City Park Grill — Restaurant in Petoskey

So this is my first time ever posting a Google review but with how myself and family were treated at the City Park Grill I felt compelled to share our experience. On Thursday July 24th I was looking for a restaurant to have lunch at while we were going to Petoskey for the day. I wanted to set something up in advance of arriving in Petoskey so I searched for restaurants on Google and the City Park Grill came up, while looking at their web site I noticed it said reservations are highly encouraged. I called the restaurant around 10:30 am and spoke to the hostess who was very nice and I asked if I could make a reservation for a party of 10, she stated no problem, took my name and phone number and said I was all set for 1:00pm for my party. When we arrived at the restaurant everything was fine and then they took us back to be seated. They told us we would be seated at two tables next to each other, ok fine, I thought we would be seated together and they had plenty of 4 top tables they could have just put next to each other so we could all be seated together but whatever. Half of our party sat down in the back of the room at one table and the other have sat down at a large round table next to the other table. After we all received water and menus the waiter came to our group at the round table and asked if we would mind getting up and moving across the room further away from the rest of our party because we could fit at a smaller table. Okay fine. After we sat down again we then noticed we were not being served by the same waiter. So I reminded our male waiter that we were all one party and to put the bill on one check. He got very irritated about it, and I again said we were all supposed to be at one table sitting as a party together and I wanted one check, he started to walk away and stated no less than 3 times in a row loud enough for everyone to hear one check, one check and so on. Then about 5 mins later we had another employee come to the table, it was a male and I would assume was a supervisor or manager. This person crouched down next to me and told me that it WILL be two checks and we WILL swip your card twice to pay the bills. He was being very disrespectful and condescending and others could hear his tone and attitude. I then also asked why we were not seated together and he stated it is their HOUSE Policy that they break up parties of 10 or more. Okay fine, I stated I made a reservation in advance for a party of 10, and he replied well no one told you that you would be seated together. He’s correct, the hostess did not say those words. I assumed we would be seated together based off making a reservation and explained that to him and also mentioned that if it is your house policy then why was I not told that when I made the reservation. He had no answer and said he would take note of it. Overall horrible experience from the potential manager and the male waiter. Both acted like they did not care. So, if you have a party of 10 or more I do not recommend this restaurant as their HOUSE policy is they split parties of that size up. Just to note, the female waiter that took care of our other table across the room did a great job according to our family...

Signed up for VIP card. Made a reservation, in person at the restaurant 2-3 weeks ahead for my golf group of 8 for Thursday night. Was told it wouldn't be a problem, and the person making the reservation told us "there were no other reservations" for that night, so they offered several choices where they could seat us. We chose the large room in the back. I called the day before to confirm the reservation and the time. When we arrived, the host told us we would be seated at 2 separate tables. I told him 2 weeks ago when I made the reservation they reserved a large table in the back room. He said it was booked. (although no one was there) Apparently, they later booked a group of 18 in that room, and didn't bother to reserve another table for us. There were scattered tables of 4 open, which could have been put together earlier and reserved for us, and there were two other large groups seated which should have been held for us but no one bothered. Our server said she could put us at a larger table in the empty room where we were supposed to be, but was stopped by a manager, who tried to explain that we couldn't be seated because it was reserved, and " we were here first", so they couldn't seat us-which made absolutely no sense. We had 2 different servers ( Michael took care of my table, he was excellent and he tried very hard to make up for managements mistake), and really couldn't interact or have the experience we expected when I made a reservation for a group of 8. I know for a fact the larger group booked after us, there were no other reservations that night when I made mine in person, 2 weeks ahead. There were at least 2 tables of 8 in the bar and other parts of the restaurant seated when we arrived. I understand giving priority to a large group of 18 in the back room, but no one gave us a second thought when they put them in our place. One of those other large tables should have been held for us, they could have put 2 tables together anywhere else and held them for us earlier in the evening, but didn't bother.. Not a good experience. No apology from manager, no attempt to compensate us for not reserving the table for our group. One of the people in our party owns 2 restaurants, and was appalled how cavalier they were about not having a table for our group...

I should have known how my experience (ehh to bad) was going to go based on my phone call prior to arriving. I asked if there was a wait as it was 4th of July. They told me there was but they weren't allowed to tell me how long, and said it with an attitude. told me I had to come in to ask...so I did. upon arriving 7 mins later there was NO wait, so that was good, but weird...even more puzzling the guy infront of us asked if they could seat a party of 10 and they told him they couldn't sit them all together, so he left....when they sat my party of 4 they put us in a room full of about 20-30 unsat tables. I was feelin' for the party of 10 guy. I thought maybe didn't have the staff for it...but then they sat 5 more tables in our section, so couldn't have been that.

anywho...I only had one question about the food, and asked 2 servers about the vegetable, if they were fresh or frozen, couldn't get an answer to which...was weird. I hesitated to get an entree because of this so I pivoted to a steak sandwich with was pretty good. however our apps were wack...shrimp and grits were served in a soupy jambalaya with grits at the bottom un-visible. shrimp had their tails on, and you don't do that in soup. it was an odd shrimp n grits.. we also got crab spin dip....zero crab( paid for crab tho) someone at my table got the veggies as there were no substitution options for entrees...and im glad I didn't get it because they were dramatically over cooked zucchini and squash zucchini, with mushroom and onions (gordons seasonal blend). mushy. whitefish was decent but way too expensive. fish n chips were good. bread was great. overall subpar...definitely a stupid way to start off my experience and it made all the other nit picky stuff hard to let go. $137 bill, felt like a...