Joe’s Friendly Tavern

Incredible bar food. Philly cheesesteak and burger were EXCEPTIONAL. Kids had corn dogs and didn’t complain. The staff was extremely attentive and friendly. Sandwiches are pricey ($ 13 before sides), but guessing they are capitalizing on the short season.

Kinda pricey. $ 11-​$ 12 for a burger no sides. With sides it’s $ 15. Food was very average.

WHOA, very high priced for MEH food. very disappointed in their menu, only sandwiches unless you want one of the 3 dinner specials.
2 Hotdogs with tater tots was $ 13.00!!! Lemonade was $ 4.00 and they won’t give refills! Certainly will not be back

They go from a winter priced menu and a summer «tourist season» priced menu… bullsh*^t. I am a native of the area that comes back once in the summer and once in the winter. In the winter, a cheeseburger plate is $ 9.50. In the summer, it’s over $ 13. The manager will tell you…“oh yeah, it’s beef prices” or «the cost of tomatoes» what it is, is garbage. We stopped in with a table of 8 yesterday 5÷30÷16, asked the waitress if they’d switch to their «summer pricing» and the waitress said yes. So, we turned and walked out. There is people at the little fleet in TC that will jack their prices up $ 1, and you generally see that in a tourist town. However, these people are just jasckasses. They started this «summer pricing» just a summer or two ago.
So, if the tourist want a good ol’ standard bar burger at New York City Chop House pricing that the prices are made just for YOUR wallet. Then by all means. This is your place.
Please don’t get me wrong when I speak this was, Joes does have a wonderful bar burger. However, what they do to their pricing for summer is just beyond unacceptable. They have now shut the locals who support them through the hard, cold winter months, said «go screw yourselves» and «we’ll see you again in the winter when we NEED you». Shame on these owners for their complete immoral price gouging.
Head to Slabtown in TC where you can get another wonderful burger and feed your entire family of 5 for under $ 40.

This is a great place! They place a huge emphasis on local, fresh foods which I did not expect. They even grind their own meat and make their own salad dressings! The staff was friendly and helpful and the food delicious. Sweet potato fries aren’t even an up charge! The prices for salads are weirdly steep, but the rest is reasonable. We are only visiting here but might try to stop in for breakfast too :-)

Came for breakfast. Fantastic waitress. Looking over the menu for other times of day it seemed too many sandwiches and was pricy. But back to our breakfast. They accommodated my fussy daughter and let her order a burger. Sold me on coming back to try the homemade peanut butter pie to go before we left town the next day, made by our waitress. It was worth every penny, and was a generous serving of a ¼ of a pie! The homemade sausage was different, but not bad, just not what you are used too. More sage flavored… pancakes french toast and hash were what we all ordered, no complaints.

This place messed me up for life with burgers! All my family and I talk about now is how amazing those burgers were and every burger we have ever eaten since, pales in comparison! I wish more than anything that we lived closer to this place! But we live in Indiana! :-(My inlaws are from London England and they rave about this place every time they come back to America! If we didn’t have to drive 8 hours to get this burger we would be there every day! We were all there 2 years ago visiting Sleeping Bear Dunes for 4 days and we all ate hamburgers at Joes four days in a row! This is the only time in my life this is ever been possible! But we just could not get enough! I continue to try and find a burger that is comparable in every country and city that I visit, but after 17 different countries and countless cities, only one burger in London comes close.

We came here for breakfast before hiking some trails @ the Dunes. I ordered eggs, toast, bacon and potatoes. It was a solid breakfast; nothing special. My wife got the oatmeal and added dried cherries; that was a nice touch. Very inexpensive. Coffee was damn good and the staff were nice.

Great food! Staff very friendly and helpful. Burger is a 10! We actually wanted to get additional burgers for the road, but we held off, lol. Love the cherry salad dressing. Bathroom is a one stall bathroom and seating is right near the woman’s restroom door. On the whole loved this place and will go back for sure!

