We were looking for a bar closer to our Airbnb and we saw that Thistle was still open. I was still in ski gear and everyone else was dressed very cute in my group. The restaurant itself is a white tablecloth type restaurant and the menu has something for everyone. Our waitress was absolutely amazing and her energy was exactly what we were needing. I ordered an espresso martini and she asked it I wanted it creamy or regular, which means they know how to properly make an espresso martini. My friends ordered some small plates and I ordered the seabass as I was hungry from all the skiing I had just done. The place was decorated beautifully and the service was amazing. The flavors hit every flavor I was looking for and I left full and happy! read more

The Thistle - Sea bass - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

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Sat at the bar and had great service with the already busy bartender. Had a cheerful mule that tasted a lot like punch. Dinner was good and in a price point you'd expect. read more

The Thistle - Salmon, risotto, and veg. (4oz) - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

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Food was just ok but I'm sorry if your "feature" was more expensive than anything on the menu the waitress should tell you the price in advance while reciting the feature script - sea bass on a literal mountain of black lentils at $65 about made me choke when the bill came. Lesson learned read more

The ambience was beautiful! The staff was incredibly friendly and accommodating. I really enjoyed the fact that they offered vegan options on the menu even protein! If I had room I definitely would've checked out their sorbet which was vegan and looked delicious. read more

The Thistle - Mocktails - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

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Wonderful dinner. Great server, Chelsea. Bartender, Taylor top notch. Piping hot right from the kitchen entrees. Hot plates as well. Panko encrusted Walleye outstanding! Lamb chops perfectly prepared! Memorable dinner. read more

The Thistle - Panko encrusted walleye. - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

We stopped in for lunch and tried the Cheeseburger Soup and the new Steak Caprese Sandwich. Both were excellent. The atmosphere is cozy and staff very kind and knowledgeable about the food. Highly recommend! Great beverage selection too! read more

A really nice restaurant for a 19th hole. Feels like a place where deals get done. If Hoffa's not at the Machus Red Fox, he's probably here. Solid, wonderful staff. Pricey, but, let's face it, you didn't drive all the way here from Oakland County to get just any old chunk of beef. read more

The filet was amazing! Loved the cozy atmosphere and the waiter was very helpful and attentive.

It has gotten way over priced, meal was very little and very expensive. Won't be back, way too many other better choices. Waitress was not very friendly and we are Great tippers. I do like the atmosphere and drinks seem to be ok but get ready for sticker shock when you look at the menu. read more

I suppose it was fine enough, but for the price I'd call it disappointing -- especially if you're looking for vegetarian/vegan options. They didn't really have much to choose from - and - what they did felt pretty lacking to me. The menus posted on Yelp looked promising but they're also 4-5 years old and it seems they've changed things up a bit. (Attaching a new menu.) I ended up going with the Cali Chicken salad and replaced the chicken with tofu -- but -- what I got wasn't quite what the description seemed. It was mostly lettuce with red quinoa on it and sparse amounts of the other mentioned ingredients. My sub of tofu was actually unseasoned tempeh that was given to me on the side cut into 4 massive chunks that I had to rip and put on my salad myself. I respect the effort of having veg options but the execution is not good. Other than that the building and resort is a nice spot and the staff was great. No complaints at all there! read more

The Thistle - Menu as of October 2022 - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

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Great food, family friendly. We love the Wagu burger and the calamari. We also love how seating is broken up into different sections to keep it quieter. read more

This is a great place to eat if you're at Crystal Mountain! We had dinner here a few weeks ago, after a day of skiing. We forgot to make a reservation and the wait was about 40 minutes for a party of 5. The restaurant was cozy and casual. They had fun cocktails and good beer options. Everyone except 1 person got the Shepard's pie. The outlier got the special, which was duck. The Shepard's pie was a hit and so was the duck! The duck was reportedly well-prepared and delicious. I also had the chili, which was great! It had amazing flavor. Definitely don't skip the chili. Everyone was very pleased with the meal and not a crumb was left on our plates! The service was great, very attentive and friendly. We'll definitely have dinner here next time we're at Crystal Mountain! read more

The Thistle - Shepard's Pie - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

