Royal Oak Taphouse — Restaurant in Royal Oak

My fiancé, his brother, and I went here the Saturday before Memorial Day for a quick bite to eat. When we were sat down there was maybe 7 occupied tables in the entire restaurant and over half of those were already served food. Within 5 minutes of being there, we had placed our order. Being that the restaurant was nearly empty, we assumed our food would come up rather quickly and boy were we wrong. For the next 50 minutes we waited for our food. Our food comprising of two burgers and one Reuben. About 10 minutes into waiting we were told there was a “kitchen backup” so our food was going to take some time. Now at this point that seemed like a terrible excuse given the fact that when we were told this there was only about three tables without food and still only about 7-9 tables total occupied. After our server informed us of the wait, we never saw her again. She never checked on us, never asked us if we needed anything, never updated us, in fact, at one point my fiancé made eye contact with her and she hid in a booth to avoid us. This made it seem as though there was no kitchen backup but rather the mistake was on her part. Just as we were getting ready to tell the manager to cancel our order being that our server was avoiding us at all costs, our food comes out. My fiancé’s Reuben was soggy and the instant he picked it up, the bread fell apart. Now I ordered a burger with cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, jalapeños, and Mayo. The burger came out with no cheese, no Mayo, and no jalapeños (btw the jalapeños and onions were both $1 add on so if I’m being charged extra for it, it should be on the plate). When I told the server about the mistake is when she proceeded to give me attitude. She snatched my plate back and when she brought out the “new” burger, it was still missing the Mayo. I didn’t want to tell her there was still something missing after the attitude I had already received. Our food was barely edible. The burger was the worst I’ve ever had. My fiancé politely told the server that our food was not good and falling apart and she proceeded to give him attitude as well. So he asked for our checks to which we received even further attitude. Once we paid we politely asked to see the manager to inform him of this experience and all we were given was excuses. We did not tell him in hopes of receiving any kind of free food or discount which is why we paid first. During our bad experience, I noticed a couple at the bar being waited on by a different server also left saying their experience was bad as well. As a previous server who bartended all through college it’s impossible to believe that when only three tables are waiting for food, there is a “kitchen backup.” The reality of the situation is that the servers are not giving good service whatsoever. Stop making excuses and train the servers to be better. It is not me or my fiancés fault that we waited almost 50 minutes for two burgers and a sandwich and the attitude we received was appalling. Being that I have been a server/bartender before I believe in tipping but it should also be earned. You are not entitled to a tip especially when you treat your...

Tried to have group events here twice. Both times we were moved to a different area without notice.

The first time, they booked another group in the front room, so they moved us to a long table in the bar area and had 2 servers and 1 bartender for the bar area AND the private party. There were 18 of us, we received our food before we received our drink order. My glass had a huge crack in it. I sent it back and didn’t get my replacement drink until I finished my meal and until I asked for my bill. I told the server we were disappointed, that we were a networking group and we couldn’t even network because we were stuck at the long table and we had to wait so long for our food and drink. She said a waitress/server walked out and there was just the 2 servers. I then retracted my statement and told her she did a great job considering the circumstances. She asked us to give them another chance. We booked something for the next month right then.

I was told we would be in the front room for return the next month. I got there the evening of amd was told, very rudely, that we were moved again… the bartender told me that we could go into the bar area, or go somewhere else. I had 25 people coming in 30 minute so and couldn’t go anywhere else. I asked to speak to the manager, he told me that he didn’t want to talk to me and he said that they didn’t even want us there, that we were supposedly rude the last time we were there… Which was a lie! We had a horrible time the first time…and there were 5 people that witnessed the interaction with the server…which was not bad, again, she was the one apologizing and asked us to come back.

They had 2 servers again for the 2nd party. The food we received was not what was described on the menu…the poutine was supposed to have pork belly, there was no meat, I brought it to the servers attention, she took it back to the kitchen and brought it back with bacon on top. Yes it’s pork… But not pork belly. We had several baskets to raffle off, the servers actually bought tickets along with some kitchen help… which we were fine with, two of them won a basket! It seems the only person that had a problem with us was the manager. I found out that they did a tip share, our waitress worked her butt off for us… I gave her a $40 cash tip (on a $38 bill) and told her not to tell anybody, that the way we were treated by the manager and the bartender… They didn’t deserve any tip from us. The sad part is, this was a networking event… There were 2 lawyers, a doctor and several business owners that attended both events. Every person that came said they would never go back.

I wouldn’t waste...

We used to love this place! It was our couples night all the time..Always great service/drinks & food. Tonight we visited around 7:25 the hosts were great, and after sat it took about fifteen minutes before we even had a server come up to us.. We then ordered waters a couple glasses of wine, a coke & kids lemonade.. Along with two bowls of soup, onion rings & chicken tenders.. Took about twenty five minutes for the wine, coke & lemonade. Another fifteen for the three waters.. still waiting for food. Asked & was told the kitchen was backed up and food would be out in ten to fifteen minutes. Asked for two more glasses of wine. Twenty five minutes goes by still nothing.. At that point we just asked for a manager (not to be rude, but to just pay our bill and go somewhere else) We have a hungry kid. Waiter finally comes back (no wine) just brings out some onion rings. We then ask him to please just box it up and forget the wine. All we ordered was soup and two fried things.. We waited almost two hours for that & then once food was brought out we didn’t even have the asked for dipping sauce with the chicken tenders. I am in the restaurant industry myself as a manager, bartender & server at a decently high class bar/restaurant, and I would NEVER write a bad review, but this was unbelievable. Manager still never came out to talk to us after over an hour of asking for one. Our waiter said “I apologize he’s too busy in the kitchen trying to keep up” which again I understand, but paying over $60 For a dinner we got half the food from & walking out with a hungry kid.. our waiter was an extremely nice boy. Although the was clearly inexperienced and definitely needed training. In fact I felt unbelievably bad for this boy who couldn’t stop apologizing for getting everything wrong, Unsure of wine etc. Ended up leaving around 10ish. Again I’m not one to ever leave bad reviews, but this has my mind blown. Would have been different if we ordered a full on dinner meal, but my five year old only want a bowl of chicken lemon rice 🤯 This was an extremely...