Michael’s Cafe

We have been looking for a good dance/​night club for too long. So many in the valley are dirty, run down and crammed with inadequate seating that going to those clubs is just not fun. The «exclusive» clubs in Scottsdale have ridiculous parking, horrible DJs and too many twenty-​somethings who think that standing on the dance floor, drink in one hand and raising their other hand in some sign or gesture is cool. (it’s not — listen to the old school hit — «no parkin’, baby, no parkin’ on the dance floor!») Michael’s is clean and nicely decorated. The seating is not crammed together and the place has a great, friendly vibe. I haven’t seen a men’s bathroom as hip and clean as the one in Michael’s EVER! The servers and staff are friendly, helpful and quick. The band last night was excellent, started on time and took short breaks. The DJ who played during the breaks spun a sweet variety of dance tunes that keeps the groove movin’. The catfish was piping hot and the fries were done to perfection. Michael’s Café is the best nightclub in the Phoenix Valley. Period.

Great place sit down seating and food. It would be 5 starts if I was 50! Great place for your mom and dad my group was 30 – 40 and we felt the music was to slow and old school.

The drinks are good. The food was flavorful as expected. I can’t remember my server’s name, but she was AWESOME! The music was great, as always! I will continue to go back.
HOWEVER…get rid of the double standard for dress code. Drove 35 minutes to get to your establishment. Spent $ 55 on a new pair of shoes, because I wasn’t allowed in. And then a $ 5 entry fee after having the «appropriate» shoes. All so I can have dinner… really!!! If men can’t wear a nice pair of sandals, then neither should the women. And by the way… this is Arizona and 115 degrees!

Oh Michael’s where do I even begin… What my friends and I remember about ladies night was not what we experienced this past Thursday night (see the fixes below). I will admit we did not get there until a little bit before 8pm, so there was not a lot of food left at the free buffet, but the server was nice enough to give us the last of the food. The cucumber/​cream cheese appetizer and macaroni and cheese were amazing – I wish that there would have been more of this. Also, because we got there later all of the tables were filled up and we ended up standing for about 30 minutes until a table opened up – so I definitely recommend getting there at 7 or earlier.
Positives: The music – until 10pm they have a live R&B band which is amazing! They play a great mix of classic and new R&B. They encourage you to dance and it is a lot of fun! The live DJ played more Chicago stepping music this past Thursday, so if you did not know how to step you pretty much kept bumping into people on the dance floor. Ladies night is awesome because ladies get in for free, they give you a rose, they have a free buffet, and they give away prizes – I won a pair of Diamondbacks tickets – smile!
Fixes: The service was horrendous. Michael’s is not that big and maybe has 15 tables and there were 4 – 5 wait staff, so why did our waitress never come back to check on us, refill our water, or ask how our food was? I ended up taking our water cups to the bar and asking the bartender to refill them. Also, my guy friend ended up getting our wine at the bar as I our waitress never returned. She came a total of four times – to get our menu, to get our order, and to drop off/​pick up our check. If we did not go get beverages ourselves we would have never gotten them and spent the rest of the evening thirsty.
The food — oh gosh, were do I start? On Thursday nights they have a smaller menu, so there are only a few items to choose from ranging from $ 7-​$ 15. My friends and I decided to order the nachos with fried chicken added and the sampler platter with catfish, waffle fries, and chicken wings. We were surprised by the lack of food that was on the plates when they were brought out. After getting over that we started to taste the food and it left a lot to be desired. The cheese on the nachos was cold, runny, and tasteless; the chips were the same kind you see at the movies when you order nachos; and there was no salsa, sour cream, beans, etc. – just fried chicken, cheese, and chips – it was such a disappointment that we sent it back. The sampler platter food was not any better as it was cold as well. The best thing on the platter was the waffle fries as you could tell they used some good seasoning. But, isn’t that sad that the best thing on a sampler platter is the fries?!? And they have the nerve to put on the bottom of their menu «We specialize in quality over quantity” – my answer to that is you all specialize in neither one as the food needs a major upgrade.
I am unsure of what has happened to Michael’s Café in the span of just a few months, but they need to make some major changes before I return again – if I ever return. The food and service is a joke and I expected a lot more from a restaurant that I enjoyed so much – now that is in the past. I wish that I could recommend another spot instead of this to go where you can get live R&B music and food, but many of them have closed.

