Michael's On The Lake — Restaurant in Town of Dover

I would like to start my review by saying that my comments are in no way a reflection on our waitress who was outstanding in every way. We do not think she was trained in any of the restaurant rules regarding the bar and the new menu. Now that being said my wife and I and my brother in law and sister in law planed to have a nice dinner celebrating our 53rd double wedding anniversa ry as we have done here the last 2 years. We ordered 2 Bourbon Manhattans and asked for rail Bourbon and our waitress said they did not have any rail liquor. (Never heard of a bar not having a rail liquor) We didn't know the prices of any of the other liquors and no options were given to us so we ordered Jack Daniels. The dinners were great and we then decided to have more bread. After the meal we looked at the bill and the drinks were $9.50 for the Manhattans, wow and an extra charge of $3 for BREAD. Are you kidding me ? No rail liquor so we had to order more expensive liquor. They don't tell you this. Who charges extra for Bread? Again they don't tell you this. So we talked to the manager who also happened to be the chef and also the daughter of the owner. We all tried to get through her head that we have never paid extra in any restaurant for Bread. On the menu it said that each meal came with bread, so 4 people should have been able to get more than one loaf. She said no, the loaf was intended for 2 people. DAU we had 4 people so 2 loafs. Then she had to ask her Daddy about getting the charge taken but he was in church. (She's the owners daughter for goodness sake and has to get Daddy's approval for $3). So after talking to Daddy, she took off the $3 and then had the audacity to tell us that the $3 would be taken from the waitress. Are you kidding me? So Daddy screws his patrons on bread and drinks and then goes to church. Ever hear of the saying in business that the customer comes first, obviously they never did. They lost 4 and maybe more patrons as we spread the word how we were treated. Remember the name ( Michael's On The Lake) Kansasville, Wisconsin. Well I guess it is pretty obvious our dinner didn't go as we had planned. Next year we will find a nice restaurant that really cares for...

My cousins wedding... We had prime rib or chicken.. I thought it would be chicken breasts, but it was on the bone (with lots of crushed bone) and the texture failed; the skin was soggy and some of our plates were too pink to eat. The prime rib was cold/not warm when served. The bar in the hall had no good alcohol - all cheap stuff and no girly drinks. The best they had was captain/coke or cranberry/vodka otherwise it was cheap crap. I did not drink any of it. Luckily the wedding hosts paid close to a grand for 5 full keg barrels so it was Angry Orchard all night for me.

When 11:00pm rolled around the manager of the place as well as other staff started interfering with the event. There were reservations till Midnight and the event planner was informed prior that she was able to come back the following day to clean up her center pieces and everything. While the party was still going on she was informed at 11:30 it was time to pack EVERYTHING. The servers stopped serving alc. by 11:15pm and what was left in the barrels (A LOT) was not refunded!! The security officer began taking pictures without consent of the groom who of course was stumbling. When the brides father told the officer he can not legally do that without concent the officer lied and said he was texting while working, BS. FYI our party was a basic family good time we don't get crazy or loud or belligerent. The groom pretty much was the only one too drunk to walk straight but the only reason to shut us down rudely was because our DJ was playing all our requests -Alt. Rock, Hip-Hop, and plenty of line dance stuff (cha cha, elec. slide, wobble, etc..) Or maybe it was because we stopped tipping the bartender. THESE NEW OWNERS SHUT DOWN OUR PARTY TOO EARLY AND MY ENTIRE FAMILY THAT WAS THERE AT THE TIME; INCLUDING THE EXTENDED FAMILY ALL AGREE. This is not the place for family...

My husband and I had a random date night that led us here to Michael's On the Lake. We walked in and it was pretty empty but steady for a Sunday. We were greeted by Micheal and had to sit at the bar to wait for a table. No problem. They had one bartender and I hate saying this but she was pretty slow on making the drinks and another couple left because she didn't get to them in time, however once she finally did get to us and made our drinks, they were made perfectly. I had a Cosmo and my husband had an old fashioned. She balanced the drinks very well and it was worth the wait. One thing we notice though is that the restaurant is very short staffed, so everything does take a bit longer. When we were finally seated we were greeted by Nick who was our server and he was very good at his job. We had a beautiful view while we sat outside and we enjoyed our time waiting for our food. For appetizers We ordered the fried calamari, and for dinner I ordered the filet mignon and my husband ordered the shrimp tempura. The food here is high quality and it was some of the best steak I've had around here in years. Again, the wait is worth it! Michael made his way around all the tables making sure that everything was all right and we assured him that everything that we had was delicious. I will say this, You may want to make a reservation but I think we got lucky on a Sunday night just walking in. There were a few corks about this restaurant, lots of signs everywhere about being short staffed and there was a little tension in the restaurant. I will definitely overlook it because I know from experience what it's like to be a server in a restaurant where people are short staffed. If we find our way back in that area I would definitely go back to Michael's and enjoy another lovely dinner...