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| - My grandmother brought my family here for my parents 25th Anniversary. I made the mistake of Yelping this place the morning we were going. I cringed with the low score and prayed for the best. With this knowledge, I ordered safe all night, and I had a decent meal. My family did not, and I got to see first hand many of the complaints highlighted. The first warning sign should have been that on a Saturday night, this place was empty.
For the record, we did not have trouble with the cigarette smoke in the non-smoking banquet room. But I don't think anyone was smoking much so take it with a grain of salt.
The family all ordered coffee, and I started with a Cosmopolitan. The waitress was great about the coffee refills and water refills. The cosmopolitan was a joke. First of all, it was the smallest drink I have ever seen, and it was so practically all cranberry juice. At $7, I was over it.
Then, a basket of bread came out. The bread was pretty good. There was a good variety and some unique things in the basket.
Michael's one highlight is the number of sides you get with a meal. Our meals included soup or salad, potato, and a vegetable. Just like grandma would make. However, the soup was not the quality of grandma's. We all had chicken dumpling soup. 3 little dumplings with a debatable about being homemade soup. Not too impressed. Another table got the salads, and the salads looked sad.
Meals:
Prime Rib- As my mother so deeply said, "For being a special, you would think they would know how to cut and cook this." It was mostly fat and apparently pretty awful. I actually think my mother threw it away when we got home. My grandmother handed the waitress back the plate and asked her to dump out the excess sauce because it was mostly that.
Veal Parm- I played it safe and mostly won. Two decent sized pieces of veal covered in cheese. Safe choice.
Crab Stuffed Shrimp- For being over $25 you would THINK Michael's used real crab. Nope. These things were stuffed with filler and the portion was tiny. Not amused.
The sides, however, were pretty good. The twice baked potatoes were excellent and the fried zucchini was a score. I would just order the sides next time.
We passed over on dessert fearing for more disappointment. The final bill was right around $100.
The moral of the story? Michael's recipes are ok, but the food prices are simply not acceptable. I can say honestly that the, "Meh. I've experienced better." rating is completely accurate.
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