We came to dance on Saturday night and the DJ did not disappoint. The bartender made me a stiff cuba libre, no watered down drinks here! Beautiful people and wonderful atmosphere. I will most def be back. :-)

I love the vibe! Way better than sky lounge. It’s a little café with different reggae, hip hop, r&b music! Bartender was too packed though. Took a while to order our drinks. But the vibe and the music was amazing tonight. One of our friends dad was DJng tonight and he did a superb job!

First thing’s first– if you’re a single woman under 40 and looking to mingle with attractive fellas below baby boomer age, this is not the place for you!!! My girlfriends and I were very, very disappointed at the lack of 30ish guys both times we went.
Secondly– this is an adults only nightclub that bleeps the curse words out of the songs they play. Additionally, most of the music is lamestream R&B from the 90’s.
Thirdly– the only wine they serve seems to be «Sutter Home» and the champagne they serve is subpar. We asked if we could bring our own champage on NYE (even offered to pay a corkage fee) and were told no.
For Superbowl Saturday they had TWO bartenders for what looked like a crowd of 200+ people. It took almost 30 minutes standing at the bar to get a drink. Atrociously understaffed. Awful service.
I really don’t think much more needs to be said. Would not recommend.

Being from KC, I am used to a dark, smoky, loud, fun place and this hit the spot (although the smoke was from the kitchen vs cigs). Last night we went to Michael’s café. Luckily we were told to get there early (6:30) so we got the last table. They had a great band that started about 7 and played for a few hours. Nice size dance floor and we took advantage of it. The band left a few hours later and the DJ started. Lots of great music. Not for the young crowd (so we fit right in). It’s like a blast from the past — 80s, 90s, 00s music and outfits from every decade you can imagine. Would go again
We didn’t have any food, but people seemed to be enjoying it.

Great New Year’s Party! Live music, DJ, dinner, breakfast and GREAT SERVICE! Thanks for a perfect New Years Eve to bring in 2015.

I was looking for a Friday casual dinner spot and was referred to Michael’s. The crowd here is older/​very mature, but since we came here to dine and not dance, that wasn’t an issue for us.
Let me begin with service:
Upon entrance, we waited for a host to greet and seat us. No one ever showed up. We ended up walking to the bar and had to wait even longer for someone to assist us. There was not a large crowd, it was about 6pm. Our server for the night was very nice. However, service was very slow.
Now for the good part: The food. Our food was amazing. I can’t remember the name of our dish, but there is a pic below. Besides everything tasting great, the price was unbeatable. We split our dish between two, but 3 – 4 people could easily be satisfied from the meats. You do get your money’s worth.
I definitely recommend coming here for the food.

Ok, so my husband and I are from the good olé Philadelphia, and we were looking for a little bit of nightlife. He heard about Michael’s and we decided to take a trip over to Check it out…
The good:
Good olé school mix, drink specials and the food is tasty. It’s always a nice crowd, We’ve been there at least 3 times and it’s always pretty full. The waitress are super sweet.
The bad:
My husband and I are in our early to mid 30’s; we are also from a strictly urban area so our music choice is a little different. so some of the music is a little dated or just different than what we vibe too!
Overall:
The prices are not bad especially on nights they have drink specials. We like that it’s close to another bar (chars has the blues) that we can hop between the two. The food is tasty I do think it’s a little overpriced but again, it’s not anything that will stop me from returning again occasionally. The crowd is nice and ful

Great music, dark bar slow R&B, can’t help but move ur body. Bartender is sweet w generous pours of ur fav beverage. I’m coming back on live music nights.

I’m from MD originally. Our nightlife scene is drastically different from Phoenix’s nightlife scene obviously. Michael’s is one of the best places to cut a rug in Phoenix. Back East we like to start our weekends off with partying on Thursday night so Michael’s ladies night event is right up my alley!
I must say I’ve never seen a DJ play music videos to get the party started though, I’m used to actually DJs playing hits and scratching … but … when in Rome …
I’ve been to Michael’s on Thursday nights more times than I can count and enjoy myself every single time. My boyfriends and I finally gave Michael’s a shot a couple Saturdays ago and enjoyed it as much as a Thursday night!

