Bowdie's Chophouse — Restaurant in Saugatuck

I have eaten at Bowdies a dozen times in the past few years. Most recently Friday Oct 4 at 7:30p and again last night Sunday Oct 13 at 5p. Oct 4 meal - we were sat upstairs. My wife and I and our guests, my older sister and her husband who were celebrating their 38th wedding anniversary. We recommend your restaurant. Problem #1 - we waiting an hour and a half before our food arrived. An embarrassing experience if that was it but the worst part - our food was all overcooked (everyone ordered medium rare and we all received medium well / well done). The steaks were gray and way over salted. My lobster tail was also overcooked and when served to me, rolled off the plate onto the table. I picked it up to avoid further embarrassment for the server who did a fine job other than this fumble. We didn’t return the steaks as we had already waiting an hour and a half and our guests were shooting glances at each other as if to say “This? This is their recommendation for a great restaurant?”. We went home, didn’t speak of the meal and our guests left. So embarrassing.

Oct 13 - My wife and I took our kids (21 and 25 yr old), in part b/c we ate there the week prior and they love Bowdies. The wait for the food was perfectly fine - normal even. The steaks? Ordered medium rare and served well done. Again. Damnit. My kids asked me not to make a scene and return our entire tables worth of food. So I just went with it again. The server again was great and did not drop my son’s lobster tail on the table. So that was nice.

Two meals - $1,000 of dining. Ruined b/c whoever you have cooking has no idea how to cook a steak medium rare. For a chop house - you think that’s the number one thing they’d learn. Don’t overcook a fine steak. But you did - and embarrassed me (a former raving fan). What the hell are you doing...

Shockingly Unprofessional Behavior by Manager Angela – Ruined our celebration !

I don’t normally write reviews, but what happened during our recent visit was so appalling, I feel it’s necessary to share. I was part of my father 70th birthday party celebration at this restaurant, and the way our group was treated—especially by the manager, Angela—was nothing short of disgraceful.

We came with a large group and politely asked to add two more chairs to the adjacent group so our full party could sit together. It was a simple, reasonable request—but Angela raised her eyebrows and responded as if we’d asked for something outrageous. Instead of speaking with us calmly or offering any sort of compromise, she exploded—raising her voice, acting hostile, and creating a scene in front of other diners. Everyone began to look around as our whole party was completely put to shame by her hideous voice .

Her behavior was not only unprofessional but downright aggressive. It was embarrassing and completely unnecessary. We were calm and respectful—just trying to include all our family members in the meal. Angela, on the other hand, seemed determined to escalate the situation from the very beginning.

There are plenty of restaurants that offer great food and respectful, welcoming service. This is not one of them. Do yourself a favor and go somewhere that actually values its customers and understands basic hospitality. We will never be returning.

To the owner of this franchise , I have visited several of your locations around USA , but never been so disappointed from this customer service experience that we incurred with your manager Angela over the weekend . We dearly love saugatuck as you do with your wife and to be honest with you having this Angela lady as the face of your franchise in Saugatuck it’s...

Sooooo disappointed! My daughter bought me a gift certificate for Bowdies 2 years ago and my wife has been trying for 2 years to get a reservation. My wife and I have an 8 year old, and date nights are special. We get them about 3-4 times a year. So it finally happened, we got a 5:30 reservation last night and we were so excited. So, after being seated for more than 10 minutes, our server finally showed, apologized because he also was bartender. No problem, he took our drink orders, which were excellent. We then ordered about $200 worth of food. After we had been there one hour, i got my half salad, my wife did not get hers. Waiter checked in, saw we were short a salad. Came back 10 minutes later, still no salad, I was done with mine and we told him not to bother with the other salad.. He said he would comp it so they prepared it to go. My wife was very hungry and decided to have a bite of salad. When she opened the togo box, she found it was the wrong salad! At an hour and twenty minutes, with only half a salad for 2 people, we had to leave to pick up our son from the baby sitter. I talked to the waiter, explained we had to leave saying we had waited too long and only got one salad correct. He said no, we got two salads and I told him they got my wife's wrong. I gave him the togo box and asked him if he had ever checked to see if my wife's salad was correct. He hadn't, then he checked and saw that indeed, the salad was wrong. He then comped our salad and drinks and went after the expediter. Our waiter was great, but he couldn't do two jobs at once and the rest of the staff let him down. I worked for a steak house in the Chicago suburbs for 10 years. We won't go back. We do not know if their food is good. We were so excited, and now we can't understand why it's so hard to get a...