Ale House

This weeks lunch venture lead us down the beaten path to The Ale House, located adjacent to Springbrook Golf Course.  Upon entering the establishment I was pleasantly surprised at its inviting atmosphere and cleanliness’.   The menu had an abundance of options that is sure to provide even the finickiest of eater with something to try.  However I can not afford to be finicky if I am to maintain this masculine figure, so I went with the quick order of a Ale House Mushroom Burger ($6.25), with onion rings($1.50 sub.).  I have to say to start the onion rings were hand dipped and definitely come with a high recommendation from this fat guy.  However, that much can not be said of the burger.  Do not get me wrong the burger was decent flavor wise, but was small and did not fit the large bun that it was served on.  I also did try some of the loaded fries that I would say were a big disappointment. What the heck is the deal with these establishments processed cheese?  Once again process cheese is something you pay a buck for at a gas station or at the local fair.  Is that stuff even cheese at all?  So I have to say the fries for that reason alone were neither worth the money nor the time spent having your body purge itself of the so called “cheese”.  FOOD 4.0 Stars

Now on to the important business of service, which is so important to a food establishment’s return business.  It is this simple; if you have good food and poor service you lose return business, just as fast as having poor food and good service.  These two things go hand in hand and unfortunately the Ale House was unable to put it together on this particular day.  The restaurant appeared to be understaffed, the waitresses were loud and more interested in the mega millions 600+ million dollar jackpot (as if they were going to win) than in customer service.  Once again we were initially stuck at the table with empty glasses, until finally noticed by another waitress.  Also it is important to notice that you will need a full hour or more to have lunch here.

SERVICE 3.0 Stars

OVERALL SCORE 3.5 Stars

****Fat Bald And Beautiful****

The Ale House, located on Avenue A in Springfield, MI.  The establishment set right on the Springbrook Golf Course.  The view from the restaurant was nice, and the inside was very clean, and without a doubt exceeded any of my expectations.

However, it was busy and we were seated next to the server’s station.  Although we were located very close to the servers station our server seemed to forget us on several occasions, and at one point had another server bring us refills.  Service was absolutely below average.  Service 2 stars

One of my cohort’s and I shared the hand–dipped onion rings and loaded fries as appetizers.  I must say the onion rings were excellent.  They were light and crisp and were large rings, but there were only four onion rings.  The loaded fries were a whole different story.  A word of advice for future establishments:  If you are going to use good seasoned fries, good bacon and take the time to chop chives up for the fries, then why do you ruin them with processed cheese?  If you like the sauce, then please make a roux and melt a “real” cheese and make your own sauce.  At least then you have your own signature on the dish.  Processed cheese is what one can purchase at a gas station for $.99 nachos, not for a $4.95 loaded fries.  Don’t get me wrong.  I like processed cheese on my Taco Bell just as much as the next guy, but there is no room for it in the restaurant business.

For my lunch I ordered the Club Burger.  This is apparently a Club sandwich that has burgers patties instead of your customary ham and turkey. Although the patties were somewhat small, they were hand-made and had good flavor.  That combined with the fact that I got two patties on my sandwich made it more than filling.  It had good bacon, lettuce and tomato on it and was a very good sandwich.  I would recommend it to anyone who frequents this establishment as it was $7.95.

Now, I must give them some props as they had a pretty good looking soup and salad bar.  I did not order it, but was intrigued by one of the soups, Pepper cheese Crab soup.  I asked the waitress about it, and she told me to get a cup free of charge.  It had excellent flavor, but as I suspected the pepper jack cheese ruled the flavor category.  Unfortunately it was the end of the batch and the soup was lacking substance (crab), but was overall an interesting combination that I would like to try again (with the crab).  Food 3.5 stars

Overall, the food was good, except the processed cheese, but service was lacking and the overall rating reflects it.  3 out of 5 stars.

~The Fat Mexican~

The Facility was clean and busy with patrons and because of this we were seated close to the kitchen.  Having said that, the service was lacking.  All persons in our party had empty glasses and waited for a single refill. The wait staff were laughing and joking at the waitress station that was directly beside our table and some of the comments by staff were not things you discus around guests to say the least.  The timeliness of the meal prep was not overly long and to my surprise, the food tasted very good.  I had the Club sandwich with loaded fries and both were very enjoyable with great flavor.  Overall, I gave a rating of just 2 stars as the food saved the day.

Biggin

Our latest expedition was to The Ale House at the Spring Brook Golf Course located in Springfield, MI.  The atmosphere and décor of the building was nice and clean.  The day we went there, it was very busy and the staff there appeared to be overworked.  The hostess never was at the hostess podium to greet new customers as they entered because she was busy busing tables.  Our waitress, while pleasant enough, was not around very much due to having too many tables, including a table with 9 people at it.  We had 3 drink refills in the hour that we were there, which may sound like a lot to you, but the glasses were 12 ounce glasses or less that were half full of ice, so it was very easy to drink several servings.  Part of my judging a waitress is if she is Suzy-on-the-spot with the drink refills and our waitress definitely was not.  Points were lost by this business for their inability to be attentive to the needs of their customers.  I had asked for ranch with my food and she forgot that as well as forgot another item for another person in our party.

On to the food.  The food was actually very good.  The ingredients were of a higher quality that many of your typical bar/restaurants in the area.  I ordered the olive burger with French fries.  The fries were slightly seasoned and better than the typical cheap frozen fries you see.  The olive burger was very plain, literally only having olives and mayonnaise, no other condiments or garnishments.  Had I known this I may have asked for ketchup, lettuce, etc.  The burger was very good and the bun it was served on was fresh and soft. 

Overall, I give the Ale House 3 out of 5 stars on the strength of their food and the nice atmosphere.  Points were definitely deducted due to their lack of staff needed to handle the amount of business they had.  I probably wouldn't get the olive burger again as it was pretty average, but some of the items the other people in our party had were very tasty.

The fat redhead