The staff went out of their way to accommodate us, even when our party grew from 6 to 11. Everyone was nice… everyone except the bartender (who I believe used to work at Club Central). She came to my table to let me know that the drink combination I ordered from my server was not allowed (…shrug). It would have been more appropriate to tell my server instead of me.
Otherwise, it was a good time and my Aunt visiting from Mississippi really enjoyed the live music.
Kenya, our server kept the food and drinks coming in a timely manner and was attentive to our rather ‘hyper” party. Fred and the MC/​DJ were exceptional. They were quite instrumental in making our night memorable.

Coming from someone who doesn’t really enjoy nightclub’s, this one is an exception, I really enjoyed this nightclub. You can enjoy live music from 5−8pm and awesome drink specials of buy one get one free during that time. After 8pm the place becomes packed and plan to dance the night away with a live DJ.
Also, I can’t forget to mention the comfortable seating and tables. Here you have a waitress so you don’t end up standing at the bar waiting for one or maybe two if you’re lucky, bartender (s) to serve you a drink. In addition to that, Their food is great, I recommend the Fried Catfish Nuggets and fries. It’s the best Catfish I’ve tasted in years!
I would definitely return here.

$$$$-FOR-​FAKERS! Except there ain’t no $ 30,000 boob-​slash-​nose jobs or BMW-​drivin’, MK-​totin’, Prada-​wearin’ scottsdale-​plastic here! it’s just a bizarre parallel-​universe, bermuda-​triangle zone of dress code, fried food and a ridiculous $ 250 table reservation fee in the middle of the ghetto!
In summary: SEVERE cultural differences and whacked understandings of service standards. I’m not sure how it happened, but i am out of place here. And i used to live a thousand feet from this goddam club!
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i’m the first to shake my head when i see a lengthy and heated exchange between a Unilocaler and an owner. so when I saw the volleys between 3-​year-​Elite Asina G. and owner Rick, I wanted to look closer. Hell, this is my hood! Don’t forget, people: Amy’s Baking Company was making Unilocal Eliters’ blacklists for *years* before Chef Ramsey’s visit a few months ago!
let. me. be. clear. This neighborhood is GHETTO! And i mean that in a Margaret Cho way! And I can say that because I lived a thousand feet from this club for — count ‘em — 11 years! With the arrival of the light rail across camelback I *watched* the homeowners flee and businesses decline. But it was never that great before light rail anyway! On one corner you had a strip club, on another a mattress store, and behind it a hotel that rents rooms by the hour! i watched 3 iterations of ownership try to make this drycleaner’s storage room into a restaurant. God bless them!
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To wit:
The driveway features a tent sign that says «FIX YOUR CLOTH HERE» with grease pencil «ES» at the end of CLOTH! Another sign is taped to the driveway’s brick pillar and says «FIX SUIT HERE FAST!» Another one is taped to the window: «FAST TAILOR HERE DAYS». Don’t believe me? I took pictures! Check them out!
WHAT DO YOU MEAN A PAIR OF *CLEAN* PLAID VANS IS NOT ALLOWED? The dress code sign is leaned up against a card table leg and the letters spelling «No Tennis Shoes» are the cheapest-​ass bingo-​hall snack-​bar menu letters I’ve ever seen in my goddam life!!!
I wonder. Is this a resurrection of the jockey club of former fame just a quarter mile east? That club closed 25 years ago after multiple gang shootings and deaths. My G*D, I hope and pray not!
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The story.
i intended to celebrate with business partners, colleagues and friends for a CD release party. after walking past the signage mentioned above, we approached the cashier sitting beneath an awning outside the door. A black man sitting nearby got up from his stool, stepped out from underneath the awning, an then looking at me, bent back over his waist, tilted his head sideways and began moving his head up and down LOOKING me over. He was mumbling to himself in slang and posturing as if he was looking for an escalation. Oh dear. This is the doorman. Still contorted, he threw his arm at me, pointing and saying, «This one’s OK, but THAT one can’t come in!» Now pointing at my guest’s shoes, the man said, «No tennis shoes!»
Dress code violation. WHAT? Where the F*&# do you people think you are?! this is 7^th avenue and camelback, goddamit!
I asked for Ricky. The man said, «He *might* be here» but refused to find him or take further action. When I insisted, he began repeating «concerning?» He was now sitting back in his chair, slumped over, crossing his arms at me and giving me an indignant, disgusted look.
After he berated me and humiliated me, repeating «concerning?» over and over, I explained that I intended to inform a manager about how he was treating me. He shooed at me with the back of his hand and slumped further in his chair, guffawing.
Incredulous, I called the club and someone told me that Ricky was not working. I insisted that a manager come out and speak with me and one did. The manager supported the behavior of his employee and told me he was doing his job. When I began to point at the surrounding buildings and businesses and attempted to remind him where we were, he interrupted me, saying he was insulted and refused to speak with me further. He refused to give me his name and then stood with the doorman talking about us, laughing and pointing.
Horrified, I called our friends inside to explain that we would not be joining them, and watched as four separate black couples approached and were greeted cordially and gracefully by the manager and the doorman. No contorted posturing, mumbling or pointing treatment for them. And they were dressed as casually as we.
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Ricky B. — Make no mistake. My and my fellow Unilocal-​eliter Asina G.‘s impressions are our own, and you are free to treat your customers as you will. Unilocal even allows you to make a public response to our impressions and it will be placed below. But with this review I place EVERY OUNCE of my five-​year gold elite reputation behind the following: I will not stand for the kind of discriminatory treatment we experienced from your staff. I shall actively spread the details of our experience among my friends and colleagues.
Welcome to the DOUBLE-​X BLACKLIST.