WOW! I traveled the northern Michigan area with my friends for two weeks, stopping at a few dozens places to eat along the way and this was the most expensive meal for what we got of anywhere we went! It was good, yes, but I don’t know if it was worth the steep price.
Most of us got the burgers because the staff told us they were legendary, however, we were kind of disappointed. They were definitely good but nothing super amazing and certainly not totally worth the $ 11 and something cents I paid with no sides. I actually wanted a salad as my side but the waitress told me that would be an extra up charge. I’m sorry, but in what world does a small pile of lettuce cost more than the pile of onion rings my friends got for no up charge.
Even the salads were $ 11 – 14 each. I was stunned. I’ve never been to a simple BAR that’s been that pricey. The only other place we found that had salad prices that high was a fancy, five-​star Italian dive priced for $ 13 for a full 12″ wide plate stuffed with chicken, lettuce, and etc.
The owner boasts that the extremely high cost is because you can get literally any side with your burger (onion rings, etc) for no extra up charge with your burgers. I don’t understand why you would then be squeezing more money out of those who only want an inexpensive side though. It doesn’t work like this at any other restaurant and I feel like that’s for a reason.
On notes about the dining experience itself, the restaurant seemed pretty clean. The bathroom was out of both paper towels and soap. The staff seemed very friendly but for some reason, the waitress we had seemingly refused to refill my drinks. I ordered a soda and a water because I was super thirsty. I had my soda gone within about 10 minutes and in another 10 before my water was gone too. Neither got refilled throughout the whole time we were there. My friends got their teas refilled and when I asked for a refill near the end of the meal, she said okay but never came back.
The food was good but I don’t think I’ll be coming back. As somebody who doesn’t usually order sides with their meal, it makes no sense to me why only $ 3 is deducted off the price of the meal if each one is clearly labeled as being $ 4-​$ 5 each and lettuce is apparently as valuable as gold.

Totally unexpected gourmet salad delivered in a friendly atmosphere. Quinoa, kale, shaved Brussels sprouts and asparagus accompanied by heirloom tomatoes, served with a balsamic vinaigrette. I haven’t seen anything like this in this area. A welcome change to the burgers and fries, but if you’re into that, my fellow diners gave me a thumbs up to that too. Only complaint was bleu cheese dressing in place of bleu cheese crumbles. Family friendly and casual.

We have been coming here for the past five years and Joes has always been on our list of places to go due to the great food (batter fried perch) friendly staff and casual atmosphere. Some years we would visit more than once. This year, however, we were disappointed in several ways. The waitress was very lackluster. She did her job like an indentured servant awaiting freedom. The 50s-​70s «never heard before» piped in music was like listening to the soundtrack of a B list movie that couldn’t afford good songs. We are in our late 40s and are well versed in many genres and decades of music yet we didn’t know one song! We kept wondering «where did they FIND this music?» It was not relaxing like in years past… just strange. For twenty minutes we listened to disco ala Roller Boogie. We couldn’t wait to get out of there. I will say the quality of food was good, no complaints there. Their onion rings are some of the best I’ve ever had and portions are large. But like other reviews have said, the prices have gone up a lot. Lunch with 2 beers for 2 adults and one teen was $ 62 plus tip.
I can’t remember when they quit serving the batter fried lake perch, but they made a mistake taking it off the menu. It was the best!!! Bring back the perch and we might come back. So in conclusion, loud, weird music, increased prices and uncaring waitress is what ruined our visit.

Great food, but way overpriced so only 3 stars. Sorry but a $ 17 burger for lunch is ridiculous. Great burgers, lots of great choices. Smelt appetizer was excellent, highly recommended. Kids loved draft root beer, and I loved the beer selections.

I had the fish sandwich and Tequila Sunrise and both were really good. I just wish they had other options for sides.
Customer service was fabulous. I would certainly come back if I am in the area.

