Donny's Glidden Lodge Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Sevastopol

We came in with a reservation as a group of 11 Saturday night to celebrate a 50th birthday. We arrived early and were served in the bar area by a very nice young man (can’t recall his name) who took great care of us. We proceeded to our table and had quite the opposite experience with our server Ann. No one in our group can recall an incident at any other point in our lives where we were treated with such disrespect at a restaurant.

She was initially very annoyed (with commentary) when we asked for separate checks, which one would assume could easily be accommodated, especially since we were spending a considerable amount of money which would normally translate into a very generous tip. During ordering, one of our guests started ordering when it was her turn, but Ann wasn’t quite ready for her, so scolded her to “wait your turn before ordering.” During the meal, our guest celebrating the birthday ordered a 2nd glass of wine, but never received it (we understand things happen). At the very end of the meal, Ann asked her if she still wanted the wine that was forgotten, to which the response was that she no longer wanted it since our meal was essentially over. Ann got right up in her face and said something along the lines of “you are rude and completely out of line,” among other words, with a raised voice for everyone in the dining room to hear. At one point our birthday guest had to ask her to back up since she was uncomfortably close physically. This was quite embarrassing for our table, especially considering there was no fault on anyone at the table. After scolding the birthday guest for well over a minute, she addressed our entire table screaming very loudly that, “we all needed to finish up our dinner, pay the bill, and get out.” It was so loud that ever single guest and employee present heard and looked over at us. We called the manager over after, and he was very unhelpful, basically blaming us for the incident and generally excusing the behavior of his employee, saying she “demanded the glass of wine,” which couldn’t be further from the truth.

This incident put a damper on what was an otherwise wonderful day of celebration. 3 of us are originally born and raised in Sturgeon Bay, we all now live within an hour of the restaurant, and over half of us previously worked in the service industry in restaurants. Perhaps this restaurant doesn’t value repeat local customers because the tourism industry funds the business. I am sure Ann and the manager would be defensive in reading my recap of the events, but we have 11 witnesses that say otherwise (1 of which was the birthday guest’s high school aged son sitting right next to her, who had the pleasure of seeing his mother verbally assaulted by our waitress).

We have no interest in being contacted by the restaurant, being invited back with a coupon for dinner, or receive any other handouts or freebies. We just want other customers considering Glidden Lodge for dinner to be aware that they may be loudly scolded by an extremely rude and disrespectful server during their expensive dinner overlooking Lake Michigan.

This was the single worst experience any of us have ever experienced at a supper club, not sure these words can fully articulate the rudeness and disrespect. Having a beautiful spot for dining on Lake Michigan doesn’t entitle this place to glowing reviews. I am not one for negative reviews, even when I experience less than average service, but this one could not go...

I waited all evening before writing this review. I wanted to love this restaurant as we have been to a number of fine dining experiences in door county over the years always with an excellent experience, so I wanted to bring my family here for a new experience. The evening was unfortunately a miss for the majority of our party. It started on a sour note when we arrived the host was cold and abrupt to me. We had made reservations a week and a half prior, as we had a party of eight, and they called to confirm the afternoon of and I said yes we are looking forward to coming. When we arrived, I walked in, saw that all the window seats were already taken, saw that our eight top was already set up with tables right between the kitchen and the server station, and I was still pleasant and said I guess there aren’t any window seats available. The host rudely stated “everyone wants a window seat”, which I would have let slide but when I asked if we could be seated he asked if our whole party had arrived I said six of the eight were here and he said we will seat you when all your party arrives. They already had the tables set up and we had a reservation. We decided to order drinks from the bartender who was also very cold to my family.

As for the food, it was pretty middle of the road compared to many other fine dining restaurants in door county. I booked this place for the view, we didn’t get the view, tried to make the best of the evening and hoped for a spectacular food experience. Unfortunately the special of the night, that three of our party ordered, was ok but not great. Three of us got the tenderloin and two were well prepared one was over cooked and dry. The strip steak and sea bass were both fantastic the sauce for the sea bass special was amazing. The appetizers were a high point they were delicious and well prepared and dessert was also a hit. The wine list adequate, not expansive but good quality selections. The two bottles we ordered were good, and our cocktails were also well made.

Our family has been to a number of fine dining restaurants in a variety of cities and locations across the country. I am originally from Door County so wanted to entertain my family in a special place with an incredible meal. The food was inconsistent and didn’t meet our expectations for the price point and I could have done without the attitude at the start of our evening. We will go to one of the other waterfront restaurants or fine dining locations in door county for future...

My family and I have been coming here for years, and it’s become a tradition every summer. That’s what makes this review so disappointing - from the start of our meal, we felt like we were an annoyance to our server. I’ve worked extensively in restaurants so I wanted to give the benefit of the doubt - maybe she’s just having a rough day. However, questions about the menu were met with judgement, check-in’s about how we were doing seemed forced, pretty much any normal request we’d have for ordering additional drinks or clarifying our orders was met with passive aggressive fatigue. I get it, serving in a tourist-heavy area is not your typical serving job, but if you don’t love hospitality, there are more suitable jobs for you. We were a group of 6 with a vocal 1 year old who was laughing and making your average baby noises. We are all self-aware enough to know the difference between regular kid noises and a baby meltdown. At one point when she did start crying for a period, her father took her outside. At no point in our meal did anyone approach us seeming upset that a family was dining at a family restaurant. Only until we had all finished our meals, ordered dessert, paid, and tipped, did the server come over to the baby’s mother and say “I don’t mean to be disrespectful but we’ve had a lot of complaints about noise if you could finish up”. She didn’t address both parents, didn’t have a manager communicate it to us, and didn’t even give us the courtesy of simply concluding our stay organically since we were already about to leave. It felt deliberate and cruel to make these guests at our table feel unwelcome and like they had ruined other peoples’ nights. There are plenty of adult-only spaces in the world, but this restaurant is not adult-only. I know that because my husband and his four brothers have been dining here since they were children with no complaints. This was a poorly managed situation that felt like it abandoned all kindness and hospitality that we’ve come to expect from...