Firefly Restaurant — Restaurant in Traverse City

This post is in response to another reviewer who was responded to by a worker named Travis, as well as my own experience being part of the original reviewers party.

The worker wrote:

“ Hello Lucas,

I would like to touch base about your visit to Firefly last night. I've been in touch with my staff and reviewed our camera system / point of sale with your group. There are several questions that I would like to connect with you on. Your group was sat at 6:53pm, food was rung in at 730pm, food hit the table at 758pm, and you left our building at 820pm. Going off our camera system the server was at your table six times throughout your visit.

I would appreciate a couple minute's of your time, at your convenience to hear your side of the experience. Its sounds like we dropped the ball in some aspects and would appreciate the feedback to help educate our staff.

Thank you Travis”

This is a very misleading interpretation of the events that occurred. We came in two split parties as they could not seat all 11 of us together. One party outside and one inside. Our party, which had to be seated outside, ordered our food essentially at the same time as the other party and received our food way later. Enough time passed where I was able to go into the restaurant and talk to them where they were already 90 percent done with their meals and were on their sixth drink… which was wild because at that point we were served one drink and no food…

Another point is that the food came out at only a single point in time. We received half our food and then the other half around 10-15 minutes later. At this time the other party we came with was done eating and left the restaurant.

The point about the server coming to us 6 times is complete BS when you think that two of those were for the check, 1 for initial drinks, 1 for food orders and 2 for bringing out the food.

An additional point is that we went in and noticed our other party had an empty table that could fit us literally right next to them. We asked to be seated there and were told it would be at least a 20 minutes wait. The other party even acknowledged later that the entire time the table was open and never was in use. So half of us had to sit outside just because, with no food or drink.

So in all, the rebuttal to the original review is misleading.

To be clear we paid in full for our meals and did not ask for anything in return. We were straight forward in letting the manager know it was a mess up on the spot. And the food...

Came up to Traverse City from Grand Rapids to look at a vehicle, and asked a friend where to go, he mentioned Firefly and how good it was. We headed our way there, tough to find parking, but what to expect when it’s on a busy street. After walking in, we asked to have outdoor seating if possible, and the hostess said there was not any open. The hostess then proceeds to bring us to a table next to the window, where in perfect view, was an outdoor table, clearly empty and clean. We didn’t mention anything, and proceeded to order. We ordered the Udon and the beach burger, as well as a raspberry drink and a beer. The drinks came first and showed some quality, we were not disappointed by them. Then we proceeded to wait about an hour for our food, but our server (different from the hostess) had mentioned that, and I expected that for a Friday night. We then watch our hostess seat someone at the outdoor seating arrangement right outside our window, and wondered why we couldn’t have been seated there. Our food finally comes, the burger with fries looks great, the udon looks great, but they were both cold, as if they had been sitting for 15-20 minutes. We ask the server politely if we could get the udon warmed up, as I wasn’t bothered by the burger, as it would likely be a whole ordeal. The server said yes, and brought it back to the kitchen, a few minutes later another employee brought it back out. It did not improve in temperature, and for something with steak, that’s not generally preferred. We then finished our food and paid, but left genuinely dissatisfied with the quality of the food, service, and whole ordeal. I surely hope we were a one-of-a-kind experience, by the amount of service they...

Was curious about this place when I was visiting over the summer. Back for a friend’s “dirty 30” and she really wanted to check it out! We walked in, were quoted 40 mins and we basically waited that exact amount of time. We took a 5 minute walk over to Brady’s Bar and we’re (thankfully) seated immediately. Had a quick drink and got the text our table was ready as we were checking out; perfect timing!

What a cool, hip spot! From the “cozy cubbies” outside, to the beautiful, eclectic artwork inside, the visuals were on point. There was also club-style mixes of music playing which I thought aided the visuals and overall vibe.

Tables seemed to be distanced, masks were worn (of course), and our waitress was on top of it as well. We split the Soy Chino sushi roll between the 4 of us as an appetizer, which was the perfect amount. I, unfortunately, did not get a photo of it. None of us has heard of steak in a sushi roll and it was very tasty, albeit a bit chewy for 1 of us.

For drinks, we had: the Firefly Daly, Razzletini, and TC Mule (pictured). Everyone seemed to be happy with their drinks! I had the TC Mule; was a typical mule, but put together and displayed well.

For dinner, we had: the Cowboy Killer burger and truffle fries (the fries were the perfect amount of crunch and served with garlic aioli dipping sauce), General Tso Stir Fry (pictured), Thai Peanut Stir Fry (pictured), and Sesame Chicken. Everyone loved their entrees. I had the Thai Peanut Stir Fry and I was very happy with it. The peanut taste mixed in with the noodles and all the ingredients was exactly what I hoped it would be.

All in all was a great experience and I will definitely...