Amazing white bean chili, but the other food was very subpar. I ordered off a special menu they had. Steak and mashed potatoes were just ok, horseradish cream was delicious. However, the staff was kind and quick. read more

Extremely disappointing Easter brunch. Kids buffet contained food we could have easily purchased at Gordon Foods. While the prime rib and pork loin were both very good, potatoes and two of the pasta based entrees looked like they had set there for hours. For the amount of money we paid for our party, expectations not met at all. Only upside was the staff was extremely nice. read more

As first-time visitors, we enjoyed their Easter brunch buffet tremendously. There was a large variety of foods to choose from, all prepared very well, and the service was excellent. Worthy if making this a holiday tradition. read more

On the recommendation of a friend to check out their pizza, my girlfriends and I went here for lunch. Only one of us got the flatbread pizza. They had a $8.50 lunch special where you could pick and choose what you wanted. I got the Turkey, Brie and cranberry sandwich and white chicken chili. The sandwich was really good. It also came with fried onions and apple slices. On the menu, it said the white chicken chili had won some awards so I was excited to try it. It was meh. I didn't see what was so special about it. I've had better white chicken chili elsewhere. Would I go here again? Not sure. read more

One of my favorite restaurants, partly due to the Guinness on tap and the great happy hour specials after 9 on weeknights! The food is always great and the atmosphere is relaxing. If you arrive for dinner around sunset, I highly recommend you postpone dinner for a few minutes and get a drink in the Beacon Lounge and enjoy the fabulous views of Grand Traverse Bay (the Beacon Lounge is on the 10th floor at the top of the Park Place Hotel in which Minerva's is attached to- its probably under "Top of the Park" if you search for it). read more

We stopped in tonight from around 8pm until 9pm for apps and dessert and sat at the bar. Sarah D. Was our bartender and she was great. Friendly, gave good recommendations on the dessert menu, fast service. We were really happy. Then her manager came out to the bar. I did not catch his name, but he sat down next to two men that were already seated at the bar and proceeded to yell all the way across the bar, so every patron could hear him, calling out our bartender for a mistake she made on the computer system. The way he reprimanded her was clearly only intended to embarass her, as he obviously already knew the answers to the questions he was asking her. She looked embarassed and turned in the opposite direction of him afterward, and he proceeded to make fun of her to the two men sitting near him at the bar, all of them laughing. He sat there for the entire rest of our visit, visibly making her uncomfortable. This is NOT acceptable behavior for anyone, particularly any level of mangement. Intimidating and belittling your staff in front of an entire restauraunt is inexcusable. If I stop in on this gentleman's shift again, i will absolutely being walking straight back out the door. Our entire group was appalled. read more

Sorry tried this place wasn't wowed like the reviews. Food service and atmosphere. Not good

I guess you could say that this is a typical place in a hotel which serves decent food. Nothing really memorable. The key lime pie was good, but would I recommend driving to Traverse City and going to Minerva's....no. I am certain, in fact I know, that there are tons of places along the Gold Coast of Michigan which would outshine this place, and I suppose they know it, and are happy being what they are. All in all it was decent. read more

Special event evening in downtown Traverse City. We came to the bar and restaurant to get something to eat only to find one bartender for over 75 people in the bar and everybody wanting to order food and only 1 waiter. Took 15 minutes only to get ignored and then we approached the bartender from our table to ask for a couple of drinks and order a small pizza. She started with an attitude and took only half the order turning and ignoring the rest of the order. She comes back and snaps at us asking if we want it or not even though she never listened the first time. I used to frequent this place more than 3 times a week and it has slid downhill quite a bit over the last few years. Most of my friends don't come here anymore but I tried to support it by coming here again giving it a 5th chance only to find it's even worse. Under-staffed, inexperienced, & unfriendly The management needs to take note read more

Great service, I had the Quinoa salad with chicken, my mom had the chicken Parmesan. Good choice of house Cabernet wine.

Overall we had a good experience, not a great bar or Wine list. we were there during happy hour and had great firecracker Shrimp and onion rings. Pizza was not the greatest and the wings were just ok. We enjoyed our waitress. read more

You probably won't have to wait for a table here and it is opened later than a lot of the downtown restaurants in Traverse City. Minerva's kind of exploits the fact that it's connected to a hotel and open longer though. The food is good, but it's not great. When my wife and I went be both ordered sirloin steaks medium well and well done respectively. Hers came out medium rare and mine might be considered medium by most. Certainly not well done. It's a little too expensive for what you get. read more

