The Modern Vegan — Restaurant in Royal Oak

I don't know even where to begin, but here we go.

My wife and I are Vegans. 20 years, 9 years, respectfully. We've had plenty of amazing Vegan food but this is the kind of place that makes no one want to be Vegan. So please, don't have this place be your decision maker of what delicious Vegan food tastes or looks like.

My wife and I went there last night for Valentine's Day. We booked a reservation for 2, a couple days before hand, for 7:15pm. We arrived at 7:10pm. We would've been there earlier, but parking was an absolute mess close to the restaurant and there is only paid parking. When we got there, there was quite a few other couples waiting to be seated. There was no hostess stand with someone there, just a girl with a note pad, going around and asking everyone what their reservation time was. Mind you, there were like 5 tables, to the left of entering, that were totally unoccupied too. After waiting like 15 minutes, the girl came over to us and sat us in one of those 5 tables. There were no silver ware settings at any of the tables either. It took her 5-10 more minutes to get us our water and our menus. Never did anyone ever come up to us and say that they were our server. We waited over a half hour, with no one ever coming up to our table, so I took our waters up to the bar to have them refilled. 40+ minutes in, a guy came over and took our orders. We asked him for a water refill and he never came back with it. After placing our order we waited almost an hour for our food. When the food was delivered, (almost 2 hours after we entered) he forgot the ranch dressing (for my wife's salad) and the ketchup for my fries. I asked him for some salt and pepper shakers, when he came back with our condiments, but he didn't bring them. Our food appearance/plating was terrible and was far from what 2, $22 plates of food should look like. My wife's , Bahn Mi was a cheap hogie bun with like 4 slivers of uncooked tofu, marinaded in a slimy sauce, with some mixed greens thrown on top. And her side salad was a tiny bowl of pretty much mixed greens. Honestly, her dish would've been less than $1 to make at home. My Roadhouse Chick'n Burger looked ok but the side of fries ($10) were smaller than a small fry at BK. My wife's dish had no flavor whatsoever, and their ranch sauce was nothing special. My Chick'n Burger tasted pretty good but was really runny and fell apart quickly, so I ended up eating the second half of it with a fork. For $44 dollars, we were not impressed WHATSOEVER!!! And, during our meal, no one ever came back to see how we were doing. After we were done eating, almost 2.5 hours after we arrived, with a reservation, no one came with a bill, so I had to go up to the cashier and ask for our bill, at which time I asked to speak to a manager. She said that the real manager was not there (on Valentine's Day) and that the guy who brought us our food was standing in for her. I spoke to him about us being there for almost 2.5 hours and our overpriced food and asked him kindly to give us some sort of discount. He said that he could only take the tax off our bill, which I felt was pretty cheap and very petty for how long we waited for our food and the service we got. So, I paid the $44 dollars and we left. On top of everything I just mentioned...the atmosphere is all over the place. The venting system is atrocious and we felt smoked out quite a few times during our visit. The seating is uncomfortable; hard plastic chairs that are too low for the table height and wooden benches that were too high for the table height. We also saw a couple workers there, standing around doing nothing. We also didn't order any appetizers bcuz they were $15 each and we didn't order any cocktails either bcuz those were $15-$20+ dollars as well. And, my wife left hungry after spending $22.

All in all, we would've given this place a 0 star if that were an option. We totally wasted our Valentine's Day evening. It was honestly THE WORST restaurant experience we've ever had and will never be any sort of...

Excellent meal, let down by mediocre experience. I would strongly recommend TMV to anyone who, like us, is still mourning the loss of Inn Season. But in the interest of retaining an excellent Vegan restaurant in Royal Oak, I have some suggestions for management.

First impressions are everything - this was ours: Arriving for brunch about an hour after opening, one other table was seated. We were initially thrown by the prominent counter, and wondered whether this was a cafeteria-style restaurant. But we waited to be seated (per the sign) for several minutes, before the lone waitress asked us where we'd like to sit. Maybe the sign wasn't necessary? We received menus and ordered coffee and Kombucha. But Kombucha was not available, and the coffee machine was broken. The Kroger down the street sells coffee makers for $20 - I considered donating one; a manager might consider the same. I can appreciate the "modern" aesthetic, but the bare white table (adorned by plastic flower centerpiece) and flimsy plastic chairs may not be quite the version of modernity TMV meant to evoke. I should mention here that every step in the dining process took a few beats too long - long enough to notice, and to notice other guests notice.

After perusing the menu just a bit longer than needed, it was time to order. I was a bit surprised to find the vegan menu includes lots of references to sausage, bacon, steak, and cheese. Happily the waitress confirmed that no animal products are served at TMV, but it does seem odd to find no mention of that fact on the menu (or on signage, or verbally). This was also when we learned that they were (already) out of Biscuits & Gravy and Mozzarella cheese. We took some more time to find our second choices. Our silverware arrived on top of a stack of napkins in the middle of the table. We weren't blown away by the choice of paper napkins, but since we didn't dine on the patio, neither were the napkins blown away. Our meals arrived shortly after (again, after just enough delay to notice). And the food was excellent! While I might suggest offering a choice of potato (rather than so much mashed), our Crabcake and V'eggs Benedicts were delicious! I'm not sure whether the sausage and bacon were store-bought products or prepared in-house, but the overall result wouldn't leave a carnivore unsatisfied. And although the prices are comparatively high, the presentation and serving size elevated our dishes. I think this is just the sort of breakfast comfort food needed to bring meatless menus into the mainstream.

We needed to take home about half of our portions. And again, the offer of boxes came about 5 minutes after it was obvious we needed them. Good call providing eco- (and microwave-) friendly cardboard takeout boxes though!

Overall, TMV needs a bit of polish, and a bit more cohesion. The layout is a bit odd, with the entrance just a bit tricky to find. And the menu isn't typical. So it's especially important that the front-of-house staff be attentive and helpful. Seat customers quickly, explain the menu and any out-of-stock items up front, and offer suggestions to newcomers. Management should consider upscaling the dining room and place settings to better match the prices, offering bread or salad to offset the long meal prep time, and encourage the cleaning staff to dust. Oh, and buying a backup coffee maker!

We're looking forward to visiting again, once TMV has...

The delivery app situation is ridiculous and deceptive in my opinion. I placed my order and as soon as I hit to order the delivery time changed to two hours later. Had it shown the actual delivery time I wouldn’t have ordered it. Which you would think could be a simple fix by just canceling the order but nowhere on their app is the option to do that. Not only that, but the “contact” Option gives you a phone number that sends you to a recorded line that only gives you the option to send an email which obviously wouldn’t allow me to cancel an order in time. There is absolutely no number listed anywhere on the app or Google to call the actual restaurant. It’s just the same number as in the app that sends you to a recorded line. The other part that is deceptive is the delivery is routed to Uber, which had I been able to place the order on Uber eats I would’ve seen the actual real delivery time and been able to cancel it or get a refund or even contact the delivery driver, which I was unable to do through This restaurant’s delivery app. I even confirmed it with the driver when I met with them that they not once received contact from me with the number given on the delivery app. It also set it up to where whoever placed an order for something through Uber Eats before me was able to select priority delivery ahead of mine, an option that I wasn’t afforded on this restaurant’s delivery app so it made my drop off time even worse. The best part of everything was, I didn’t even receive the entire correct order. So essentially I sat around and waited on this ridiculous incorrect order that made me almost miss my flight because when I ordered it 3.5 hours before my flight I incorrectly assumed there would be some semblance of structure and order when it comes to food they charge $30 an item for. As a business owner myself this is just embarrassing and...