Food was delicious! Had the parmesan crusted Walleye which was fantastic and a chicken and pasta special which was huge and also good. Caesar salad was fresh with crisp lettuce and radishes for something a bit different. The service was great - Josie was friendly and attentive and then left us alone to enjoy the beautiful garden surrounding the patio seating and sunny summer evening. Indoor dining has a club feel with Scottish theme. read more

Fun on site restaurant and bar. Food was very good and service was fast & friendly. Food was a little pricy, but not for the quality and presentation. Up here for a pre holiday 3day golf read more

The Thistle - Swordfish dinner - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

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Good food great American style menu. Had the chicken Al fredo. Wit h very excellent tomato soup wonderful friendly service very good experience. We will return read more

Everything was divine. The ragu wasn't a huge hit but the fresh pasta was perfection. The salmon was savored and devoured all at once. The steak was so good our 8 year old guest gobbled it all up before I could take a photo of it. The drinks were on pointe. We had the cherry mule or something like that and it was quite refreshing. Highly recommend. Also, Crystal mountain is absolutely adorable if you can catch it after a fresh batch of snow has fallen. read more

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Nice atmosphere. BUSY. Make sure you get a reservation during peak times. Dinner doesn't start until 5PM, so you won't be able to get dinner food until then. However if you can, the Short rib Ragu was PHENOMENAL. Look at it, it's in the picture. 10/10. read more

The Thistle - Short Rib Ragu - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

The thistle consistently has amazing food. The service tonight was outstanding and they did a great job separating tables and putting barriers between booths. The special tonight was chicken schnitzel with a bacon jam....highly recommend. The only suggestion I would have is to ask for the jam on the side. The breading is amazingly crunch but got soggy after 15 minutes from the jam. Great meal, great service, great atmosphere. read more

The Thistle - Chicken schnitzel - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

How could you not recommend this place? Be prepared to drop some coin but every cent is well worth it. This is a stop for my family and I every time we come to town. read more

I've lived in the Crystal Mountain, Mi, resort area for 10 years. Over that time, I've dined at the Thistle Pub & Grill numerous times. I wasn't impressed, but continued to visit now and then. Tonight, a Thursday, all our usual places were closed and we landed at the Thistle for dinner. It was really good!! I had salmon and my wife had the fillet mignon. Both the mains and sides were excellent. The Malbec was corky tasting and won't be a repeat. The flourless chocolate torte was very good. We will be returning. Not up to Blu in Glen Arbor, but the prices are a good match for the quality of the food. Service was attentive, but not overdone. A "just right" dining experience. read more

Amazing food. Every year. Well worth the splurge. The steak was perfect and the beans were delightfully crunchy.

Food was amazing! Ate way too much even though we all just did salads and small plates. Wasn't too busy since we came in the off season so that was great! read more

The Thistle - dinner - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

This has been our favorite restaurant of the Crystal Mountain resort. The food has been great though a little over priced but typical of a resort I guess . Paying for convince of not having to leave the resort. My kids love the chicken strips and the fries are crisp and well seasoned. Today I ordered the Blackened Walleye Special with risotto and summer squash. It was wonderful ! Everything was cooked perfectly. Their cocktails are really good as well. read more

The Thistle - Bllackened Walleye Special - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

We booked a bed and breakfast package that included daily vouchers for breakfast at the Thistle. At this time (November 2023) the Wild Tomato is closed. The vouchers are good for any breakfast entree and a juice or coffee. Kids 6 and under eat free! Although the kids menu was only $7 including a juice or milk. The breakfasts were big portions and delicious. The Thistle is located in the Kinlochen just fyi! I only wish they offered regular half and half in a little carafe for coffee, not the little creamer cups. Service was so kind and responsive! Don't forget to tip based on the full price of the meal. read more

Every time we come to Thistle it doesn't disappoint. This time I ordered the roast cauliflower dinner for something a little different and it was fantastic! I also tried my friend's moody burger and had a bit of the steak and both were fabulous. read more

The Thistle - Roasted Cauliflower - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

