Roberts Riverwalk Bistro And - Detroit

We arrived at the restaurant at 5 and didn't receive our dinner until 6:45, which made us rush to leave for the theater at 7. We quickly ate our dinner and had to take our dessert to go, resulting in us being late to our seats. The waitress appeared nervous and inexperienced. It wasn't until halfway through the first act that I was finally able to relax.

There were four of us at the table, along with another couple at a table that could seat about fifty people. Unfortunately, half of the menu items were not available, including steak and chicken. We were disappointed and do not plan on returning.

When we visited the restaurant, we were not staying at the hotel. I had a voucher and found the place to be nice enough. The staff seemed to have little to do and it was noticeable. We were headed to Chene Park afterwards. The food arrived on time and was pretty decent. The portion sizes were good. The staff's knowledge about food was somewhat limited; when I inquired about zip sauce with the steak, the server had no idea what I was referring to. This was not a major issue. If there were more customers, it could potentially become a lively bar scene, given its Riverfront location and seclusion. The restaurant could also be quite romantic, as it is located in a boutique hotel in downtown Detroit. In my opinion, the restaurant is underutilized and has the potential to make more money if they invested more effort, money, and advertising into it.

Roberts Riverwalk Bistro has possibly the best location in the city for a restaurant right on the Riverwalk if they had competent management. How did they fail? Let me count the ways: 25 minutes to get a drink Chasing down the waitress to order The waitress had no idea what beverages they had which further delayed things It was clear that she had never really been trained and there was no manager in sight The menu itself is that of a glorified burger joint Food was brought out late and cold. It was evident it was left for a long period of time and not under a heat lamp Had to walk inside to get ketchup for our fries and burgers Half the diners had real wine glasses and half had plastic. We ended up with plastic. Average delay between waitress showing up at our table to see if we needed anything was about 15 minutes When she brought back my credit card with the bill she hovered over me while I wrote up the tip, holding my card in her hand until she received the bill back The facility decided that Friday night was a good night for Karaoke instead of bringing in a good band or background music At the end of the day, the bones of the facility and the location are both beautiful. It would be a shame if they didn't get competent management in to run the operation properly.

I was there 5-6 years ago to take the family to a Red Wings game before the demo of Joe Louis Arena. The room had bad plumbing, no air conditioning, garbage mattresses, and one set of towels. It was clearly located in a ghetto area even back then with non-existent police protection. Far worse today.