This is in response to the owner’s comments to me. Unilocal doesn’t provide a tool where I can respond to his comments directly (without sending a private message), so I have to write an update.
To your first comment, we didn’t have a party of 8, we had a party of about 13 (hence my earlier comment that we didn’t even fit at two tables), so we wouldn’t fit in one of your booths that fits 8. And in fact, once we all got there, we were offered a booth (as there 2 booths right by us that were empty the whole night), which we declined because we didn’t want to be all scrunched up in a little booth. The bigger area that accommodates more people is ridiculously priced, and I know this because we checked.
Second, as I stated in my review, ONE OF YOUR EMPLOYEES told me that this is just your policy, not a liquor license rule, so if you have employees giving out misinformation, then that’s something you might want to get under control. Had I been told it was a liquor license violation to bring in (and not consume) a bottle of wine as a gift, I would have understood. However, that’s not what I was told. He affirmatively told me that it was just your rule.
Third, as I said in my earlier review, the place was EMPTY at 5pm. And also as I said earlier, we all had agreed to get there early, so we were all there between 6 and 6:30, so us «saving tables» was never an issue. We were there to spend money, and had invited 11 other people to your establishment — people who would not have normally gone to your establishment on their own — to come and spend their money. So to be hassled by one of your employees while the place was empty was very annoying and offensive.
Fourth, unfortunately, this is the trend with black-​owned businesses, which is why most of them fail at some point (e.g., Club Central, Warren’s, Bobby C’s). Instead of focusing on making their customers happy, they make their customers feel like they’re doing us some kind of favor by letting us patron their establishments. That’s not the way to keep customers happy. Majority establishments go out of their way to accommodate their customers, especially when it’s a big group. I have never experienced that at a black-​owned restaurant/​bar.
Fifth, it’s nice that you’re on site to deal with issues. However, my choice to post my reviews on Unilocal is exactly that, my choice. The evening of our outing was not the appropriate time for that, as the focus was my girl’s achievement, not fussing with management about their policies. That is the whole purpose behind Unilocal and any other site where you can post reviews. I’m sure you don’t tell your customers who had good experiences to just tell you about them instead of posting them on Unilocal,so you shouldn’t do that with customers who had bad experiences.
And I’m sorry, but Michael’s Café is not what I would call an «upscale» establishment, as you keep referring to it. It can be a cool place to go and be around other black folks, but «upscale» it is not. I appreciate that you’re trying to provide a venue for black people in the Valley, but let’s keep it real.

