Sleder's Family Tavern — Restaurant in Traverse City

Had one of the worst customer service experiences of my life here. We ordered a buffalo burger that comes with chips, and our table was debating ordering an app of onion rings but ultimately we decided against it. While taking our order, our server heard this and asked if we’d instead like to upgrade the chips that come with the burger to onion rings. We were happy with this compromise and obliged. The food itself was nothing to write home about. The burger badly needed some seasoning and fell apart right away, but overall our meal was fine. Then the check came and we noticed we were charged the full $5.95 price for onion rings, even though we were just expecting an upgrade fee. Chips are listed at $4.25 on the menu while onion rings are $5.95, so logically we expected around a $2 charge for the upgrade.

So we call our waitress over and ask about the charge, and she says that the bill is correct but she’ll have a manager come by. Another person came to our table (not sure if they were a manger or a more senior waitress), and they were immediately very defensive about the charge and repeatedly asked us if we’d like to see a menu to see the price of onion rings. We explained that we were aware of the price of onion rings on the menu, but we are confused why we’d have to pay full price to swap sides that have a $2 price difference. By this logic, we could have just ordered the onion rings separately and received both the chips and onion rings for the same price. When we explained this, the waitress sarcastically asked us if we wanted her to go get some chips for us to take home. She then said “I can go get the owner, but she’s not going to take the charge off either so you’d be wasting your time. I do hope you don’t take this out on your server and leave a poor tip.” We were flabbergasted and frankly exhausted with the defensiveness and back-and-forth so we told her to just forget it.

A few minutes later the owner comes over to the table anyway, despite us saying we didn’t need her to, and she immediately sarcastically asks if we need to see a menu to see the price of onion rings. We were preparing to leave, and it was like she came over just to harass us. She says that when you upgrade to onion rings, you receive the full appetizer portion and that we should have known this because it’s “standard at every other restaurant”. We tell her that she is wrong and that most restaurants charge an upgrade fee and don’t default to bringing out full appetizers if you upgrade your side item. This would be like paying $6 for a basket of sweet potato fries when all you wanted to do was swap regular fries for sweet potato fries.

Overall, what should have a been a minor issue turned into a whole ordeal and scene within the restaurant with multiple staff members getting incredibly defensive and talking down to customers. Based on their defensiveness, this seemed like an issue that the staff has dealt with before. As a customer, when asked by a waitress if you’d like to upgrade to a different side, you expect to pay an up-charge and not the full price of the side. This was the root of our confusion, but the staff could not seem to grasp this and just kept referring to the menu and the price listed there. The defensiveness and matter-of-fact arrogance of these staff members was very off-putting. Needless to say, we will not be back. Sleder’s...

Moral of the story if you don’t wanna read that long is the food was good but the Server was extremely disrespectful and unprofessional to one of my friends just because she asked for A packet of sugar for her unsweetened iced tea And a kids meal. Then Told my friend that “If she was watching her calories, she shouldn’t use that one packet of sugar since it’s doing nothing for her”

So I decided to come in with the two other of my friends one of them I’ve known since last year and we’ve been really excited to try this place. The server started out decent. She has brown hair and glasses. I wish I got her name So I can call her out specifically but As soon as we got our drinks, one of my friends who is an athlete and is Being specific about Food portions (for calorie reasons) She tries to order a kids meal chicken, tender, but the waitress in a very snarky tone says “ So you don’t look under 10.are you under 10 years old?” Then, after she tried, explaining the reason, the waitress still said that she can’t give them the kids meal so she decided to look at the menu and just not order anything. The waitress had a Reaction to that I think she was trying to hide it, but we all instantly could tell that the energy was off as that she was asking “ So you’re not really gonna buy anything at all??? And you’re just gonna have your iced tea?” Then As we were waiting for the rest of our food the Waitress handed out one of my other friends, a refill, and it turned to my friend and said “ If it’s really about calories, then I don’t think the sugar packet you put in your unsweetened iced tea is helping you that much” and Walks off. We were trying to give her the benefit of the doubt in the beginning, but after that comment, we asked her to just pay for the drinks and leave, and then they said that they are being made we have to pay for our meals so We ended up paying for our meals and taking them out to go. It’s really sad because we were really excited to try this place. The food was actually pretty good But such terrible service for no reason and it was really confusing and she was nice to the rest of us, but she just was very disrespectful to one of us and if my friend had an eating disorder(Which she is recovering from) then That could do so much damage to so many young ladies. Do yourself a favor and don’t take you , Your family, or your friends there Unless if you want a Packet of shame with your unsweet...

I am going through some health issues that make food a difficult thing for me, and the waitress - Danielle - ran back and forth & back and forth to make sure she could accommodate me. She got on my level, heard my problem, and helped me solve it to get the meal I wanted exactly how I wanted it, and WOW, my steak was perfect. Perfectly seasoned, cooked perfectly to my liking. Hats off to the chef because just, WOW. My fries were also delicious. The moose chips? They look strange but they are delicious, do not think twice about ordering them!

My husband tried the buffalo burger and I may have stolen a bite as well -- it's not beef, and it's not turkey, but it's somewhere in the middle and entirely way too tasty. He's hooked!

There was a line for the bathroom and I was almost immediately interrupted in there when it was my turn -- they are too busy of an establishment (on the weekends at least) to have a single-occupant bathroom. The ladies' bathroom also has a huge warp in the floor (I can't even exaggerate it, it's terrible) that is honestly a tripping hazard. This bathroom is also definitely not accessible for many disabled people, and I felt that its upkeep was a little bit questionable. Needs improvement, for sure. I didn't surveil the men's bathroom of course, but it didn't seem to even have a handle on the door... so kind of a peephole going on there that I wouldn't appreciate if I were to use that restroom. If a remodel is possible, I'd highly recommend fixing these issues and adding on to create a restroom with stalls and a changing table large enough for disabled adults to use. It was also a little disturbing that disability access (a ramp) was limited to the back door only, although I suppose that could be unavoidable based on the permits allowed there in the city - I wouldn't know.

The atmosphere was great, though, and again, I can't say enough good things about Danielle. I've never had a server be so kind and accommodating without being irritated or getting an attitude, and the skip in her step never slowed down. She was just a total joy to have, she completely made my night and we will be asking for her the next time (and every time) we stop in so long as she still...