Michael’s Family Restaurant

Not worth a crap! Went for my sister’s Birthday which is also a holiday which is unfortunate for her in this case. She had a coupon from Unilocal for Michael’s and they refused to use it even though it said on the coupon NO RESTRICTIONS! RON the owner himself didn’t care that it was her birthday or that he signed up to allow Unilocal to offer coupons to his establishment. He made it clear that he has done this to people before and feels no remorse for it. The food was way overpriced and dry as it looked like it sat out for days and the place itself was dead and dark and looked like a place to take a prostitute so you won’t run into someone you know. Also Ron is creepy and is known for being creepy towards young woman. DO NOT GO TO THIS PLACE OR SUPPORT RON OR HIS HORRIBLE ESTABLISHMENT any place in BloNo is better than this.

Meh. That’s how I would rate this place.
Had a cold Bruschetta appetizer. It needed a bit of balsamic to give it a little hint of acidity. Other than that it was pretty tasty. Also has a cheddar stuffed pretzel that was good.
Kids split a pizza. Proclaimed it good. I tried a piece. It was ok. But hey they are 9 and 5 so as long as they were happy it worked for me.
My husband got the rack of lamb. It was seasoned well and came with yummy mashed potatoes, however it was waay well done. I mean no pink what so ever. If it wasn’t for the good seasoning and potatoes it would have been inedible.
I had the chicken vodka pasta. The sauce was very thick and glumpy. I was expecting a bit more liquid. It tasted ok. Not exceptional. Not horrible.
Desserts were good. We split a Brandy Alexander and whoo was it potent. Also had the 7 layer chocolate cake and the husband had tiramisu. They were both ok. Nothing to write home about. However they are all about the homemade whip cream. That was yummy.
Other disappointment was that we had a
certificate to use. However they wouldn’t take it off my cell phone. So I basically wasted ten bucks if I can’t get a refund. Because they needed it on paper. Would have been nice to know that prior to going here.
Will probably not return.

Avoid this place at ALL costs! I’m new to the twin cities, and have walked past this place for a year and a half, wondering how it was. I asked some coworkers who were born and raised here, and received positive comments. I won’t be asking those guys again…
The atmosphere gives off a strong vibe of outdatedness. The silverware was old and worn looking, and for 7:00 on a Friday night, the place was almost empty. Our server was a pleasant enough fellow, and the Southwestern Egg Rolls were pretty good. The chicken noodle soup, however, was a gelatinous mess.
The final nail in Michael’s coffin for me (and my wife) was the quality of the «Ribeye steaks» we each ordered. They were more like steak-​shaped mass of gristle, and flavorless gristle at that. Our daughter ordered an Italian beef, and reported that it tasted sour.
Overall, a decidedly unpleasant experience, and I would never risk going back there. Now I get to spend the next 12 hours praying that I don’t get food poisoning.
There are FAR better restaurants in BloNo, folks– don’t waste any of your money at this dump!

Literally the worst pizza I’ve ever had. I didn’t know it was possible for pizza to be this bad. It was obviously frozen and not made fresh.

Went for Brunch buffet. Everything was empty or dried out. Took too long to put food out. Not worth going

Had dinner here tonight with my boyfriend and it was great! I pass through this area yearly while on tour and will definitely return. Our meal started out with complimentary Italian bread and an amazing garlic/​Parmesan spread. The food was good and may I suggest to order sautéed mushrooms as a side! To die for! The restaurant also had wonderful staff, quick service and a wonderful quiet family atmosphere. Highly recommend!

Great brunch for the fam. Plenty to choose from the foodie to the American family man. Great prime rib, waffles, omlettes and dessert selection. Priced well for the quality. Owner takes care of ya!

