Cawthorne’s Village Inn Restaurant

The blackened Whitefish was really delicious. As was the pretzel rolls that we started with. I also liked the whiskey. The piped potatoes were very very good.

Great place! Wonderful experience! We went for dinner with 5 adults and a three year old. Were greeted warmly & immediately seated. From the manager who checked on us regularly to the attentive waitress, the service was flawless. Four of the five adults ordered the planked whitefish, which was delicious, hot & moist. The fish was served with veggies and piped potatoes. All really good. It was a little noisy, but MSU game was on & patrons were enthusiastic.

All I can say about this place is late night happyhour. If you work on the island or are staying overnight. They have the best deals on drinks after Midnight on the Island.

FANTASTIC FOOD. everything was good. Food was the best I’ve had in mackinaw. Service was incredible. Crisp on fish n chips was perfection. My wife’s fish sandwich was perfectly spiced and cooked perfectly. Food was fairly priced. I can not speak highly enough of this restaurant.

We all had the planked whitefish
It was served with piped potatoes and a mixed vegetables on the plank
It was good
We like baked whitefish and order it all the time in restaurants. This was one of the best.
Our server was great!
We will go back

We enjoyed everything about our visit. Staff friendly, courteous and helpful, and food delicious. We ordered Fish and Chips, and Seafood Primavera. «Austrian Beef Goulash» soup was great on this chilly day. Presentation nice… attractively plated, and hot. We would return!

Busy place with Decent service. The Burger and Fries I had were very good. Nothing else particularly leapt out at me. Though it does feel a bit like one of the theme restaurants at Disney, this can’t be considered a bad thing.
Given the somewhat limited choices on the island I’d say it’s worth a stop, but you probably wouldn’t remember much about it the next day except that you ate there.

Husband and I spilt cod sandwich special. Nice light batter, good fish. Berry Mojito was good. The BEST french fries I have ever had. Worth every calorie. Nice spot on the porch outside. We tried the famous pecan ball. Good for what it was. Just a scoup (ball) of vanilla ice cream with hot fudge and (in our case) stale chopped pecans. Would have been SOOOO much better with freshly toasted pecans to give it some crunch. That little extra touch would have showed they were trying to make it something more special.

Open in the winter! Casual good food. The house salad really stands out here because it’s got stuff in it, not just lettuce and it’s a generous size too. It’s hard to say that of many restaurants these days. The Pizza was differently crusted but very full flavored; we really enjoyed it. I’m a sucker for desert so we had the Pecan ball. It’s the traditional pecan encrusted vanilla ice cream ball floating on a bed of hot fudge from the Grand Hotel. The Village Inn is part of the GH family so that makes sense and even more reason to stop in.

I was disappointed in our visit to this restaurant. I might try again but I would stay on the low price end of the menu. I was suggest sticking with a burger or sandwich item.

The rolls are amazing, particularly pretzel rolls. The salmon was cooked perfectly and tasted incredible. Will revisit every time we are in Mackinac!

Whitefish plank is a 4. Everything else is a solid 3. Plank is really good. Piped potatoes were great. Artichokes were a good add.
Regular fries were not good. Did not compliment the walleye and surprisingly good… hush puppies. Creamy, go figure Kids Mac n cheese could be better.
Exec finishing the plate up probably helps. A few fix ups and an easy 4. Gotta rock for a 5.

My second visit to Cawthorne’s Village Inn was as disappointing as the first. Though our immediate server wasn’t bad, the service overall was poor. The gentleman who sat us was an idiot. With a year as half old, we asked for a high chair at a table. We moved the chairs and waited… and waited… and waited… as the only people there with three servers I thought it was a reasonable request. Finally another server’s attention was caught, he not only brought the chair but took our drink order. The less-​than-​capable server, who had a terrible mustache to boot, looked at him and said thanks for finally getting the drinks to which he responded, I didn’t know it was my table. The gentleman with the stache continued to walk by snapping his fingers to the music embarrassingly. After we were through that, the young man who took the order was pleasant.
When the order came my hummus was initially missing the cucumber and feta but was recovered later. My wife’s wild rice soup was improved upon with my daughter’s addition of hotdog pieces… but the pretzel rolls.
Aside from our immediate server the staff just strikes us as unprofessional and unconcerned. Not quite up to the very high and consistent standards of the Grand.

