Joe Kool's Novi Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Novi

TLWR; Food is grossly overpriced for what is provided. Kitchen still has major problems. Cocktails were on point. Service needs attention/improvement.

I waited after their opening with all the poor reviews and finally went last night after waiting several months for them to get into their grove. All the problems I've read in the reviews delaying my visit still exist - go elsewhere.

Host(es) stand: The host was standing with back to the door on his phone while we were standing at the stand waiting to request our seat. Took about 20 seconds before I almost had to interrupt him to acknowledge our presence. He was polite as one would anticipate.

Seating: Prompt delivery of the menus and drink request. Upon the waiter returning, we ordered 2 cocktails. Those arrived in a timely manner and were spot on - good job!

Food: Rueben Sandwich, Harvest salad, side order of Onion Rings. No joke, order placed at 9:45 PM on a Friday and took 23 minutes to arrive to the table, but no Onion rings. The Onion rings would take an additional 15 minutes to arrive. However, the waiter without hesitation apologized and stated he would ask the mgr. to clear them from our bill (which they did).

Ruben: simply hideous if you can call it a Ruben. Do know that a Ruben comes loaded with (cheap) Sauer Kraut, I struggled to find any amongst the dressing. Also, the Corned Beef was minimally applied. This was the saddest Ruben I have ever eaten. I'd easily believe there was less than a 1/5 lb. (3.2 oz of meat) of Corned Beef across the entire sandwich. It was a complete disappointment.

Harvest salad: a level plate of salad (Wendy's provides more salad), cranberries, walnuts, and a lite sprinkle of Feta and about 1/3 of an apple sliced. My wife who never finishes a salad completely ate the salad and deep dived the onion rings. She did really like the Raspberry Vinegarette. The price point for the minimal salad serving is embarrassing! Service: Waiter never returned to see how the food was until the onion rings needed to be dropped off (15 minutes later. I was done with my meal, my wife was nearly done at that point). No water refills, only asked at that point if we wanted another cocktail. To his credit, I believe he was the only waiter staffed to service the entire floor. While his attention to the table needs much improvement, he was nice and polite.

Overall: Completely disappointed in the food and service. Bar while minimally stocked, was the only highlight as our drinks were on point. Go somewhere else if you are debating (like I did) on trying it out. I live local to Novi and I will...

I had a salad with tenderloin tips. Expensive…. four bite sized pieces of meat. $18 for the salad with a few bites of meat. Dressing is watery, not much flavor. Almost as if it’s watered down. Three very thinly sliced apple pieces, a few bites of feta cheese, maybe a tablespoon of crushed pecans. Mostly lettuce. Diet Coke $3.49. The happy hour, sign on table reads: $1 off ALL beverages. Diet Coke is a beverage. Happy hour between 2-6 pm. We were there during those hours. I rarely ever order a beverage but happy hour $1 off so I got a Diet Coke. We inquired with the waitress, when we got the bill. She seemed very irritated that we asked the question about the dollar off. She said it only applied to alcoholic beverages. I pointed out that the sign said one dollar off all beverages. She gave me an irritated look and asked if we wanted to speak to the manager. We didn’t want to argue over one dollar but you shouldn’t display a sign that says all beverages if it’s only alcoholic beverages that it applies to. Misleading advertising. She was very good throughout our experience until the end when we got the bill And asked questions regarding the one dollar off all beverages and why the prices of the beer were not on the menu. $8.50 for one beer. One dollar off because it was during happy hour except for my Diet Coke. Too expensive . The restaurant is nicely decorated, clean. We were there during dinner time and there were only a few people in the restaurant. That speaks for itself. Prices are way too high for what you get. My boyfriend had a chicken wrap and it was so small you would have thought it came off the kids menu. They only give potato chips with the small wrap. Fries are an extra $2.99. Tiny wrap and chips $12.99!!!!! If you add fries $16!!!!! Bummed! We rarely eat out. We chose wrongly. I would not recommended this restaurant unless you order double portions and are ok with the...

The food was pretty good, but overpriced in my opinion. $15 for a patty melt and a side of fries, and $1.25 for a small plastic cup of ranch to dip in. Ugh...

Speaking of my bill, I realized I was upcharged a couple dollars and some change when I received it. I presented it to the waitress and found out the following:

My patty melt and fries ($11.99 and an added $2.99 respectively) initially showed up as $16.23. The cup of ranch dip was added into the amount. This is fine and there's no issue at the end of the day, aside from overpriced dressing, but why does the price have to be so confusing? Shouldn't the ranch be listed as a separate line item? It wasn't mentioned anywhere in the menu either for the cost... Maybe I'm overreacting a bit but I'd expect to have a clear understanding of what I owe.

My dessert of fried cheesecake was listed at $5.99 in the menu, but showed as $6.99 on my bill. The waitress and manager had no idea or explanation for this, though they did take the charge off and correct it. Credit where it's due, but frankly it made me feel suspicious.

I asked for the bill around 8:30pm, finally received it at 8:45 without the dessert on it, so they had to take it back. Received it again at 8:55 with the wrong amounts, then finally had the bill I finally paid for at 9:05. This is all while there were around 4-5 tables at most filled since I had gotten there at 7, and it seemed they only had one waitress hired.

The atmosphere was pretty dull otherwise, maybe due to it being empty (granted it was a Wednesday), but all TVs had the same thing on and could barely hear any ambient music or anything otherwise. No attempt at making things interesting for a "bar".

Overall would not recommend. You can find better food at cheaper prices elsewhere, and the shadiness around my bill made me very...