Crystal Mountain is lucky to have this place! The food was delicious and very reasonably priced. I got the ribeye that was cooked perfectly and came with the most amazing side of loaded mashed potatoes and broccolini. The portions are huge for everything. We got a couple appetizers, the brussels sprouts, and the sizzle fries and they were both delicious. Everything came out piping hot and was very well seasoned. My boyfriend got a bowl of the thistle chili that he enjoyed and came with toppings. we also got the pea and sage ravioli which was different and I'm glad I tried it, as it is a unique vegetarian option, and the cream sauce was very good. We also got a burger that was very good as well, but not as remarkable as the ribeye or the mashed potatoes. The service was very good as well, both the girls who waited on us were very kind and attentive. This is a beautiful restaurant on the far side of the resort. It has dark wooden walls and a fireplace, table cloths and candles, etc. I was a little hesitant to try it but thank God we did, we ended up having Christmas Eve dinner there! For being such a busy time for them, I thought they nailed it. read more

The Thistle - Thistle fries - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

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Very nice food. Nice atmosphere, except for the brown paper on the tables - which detracts from that quite a bit - especially when staff set a new table it is quite noisy. Food was delicious, especially the special Trout they served when we were there. My wife had a Beet Ravioli which was really good. read more

The Thistle - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

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The food here is mediocre at best. They really want to be high end and this is reflected with the high prices. Unfortunately, the quality of the food is a mismatch. I would put money on the chef working at Dennys before this. We got fried calamari that was just awful, low end frozen, for $19. The Caesar salad was really bad. Iceberg lettuce with Kraft Caesar dressing on it. Topped with grilled Salmon that wasn't made to order. Ie- cold and pre made. Idk. After the slopes close at 9, the resort leaves you with this place as your only option. Annoying. But whatever. I will pay high prices but it has to be good. Like prepared by a high end trained chef. This was just such a poor effort from a place that is trying to Portray itself as a high end resort but is totally ghetto. Seriously, get a consultant who has a clue because whoever is running this place doesn't have one. read more

RECENT NOTICEABLE DROP IN FOOD QUALITY I've been coming here for years- it's a nice restaurant that at least in ski season, caters to skiers on vacation who want a nicer dinner than standard bar food but don't want to drive to Traverse City. But I've watched it drop in quality over the past few years from 5-star to 4-star down to 3. It used to be SO much better with noticeably higher quality food. For example, a favorite appetizer used to be fresh baked pretzels with a artisanal cheese spread and brown mustard. Gone, replaced with seasoned fries. Dessert used to be bananas foster- set aflame tableside. Also gone. Now it's (a perfectly decent) cheesecake. The food still tastes ok- for example the steaks are properly prepared, if smaller cuts. Still above most bar fare- but It feels like the quality has been cut back noticeably while the prices are a mismatch, reflecting equal or higher quality than before. My guess would be something happened behind the scenes, loss of a head chef or manager, or perhaps across-the-board budget cuts as I noticed lower staffing recently as well. The remaining staff, several of them there for many years, do a nice job and the place remains clean and offers a warm, lodge-type dining environment. I hope they can reverse the trend of the decreasing food quality; when staying at Crystal we now find ourselves considering other places further away. read more

What a wonderful evening we just had at the Thistle! I'm not sure how Scottish it was, but who cares when it's this yummy! My husband got the beef tips, and he said the highlights were the mushrooms and blue cheese. I got the open faced sirloin sandwich with fries. It was basically a huge steak on top of bread. It was so well seasoned and cooked perfectly-- super tender! I also could have eaten a whole plate of those fries, but thank goodness I didn't because then I wouldn't have had room for the apple crisp. The apple crisp was served warm in an individual sized pie crust and topped with vanilla bean ice cream and Carmel sauce. As if the food wasn't enough, the whole night was made by the stellar staff and safety precautions. We felt safe and cared for by the establishment. A great night out! read more

The Thistle - Sirloin open faced sandwich and Thistle fries - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

The thistle pub used to be our favorite place to go after snowboarding. However, they no longer have their sirloin chili and their legendary thistle fries have been whittled down to regular fries. They used to come LOADED with truffle, now they basically taste the same as their regular fries. We probably won't come back often anymore. We're locals but if you're just in town for the weekend, I would recommend going to one of the better local spots like St Ambrose, Iron Fish, or Bearclaw over thistle pub these days. read more

Great food and service. Not cheapest but worth a visit. Their thistle fries are the bomb.

