Jim Brady's Royal Oak — Restaurant in Royal Oak

Probably one of the worst experiences i’ve had with service in a very long time, truly. I book a reservation for Saturday for my birthday with a group of friends. When calling to make a reservation, they suggested a different time, to which I said we wouldn’t be able to do. They then said “we can do this time but only if your entire party is here by then”, very rudely. The next day I got the text to confirm the reservation and did. As well as receiving an email to verify the res, which i also did. But day of the reservation, got a call 30 minutes prior for them saying we needed to again confirm the amount of people and time or they would be cancelling my reservation, despite me confirming 3 times. Each phone call, the gentleman had an attitude and poor tone. Upon arriving to the restaurant and checking in, the host literally rolled his eyes after saying who the reservation was for. When we sat down, menus were quite literally aggressively shoved inches from our face when he was handing them out. The staff made it VERY CLEAR they did not want us there, which was extremely confusing as I was very pleasant when booking the reservation and returning calls.

The food itself was delicious and we were all very happy! However there was multiple instances where we were blatantly ignored, while our waiter was promptly checking on other tables and fulfilling their orders. When we got there, it took 15 minutes to order our cocktails. As we had time to look at the menu we told the waiter at this point we’re also ready to put in apps / entrees, to which he started he would put in the drink orders and be back. 15 minutes later he had still not returned, and we can see all of our cocktails sitting at the bar ready, while he is bringing other tables drinks, food orders, and walking around the restaurant. Throughout the dinner we were not offered any refills or asked about additional drinks. We had empty waters majority of the dinner and only were able to place additional cocktail orders if we stopped the staff to ask- again, while other tables are getting top tier service. Totally understandable if he was busy as we had a group of 9, but it was very clear we were being ignored and treated with an attitude as we had been the entire time since booking.. Again, very unwelcoming atmosphere, where we truly could tell we were not wanted there at all. The food itself was delicious but extremely rude and unprofessional staff.

Unfortunately this place was recommended to me and I was very excited to check it out for the first time. But with this being an attempt to celebrate my birthday with my loved ones and getting attitude and poor service, as well as my entire party spending almost $800 for easily some of the worst service and rudest restaurant workers i’ve ever encountered (after working in the industry myself for years), is EXTREMELY disappointing. Unfortunately the only reason I can think of receiving such poor service and attitudes from the staff is due to booking an 8pm reservation, however we would have been out of there by 9-930 had we not been ignored for the majority of our dinner. However, we were still done and gone prior to closing, and would have never stayed late as many of us have worked in the service industry & would never want to keep someone late, especially on a Saturday evening. When we left, the bar and restaurant was still full of...

I just want to share the experience my family and I had today around 3 pm. I picked to meet them here because I had only ever heard good things about it and I honestly wish I hadn’t. When I arrived my mom and dad were already seated. The server came over to introduce herself (her name was Honesty) and drop off water. She came back with our drinks about ten minutes after we had ordered them (we all had soda or tea, so not cocktails or anything fancy.) When my brother arrived to complete our party, we sat for about another 15-20 minutes before our server came back to take our order. As we are waiting for the food we are now out of drinks, a busboy comes by and grabs our empty glasses but doesn’t ask if we want a refill. Fine, whatever. But when I go to the bathroom I notice our server literally standing there talking with a coworker behind the bar clearly being neglectful. The food comes and I still don’t have a drink because he took my cup and she never brought me another. Not good to have a full entree in front of you with nothing to drink. She also didn’t offer any ketchup for the fries, salt and pepper or anything. I was basically done with my food when she finally brought refills for us. She just sat them down and walked away. She never asked how the food was or any normal customer service questions making sure things were okay. Quite honestly my fish was alright, coleslaw was bland, my brother didn’t really enjoy his chicken sandwich that much and my dad wasn’t too crazy about his burger. Very sub par for the price. So after sitting there for another 20ish minutes that we hadn’t seen our server I asked the hostess who walked (glasses, ombré type curly/wavy hair) by for two boxes and the check since clearly no one was coming back to see how we were doing. She seemed almost astounded that I asked that, and said “I don’t handle checks I’ll have to grab your server”, rudely, like I was bothering her. Just seemed like there was so many better ways to answer as a customer service worker. After a minute a man with a grey crewneck came up and gave us boxes and the check and apologized for the wait, I’m assuming he did this on behalf of the server because she didn’t want to or something. At the very end as we were about to leave our server pops up asking if we want water or a bag. These seem like small things but at the end of the day we’re spending at least 100 dollars for sub par food, and expected to tip 20% to someone who did not create any type of experience for us and treated us like she didn’t care, as well as the hostess brushing us off. Seems like your servers and front of house staff needs some training on how to treat customers who are paying them money to be served. The only person who was polite at all was the man in the grey crew neck. All in all would’ve probably came back if the service and attitudes of the workers were better, definitely not gonna come spend any more money...

Parking diners beware!

The first spot in the parking lot to the right as you pull in has a low (approx 2.5 foot high) brick wall that runs along the passenger side immediately next to the spot. If you have a passenger, they almost certainly won't be able to exit the vehicle once you have parked. But that's not the bad part. When you come outside to return to your car, and unless you have a passenger who has to get into the vehicle, it is easy to forget about. From inside the driver seat there is no visual cue to remind you it is there. This is very important to know in deciding how to back out of the spot. It is NOT like simply running over a curb.

When you go outside to leave, REMEMBER THAT WALL IS THERE! If you are the driver and all by yourself, and unless you are a regular or happen to remember, it is easy to forget about it. From inside the driver seat, there is no visual cue to remind you. This is very important to know in deciding how to back out of the spot.

I went to Jim Brady's last Saturday (May 6th) for the first time, to meet some college alumni friends for dinner. I was a lone driver in my vehicle in that circumstance.

Once inside the car, as I backed out, and with general caution I might add, I heard a terrible scraping sound. I got out and looked to find that my right front bumper had scraped along the wall.

While technically it was my 'fault' as the driver, THIS WALL IS A HIDDEN OBSTRUCTION, which leaves little to no room for turning as you back out. It sets so low you can't see it from inside the vehicle. An $85 dinner turned into an $850 dollar truck body shop repair.

I spoke with the restaurant owner, Tom Brady, by phone today (May 9th). I wanted to let him know what had happened, so that he might come up with a way to mitigate it for future parkers; and I had a couple ideas. I wasn't asking or even expecting him to compensate me in any way, but his response was so poor I feel I have to write this (management) review.

Mr. Brady was rushed in speaking with me from the moment he took the call. While he did say he was sorry it had happened, there was no genuine compassion or empathy in his tone or words and he seemed generally disinterested. He said he would go out and take a look at it. When I asked him if he might call me back to talk about it and hear my ideas, he said, "No. I think that is totally my call." That was it.

So... Nice restaurant? Maybe. Good management?...