Bad choice‼. It said 'happy hour' but that's only if you sit at the bar. Bread basket was extra! Sent rib dinner back twice cause it was cold. Husbands mac and cheese was excellent. Waitress was very nice and removed ribs from the bill. Don't think we will go back. read more

My family and I were in town visiting Traverse City and we were staying at Honcho Rest Campground and we saw this place and had to go because the restaurant sits right on the water where boats can dock up and have lunch. My wife and I got the weekly specials; I got the shrimp and grits with Andouille Sausage, she got the macadamia nut crusted goat cheese and the Traverse City cherry glazed pork tenderloin. They were spectacular! I'm from the South and have never had such great tasting grits in my life. Kudos to the kitchen. I will be back! read more

The Riverwalk has a GREAT LOCATION......and SHOULD be a 5-star place to go..........but the Managers are not very good. Service is good on some days......and HORRIBLE on other days. Some of the workers at the Riverwalk have terrible attitudes.......If you are not a "regular local".........they can be very rude. read more

Service was fine.. Presentation was the worst I have ever seen. Taste was just meh... We wont be back. I was hoping theyd improve while being closed so long.. read more

What nice restaurant with views of the lake. Enjoyed sitting on the patio for dinner Saturday night. They had a two man band, which were really good in my opinion. Our server greeted us promptly with menus and water. Took our drink order and arrived quickly with our drinks. Those were made perfectly. We both the prime rib with fries and corn on the cob. Dinner was fabulous!!! The prime rib was cooked to perfection and the fries...... yummy. We'll be back again before we leave Michigan. read more

The ambiance and location are great. The over priced food not so much. Out of our family of five only one of us enjoyed their meal and that was an appetizer. It's really too bad because this place could be really great. Knock down your prices and create more family friendly casual dining to lure the folks in. read more

We were in the area and happened upon this place after seeing that Pearls was just packed to the gills on a Sunday evening. It is very nicely decorated and does have a really nice big patio overlooking the water, so it would probably be great for drinks and appetizers. All 6 in our party were underwhelmed by the food and it was overpriced for what we received. The entrees were just O.K. and the sides were totally phoned in. From ribs to fish to flatbread and salad, we all felt that our dishes were lacking. We opted out of dessert and instead went for ice cream. The service was good but we would not return for anything more than a drink on the patio. read more

Great local tap list, very good food, but apparently poorly managed, understaffed, and cannot handle a rush. I don't normally give two stars for service but this was on a holiday weekend in northern Michigan where the majority of their business comes during the holiday rush. They had us sit and then told us that it would be an hour before we could even order. No big deal (we thought) we'd have a couple drinks and wait it out... I headed to the bar to order drinks and the bar tender told me to order thru the waitress, apparently she was slammed too (though I couldn't see why)... I look around and notice that the place is only half full! I've worked at a couple restaurants in the area during summers and have experienced being slammed, but any local restaurant manager/owner should know that from late June to early August the local population grows 10x +! Which means swing shifts to have extra people on hand and then cut them loose after the rush. ugh! Anyway the waitress got our drink orders after about 20 minutes, messed up mine (more accurately completely forgot it after delivering everyone else's), took food orders after about an hour, and promptly brought the bill with the food. Never have I felt like a restaurant didn't want our patronage and in fact made us feel like we should just leave! Anyway, that is why they got 2 stars. Now for the food... I had a pecan crusted walleye with a mustard hollandaise sauce that was good but perhaps overpowered the fish. Everyone else seemed to like their food as well. I hope that the manager/owner reads this and takes note as the local diners (such as my parents) won't likely stand for such nonsense more than once or twice... and without them you are doomed to fail during the long hard winter. read more

Best deck on Elk Lake with a spot for corn-hole and lawn games. So cool that patrons can motor their boats right up to the restaurant's boat slips on Elk Lake. Decent food. Great service. A go-to for our family. read more

We had a large party of 6 adults on a Sunday evening. We got there at 6 and did not receive our checks till 9,and it's not because we were hanging around having fun. It took 45min to seat us. 30 to take out order and 45 min till we received our food. It's too bad because the atmosphere and food were decent. It fell apart with service and the kitchen. read more

