Minervas Restaurant & Bar

The food is alright. The location is convenient from my workplace so I end up here frequently with coworkers. The staff is amazing and the service is better. The options are pretty good and the price isn’t bad for what you’d expect.

This hotel sports bar/​restaurant has a decent tap selection, TV screens, sometimes live music. The food is good but overall I think there are local options that have more character and are more interesting.

Today I had lunch here and right off the bat the service was HORRENDOUS. The hostess took forever to seat us and didn’t smile once. Also it was not busy at all, only a few tables were full. Then, our waitress did not come to the table for ten minutes. We had to ask a passing waitress to bring us water. It took her forever to take our order and she never refilled our coffee cups unless we flagged her down from across the room. She also got my order wrong but I let it go because I knew it would take another 20 minutes to get it right. She never once checked to see how we were doing and it took her another 15 minutes to bring us our check.
However, I thought the meal that did come out was very good. I had the Eggs Benedict and it was cooked perfectly. If the hostess and the waitress were nicer as well as on top of their job it would have been a good experience. Because of the terrible service it was quite the unpleasant experience and I will not be returning.

Absolutely incredible! :) I got the cranberry spinach salad and it was perfect! The vinaigrette was on spot and the serving size and freshness of the ingredients was great. A great find! :)

I’ll admit that this review is based only on the happy hour wine and the service… so I’d have to come back and try food (maybe) to add anything more to my review. In a nutshell (help, I’m in a nutshell!), this place has HH wine at $ 4.50 (decent enough to drink) and happy hour that runs 2x/​day (4 – 6 and then again in the evening, forgot the time). Our server, Mark, was super personable and great at getting us refills on both the wine and the water. I also liked the location in our hotel… then I can just head up and sleep after the deal that you get on the wine. Overall great place for some HH action. They do have some bar-​food specials during happy hour too that looked okay… but not really something that I eat on a regular basis (flat bread, wings, etc). They also have a decent number of TVs in there for watching the games… which was also nice. Overall great spot.

Extremely disappointing Easter brunch. Kids buffet contained food we could have easily purchased at Gordon Foods. While the prime rib and pork loin were both very good, potatoes and two of the pasta based entrees looked like they had set there for hours. For the amount of money we paid for our party, expectations not met at all. Only upside was the staff was extremely nice.

The food was pretty good; above average. The ambiance was nice. It was fancy/​casual and comfortable. But our server, Danielle, seemed a little less than enthused to wait on us. Actually, I told her my wine glass had lipstick in several spots and a gross water spot on the side. So she walked away with my wine, and brought it right back with ‘most’ of the stains wiped off. Eww. Otherwise, she was polite and it was fine.

Somewhat confused service but all was ok in the end. Had a steak with pasta and mushrooms. Very tasty.

Terrible terrible. Go to Denny’s instead. Here at the hotel for a wedding and you’d expect the manager to schedule enough staff to handle a breakfast rush for the morning after the wedding. Food was all pre made a d microwaved. Coffee was at least hot. Gross.

Decent food. Decent service. Overall? Decent. Pretty pricey for decent food.

AVOID! The Absolute Worst!
Let me start by saying words cannot begin to express how bad our experience was at this establishment. I left with elevated blood pressure (at 6 months pregnant!) because I was so upset and in disbelief at the treatment we received. To say it was «poor» is beyond an understatement.
It was prime dinner time on a Friday night and the place was dead (should have been our first clue). We joined some friends who had already been seated (party of 2 turned into party of 7). Rather than welcoming us the server seemed visibly annoyed at our presence (hello — you’re tip just more than tripled!). As it turns out, her tip did not triple. in fact it disappeared entirely as our entire party was asked to leave the restaurant.
The server became defensive and argumentative while one of our «joiners» was attempting to place a drink order, unsuccessfully, three times. After involving the manager — who, in his leading comments, falsely accused my husband being drunk as he and my father had visited the bar during happy hour several hours earlier (with equally disappointing service) — he further escalated the issue by involving the front desk manager.
Long story short — the attempted dining experience should have NEVER escalated to the level it did or involved the number of staff the restaurant chose to involve. In addition to our server, restaurant manager and front desk manager, there were at least 3 – 4 other employees on hand to witness the situation. Mind you, no other diners were disturbed as we were the only table seated in that section of the restaurant.
A truly upsetting experience and profoundly unprofessional way for management to handle the situation.
Food: unable to comment as we were not even given the chance to order
Customer Service: F–
Bottom Line: avoid at all costs

You probably won’t have to wait for a table here and it is opened later than a lot of the downtown restaurants in Traverse City. Minerva’s kind of exploits the fact that it’s connected to a hotel and open longer though. The food is good, but it’s not great. When my wife and I went be both ordered sirloin steaks medium well and well done respectively. Hers came out medium rare and mine might be considered medium by most. Certainly not well done. It’s a little too expensive for what you get.

Great stand by, and their open late (by Traverse Standards). I can’t figure out why most of the downtown restaurants close at 9 or 10pm. Even the bars that serve food, shut down pretty early. If its 10:15 and your just getting a chance go out and get a bite to eat, Minerva’s has pretty good food and very nice wait staff.
It’s in the Park Place so its a nice place to eat, great pizza, pretty good mexican etc. Also a good place to duck into when the resturants on Front street have an hour wait and your hungry.

If you’re looking for a place with immediate seating, this is the place for you. However, that’s the only plus. My boyfriend and I had an appetizer and two entrees (just water to drink) and the bill came to $ 70. The food was bland and underwhelming. Service was nothing special. Waste of money for what we got. The place was quiet with nothing happening!

They have pretty typical American fare. Some of the dishes have a little flare with Michigan cherries added. The salads were generous and tasty. I had the fish, which was pecan crusted. It was well cooked. The place is a little stuffy, and visually uninteresting. The kids meals were great though, the pizza was big enough for 2.

Very disappointing experience. Waiter was literally sleepwalking through his shift. Admitted he was tired and stressed from his full time job.
Ordered the white fish pâté which was good. However, the salmon with Parmesan risotto both the fish and risotto were completely bland, totally lacking in flavor. Have had this dish before and has always been very good. It was as though key ingredients were missing.
Talked to the manager who basically was struggling. He apologized but offered nothing more. When I said he should comp us, he asked if we had already paid which we had. He then asked me to tell him what to do. So I said a gift card would work, which he did provide.
Something from top to bottom is very wrong here.

Great service, I had the Quinoa salad with chicken, my mom had the chicken Parmesan. Good choice of house Cabernet wine.

Went out to dinner with my wife. Being from Traverse City I’ve always held Minervas in high regard but we didn’t have a good experience. The place was nearly desserted the night we went but the service was so slooooow. Wait staff seemed like they were more interested in talking amongst themselves than checking up on us. The food wasn’t real great either. Maybe they were just having a bad night but we won’t be going back anytime soon.

I was looking forward to dining here because I was staying in the Hotel but I was sadly disappointed by my experience.
The food is overpriced and TERRIBLE! My boyfriend ordered the Perch… it came out and it looked like microwaved fish sticks. My Shrimp Scampi was disgusting too. The Shrimp looked like they came out of a bag and the pasta was very dry and flavorless.
I was also disappointed with their lack of wines by the glass. This is traverse city right? There should be an awesome selection!
All in all, a waste of money. Food should taste GOOD and be WELL MADE!!!

I have been to Minerva’s all over the Midwest, and you will always find consistent good food.
My breakfast was excellent this morning.
Nice menu!
Excellent service, and great bartenders!