Slate — Restaurant in Traverse City

We stopped in to check out this restaurant & then made reservations to bring clients back in the next day. After being given a tour of the restaurant the previous day, we were promised a particular booth that would accommodate our group & allow everyone who flew in for this event to talk with each other.

When we showed up the next day, they had given away our table to another group & tried to put us at four separate tables right at the entry where it was unbearably loud. Before we sat down, we asked to be moved because nobody could hear each other, & that started the worst service & dinner experience we’ve had in a long time.

Our waiter was awful. I’ve literally never said that a waiter should be fired in my entire life, but this guy was a unique case. I’ve heard that the chef is the owner or at least a partial owner of the restaurant.. if the chef would have heard the server bad mouth the kitchen the way he did to us, I’m 100% certain he would have been fired on the spot.

Specifically, when one of our clients asked for their lamb chops to be cooked medium rare, he said, “it’s summer time & our kitchen staff is too grouchy to make anything special for you.” I said back to him, “that’s not a thing. You can get meat cooked the way you like it.” To which he replied, “not here…” Our clients were shocked. We always take them to nice places in every city where we host events & by the looks of it, this place looked like it should have been one, but it was honestly embarrassing to have brought people here. (FYI, Lamb chops came out well done.. which we were pretty sure was on purpose at this point.)

When we sat down, we ordered 3 bottles of wine for the table & 3 appetizers to split. They came back with one bottle of wine.. and had to go back for the others. We had 8 people. Then, It took a full hour to receive our appetizers. About 30 min after we placed that order, our waiter came back and asked if we wanted to order any appetizers for the table.. I told him we already did, and he said “oh yeah!! Let me go check on that.”

About 10-15 minutes after that, the waiter came back and asked me which appetizers I ordered because he said he thought he put them in the computer wrong but he didn’t remember..

Then, before our appetizers came out, he said, “the kitchen is really slow, so you should put your order in now.” But being that he’d come back so many times, we knew it wasn’t the kitchen.. but he most likely never bothered to put them in.

Lastly, our food came out just after we finished the appetizers we’re eaten, which is fine, but nobody bussed our table. So, he had everyone hold up our appetizer plates so he could put our food down & then people had to snatch their silverware off of the Appetizer plates, because at this point, we knew he wouldn’t be bringing any more out for any of us.

Overall, it was just an embarrassing night for us as hosts as it was essentially a comedy of errors & the world’s worst server. We ended up getting dessert at an ice cream place nearby, which salvaged the meal, but this place is a far cry from the high end restaurant that it...

The first impression was great. The dining room looked out to the street the bar was on the back wall so we could see all the cocktails being made.The menu was phenomenally composed ...... That's as good as it got.... From that point on things went downhill. The server took our drink orders when she brought them she auctioned them off and even totally mixed up the last two drinks to the point the guests in my party had to switch them themselves... Next we ordered our apps,salads, and entrees. We were brought the app and bread with 2 plates when we were a table of five. 15 min later the salads and soups were brought out the tomatoes on the salad were a little suspect I'd assume the bottom of the pan since it was close to close I'm sure they didn't want to cut fresh ones. We finished the soup and salads then waited.....and waited....and waited. I went to the restroom and noticed the sink was running and the handles just spun ... When trying to wash my hands I couldn't get any water pressure or hot water. If there isn't hot water in the bathroom what is in the Kitchen? I came back to the table and the food still wasn't there. It had been easily 45 min between the time the salads had been dropped to when the food hit the table. During this entire time our server never came to the table to update us on anything. The only times she came to the table to check on our drinks she never mentioned our food... Our guest finally asked the bartender where our food was and he responded with they are plating it right now... They came out with the food a few minutes later. As soon as mine hit the table i knew it was overcooked. I Ordered the chef special of the day which was a porterhouse medium rare with seared scallops. The steak looked like it had been am end of the loin it also looked as if they had cut it multiple times to see if it was done so it surprises me that at the best point in the steak right by the bone it was medium all the rest of the steak was well done and beaten.the scallops looked to be reheated from a previous event. The sear of the scallops bled half the way up there was no crust on them. They covered the whole top of the steak with about 4 oz of sauce and served a smashed roasted redskin that was dry and unseasoned. I sent it back and wanted nothing else to do with then remainder of the experience. My friends were all disappointed with their meals as well but we're too tired and disgusted with the experience that we all just decided to pay the bill and leave. On the way out we noticed that there was even pieces of the front window falling out. The place needs a lot of work, the management clearly doesn't care. To be charging the prices that they are it's not going to last long I promise. Hopefully they take this review to Heart and fix a whole lot how about their service and quality of food. The manager was apologetic and did come out asking if there was anything she could do but after the first hour and a half we were just...

A group of us made reservations for my birthday. We were really excited to try Slate cause we’re foodies and haven’t been there yet. When we got there we were served water and we asked to order drinks because we were thirsty and wanted to settle in. Our server said no because he was busy and then he didn’t come back for 25 minutes. That would have been fine had he been communicative and friendly. When we got our drinks delivered to our table we asked to order because we were all hungry. He again said no because he had other tables to take care of. We contemplated leaving but figured if we went somewhere else we ran the risk of waiting even longer and some of us were on a time budget. The table next to us got an extra menu and we wanted to know what it was for, apparently you can also order from sorellina. Would have been nice to know! When we finally got to order, another 20 minutes after we had already waited for our drinks, we were asked multiple times, “do you want this out before dinner or with dinner” we all said bring things out as they’re ready cause we want to eat. We’d been there for an hour already. Some time later we finally got all but one order all at once. We were not impressed. The pasta from Slate had under cooked noodles and over cooked chicken, I got the filet and it was underwhelming (mashed, a few slivers of asparagus on top, with the filet sitting on top of that), the Alfredo from sorellina was amazing, the tuna was… scary, and the lamb was the best out of all the meat options we ordered. We also ordered three meals for takeout and those were acceptable to the recipient. They did take the tuna off the bill as well as the Alfredo because it came out way after everyone else’s. Still, we spent over $350. The only person who acknowledged we were there for a special occasion was the pianist. I’m very grateful to him. We won’t come here again though, service was worse than the food and the food...