing her mask while preparing food and I said "absolutely", which she did not contest. Then she told me that they're in there for 12 hours a day, the masks get hot and they need relief. Then she said that we could leave or stay and eat. I told her that I wasn't good with the situation and that we were going to leave. She wasn't rude but the fact that she didn't think it was a valid concern bothered me. We're not going...

Service is terrible and management does not care if something goes wrong. We ended up being at this restaurant for 2 hours trying to get drinks correct and orders placed. Took 10 minutes for the waitress to arrive. Ordered a round of drinks and the popcorn appetizer. Waitress brought the sangria and it tasted terrible, came back and said that the pineapple juice was left out. She then asked if we still wanted our popcorn...this was 30 minutes after we arrived. We declined at that point. Waitress took our order and came out a 20 minutes later and asked what we ordered because she didn't know. We also ordered wedge salads which she brought out but the wedges were wilted and and dressing was warm-ugh! Oh, it was a very hot day and we asked for water which we never received until an hour after. Manager then came out (with no apology) stating that the waitress was new, but said they would make things right and our food would be out soon. 15 minutes later, food arrived....three perch dinners and a walleye dinner. The perch was good, fries were hot, but slaw was warm. Manager then came out again and asked if everything was okay and she said she would take care of drinks if we wanted another round...two of us didn't actually want another drink because the drinks were so bad, but we figured since they were free we would take them. Waitress then comes out again and says, just to make sure I have the bills right, what did everyone order? I said are you kidding? How difficult is 3 perch dinners and a walleye dinner to remember? She brought the bills and all the drinks were on there not one discount. We tried to talk to the manager, but she would not even listen and walked away when we told her everything that happened. Not one discounted meal or an apology. It is pretentious and people like to think it's cool. It's not a good restaurant, maybe for Muskegon it is, but It's small, loud, no parking, pretentious drink menu (muddled fruit, haha, it was an orange slice, lemon slice and a cherry). It's on the water, but no view unless you're sitting at the tables in the sand. Bad...

While we usually stop at the Bear Lake Tavern for dinner and drinks after a day at the beach, this time I wish we hadn't. We go there especially for their yellow belly fried lake perch which they have been known for since 1929. We have always enjoyed it there. This time when our server took our order for dinner we ordered the fried lake perch, but were told they were out due to the busy 4th of July weekend. The table next to us were also told the same thing after waiting 45 minutes for their table, and they left frustrated, but we stayed and ordered something else. Low and behold, after our entrees were served, we overheard the table seated next to us order the lake perch and they were not told they were out! Many others also ordered and received lake perch thereafter. This was all within a span of 15-20 minutes. Puzzled, we asked our server about this and were told that the kitchen now had some prepped. They were never really out. Ourselves and some others were slighted for some strange reason, but this should not have happened. I believe this is due to poor management and communications and training between the kitchen staff and the serving staff who should know what's going on in the kitchen. The server could have just said there is a delay in having fresh lake perch prepped if we were willing to wait a little, and we would have happily waited and had another cocktail, but that did not happen unfortunately. Instead we were misled which made us feel like second class customers when others were served. The server apologized, but ultimately it left us disappointed with...