The Jackson Restaurant — Restaurant in Rochester Hills

The fluffy pillows tasted like a mistake - so much salt the inside of my mouth it felt puckered as though I'd taken a bite out of a lemon.

Out of brussel sprouts so I couldn't get the interesting looking warm salad I wanted and spinach instead of brussel sprouts I agreed to have with the scallops, (no other choice) which for $38 I expected to be more than a count of 4.

But I couldn't eat more than 2 anyway because there was so much garlic and salt and balsamic... couldn't taste the scallops much.

Was a little surprised that when we said we just wanted water that the waiter didn't open the bottle that had been on the table when we sat down and pour it for us. We poured it ourself and it wasn't very cold, no ice in our cups, and we emptied the bottle pouring it for ourselves by the end.

(No ice? Correct. No.)

Soup of the day was tomato bisque, my daughter ordered it and waiter came back saying they were out. He was very apologetic and asked if there was anything else she'd like and she said okay mashed potatoes.

So instead of salad or soup we had a side of mashed potatoes. Okay, they were pretty good,

Then - more as they were the same mashed potatoes my scallops were placed in. The spinach on top - it was fine but just way too much going on on my plate, and texture was nonexistent. Brussel sprouts would have probably worked better for texture. Couldn't really taste the scallop as the overpowering garlic, salt, balsamic reduction, blinded it, as well as sort of each other. I am not sure what I was tasting just "everything and too much of it" is what I would describe it as.

The waiter mistakenly left the truffle mayo on the side and left the the peppercorn off the steak. Fine though, when my daughter brought it up he brought out peppercorn sauce.

I still am not sure why they put half a jar of mayo on a dish for her - not just because she asked it be left off, but why such a large amount?

I wish I could have traded it for ice water and maybe some bread or flat crackers on the table to absorb some of the seasoning of which there was way too much on everything out of my mouth.

I wasn't going to leave a review, but as I type this,I finished eating over 3 hours ago and have brushed my teeth and used listerine, then fluoride rinse, and THEN STILL ate a plain tortilla but nothing can make my mouth stop tasting like a solid garlic clove.

We dined on a $150 gift card and I was happy to give the waiter a quite generous $39.76 tip to have used up the card.

For $150 plus tip we had the "fluffy pillows" (of SALT) served with garlic butter, a side of mashed potatoes, a steak with fries and half a jar of unwanted mayo, and 4 scallops atop mashed potatoes with spinach.

That's it, no drinks, not even tea, not even ice for the water, and no dessert.

Atmosphere would be 4, the main restaurant styling has a lot going for it, but the bathrooms fail at what appears to have been an attempt at "maximalist chic." And I think the tables are a gold Calacatta marble laminate print, not real marble, although still really pretty.

I was very pleasant and didn't bring any of this up to the nice waiter. I didn't want to make it a negative experience for our special occasion. My daughter loved her steak, so there's that. Yay!

I feel sad for this place having not done better. It's a good idea and seems like there's much unrealized potential. I admire the courage of a solo restaurant chef/entrepreneur.

It's probably hopeless but I have to go brush my teeth again. Maybe I should try gargling with vodka. Seriously I'm...

My husband and I had a 6:30pm reservation on a Saturday for dinner. The menu looked exciting, and we were seated promptly.

We both ordered a drink and our server suggested we order the cones, several small plates to share and an entree each, making mention that the dinner would be paced. So, we ordered all of our food at once expecting it would come out at nicely paced times as we've experienced at other restaurants with a similar format. All of our small plates and cones came out at almost exactly the same time, leaving little room on our table and speeding our time there up tremendously. The cones were not for us, there wasn't enough texture to make them enjoyable. The rest of the food was just ok, with our favorite dish being the shrimp small plate. I had barely finished my first glass of wine when our entrees were coming out, and I wanted a red with the Bolognese, so I ordered another glass. The Bolognese was pretty good but a little greasy for my taste, and my husband ordered the rib eye which he enjoyed but was very smoky to me.

Given how quickly our meal progressed, I had barely touched my second glass of wine when our server was boxing up our leftover entrees. At this point it was 7:30 and we had only been there an hour and finished the cones, 4 small plates, and entrees. We looked at the dessert menu, but decided we would rather get dessert elsewhere since it was still so early, but I still had my glass of wine to finish. I did notice the host at the stand turning and glaring at our table several times, and I could tell she was waiting for us to leave to seat other guests.

Just before 7:50pm- barely one hour and 20 minutes since we sat down, a man (who I found out later was the owner because he didn't even introduce himself) came over to our table and let us know other people were waiting for tables and asked us to finish up. He left so quickly I barely understood what he said to us. I had to confirm with my husband that he just asked us to leave. I flagged down our server and asked him to have the owner come back over so I could understand what just happened. The owner came back over and I explained to him that it had only been an hour and 20 minutes since we sat down and I wanted to understand why he was asking us to leave. He explained that he was told we had been there for over two hours and that he was sorry for the mix-up, however, there was nothing else done to try to make amends. We were embarrassed and confused, and after spending $240 on our meal, we felt there was more the owner could have done to make us feel welcome to stay. There is also a clear miscommunication happening in the front of the house. All the owner had to do was look at the time of our reservation and he would have seen how long we were truly there. I ended up not finishing my wine because the of experience, and we left.

I will say based on the food and the rushed pace, we already wouldn't have returned to this restaurant for dinner, but we definitely would have come for the fantastic wine and bar menu. After being asked to leave like we were doing something wrong, we will not...

Fun new restaurant at the Village of Rochester Hills. This place has had a lot of hype so we had pretty high expectations going in for dinner on a Friday night. We were hoping for classy casual spot with great bar, James Beard worthy chef and great service without the drive to Detroit. After our first visit, I would say there is still hope but it did feel like they were still getting their feet on the ground - they have only been open for a little while. The vibe is cool inside with the Jackson Pollack theme (see pics). The drink menu was interesting, but the execution didn’t knock it out of the park - drinks were “ok”. We tried The Solution and later Espresso Martinis with desert. The Solution was fresh and fizzy. The Espresso Martini could have been much better (try Babo in Midtown for the best). We had the same experience with the food. We had the small plates - the burrata, pork dumplings, crab fritters, and shrimp. The food was ok but lacked a “wow” factor. The tomato jam on the burrata was great but the whole thing could have benefited from a little sea salt. The pork dumpling were tasty but a little too wet when you cut them open. Of the four dishes, the shrimp was my favorite. Overall, the desert was the star. We ordered the stuffed lemon, but (to their credit) the waiter came back and told us that desert didn’t turn out as expected that day. Instead, they comped us the other two deserts on the menu - which were both fantastic. The chocolate espresso torte was rich and delicious. The white chocolate almond cake with lemon cream was something we probably would not have ordered but it was light and fluffy and paired perfectly with the lemon cream - excellent!

Regarding service - the small plates weren’t timed out very well. We had the first dish and then the next three dropped at nearly the same time. While we worked on a couple of them, the other was sitting getting cold.

Giving 3 starts for now because there was room for improvement. Will be going back in a couple of months to see how it is going once they hit their stride. There is good...