Joes’ Friendly Tavern has reached that inevitable point that I believe many family owned businesses face: Continue to offer great food and service at fair prices — or jump the shark and gouge the consumer, impose punitive pricing on the tourists and eating public and never look back as your bank balances swell.
Joe’s Friendly Tavern has clearly decided to profit upon its eating public at any expense. Do not come here if you remotely appreciate fairness or value.
Having come here for years, my last visit with my family will be our last. Pricing is not just high, it’s extreme. $ 15.50 for a hamburger? $ 11.95 for a single beer battered fish stick with three orange wedges. A BLT for almost $ 11 dollars. My family of four walked out of a lunch with a bill approaching $ 85 dollars. For an old folksy diner. This is not «Fine Dining» by any stretch. Yes, the food is decent, but at these prices I might as well go to a fine dining restaurant in Glen Arbor and pay virtually the same price and be served on white linens with highly attentive staff.
If Joe’s can get back to its original fair and value pricing, we’d be back in heart beat. Unfortunately, the price of enjoying this establishment is now beyond our reach.

On a recent vacation in Traverse City, we tried a variety dining venues from casual tavern to fine dining. Of all these, Joe’s was my favorite. We stopped for lunch on our way to the the Dune, drawn by the promise of a walleye sandwich. We left with big smiles on our faces.
There’s an extensive menu of burgers, sandwiches, salads and sides, but we were on a mission for walleye. We each had a «fried» (actually sautéed) walleye sandwich. I had waffle fries, and my companion had coleslaw. The sandwiches were superb: fresh & tender, served with lettuce & tomato on a brioche bun. The coleslaw was commendable: not too creamy, not too tart. For me, though, the waffle fries were truly amazing. I love good frites, and these were tied for the best I’ve ever had (the other top frites were double-​fried in duck fat at the now-​defunct Chicago restaurant, Tournesol). Fresh potato, cut to the perfect thickness, crisp & brown, lightly salted — if this is what heaven would be like, I’d return to the Church. And the last frite was 99% as good as the first. On a scale of 1 to 5, the waffle fries were a 6.
I can’t give Joe’s 5*, because it’s just a tavern, but I am definitely a fan. The service was congenial, the food delicious, and though there were only two draft beers, the one I had was delicious and perfectly suited to our meal. We were there for lunch on a weekday; I can imagine Joe’s is a zoo on weekends during the tourist season. However, I would go 25 miles out of my way for those frites, and I hope to return to the area someday to indulge myself again.

Had many good meals here growing up. Decided to skip glen arbor restaurants and check out this place for a change.
Honestly, was a tad disappointed with the meal. A bacon & bleu cheeseburger was $ 14.50 (incl. side).
Overall food was pretty good, but be prepared for somewhat steep prices.
Management is responsive to any concerns, which is a plus.

Great local restaurant. Playing oldies music on the juke box. Expertly handcrafted wooden booths. Courtney was a great server! Gave helpful advice about local hang outs. Tots were great, a bit oily. Water was cold and refreshing. Gluten free bun was a plus! Tasted great! Burger was cooked as requested. A bit pricey but nice ambience.

Joe’s gets two stars because they clearly price-​gouge their customers. This place is right near the Sleeping Bear Dunes welcome center, and they sure like seeing the tourists roll into town.
We ordered a small chicken caesar salad (no side dish), french dip sandwich (no side dish), zucchini fries, and two bloody mary’s…$ 60 out the door. Food was good, but price was insulting.

Great place for burgers and root beer, but the star of the show for me were the tater tots! They were fabulous — best ever. Heavenly.
Caesar salad was surprisingly good, with lots of nice fresh grated Parmesan. The sweet potato fries were excellent, crinkle cut, crispy on the outside and tasty on the inside — yum!
Atmosphere is plain Up North casual. Service was a bit slow for us.
Overall, it makes our list of places to go whenever in the area and in the mood for a casual lunch.