MacKenzie River Pizza, Grill & Pub — Restaurant in Violet Township

Here's a doozie... We arrived at about 16:55 on Valentine's day. Lucky for us the restaurant had plenty of tables open... We checked in with the hostess and she told us it would be about a 15 minute wait... We decided to wait and almost every table in the bar was open. So, our party of 4 grabbed a table near the hostess stand. Almost as soon as we sat down (all of us are over 60) the hostess came up and told us we could not sit there. She said we had to wait in the waiting area. I inquired why and she told us that those tables were unavailable. I said we just wanted to wait for our table and she said we could wait in the waiting area, where there were others sitting, OR WAIT IN OUR CAR! There went probably an initial 30.00 in bar sales. I couldn't believe what I was hearing and I was ready to leave. As we were headed toward the front of the house, another person sat our party of 4. I was ready to leave, based on the shear incompetence of the management but we decided to stay. Who allows the tables in the bar to stand empty while possibly turning away guests? In a way I am glad we stayed. Our server "Jordan" was your saving grace. Friendly, efficient and competent. Far above anyone else working in this store. She saved the sale. Your food was very good as well. Each person was satisfied with their meal and we left satisfied with the server and the food. On the way out of the restaurant I asked to see the manager... They went and got us a young gal who looked like any other server. Not professional at all. She was serving guests at the tables in the bar that were previously off limits. So, I explained my frustration with the way we were handled when we arrived... She didn't care. Couldn't have cared less. She did say that the reason we could not sit at tables in the bar was because it would confuse the bartender... What? So, Ms. Manager who in no way is management material, was fine with telling customers to wait in their car... Management is going to...

They do nachos correctly!! Layers of goodies in between the tortilla chips, I appreciated the effort and it was belisimo. chef kiss

Update* it's gonna be a long one! 4/20/21 I have been raving about how great this place is and referred quite a few friends in. We decided to take my mother and sister here, 8 of us total(3 kids) , this evening for dinner. They were busy but sat us within 10 mins. It took us 15 mins to get waters, no problem. We ordered and waited for our food. Got the artichoke dip, (gosh, it's delicious). Too bad the first dip in we realized the chip was scraping the bottom and there wasn't even 1/4 in of dip. It was pretty disappointing when there were quite a lot of us. I had ordered this in the past and it was great, filled the skillet, felt like we were getting our monies worth. But for $9, I felt I needed to say something. I mentioned it to our waitress who apologized. Our food took about 40 mins. By this time, all of our waters had been empty and not refilled. Half of us got our food (kids not included), which meant us adults with had fries had given half of them to the kids because their food took another 7 mins to get to the table. Wrapping up, we got 1 refill the whole time. And at the end I ended up paying for the full appetizer. This was a $80 bill (ouch) . It wasn't a good impression for how much I've talked up this restaurant. I hope with more training, they can give better service. Another thought was because we were in a corner booth, maybe our server didn't see that our glasses were empty for...

Be cautious!! Women beware!!! I got drugged at this location not too long ago and had to be rushed to the ER. The only people around my drink were the bartender, waiter and my husband who was directly across from my drink. When I called the restaurant to tell them what happened so they could keep an eye out, this was the response:

Me: "Hello, I wanted to make it aware that I was drugged while at your restaurant and had to be rushed to the ER to be flushed out" Manager: "What would you like me to do about it?" Me: "I just wanted to let you guys know that I was either drugged by the bartender or waiter" Manager: "Well our bartender is a girl so I'm not sure why she would want to take you home. I can't search all of my employees to see if they have anything on them" Me: "I just wanted to situation to be made aware so someone could keep an eye out. Could I get the number for the corporate office?" Manager: "They're not open. But here's a number" proceeds to give a number no longer in service

It sounds like a crazy story but my husband was there for all of it and the phone call was on speaker so that was heard as well. The one that I'm guessing drugged me was a short haired white man with light brown hair and had a green shirt on during this event. After I started feeling odd, I started walking to the bathroom and realized I should bring my husband just in case. Guess who was waiting directly outside of the bathrooms, that waiter. I hope people are able to start going here and not have to be worried about...