The location is great and I had such high hopes. First, I had to wander around looking for a host to seat us, then the service was horrible and when we finally did get the food (pulled pork sandwich with onion rings and a salad with grilled chicken) all of it was burned. Never returning. read more

Riverwalk Grill and Taproom, sounds luxurious but its the biggest dump in town. I first must warn anyone who frequents this place, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT eat the lobster bisque. For a holiday weekend slightly cooler than normal, I paused at the sight of this on the menu. My inquisitive nature thought lets give it a try because you're in Elk Rapids what can get worse?! If only I had surpressed the interest I would have saved my bowels from the torment. I got ill from that disgusting whatever substance paste it was I almost called the owner of our rental with money for a new toilet. I had the shakes worse than Michael J Foxx. I haven't had a colonoscopy yet, but imagine if you needed to prep for one this place is non inferior to a bowel prep. Ive never been faced with the decision do I shart, and quickly vomit or both at the same time? I haven't questioned my farts in a long, perhaps over 30 years ago, when I tried my aunts homemade salsa at the birthday party but thats a different story... 6 hours later no ome could attempt to identify what came out of my rectum, no one. One thing which was certain, If mosquitos came near me they would instantly die. There could have been blood, I don't even know, I blacked out. Please for your safety, don't, I repeat, DO NOT, okay really, ever get the lobster bisque! read more

First time here and it was a bit better than average. The food was better than the service. My wife had the loaded Mac n Cheese and it was quite good. I had the Lobster Roll and it was very good. Service; however , was slow. Our server would appear and then disappear for long stretches. She had tables both inside and outside on the patio. That may have been the problem. We may give this place another try, but we won't rush to get back. read more

Not very good, and high priced.. One of us had fish and chips and the other had a chicken flatbread. The flatbread was a different dinky personal size pizza for $15.00!! The fish and chips weren't too bad. But we both added a side salad to our meal and were charged $5.00 each for a little pile of leafy crap. No veggies on the salad. It was our first time here and we will not be back... There are many other places in the area that are better... Our bill for two with tip was $50.00 and we drank water! read more

Last weekend we decided to try this place with another couple. I will make this short and sweet. 1. $6.50 for most beers. $5 for a Bud Light. Really? Way overpriced beers. 2. Walleye with Pilaf rice, fish was good, rice tasteless, nothing green on the plate. 3. $12.00 hamburger with hardly any onion, the small piece of lettuce was completely wilted and old. I asked for pickle chips, never got them. Burger patty was barely warm. The $12 burger comes with only potato chips by the way. 4. Very high prices for a restaurant with cement floors and mediocre food. 5. The whitefish dip appetizer was very good. 6. The mussels were typically average. I don't mind paying for good food, but their food just isn't worth the prices charged. read more

High ceilings make for a very noisy atmosphere. Smoked shrimp appetizer was yummy. Entrees are a little pricey. Worst part is the parking!!! read more

Believe all of the reviews about understaffing and lack of organization. Went there last night (a Thursday). No one is at the hostess stand but per sign wait to be seated. Waiting, waiting..... A woman shows up and we request a table for six. She wanders off then returns and we say we would like to be seated outside. There are plenty of people sitting outside on the deck. We are told no that we cannot sit on the deck. Huh? Only 2 servers working the whole place so the people sitting outside are waiting for food to go,but we must sit inside if we want to be served an in house meal. Just strange and we went elsewhere. read more

So happy the restaurant is open. Its a really fun atmosphere. The food is great, servers are happy and then again, who wouldn't be, they work in a lovely town,in a gorgeous new building, on spectacular Elk Lake!The specialty martinis are amazing. Take a boat ride, and enjoy the outdoor patio and bar. Plenty of room to dock your boat. read more

Food was well prepared. The blackened whitefish is excellent, reminiscent of an excellent triggerfish I had in Perdido Key, Florida. A real find in Elk Rapids, Michigan. The kitchen was somewhat challenged by the crowd on a Wednesday night-- the dishes seemed to arrive slowly. Excellent wait staff made the wait bearable. read more

3rd time in. 1st toursit season visit. Seated promptly. 15 mnutes passed, no service. Left. Nice place. Many training opportunities for servers. Food good in the past. Service needs work. People I did talk to were friendly. read more

Been here twice recently and both times sat on deck overlooking the river. Both experiences were very good. Everyone in our party both times were very pleased with there dinner and the service. I had the beef brisket both times and it was very flavorful! read more

