Spencer’s Route 46

The atmosphere is exceptional. And the beer cold and tasty. Food quality is less than mediocre. I asked if the pizza their margerita looked as it did in the menu picture. It is hard to create a bad pizza but this was truly disgusting. Some sort of pre baked crust, topped with bad looking tomatoes and basil. It was supposed to be buffalo mozzeralla according to the description but I hardly think so. Then the worst part was that they drowned it in cheap basalmic vinegar. Yuk. I’ve had better Little Caesar. My wife ordered the eggplant parmesian. The eggplant looked like burnt toast sitting next to the pasta. She said it tasted OK, but she is the type of person that wouldn’t say anything negative. It is sad to think that these restaurants pass off «gourmet» food at ridiculous prices and people believe it because they don’t know any better.

I recently moved to the area, having been coming to the area often for the last ten years. Though I have driven by Spencer’s and often remarked to my fiancé that we should stop and eat sometime. (Fiancé is from the area and lives here.) Last night we finally took the plunge and made reservations and went to dinner. The place was jumping, with a somewhat mixed crowd as far as age groups, tho heavy on the over 65 crowd, which is fine, I am not an ageist in the least. The owner greeted us and informed us that we would have to wait about 10 minutes because they didn’t have a table ready yet, which was again ok. We had a drink at the bar and here starts one of the reasons for only a 3 star. The bartender when asked what beers they had on tap answered with a bit of disinterest and when asked what she had in bottles, she just didn’t know and acted like she really didn’t want to find out so she flatly asked what we were looking for. Now I am sorry, but a bartender should know every beer and liquor they have, or have a list so as to not come off as not even interested in helping find a selection we were willing to order. Ok, with that said, we were shortly sat at our table, and our waitress was pleasant, but she seemed stretched to thin, she tried to keep up with our table, but she couldn’t, and I don’t blame her. The table staff was great, and by that I mean, the busboys, they were on the spot Johnny’s and very pleasant. I felt that the ambience and price point dictated that I should expect more than institutional bare tables with paper napkins. I expected table cloths and real napkins. And that might sound odd, but I have been to places less «nice» as this one and they had lines waiting, and they had real tablelothes and napkins along with a rockin simple menu. Now the menu had a nice variety, but the menu itself was one of the most difficult documents I have ever tried to read. I may sound like a picky Ass to some of you, but the truth is, I have owned a food establishment of my own and have had the privilege to have known some great restaurant owners in my life and some really good chefs. Trust me, all of the restaurants that stay relevant and survive the passage of time always offer the step up, and not having to come off as some super fancy place, but a good place to go with just a bit of old fashioned class to take that extra step for their customers. Take the time and reach out to your food distributors, they have professional menu experts who can design menus to maximize profit and make it easy for customers to read. Now the food. The food itself was good, our steaks were actually made exactly the way we liked, and there is always a but, But the presentation was lackluster. I again expected more attention to presentation, garnish, something more than food set on a plate. Ok, now your thinking I am a total ASS now, but no I am not. I say this so if the owner reads this, he can get an honost critique of his establishment and take them as the business improving words of encouragement they are being said and NOT in a mean spirited way so many whip out on this site. I truly want to see this place keep thriving for more generations. I will go back again and try the pizza that I hear is great. So keep up good work and keep working on improving.

We went there for the first time this week and I was really impressed. The bar is very large and almost every seat was full. I noticed a lot of the crowd was in the 40+ age group, which made it a little awkward with my young kids with me. I had the grilled salmon which is massive compared to Red Lobsters, it came cooked in some sort of mandarin sauce. Very delicious. My wife and kids ordered a medium pizza and they loved it. I will definitely be ordering a takeout pizza in the future.
This place is really nice and a welcomed change to the same old franchises that are all over the Saginaw area. I will definitely be coming back for special occasions.

I don’t know why this place has such good reviews. The service and food was absolutely horrible! My husband and I weren’t super hungry so we decided to get an app and split a meal. It was a beautiful night so we ate outside. 4 tables outside, nothing fancy. I got a glass of Wine which was good. We ordered the cheese bread for an app. When it came out we looked at it and it looked like the cheese wasn’t even melted. By the time we touched the bread to see if it was hot, the waiter (James R) had already left. We decided not to eat it since it was in fact cold and just wait for the waiter to come back so he could give it to the cook to put it back in the oven. We waited… for awhile. He didn’t come back so we asked the other waitress that walked by to take it back to be cooked longer. But by this time it was so cold that she said she would just have it remade. Well we finally got the cheese bread and it was ok, nothing to brag about. Our food came out shortly after. And I must say that it was horrible! We got the chicken Alfredo. The sauce tasted like it came from a jar and the chicken was unflavored and dry! We were hungry by this time so we just ate it and left. I would have been happier just going to Papa Johns, which blows, it would have been cheaper. We saw the waiter maybe 3 times and we are just very disappointed. We just moved around the corner and would have loved to come back but we most likely never will.

Pleasant surprise! We took my MIL to lunch here and had great service and good food. We hadn’t been here for several years (we don’t live in Saginaw) and wanted some variety. She had the lunch soup and ½ sandwich special, I had the BLT and DH had a Tuscan Salad. All were served in a timely manner and very tasty. And the prices were very reasonable. We would definitely return!

Wow, what a gem!
This place doesn’t look like much from the outside, but their inside is clean, their walls are lined with cool local art, their bar is stocked, and their food… their food is GREAT!
I highly recommend their pizza.
And their half-​stack of ribs.
More info (SPECIFIC info on individual food items).
You can see what items I reviewed there (including pics!):