Taproot Cider House — Restaurant in Traverse City

First, I recommend the cider house burger, cider flight for $3 per cider and the creme brûlée. 5 Stars!!! The greeter deserves 5 stars, too.

Service is 1 star because you will get your food and drinks served but do NOT expect the basics from Erin as a bartender or table server.

I expect very, very basic service from a server. Water, dinner ware, napkins, top off of water or drink, a check in after the food is placed and prior to bringing the check. Erin is not that type of server. I had her twice. I assumed the 1st time when I sat at a table that it was an off night for her. The second time I sat at the bar and she confirmed that she either wants ppl to eat and leave or she expects her tip will be below based on the ideology of different ppl and that’s how she serves. I consider myself a great tipper because I have experience as a server. But I do have basic expectations and with basic expectations I provide the hourly wage. Above and beyond will receive hourly wage plus 15% of the check. She didn’t have that experience with me because of her poor service. It wasn’t basic on either occasion. I won’t share my 1st experience because the 2nd was the same. The second occasion I sat at the bar. I was given a menu. I ordered a cider flight and the delicious 😋 burger. Once the burger was brought out it took a while before she check on me to see if I needed anything. I needed a knife to cut my burger because I have to cut my food because I have braces. By the time I received it, my the burger was not as warm anymore… it was room temp. After eating half the burger… I flagged her down and asked for water. About 15 minutes later she places my check on the counter. I didn’t ask for it. There was 40 minutes left before they closed so I wondered why the rush. I let the check sit for a bit… I held my debit card in my hand so that she would come over… I asked, “Is the kitchen still open?” She said yes. I asked for desert, she took the receipt and added the desert to the bill and returned it to me. By this time I’m done drinking my last cider from my flight. I wanted to order a full glass of the cider that I liked best but I didn’t because she pretty much gave me the indication that I was done… lol Due to her lack of service I didn’t leave a tip. If she had just provided the basics she would’ve been tipped. Unfortunately, Erin was not having an off night. This is her norm. She missed an opportunity to receive the tip that she expressed she wanted from 3 guys who were sitting next to me. She told them, “ok guys I’m expecting a nice tip, it’s tip night…” I’m not sure if she knew them or not but clearly she has expectations and so do I. She could’ve helped herself if she had not brought the check before I asked or if she had asked if I wanted anything else and the check. Next time I visit I will be sure to ask for a...

I grew up in Washington state, so I'm a bit of an apple enthusiast. I was very excited to find a cider house!!! I got a flight of 6 ciders in all, and I think the Queen Ann is my favorite so far. The waitress made several cider suggestions, and I can't say any of them were bad. My husband and I a got the hummus with kale and garbanzos on top for an appetizer, and despite the fact that my husband is fairly anti-kale he really liked it as well. If I were to change one thing I would have loved to see some carrot sticks, cucumber spears, or more nan. We ran out of stuff to dip into the very generous portion of hummus! For our meals I ordered the smoked trout Cesar salad and it was DELICIOUS!!! Grilled romaine? Genius! Potato chips on a salad? Heck yeah!! I'm the type of person that normally needs more than just a salad for a meal, but this salad was meal worthy. I did not leave hungry. My husband got the pepperoni pizza and added mushrooms. The mushrooms may not be the typical slices some expect, but they were so fresh and full of flavor! I'll admit I stole a few mushrooms from my husband's pizza, and went back for more. I would have loved putting those sauteed mushrooms as an option for my salad too.... maybe an option to consider in the future. Beyond the great food and drinks, my husband and I were in the restaurant on a Wednesday evening, so it may not have been as busy as it can get on the weekends. The service was very good and our water glasses were kept full. I didn't catch the waitress' name, but she was very sweet and seemed organized and prompt even while training a new waiter. I saw many other things on the menu that I can't wait to come back and try! Hopefully they will eventually get some apple desserts on the menu too... Perhaps apple crisp or a lavender creme brulee. Highly...

I've visited Taproot the last time I was in town and had a great time so we thought this time would be no different. Oh boy. We were seated right away which was great. We ordered the hummus to start and then ordered dinner. My husband and mother-in-law's meals were both great they loved them. My father-in-law and I both ordered the Mac and cheese and when they came out they looked amazing. We both took our first bite and both meals were cold and not just slightly cold, they were stone cold. We told our waitress and she took them back. After about 10 minutes she brought them back out and again we each took a bite, and without fail they were both still completely cold. The manager came over and didn't seem to believe us. She asked if we even took a bite to make sure it was cold, trust me we were not making it up. They offered to take them back a 2nd time however at this point my husband and mother in law were both almost done with their meals and we decided not to wait again. We just asked for takeout containers and decided we would heat up our meals at home and eat later. In the mean time we asked for some additional veggies and bread to go with the hummus appetizer we had ordered (there was way more hummus then veggies) and the waitress said no problem. We waited 20 minutes for some additional veggies and they never came. They ended up comping the Mac and cheese dishes but then when the manager brought the check she didn't give us a pen. When we asked for one she said she'd be right back with one, but again never came back. Luckily I had a pen so we could sign the receipt and get out of there. Thanks for comping the meals that I ended up having to heat up at home to eat but sucks that we were forgotten...