Had dinner at Michael’s tonight. A great success. We started with warm bread and garlic Parmesan spread and an amazing appetizer of coconut shrimp with Michael’s own cocktail sauce. My salad was a simple small Cesar while my wife had a fine bowl of soup. Entrees included a shrimp sampler platter with cocktail, deep fried, and on a skewer all done to perfection and a gyro sandwich and fries.
The vegetables could have been warmer but all in all a nice meal. Wait staff was busy with a large party but did a fine job of handling our table. While not the five-​star restaurant it tries to be, it is a fine place to eat. Our bill, $ 40 plus tip with drinks and tax. I’ll likely be back to try their steaks :-)

Let me first say that I don’t usually write reviews for places, but we were so disappointed by our experience that I felt obligated to warn others. My Fiancé and I went here for brunch because we had heard good things, and I had purchased a C.I. Savings (basically Groupon for Central Illinois) voucher for $ 20 worth of food. We were extremely disappointed in the brunch buffet – the whole thing looked like it had been sitting out since they opened, the food options were pretty slim (they didn’t even have bacon, and their biscuits were hard) and sure enough, the hashbrowns that I tried were cold. The coffee tasted like it came from a crappy dinner, not like a cup I would get at an upper-​scale restaurant. To top all of this off, when we went to pay, they refused to let me use the voucher I paid for because it wasn’t printed out (no where in the restrictions or fine print did it inform us that we had to print it.) AND, the bill was $ 40. For TWO people. For a crappy buffet.
The only reason we’re giving this two stars is because of the only good thing on the buffet – the omelet station. The guy who made them for us was nice. And my Fiancé mentioned they had nice clean bathrooms.
Needless to say, we won’t be going back.

I’m giving this one star based on the management, not the food, which was ok but overpriced, and not based on the servers, who are typical early-​to-​mid-​twenties kids who probably just want a job to pay the bills and the occasional bag of pot.
I get the impression that the people who manage this restaurant run it as a cover for the real reason why they’re in the building: to run the club/​bar downstairs, which is Chasers. Chasers is where underage kids go to drink and dance and it frequently runs afoul of the Bloomington Liquor Commission. They levied a $ 14,000 fine for the months of April and May last year (2013) alone for frequently serving teenagers alcohol. This is all a matter of public record. Just Google «Chasers» and «Bloomington Liquor Commission.»
So, if Chasers is the cash cow that can afford to shell out $ 14,000 in fines for just two months of business, then it’s reasonable to guess that they probably don’t care about the restaurant upstairs, which you can tell. Each time I’ve been to Michael’s, the bathroom has been filthy. The décor is terrible. They clearly don’t take time to train their staff. Unless it’s the weekend brunch, it’s empty – probably because it’s a terrible restaurant. Finally, the manager is rude and pushy.
I’m guessing that this restaurant is actually losing money, but that’s probably ok with them so long as the club makes money.
It’s sad that downtown Bloomington doesn’t have a better diner, but there you have it.

Absolutely fantastic I love this place and came here for prom and back on Easter. Love love love the food and never had bad service. Friendly servers. Neutral but classy décor. Perfectly cooked food. My date always asks for A1 when he orders steak he told me that sauce wishes it could do what the meat naturally did. Overall a perfect night!

Poor service. Apparently, it doesn’t matter if you have reservations. Half hour wait is not good. They need to manage their dining room better. I can see empty tables from the lobby.

We went for the Saturday night buffet, which I was looking forward to so I could try a variety of foods since I had never been there before.
The salad bar was OK. The lettuce was nice and crisp, they had a couple choices of cheese and a few toppings to choose from. The main entrees were good. The BBQ ribs were soaked in the BBQ sauce and just didn’t taste all that great. I will say the salmon was really good, I highly recommend that.
Now for the desserts, I was quite disappointed. They should’ve had the cold desserts sitting on ice or something. The cheesecake was warm and gross. The pies were ok, you could tell they were frozen and just had to cook them. The funny thing is, in the restroom the sign advertising the dinner buffet said «best desserts in town.» Talk about false advertising.
The waitress was nice, but she seemed pushy. She did an ok job keeping our drinks filled and was very nice. But she brought us our bill and we were right in the middle of eating the main portion of the dinner. At one point she came and checked to see if it was ready. I don’t like feeling rushed, and I did.
Being there on a Saturday evening, you would expect them to be busy. Nope! The dining room was practically empty and there were a total of five couples there (plus a birthday party in the private room). The whole time I was there, I kept thinking that they need to be on The Food Networks show, Restaurant Impossible.
I thought about checking out the Sunday buffet, but after reading the reviews on here and our dining experience this evening, I won’t be going back.

