WaterMark Bar and Grille — Restaurant in Saint Clair Shores

I went here about a week or so ago with family. I had to give myself some time to calm down so that I could leave as accurate review as possible and try to keep it factual. There were 8 of us. It was after lunch time yet not evening. The place was pretty empty on the inside. Our server came to the table after taking forever, did not speak or greet us in any way. She simply began yelling "what do you want to drink" she startled myself and my uncle because she walked up right behind us. She took our drink order. Left ...that took about 30 - 45 minutes. She came back and took our appetizer and entree orders. The appetizers slowly came to the table. I'd say about 20 minutes. However the entrees almost never made it. We waited an hour IF NOT more and no food showed up! At this point myself and cousin we ready to walk out. However our aunts & uncles are more forgiving than us and wanted to wait and see how much longer it would take. They were hungry ... hadn't eaten all day.

We decide go look for this chic and when I find her she acts like she had forgotten we even ordered food! Her reply "oh? Let me go check"

We ask for a manager at the hostess stand and some broad gave us a song and dance that was completely inaccurate with respect to the time our food was ordered AND she had a terrible attitude.it was clear she didn't want us there!

Meanwhile we're headed back to our table and some other chic/ so called waitress stops us and tells us we need to be seated by going to the hostess stand. Mind you.... she's was salivating at the mouth waiting to say something to us because she was watching everything. She attempted to use that as her opportunity however we flat out ignored her as if she didn't exist.

By this time we're walking back to the table and another manager is walking up ....he walks up and wants us to once again explain the issue. So first we ask our 🫸🏽, she blows us off. We then go ask for a manager at the hostess stand and some with decides to step up and get smart and be useless. Lastly they send some man who attempts to talk in circles and if well get confused and accept the disrespect.

So my uncle explains to this dude what we've already explained twice at this point. He then attempts to immediately make up a lie about the reason our food took so long by saying it was due to the volume of people.

However as I stated previously....there were only a few other tables inside...2 of which came AFTER us yet were served BEFORE us. There was also another group, same size as us, came well after us and was served before us. They emate and left before we got out entrees!!

At that point I checked out because I rode with someone else and couldn't leave or I would have.

Our aunts and uncles asked for our bill to be discounted and the lying fake manager pretended to do so.

Our bills came back and MAY have been like $3 cheaper and we were still forced to top the jerk that served us!

It is clear ...and was made clear ..that there is a certain racial element that is not welcome here...and don't think because they have a few token black people on staff that matters. That's just to keep them from getting hit with a discrimination suit, more than likely.

People go here for the view. The food leaves a lot to be desired. It's not good.

It's unfortunate that some of my people are so used to this treatment that they're willing to overlook it , even go back for more. That's why owners of places like these continue to thrive.

There is no apology that will suffice how we were treated that day.

The absolute disrespect and rudeness from all staff involved was egregious at...