I gave it two stars because the French onion soup and the duchess potatoes were great, but the planked whitefish was terrible. It was extremely dry and was a terrible experience. Do not eat planked fish of any kind. It’s always dry. I would see if they can broil it as that’s the best method. The waiter was foreign and not very friendly, and I was not happy about that. I wish we would have tried somewhere else on the island.

Not bad, got the whitefish bites appetizer, was kind of miffed about the amount we got. The Perch was VERY good. The Whitefish Plank, was just meh. Dry.
The two drinks we got Cherry Yumberry & Dragonberry Mojito were the best part. They were incredible drinks.

Inside of the village inn is a little dated, the booth seats are a little narrow and backs are straight up, somewhat uncomfortable. Service was good. Prices were probably a little high for what it was.

I was sent a note to please come back after my previous review as they are under new management and decided to give it another go as it was one my places I liked to go on the Island… What a mistake that was. It is understandable that during a busy week like the Chicago to Mac race perhaps they may get a little overwhelmed but this was a complete fiasco.
Food was mediocre at best, my meal was not hot when it arrived at the table, and the service was abysmal. It took them no time to seat us but forever everything else. Icing on the cake was the fact that tables were not cleared after patrons finished, paid and left… people were staking claims at dirty tables which had some being passed over as they looked like they had just finished not just sat down. Sorry VI you will not be on the play list next year. How does establishments not have enough staff for one of their busiest 3 day stretches of the summer?
With other options to hit this is a certain miss next year.

A bar /​restaurant in the center of the Mackinac Island village area.
Good beer selection and service.
Nothing vegan on the main menu, but they let us order adult sized versions of the pasta with marinara sauce from the kids menu.
$ 2.50 Oberons all day.

I ate at the Village Inn several times during my working vacation on the island. The $ 2.50 Oberon pints are hard to pass up. As far as the food goes:
Whitefish Chowder — delicious
Whitefish and Trout dip — delicious
French onion soup — good
Calamari — good
Boneless Buffalo wings — fair/​decent
Personal Pizzas — horrible! go to Island Slice.
Perch Salad — great!
I like the atmosphere of the V.I. (minus the hideous wallpaper, but hey, that seems to be a requirement of any establishment sporting the Grand Hotel name) and the outdoor patio provides for an enjoyable meal. The staff is always nice and helpful.
I will be sure to visit the V.I. whenever I come back to the island.

This is NOT the crappy chain Village Inn, this is a local’s favorite restaurant (nicknamed the «VI») around the corner from the main drag that was recommended to us by a former island resident. We went at the perfect time, right after 11am (brunch had just ended though, boo) and before the noon lunch crowd hit. There was a wait for tables, especially outside, when we left but we walked up and grabbed a sunny one with no trouble. Even though we really wanted eggs, instead we ordered a Reuben and onion rings for Curt and cheeseburger with fries for me. They offer a smaller (and cheaper! just $ 6 plus an extra buck for fries instead of chips) ¼-​lb «scout» burger which is the perfect size for me, so I was a happy camper. It came on a yummy potato bun with a pile of super thinly sliced pickles, meaning I could cover my whole burger with pickles. I’ve never seen them sliced that way and I loved it. Just a simple, classic, not-​too-​huge, not-​too-​stuffed burger. Curt’s Reuben came on swirly rye bread with the dressing on the side and bread unbuttered as he requested, with really delicious onion rings. But the best part of the meal had to be our bloody marys, served in a pint glass with a perfectly salted rim and an olive, lime wedge, super spicy pickle and pickled asparagus spear… AND a sidecar of beer. My fav! these were around $ 7 but more than worth it. Made my whole day! Unlike some of these other reviews, we had really great service and I will make a point to come back here for sure next time I’m visiting Mackinac Island.