The bar on the top floor has a great view but the furniture is a bit shabby (white stuffing coming out of one chair), the service a bit haphazard (drink for one person delivered 5 minutes after drink for another), and the alcoholic content of the drinks a little thin. The restaurant on the main floor is just a hotel restaurant. I was hoping it could be a good place for locals. It's not. Our server was good, but when he didn't know where the bread came from I knew we were in trouble. It came, I think, from the local grocery store, as probably did the "fine steak" I ordered. There was nothing particularly bad or good about Minerva's. read more

Today I had lunch here and right off the bat the service was HORRENDOUS. The hostess took forever to seat us and didn't smile once. Also it was not busy at all, only a few tables were full. Then, our waitress did not come to the table for ten minutes. We had to ask a passing waitress to bring us water. It took her forever to take our order and she never refilled our coffee cups unless we flagged her down from across the room. She also got my order wrong but I let it go because I knew it would take another 20 minutes to get it right. She never once checked to see how we were doing and it took her another 15 minutes to bring us our check. However, I thought the meal that did come out was very good. I had the Eggs Benedict and it was cooked perfectly. If the hostess and the waitress were nicer as well as on top of their job it would have been a good experience. Because of the terrible service it was quite the unpleasant experience and I will not be returning. read more

Me and my Wife both had the house burger, And it was the most disgusting burger we have ever ate, It was tasteless, Dry, And you could could squeeze the oil out of the bun, I give it one star only because the fries were ok and the water was cold so i could wash this wretched excuse for a burger down. read more

I would like to be able to review our experience. However, upon entering the restaurant we were told that due to backed reservation orders we could not be seated for at least 20 minutes. The place was empty and tables were everywhere but the manager said that we would have to wait to be served. I felt we were being discriminated against since most of our party were minorities. The other hostess suggested seating our party separately but the manager very rudely stated that no orders would go to the kitchen for 20 minutes. We decided to leave. Our whole party did not arrive at the same time when the remainder of our party arrived the manager told them that she said she could seat us in 20 minutes which was a lie!!! I've never experienced anything like this and would never patronize their establishment again. They lost at least 300 dollars worth of revenue when we left out the door what a shame. read more

Went there on a weeknight with a party of eleven, so there's that. Restaurant was not busy at all. In fact there was only one other table in our area of the restaurant. Our server seemed overwhelmed by our sheer numbers and it showed throughout the night. She was friendly enough but I felt she should have had some help. Someone in our party made the mistake of asking a couple of questions and that seemed to throw her off, much like producing a shiny quarter to distract the subject. Anyway, it took an hour to get our food. By that time breakfast sounded good. We also had to remind her an appetizer was ordered in order to get that. Once the food arrived it was meh. The award-winning chicken chili was exceptional but I didn't hear any "this is awesome" comments from any of our party while eating their main courses. So not sure who's to blame here. Big party? Slow service? Slow cooks? I shall not return. read more

Was here for dinner while on a family vacation. It wasn't busy so we had a whole wing of the restaurant to ourselves which was good because we had 13 people including 5 kids. The waitress was very pleasant, but it took quite a while for the food to arrive after we ordered. Everyone seemed to enjoy their meals and the Summerberry cake dessert was very good. read more

I had dinner here last Saturday night with five friends . . . we all decided to take advantage of TC's Restaurant Week. Thankfully, due to urging on the part of one lady in our group I made a reservation . . . if I hadn't we would have had a very long wait for dinner--the place was packed! Our waiter was attentive and charming . . . the food was above average. I had the sirloin steak which was cooked to perfection; two friends had the Duck L'Orange which they insisted I sample . . . that will be my choice next time! My spinach salad with dried cranberries and spiced pecans was very tasty and the cheesecake with passion fruit sauce was some of the best I've ever had. We arrived at 5:45 and didn't leave until 10:00 p.m. because we all were having such a wonderful time. Minerva's has extended the Restaurant Week menu through the end of March . . . I may just have to go back and order that duck! I am definitely a fan of Minerva's. read more

Lunch appointment with some older gents, they picked this place, but overall it wasn't bad. The server did well to notice we were talking business and wasn't too pushy with taking our orders. I ordered the Cajun pasta, which normally I never do since I've made a similar dish years ago when I was a line cook. However I was pleasantly surprised that the cream sauce during the lunch hour was done without breaking. One of my lunch mates ordered the three cheese macaroni, which looked pretty good. Overall based on the food and table service I will come back again. However when I left I walked by the host stand to grab a toothpick, the host said have a good day but he was so engrossed in texting on his cell phone that he didn't look up. That is rude and if I had seen a manager I would have said something immediately. I wasn't offended as much as appalled that an employee had the balls to do that, wake up jacka$$ this is the hospitality business, you need to do a better job of being hospitable. read more

Best Mexican in Traverse City. Anywhere else, four stars, but in northern Michigan this is the only Mexican place worth eating at.

