Reflect Bistro — Restaurant in Traverse City

Don't mess with this restaurant if you're a tourist and have just bought the famous cherry milk tea from a local shop and are looking for something to eat. There's no signage of "no outside beverages" at the entrance of this restaurant, but if you accidentally walk in with your must-have drink, you will be taught a lesson that "you have violated a Michigan State Law"—a false statement that could be seen as threatening.

This happened to me: I walked into this restaurant with a cup of milk tea that I had just bought around the beach park. The waitress had not greeted us yet, but her first words were to order me to throw away the milk tea or leave to put it in my car and then come back. This was very rude and disrespectful. There was no sign outside the property saying "no outside beverages," otherwise I wouldn't have walked in.

Besides, they don't sell milk tea in the restaurant, so there's no competition. I am a big fan of milk tea and just wanted to keep it safe from the heat in the car. They treated me like a criminal by exaggerating their own policy and falsely claiming it as a STATE LAW.

Maybe Asian faces are rare in this area, so they think it's okay to fool or scare us into complying. I don't buy it. I have been on the West Coast and the East Coast for 12 years and moved to Southern Michigan one and a half years ago. There's no such State Law like this. There are plenty of ways to communicate with customers regarding the restaurant's policy, but it's annoying that they chose to fool and scare the customer with a nonexistent law.

I walked out immediately with my beloved cheery milk tea. The tea is highly recommended and a must-have for tourists, while the restaurant shall be avoided. A potentially...

Reflect bistro is a wonderful combination of fine dining meets casual eatery. The service staff is very attentive, with a reservation for dinner they seated us right away. The decor is a bit dated, you feel like you are in a hotel restaurant rather than a stand alone establishment but that has its charm.

We started with delicious cocktails. An amazingly made hurricane for me an a delicious old fashioned for my fiancé.

For an appetizer, we chose the cherry bbq boneless wings. The sweet and savory sauce is made right there in house. The chicken was perfectly cooked and breaded in house!

From there we moved to their creamy buttery perfection of a lobster bisque, with a small lobster tail with just the right texture right in the bowl. Totally recommend!

For the salad course we chose the cherry tomato caesar. The dressing was delightful. It was rich with a hint of what tasted almost like a spicy-mustard.

For our main course, I had the huge espresso crusted ribeye, with asparagus and a potato hash! Definitely recommend the expertly prepared steak!

My fiancé had PAPPARDELLE FRUITDE MER a perfect entree of roasted red pepper pasta with scallops, shrimp and lobster tossed in a white clam sauce.

The portions were huge, and we definitely have lunch tomorrow!

For my wine I deviated a bit from my usual dry tastes to Chateau Grand Traverse late harvest Riesling. It was wonderful paired with my ribeye. He had the Gemma De Luna Moscato, which he really enjoyed with his pasta! We will definitely come back when we...

Christmas Buffet.

If you're a party of 2, you are 2nd class customers at Reflect. Several parties of 2, including my party, who all had reservations, were given very poor seating.

I had reservations for 11:30 (Brunch started at 11:00) and was told that we'd have to wait because our table was still being used. Given the people at my table probably were seated at 11:00 when the buffet opened, what kind of reservation plan assumes people eating Christmas buffet will be done in 1/2 hour in order to free up a table reserved for 11:30?

So our choices were to wait for our table to free up (which could easily be 30 minutes to an hour), eat in a conference room around a conference table with people we did not know (other parties of 2 or 3) and absolutely no atmosphere, or take one of the high bar tables and high stools. The stools had no back and the tables were small. This is no way to seat people who want to enjoy an elaborate Christmas brunch and will need to get up and down several times and have many plates on the table.

At my request, we ended up eating at a coffee table in front of the fireplace/tv. It was awkward because the coffee table was low but better than the other options. Further, I was there for over an hour and several tables for 2, 4 and more remained open the entire time.

Lastly, while the food was good, it was not $30 per person food for essentially eating in a bar in front of a TV. And my coffee cost me an...