Lion's Den — Restaurant in Waterford Township

The absolute worst dining experience of our lives! The absolute worst waitress in the world! Named Holly. I brought my mom to Lions Den at 630 pm on 4/4/25, put name Bobbi on waiting list for 2. We waited 20 minutes & was seated at booth in bar. Holly took our order. My Mom asked for diet coke, French onion soup, Cole slaw & fish nibblers. I asked for diet coke, seafood fettuccine w/side salad & ranch dressing. The pop & popcorn came quickly. Then came my mom's soup. That's it. Never received my salad, bread sticks, Cole slaw or entrees. My pop was empty. A couple sat at table next to our booth 30 min after us & already ate their salads bread sticks and entrees and was leaving. I flagged Holly down for more pop & asked her to check if kitchen forgot my salad breadstick coleslaw & entrees & she said no they didn't she'd bring them right out. She brought bread sticks and my salad out then & another lady brought my fettuccine. I told that lady that I just received my salad and my mom's been done eating her soup 30 min ago. So I requested our entrees be placed in take out containers & we were leaving. Holly did so. My mom requested her cole slaw be removed from our bill since she never received it. Holly must have forgot to place our order. Then placed it when I asked for a pop refill. Since Holly was the waitress for the couple next to us who came in later & received their salads bread sticks drinks & entrees and were done eating and leaving before we received anything but my mom's soup. My salad should have been served to me at same time as my mom's soup. What happened to her coleslaw? Holly gave us our bill when she bagged our entrees to go but never came back for the money so I took it hostess booth who said she wasn't allowed to take cash although I watched her take cash from a take out customer. So we had to wait at the booth for Holly to return and get us change. We left a 10% tip but it should have been 0%. Lions Den management and owners need to watch video security tape of entire horrible evening for themselves. We thought we were on a reality show where they play jokes on people. We were just going to walk out & let Holly tend to an empty booth. Lion s Den was my mom & step Dad's favorite restaurant. He died January 20. This is the 1st time I've been able to get my mom to go out to dinner since then & it was a complete disaster. Salads and soups come out together!!! With breadsticks!!! Don't forget the coleslaw!!! Don't forget the entrees!!! Until we point out to Holly the people next to us came after us & completed their entire meal & are leaving & we still only have 1 soup, popcorn...

The food is good but at times not overly stellar. Other folks I’m sure swear by it but in my humble opinion, not a standout place for the Waterford area. You nearly are already seated and if the hostess remembers, they jam a basket of over salted popcorn in front of you; for a would-be, free appetizer. I’m originally from a small town that has a fantastic Italian-owned pizzeria, so yes - I’m biased but the pizza here is to a degree, at times grossly overrated. It’s like whoever prepared it threw it (somewhat) together and hoped for the best. Flavor was largely flat I thought. On one other occasion I decided to have something different (than the pizza) and ate “Ditka’s pork chops.” Not impressed. I’ve had way better at other restaurants. I really lean on flavor when I go out to eat, the Lions Den is on a subpar level. They to a point, mask things with the football atmosphere and bar scene. Which of and by itself is nice and very presentable with the helmets and pictures. That’s about it. Some of the wait staff are good and others act like they’re nearly in a hurry to hustle you back out the door. The restaurant is acceptable but overall, not my first place to go to in the Waterford area. Friday and Saturday night’s the parking lot is always packed full. Either there’s really no where else to go locally for the atmosphere or people are used to semi-mediocre food and don’t even know the difference. Or care. It’s what...

I ordered my usual drink -- an Old Fashioned. Usually they'll ask what kind of bourbon I prefer. Buffalo Trace? Don't have it. Weller? Nope. Bulleit? Sorry. I finally gave up and told them to use whatever they have. When it came it was satisfactory. I never asked what brand of bourbon they ended up using. I'm guessing Jack Daniels. (Please don't drag me into the "JD isn't bourbon" kerfuffle.)

Bread was room temp served on a very hot plate. Not too stale, but definitely not fresh. Salad was good. The Dirty Silverware Gremlin struck again. (I seem to have very bad luck with dirty silverware in restaurants.) They brought out a new set, which was clean.

Wife's chicken parm was good. My French Dip was okay. Again, the bread was just a bit stale -- which ends up not being a big deal once you soak it in au jus. What DID strike me as a big deal: The sandwich had little pieces of foil stuck to the outside of it. Had the whole sandwich been prepared beforehand and stored in the fridge, then microwaved when I ordered it? Did they just store the roll wrapped in foil, then make the sandwich fresh? I didn't ask. I just picked off the foil bits and ate it. (I hope I didn't injest any actual foil bits that I missed.)

It wasn't completely terrible, but it was bad enough that we won't be returning. Too many much better...