Poorly run establishment. This was my families first time exploring Elk Rapids after many visits in the Bellaire area. I was excited to find a local taproom and the pictures were impressive. Regardless of the poor service reviews we made our way. Pulling up in the parking lot and walking in, I thought for sure the poor reviews were mistaken. The place is very clean and industrial modern looking. Not to mention the view of Elk Lake and the huge outdoor patio. They have a nice set up here for sure. The 9 of us sat down (5 adults and 4 kids) and were met with a very nice waitress. She brought waters for everyone and attended to her other tables. After 5 minutes or so she came back for our drink orders. All the adults ordered a drink from the bar and soft drinks for the kids. Another 10 minutes passed until our drinks arrived, no biggy. We place our order and start sucking back on our drinks. Another 10, or so, pass when our very nice waitress informs us that the kitchen is backed up and that our order was not going to be fulfilled for another 45 minutes. Now I start to get annoyed. The very nice waitress suggests a bread service to hold us over, especially the kids. We take her up on that. Another 10 passes when the very nice waitress shows with our bread service. I thought it was a joke. We ended up paying $7 for 10 slices of baguette bread and a scoop of butter. Thin slices of baguette bread. It was embarrassing and I could tell the waitress was embarrassed for delivering it. She also informed us that we got the last of the $7 bread and butter service because we actually ordered more. Our kids inhaled those in under 60 seconds. At that we knew we had to leave. We paid our $53 drink and bread and butter tab, not including tip, and tucked tail. The very nice waitress was understanding and sympathized with us and said that she would have left also. It would have been nice to know that their kitchen was slow before running a bill for the very little we ordered. Go without kids and a crap load of time. Our only concession was the very nice waitress. We won't be back! read more

Ordered the Parmesan whitefish and caprese salad, highly recommend them. Angela was our server and did a fantastic job. We noted some Yelper comments that concerned us at the beginning but took a chance and were very pleased. We are a party of 12 with kids and are pretty finicky, so they earned it. Recommend. read more

They were busy, however the bartender wasn't the most pleasant, which started off the experience at less than pleasant. Once we were seated at our table the flatbread was soggy and cold. Following that, 1 meal was completely wrong (wrong fish and wrong style), the salad came out missing the protein and the tenderloin medallions were all cooked to different temperatures and the polenta was so salty it was inedible with zero bleu cheese (or there was no bleu cheese flavor). And the manager never stopped by to check in and/or apologize or acknowledge everything that had happened. Has potential if they figure out the kitchen and get better management. read more

Slow, slow, slow. Took a chance as the location looked cool despite a lower than expected Yelp star rating. Bad idea. Bar was slow while we waited for a table. Only served one drink in an hour. Once seated there were plenty of empty tables, so not sure why it took and hour. Ordered a second drink that came 15 minutes later and was made completely different than the first. A simple mojito. First one was ok tasting but the mint looked minced instead of muddled and the second one was a different color and didn't have any mint at all; tasted sour. Just left. read more

First time visitors. We should have listened to those we know who have visited previously. While it is undoubtedly a great view and atmosphere the service was painfully slow and this was with minimal patrons. It look 5 minutes after seating ourselves outdoors for our waitress (who was very nice!) to come take our drink orders, which then took 10-15 minutes for them to come out and us to order our food. After finally coming to a decision and having the opportunity to place our order I was told "they are out of flatbreads" which is an entire section of their menu. Turns out they weren't out anymore...probably something you should tell the wait staff. Had the manager not walked by at that exact moment we would have never known. I was initially thinking that it may have been the kitchen that was leading to such a poor experience, but we were not checked on a single time between ordering our food and it coming out. No drink refills during the wait for our food or after the food was delivered. They easily could've made an additional $15 off of us. Food was pretty good, but would definitely not return due to the slow service and lack of attention. read more

Cold food, smoked meat for 18$ that looks like a thick piece of deli meat (and tasted like it) with some orange seasoning on it, white fish that tasted about a week old and tried to cover with a bunch of melted cheese. Smoked salmon that looked and tasted like a frozen piece from sams club. 70$ for two kids and two adults and food that was absolutely awful. Not sure if they do better in the summer but I will not be going back to experience that again. read more