I have been to Michael’s at least 9 times in the past 12 months. I started going in Nov 2011 for 1^st Friday’s. There’s a lot I can say about this establishment!
The club:
My girlfriends and I usually end up here on first Friday’s for what we call, «Girl’s Night Out.» We, well I do, always arrive before 8 pm before there is a cover charge at the door. Since I like cocktails, I usually order one right away because they have 2−4−1 before 8pm each Friday. I“ve never been disappointed by the bartenders at Michael’s. I think their bartenders are overworked and are excellent at what they do! You have to get there earlier than I do in order to get a table right away. Otherwise, you’re left standing around waiting for a table. We’ve never really had an awful time with waiting for folks to leave and free up tables. A lot of folks that come right after work are leaving between 8pm and 9pm because the live band that plays wraps up around that time and they’ve been there for 3 or 4 hours at this point.
Oh yeah, speaking of live bands… yes, there is a live band that plays before 8pm.
Back to 1^st Friday… Every time I’ve gone for 1^st Friday, this place was packed to the HILT!!! You certainly won’t miss out on people watching here!
I guess I’m too old to relate to table/​bottle service, but I attempted to get a table during a weekend when several of my friends were in town, but the table was a staggering $ 200. Now, I am cheap, that’s why I have never arrived after 8pm, so when I heard $ 200, I scoffed at the thought of paying that for a bottle of liquor and some juice. HOWEVER, having said that, I respect these folks way of conducting business. I just can’t participate in that.
The food:
The food gets a 4 Star from me. I love their wings. I was there for 1^st Friday this month and I think they changed their formula/​receipe for the wings. WHOA, the wings were exceptionally good this month. I’ve also had the catfish, and that was decent. The fries are standard and par for the course.
I would love to give Michael’s a 4 or 5, but it lacks the HIP, Trendy feel I truly long for in Phoenix. But then again, perhaps Michael’s is not supposed to be HIP, Trendy, but more an around-​the-​way kinda feeling club and my expectations are in the wrong place.

Packed! That is the best way to describe this place on a Friday night. PACKED!!! Plus it was early too. By 7pm it was already standing room only. It was first Friday so I expected it to be busy, and boy was it. I can say that it was people watching at is finest and some of the patrons were down right RUDE however, I still had a good time. The drinks were good and strong (2 for 1 making my di’sarrono and orange juice the cheapest and strongest I have had EVER and the price was perfect! Win in my book)
The band that was playing was jamming out however the DJ was not the best. It did not stop us from having a good time nonetheless. Please note that once you leave, you can’t just walk back in if there is a line. You will have to stand outside like everyone else and wait. I will give the owner made props as there were people who appeared to be his friends trying to give him money to enter and he turned them away and said they had to stand in line like everyone else. Kudos in my book. The place is a little small so like I said before, get there early! I am sure at this rate, he will be finding a new location soon to accommodate his growing clientele. I will have to come back on a not so busy day to try the amazing food I have heard about.

I’ve been wanting to eat at Michael’s Café for a couple of months now, I tonight I finally made it in. My neighbor, James, and I took a walk here tonight and I couldn’t be happier to call Michael’s my next best neighbor.
We started out with the wings. James wanted the sauce on the side. I don’t think he really understands the concept of buffalo wings, but that’s another story. The wings were perfectly cooked, but the sauce tasted like Frank’s Red Hot. Which is fine; I love Frank’s Red Hot. Then our entrees arrived: the fried chicken for James and the catfish for myself. Our sides were fried cabbage, dirty rice, greens and mac & cheese. My catfish was perfectly cooked and the breading was wonderful. James enjoyed his chicken. The sides, though, were simply divine. The fried cabbage with pieces of bacon was out of this world. I plan to go back with this side in mine, and eventually schmooze up to the staff and get this recipe. The dirty rice was great. the greens were served with green beans and were great and the mac & cheese was great. Plus we took advantage of the two-​for-​one drink special.
Michael’s Café was definitely worth waiting for, but something to consider is it can get expensive. Our dinner, with drinks, costs around $ 30 and it was very much worth it. But it isn’t something I could swing every day. Nonetheless, this is going to be a place I’ll return too soon and put in my regular rotation.