Sunday July 8, 2024, "6" of us went to WaterMark Bar and Grille. We were seated inside next to a window (beautiful view of the water). When our "1st" waitress came to the table, she did not introduce herself. She then proceeded to ask what we would like to drink? The first guest at our table asked for a glass of water with extra ice AND a glass of just ice on the side. The waitress quickly got an attitude and said, "I'll see what I can do!" Our 1st guest responded by repeating what the rude waitress said, "I'll see what I can do¿" Now I'm guest #2 (I was sitting right next to guest #1; the waitress was standing between the two of us while taking this 1st order)I asked the waitress to repeat the last part of what she said, which was "do you want me to get you someone else??" Which implied she didn't want to wait on this table in the first place of 6 Black American Women, just getting out of church and ranging in ages from 46-73! Some at our table proceeded to fill their drink orders 4 more waters and a Pepsi. I was hesitant and ready to LEAVE! NONE of us became loud, belligerent or disrespectful. We were totally in SHOCK for one! She turned our moods upside down with the very 1st drink order of water & ice! Eventually, as we sat and waited on this water and 1 soda, our guest #4 went and got the manager. When the lady manager came over, guest #1 told her what she heard the waitress say (now the waitress has finally returned to the table with 2 water carafes and our drinks. That took her every bit of 10+ minutes in an almost empty room!) Getting back to the manager. I told her what I heard the waitress say as well "do you want me to get you someone else¿¡" Which looked as if she was appalled by their waitress misconduct. She then apologized to us and offered us a new waitress. This new waitress had been over talking with the first waitress. Our 2 carafes were still on the table. I told the manager we didn't trust drinking out of those first glasses and the manager apologized and took them away, once the 1st waitress collected them (the manager took the glasses we hand and placed them at the drink station right in front of me. Now we know the new #2 waitress won't use those :-) ). The new waitress brings our new drink orders (exactly the same; 5 waters, one with extra ice, and 1 glass of ice with 1 Pepsi). With this order all we needed were clean glasses with ice, the 2 water carafes were still cold on the table. Waitress #2 brings our glasses prefilled with water 🧐🤨😒. That has NEVER happened as many times I've had lunch there out on the deck! My group of guests sat and waited and watched the 15+ minutes pass by. I finally told them, that's it for me! TIME to GO! Waitress #2 never came back to take our food order! There were literally only 2 other tables of people seated, in the area we were in. On top of that, she was NOT their waitress! The OWNER of this establishment REALLY needs to know about this. My group dine out every Sunday, and often throughout the weekdays. PLUS, my brother a US NAVY Chief and his wife, USE to dine there as well. Sometimes taking other couples with them for date nights. We are ALL big tippers; our group of 6 last Sunday and especially my brother. WaterMark Bar and Grille has lost at least 12 great customers from this incident.

As my group of 6, were leaving out unserved. I stopped at the front desk where the manager was seated. I told her, "we're leaving 🤗". She asked, "she didn't take your orders? I told her, "she [waitress #2] never came back to our table after dropping off our drinks." The manager looked surprised but...

Four years ago when this place first opened in place of the Beach Grille, the food was below average. Since then it seems the menu has been re-vamped to provide better quality food. However, they continue to be hit or miss with the food, which is disappointing. They are offering igloos to sit outside on the deck. For four people, there is a minimum of $200 to be spent on food and drink and then gratuity is added, bringing it to around $60 per person. A group of four of use decided to reserve an igloo to have this experience which also would help bring in some business since we cannot eat inside yet. We also chose to reserve one because it was my birthday. We were excited for this experience and our friends had not dined at this restaurant before. We were promptly seated in our igloo. I am not sure how many other igloos there were since it was dark out, but guessing around 6 or so? We ordered drinks and an app. to start. The spinach artichoke dip was good. Not a ton of spinach in it, but it was hot and the chips served with it were sturdy enough to withstand dipping. When we started to order our entrees, we all got either a burger or sandwich, some soups and side salads. As the first person was ordering the server stopped them and said "You know there is a $200 minimum to have this igloo, right?" WOW. The audacity of this server to say this was pretty offensive. We told her yes and that we planned on ordering drinks too to get us to the minimum. We obviously knew this because it was explained during the making of the reservation, so just because we were ordering sandwiches, she assumed we weren't aware and the way she said it confirmed she didn't think we were going to order the minimum. For the price, we expected much more polished service. Not only did she throw shade at us like this, but also kept forgetting things we we asked for, i.e. water, napkins, dessert. I ordered three different martinis while here. They all tasted the same and honestly were not good. The other mixed drinks that were ordered by the group were just OK and the beer ordered was fine because that is hard to mess up. When the food arrived, the fries with my sandwich were ice cold. I know there is a different in temperature from the building to the igloo, but to have them arrive less than luke warm was concerning. One of the sandwiches ordered was a fried chicken sandwich. The person who ordered it said it tasted like extremely low quality meat and they had to pick out the fatty parts of the chicken in order to be able to chew through it. Caesar salads were ordered and it was another major disappointment. I wouldn't have even considered it a Caesar salad with the type of greens used. The special soup of the day was chicken n' dumpling, which was a hit with the table. On point with this item. Everything else was OK, but nothing else stood out. Overall, we were left feeling disappointed. We want to be able to continue to support businesses right now, but not if they cannot hold up their end of the bargain by providing better service, food and drinks, especially if there is a minimum amount that must be spent...