My husband, 8 y.o. daughter and I went this past Saturday evening at 6. We didn't have to wait to be seated and our server was wonderful. We started with the whitefish dip, it was plentiful, hot and delicious. I'm not a fan of the beer prices, I think it's over-reaching, my husband had one beer and we ordered a bottle of wine (cuz you can take leftover wine with you). My husband had the tenderloin medallions, OMG, the most tender, and flavorful...wow. My daughter had the fish sticks. I had the crab salad in avocado and shared the drunken mussels with her too. I wasn't a fan of the broth...it was sweet, meh. Loved the crab salad and when I took 1/2 the mussels and 1/2 the crab salad home they wrapped it up perfectly. Overall, we'll definitely be going back, the view is amazing and the food was also. read more

Slowest service ever. Waited over 10 minutes to get seated even though the restaurant was empty. They were out of 1/4 of the menu. It said there were happy hour specials all day, but apparently you had to sit at the bar to get. Over priced. read more

You guys, don't listen to the negative reviews. We were initially deterred by all the bad reviews. Don't be! My family of 7 ate here for dinner during peak tourist season and experienced fabulous service at this incredible waterside setting. Not only do they sell growlers to diners (which is pretty cool) but the meal was the best we ate the entire trip. We had fresh walleye, fish and chips, great burgers (both meat and black bean) and overall thoroughly enjoyed our time. Ellie in particular was a funny, friendly and attentive server. I would come back to try more food if I had more time! read more

Sat on the patio on the river. Great view, great beer and the lobster roll was outstanding!

Lackluster covers it. Service, drinks, apps, entrees. Nothing so bad you can't stand it but definitely far from delicious. read more

I wish I could comment on the food, but it's been an hour and we're still waiting for it. I had to go to the bar to get a refill of water.

We were seated outside and the ambiance was perfect....right on the water with a phenomenal musician playing classic rock. Unfortunately, our server (Amy) was in a pissy mood and seemed irritated that she was there. She did take the time to sit down to chat and laugh with the group at the next table while we waited for our check, so there's that. The food was mediocre at best. Other than the setting and music, no reason to revisit this place. read more

Took 1 hour after we ordered to get our food. When she brought the food, had to ask what everybody ordered. Ordered Cherry chicken salad, it had green not ripe cherry tomatoes on it. Didn't ask if we wanted refills or more to drink. Music very loud. Couldn't talk across the table. Was seated at opposite end of building from the music. Won't be back! read more

I wish I could give lower than 1. The only reason this place is in business is because tourists see it and go ONCE. There is no way anyone goes back after eating their shit food and horrible service. They serve mac and cheese with nacho cheese that is spicy to kids, and do nothing about it when it is reported. My whole family got sick from the calamari that looked like it was frozen nasty shit. Never again. read more

Extremely slow service. Food was burnt and orders we're messed up and wrong. New people doing things a experienced waiter should do. Maybe having things a little more organized to be a better restaurant. read more

Had a great experience sitting on the deck and watching the water flow by. Blackened whitefish sandwich with house made chips, and the Cubano sandwich with onion rings. Flavor bombs all around. Just be aware that they make their fish with the skin on, so be ready for that. A great selection of beer and wine for the adults, and other drinks for those who choose not to indulge. Our server, Angela, was a real joy. Her recommendations proved to be on point, and he personality and professionalism were top notch as well. Also, it doesn't hurt that she's a Cubs fan!! This place made our day. read more

We had an excellent meal at the Riverwalk. We came by boat and sat on the patio. Our server, Angela was very attentive and friendly! She did an excellent job taking care of our table. We will be back to eat very soon and will request Angela! read more

The goat cheese dip and root chips are wonderful, just like Hopscotch in TC. However, hostess was not friendly at all--seemed huffy and overwhelmed, but we were seated right away even though it was a Friday evening and seemed busy. Waitress didn't write down our order which is fine if she could remember what we said but she kept coming back to ask. We had to ask for the crud to be cleaned off our table which is surprising since the hostess led us to this table. Food came quickly. My friend thought his burger quite greasy. My lobster roll was not great--over seasoned with dill and very dry. Fries are pretty good though. Expensive for what it is. Overall not worth the drive from TC and we wouldn't go back. read more