Slate - Traverse City

We were seated next to Tom, a local legend pianist and enjoyed seeing him surprising b-day guests, bride to be's and us commoners with his unique metal name art.Our dinner was prepared perfectly, Joe our server paired our wine expertly.We had a unique and wonderful experience at the SLATE !!!

We stopped in to check out this restaurant then made reservations to bring clients back in the next day. After being given a tour of the restaurant the previous day, we were promised a particular booth that would accommodate our group allow everyone who flew in for this event to talk with each other.When we showed up the next day, they had given away our table to another group tried to put us at four separate tables right at the entry where it was unbearably loud. Before we sat down, we asked to be moved because nobody could hear each other, that started the worst service dinner experience we’ve had in a long time.Our waiter was awful. I’ve literally never said that a waiter should be fired in my entire life, but this guy was a unique case. I’ve heard that the chef is the owner or at least a partial owner of the restaurant.. if the chef would have heard the server bad mouth the kitchen the way he did to us, I’m 100% certain he would have been fired on the spot.Specifically, when one of our clients asked for their lamb chops to be cooked medium rare, he said, “it’s summer time our kitchen staff is too grouchy to make anything special for you.” I said back to him, “that’s not a thing. You can get meat cooked the way you like it.” To which he replied, “not here…” Our clients were shocked. We always take them to nice places in every city where we host events by the looks of it, this place looked like it should have been one, but it was honestly embarrassing to have brought people here. (FYI, Lamb chops came out well done.. which we were pretty sure was on purpose at this point.)When we sat down, we ordered 3 bottles of wine for the table 3 appetizers to split. They came back with one bottle of wine.. and had to go back for the others. We had 8 people. Then, It took a full hour to receive our appetizers. About 30 min after we placed that order, our waiter came back and asked if we wanted to order any appetizers for the table.. I told him we already did, and he said “oh yeah!! Let me go check on that.”About 10-15 minutes after that, the waiter came back and asked me which appetizers I ordered because he said he thought he put them in the computer wrong but he didn’t remember..Then, before our appetizers came out, he said, “the kitchen is really slow, so you should put your order in now.” But being that he’d come back so many times, we knew it wasn’t the kitchen.. but he most likely never bothered to put them in.Lastly, our food came out just after we finished the appetizers we’re eaten, which is fine, but nobody bussed our table. So, he had everyone hold up our appetizer plates so he could put our food down then people had to snatch their silverware off of the Appetizer plates, because at this point, we knew he wouldn’t be bringing any more out for any of us.Overall, it was just an embarrassing night for us as hosts as it was essentially a comedy of errors the world’s worst server. We ended up getting dessert at an ice cream place nearby, which salvaged the meal, but this place is a far cry from the high end restaurant that it pretends to be.

Great experience for me, sadly not for the hard working staff, this lady comes in with a group, and instantly becomes disrespectful, something about not being able to sit where they would like. The other employees managed to work something out for this “Karen”, but she continued to be rude the rest of the night. She threw off the vibes of the restaurant just, because she couldn’t sit down where they prepared. The rest of the evening the other staff, and my friend ran around trying to catch up. She even threatening to right a bad review. I had to come on here, and say that I had a wonderful experience, and not let this lady ruin this restaurant’s reputation, because she thought she was the center of attention.

My sister and I visited Slate on June 22, 2023 and we had the most wonderful experience *and* server….Michael. He was very personal, professional and just so nice! Our food was exceptional. We are Southern girls “hey y’all!” from North Carolina and we received “Southern Hospitality” Traverse City style Food: 5/5

I recently visited this restaurant and was disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, the food and service was fine/medium, but for what we had it was well over priced. I’m afraid that this restaurant is charging “tourism” prices given the great location right on the main drag downtown. There are several other chef owned restaurants where you get exceptional food for the same price.