I’ve seen a lot of bad reviews for this place — most of the complaints I’ve never experienced from there. I feel I must put my two cents in here on this.
I will state that I’ve never eaten there for dinner — the wife and I have a coupon for a free dinner (for the both of us she won at a benefit) that we’re both dying to cash in. However, I can offer this…
Lunch — they have a pretty good lunch buffet that is easy on the wallet and good on the taste buds. When my wife worked in downtown bloomington, we’d meet up there for lunch every so often. The buffet was so good looking that I never ordered on the menu. My wife’s first time there she ordered the Caesar Chicken Wrap which she was in love with.
The lunch buffet usually has fried chicken, a fried fish, and several Italian dishes along with some «american favorites» (mashed taters and gravy etc)
I’ve never had an experience there where a waiter/​waitress was unattentive. They have a person there just to fill your water glass — the wait staff was always there asking for a refill…
I am giving this 3 stars only for the fact that I’ve never been there for dinner.

I went with some friends who go to Michael’s often and like it — particularly the steaks and pork chops — so take this with a grain of salt (just not the massive amount of it in my food).
The iced tea was good, served with lemon and quickly refilled whenever it got low. The menu had a wide variety of options — steaks, burgers, pizza, salmon, salads, pastas — your basic family restaurant fare, with some flair. I had the salmon florentine — a baked salmon portion served with spinach, capers, artichokes and sauce. The fish was properly cooked and flaky, with good flavor. The sauce, while flavorful, completely overwhelmed the spinach and artichokes, and was heavily oversalted. The lentil-​bean soup that I chose to go with it was so salty, it was completely inedible.
One of my companions properly guessed that meat temperature would be incorrect, and so ordered his steak medium rare and it came out medium, just as he hoped.
The bartender knew absolutely nothing about alcohol. When I asked if they had any single-​malt scotches, he started showing me the various Johnny Walker bottles, until I finally pointed out to him the single single-​malt in the bar — Glenlivit, of course. In response to another diner’s question, neither the waitress nor the bartender had a clue as to what «bitters» was.
This is the kind of place you take grandma to for a fancy dinner on a budget for a reasonably good, yet unmemorable meal. Just don’t expect nuance.

Tried this restaurant once and do not intend to go back. The food just was not good. I had ravioli with meat sauce, the sauce was not good, the meat was obviously low quality. The two others who were with me did not care fort their food either.

We were meeting my parents for a Sunday brunch and had no idea where to go so we picked Michael’s from the Unilocal reviews. The Brunch was very diverse and good. They had fresh made omlets and waffles. The price was very reasonable.

this place is average: I have ate here a couple times and the food is average. The deep fried mushrooms have too much breading on them. The clam chowder soup that they offered was not very thick and real runny like it was a broth. I also had the corn beef and potatoes and it was so so tasting. My lady had the cheese ravioli and she said the sauce was too sweet. All in All its an ok place to eat but if you want an excellent meal this would not be the restaurant.

Sunday brunch was ok. Tasted like everything was store bought and left out… pretty dry

Dear Michaels … your décor is fugly (yeah … yeah I said it) and your food is … pretty much just gross.
We went to you one sunny day for brunch and were almost too excited about the buffet. I like to spoil my girl, and she really digs the omlette man … generally the omlette man makes her a yummy hangover cure full of ham and cheese and mushrooms. But you mister omlette man, were not working with the best ingredients.
My main question from all this is how is the french toast crunchy. The entire idea of french toast would seem to me to include ‘moist’ as a description and actually make it impossible to serve french toast as dry brittle crunchy … like a cracker.
So where you may ask, does the second star come from? Well, this is all for the salad bar … which was sweet. So thank you Michaels for caring enough to have some fresh veggie love for us.
Oh and you have a full bar :)