Tavern On Mcgillen

Oh my gosh the food is so delish here. And if you are lucky enough to get Ali as your server you will have a great experience. The one big tip I can give is if they have a smoke pork sandwich on their special board get it. It has to have the haystack onions on it. They don’t have this a the time, but when they do it’s delish. My other go to sandwich is the Reuben. It has cartelized onions on it that make it something special. They have out door seating, which is a lot of fun. You can feed the fish. Always entertaining for the young and old. Enjoy.

Awful! 5:00pm and only one other couple there, service was slow and waitress not the friendliest. Food was not good, fried shrimp tasted awful. White chicken chili soup had no flavor and no spice. Will never go back!!!

I really want to start off with positive attributes of this place; I really do. It’s in Mattawan, a sleepy little community where there are very few places to go, let alone places for a cocktail or a beer and a decent meal. There is no place to really go for lunch except for some quick Subway or a gas station hot dog either, so the fact that Tavern doesn’t open until 3pm… and they close at 10pm… seriously! They are also closed on Sunday so watching the game on one of their TV’s is out of the question.
They do keep local beer on tap so it’s a nice thing to have with your burger or steak… that is, if you want to pay $ 6 for a beer. I believe that most beer should be around $ 4 or so, not $ 6. Apps are respectable and the food overall is pretty tasty most of the time.
Their identity is questionable… are they trying to be an upscale restaurant that just happens to have a bar or are they trying to be a sports bar with a restaurant??? The bar is large and U-​shaped and there are a couple of small TV’s, usually with sports themed programming on… but the restaurant is kind of small and choppy. There is an outside seating area when the weather is warm overlooking a small koi pond with a fountain so that is a nice treat.
I come here because I support local businesses but there are better options out there if you want to have a great experience.

Filet bites as appetizer were very good — cooked perfectly, with coffee rub and sweet sauce. My husband had the rueben and said the caramelized sauerkraut and generous amount of corn beef was excellent. I had the mac and cheese with bacon, chicken, and spinach — i was impressed and pleased. The downside, both of our water glasses had brown spots on then but the server immediately replaced them and apologized.

Some of the best tavern food I’ve had. Not quite 5 star gourmet but a few steps above traditional bar food. My wife had the shaved steak while I had the shrimp with an ap of stuffed pretzel bites. All of it was fabulous! The credit card service was a bit weird as we had to use the old slider with a duplicate receipt, something to do with city laws and made us a bit uncomfortable. However, the barkeep made us up a grasshopper while the waitress hustled her tail off and gave us great service. I will definitely stop here again when I am in SW Michigan.

My husband and I really enjoy this restaurant. There is a great selection of food on the menu. It looks similar to Craftsman on the inside, but the menu has more standard, less fancy options. For bar food and burgers, it is a great pick. The servers have always been polite and attentive. The beers are a bit pricey, but it is worth trying.

Stopped for a drink, ordered a Cosmo. It was ooookay. Too heavy on the triple sec and too light on the vodka. Place was pretty quiet except a few loud drunks at the bar. Might try it again and give the menu a shot.

Nice looking place. Hate to be a downer but I not impressed. First drink was great next one was horrible, when mentioned the difference between the 2 the bartender said it was premixed without offer to fix it. Second visit wasn’t any better, just didn’t feel welcomed or that the staff really cares about the experience that they are offering.