We thought this restaurant looked nice, and the "Immediate Seating" sign convinced us to stop in on a Friday night. The interior is beautiful. They did not have immediate seating (and the hostess was more interested in her iPhone than anything else). We decided to sit at the bar for an appetizer and drink and wait. The bartender was loud and extremely sweaty.... and had an off-putting, snarky attitude. He was slightly confrontational and sarcastic when we needed a minute to order. We ended up leaving since we were so unimpressed. Overall, we would say a nice atmosphere is ruined by unprofessional staff. read more

I have one word for this restaurant..... joke! My family and I came here while on vacation. We had a taste for halibut, and we were directed to Minervas. When we got there, the host seated us and the place seemed cozy. There was only a couple others dining, literally two or three more people at the most. We waited twenty minutes for our server that was in the corner goofing around with his buddies. When he came over, we asked for a round of waters. He was honestly the rudest human I've ever been in contact with. The server was terrible, harsh and mean to us, we thought we were on camera for some practical joke! Overall the food was mediocre and the service was horrible. At least we have something to laugh at when we think back to our Michigan trip! Save your money and time, this restaurant isn't worth it. read more

We did not have a good experience when we went for breakfast. The service was extremely slow and our order came out incorrect.

Went with group of 9 for special occasion. Nice variety on menu. Everyone very pleased with meals. Colleen, our server, was especially accommodating in serving a special dessert for the group. Overall service was great. read more

This review is for the Beacon Lounge, Top of the Park. They have the best martini's in town. Definitely go on a Tuesday night when they are on special. When you go make sure to see the bartender David. He makes the best martini's! If you are unsure of what you want he will come up with a concoction that will definitely not disappoint! read more

Somewhat confused service but all was ok in the end. Had a steak with pasta and mushrooms. Very tasty.

Every time we went to this place, there was never enought staff to help. The first nite, we went down for drinks at nine at night, was told no food, I thought they were open until 11. We had two drinks, thats it, they are closing. Next time, morning, wanted to eat outside, no one was in this place, can't no staff. Forget it. read more

Went to a retirement party last night and had a wonderful time at Minervas. The food was served hot and quickly. The service was prompt, friendly and to put it mildly - phenomenal. This is a restaurant that I will definitely go to again and again. read more

My Family took me to Minerva's for my Birthday dinner. There were 8 of us. I just wanted you to know we had a great waitress named Amanda who was excellent in her service! Our food was hot and delicious! We will be back and ask for the same waitress! read more

Great experience as always here. We don't live in the area anymore but always make a trip to Minerva's for some white chicken chili and firecracker shrimp. The staff, especially Mark were great to accommodate our 30 person party. read more

While enjoying a chance to walk around Traverse City during the weekend, we stopped by Minerva's because it was one of the restaurants that piqued our interest during one of our previous trips to the city. Unfortunately, the service was lackluster at best. While waiting for seating, we cozied up to the bar for a drink. As we walked up to the bar, we overheard the bartender bad-mouthing previous customers to other patrons who obviously felt awkward being placed in this position. Before even sitting down, the bartender treated us more as a inconvenience rather than a customer. He had a strangely aggressive demeanor and was rude as we were looking over the drink menu, making passively aggressive comments. If we didn't make a conscious effort to avoid it ruining an otherwise beautiful night in Traverse City, it was the type of service that could easily cast a cloud over a great night. My suggestion to the management would be to take some time to emphasize customer service to their employees or find a way to weed out the bad apples that can ruin a business regardless of the great location read more

I think we found a new favorite TC restaurant! By that I mean that we are new to the area and have tried lots of restaurants for a "go to" place. Of course, for a special occasion like an anniversary or something you're probably going to want to go to Trattoria Stella or someplace with a more romantic atmosphere, but Minerva's is the perfect regular Friday or Saturday night dinner out. My husband and I have both enjoyed the Steak Michael, which was excellent. However, his favorite remains the Triple Mac & Cheese. Nice wine selection with very reasonable bottle prices. Our service has always been very good. We always get a bread basket right away and even when they're busy a reservation is rarely needed as the kitchen seems to be able to keep up quite nicely, with our salads (get the House Spinach with entrees) coming quickly and the entree arriving just at the right time. Desserts are of a shareable size. Atmosphere is slightly upscale... not formal or stuffy, but not Applebee's either! For us, it's a frequent favorite! read more

food and service not impressive. the hostess was on her phone when we walked in and then got an attitude when we requested to be sat further from the noisey bar. the service was slow and the food was horribly over priced considering it tasted like it came out of a microwave. drinks were okay but not memorable, all in all not a great experience, will not be going back. read more