We visited on our stay in Crystal mountain. We had a table for 9 and ordered the following dishes. Pork belly, steak frites, scotch egg. Pork belly was a little fatty and chewy. Steak was cooked well and the sauce was unique. Scotch egg I would pass on. Overall the best part of the meal was our server Courtney. What an amazing person. She throughly explained everything, made recommendations and was really attentive. Probably one of the best experiences I have had with service. Overall I would give this place a 3 for food and 5 for service. Ohh it is pretty pricey, but you should expect that if you are staying in the community. read more

Great location and great atmosphere and the dinners were good. But they need better appetizers please add mozzarella sticks or Nachos and shrimp cocktail to menu. Sales would go up a ton. read more

Our visit to the Thistle Pub & Grille couldn't have been any better. From the moment we entered, Mir greeted us warmly and gave us great recommendations. Our server, Grace, did an exceptional job. She was pleasant & very attentive. We look forward to our next visit!! read more

I've read the other reviews on this place and after dining here myself, I have my own opinion. First off, it's a ski resort venue, not a top-rated dining destination, so it's silly to expect a three-star Michelin rating. That being said, the service, from seating to the waitstaff is not as good as it should be. We arrived before the main dinner crowd with a party of 8. We were told they just had to "clear off a couple of tables" before we could be seated... which took 20 minutes. No lie - I timed it (21 minutes to be exact.) The waitress who served us was nice, but clearly overworked and our orders were not taken for quite a while and we had to flag her down for drink refills, etc. The overall ambiance of the place is nice and had a Scottish lodge theme going. While we were waiting for our table to be cleared, we waited on comfy couches next to a roaring fire. If I had been holding a nice Scotch in my hand rather than a squirming, complaining child, it would have been no problem to wait - but I wasn't and it was. The prices for what you get are actually quite fair. The food was actually quite good. Everyone in our party was happy with what they ordered, from their drinks and apps to the dinner and desserts. I typically request an Old-Fashioned, which should be easy for any bartender to make. Sometimes they really mess it up and it speaks volumes about the place, but mine was balanced and very good. I ordered the smoked chicken wings with the signature sauce as an app, and they were excellent. So much so that I was happy to have most of them to myself... For my dinner, I had the Prime NY Strip and it was far better than I expected it to be. It was actually cooked correctly and the beef was definitely prime quality. For dessert, I got the blood orange sorbet and that was also far better than I was expecting. Looking around the table, everyone else seemed pleased with their meals as well. My son got the "Thistle Fries" to go with his burger and they were...A-MAZ-ING! I think they actually used truffle butter on them (many places advertise that, but they just end up loading them down with garlic so you don't notice they just used regular butter.) The fact that my kids still talk about going back there several weeks later says something. If they could just fix the service issues, this place could get 5 stars. read more

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I had an early dinner at Thistle Pub & Grille today. I was greeted promptly upon arrival and served my drink right away. I had the blueberry Moscow Mule which was good, a little sweet but not too sweet. For dinner I had the Thistle burger which was good but I wish I would have asked for medium it was served well done. I'm assuming it is because of the chorizo. It was good. Now the Thistle fries were amazing. I'm trying not to eat French fries and I was hesitant to order them but I ate every single one and they were great! read more

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There aren't many options for food at the resort, so we chose the Thistle for lunch in June. We sat on the patio, which was fun. I ordered the chicken caprese sandwich and thought it had amazing flavor. The chicken was tender and the bakery bun was light and airy rather than heavy. I really enjoyed the pesto sauce. My husband ordered the Michigander panini. He liked it and said the cherrywood bacon was the most prominent flavor. The service was fine. A fountain soda filled three quarters of the way with ice is $2.50. They don't offer free refills. That was a not so nice surprise when we received our check and found a $5 charge. I can understand if you don't want people sitting around all day drinking free refills, but we ordered 4 meals and I believe at least one free refill should be provided especially when that much ice is used! read more

The Thistle - Chicken Caprese Sandwich. - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

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Great food and waitress. Appreciate the friendly staff working on Christmas. Loved the thistle fries and came with garlic mayo, yum. Will come back probably tomorrow night. read more

The Thistle - New American Near Me - Thompsonville, Michigan

I love the Scottish theme here, and it's done TASTEFULLY. The staff is very polite and friendly but, let's get to the food. For dinner, we started off with a charcuterie. The meats and cheeses were good, but I did not care for the asparagus or the crackers. I'd prefer toasted bread, myself. I had the beet ravioli with salmon. All was good there, iit was really delicious. However, the next day I had lunch and ordered the cheeseburger cooked MR, with glazed sauted onions and parmesan truffle fries, those are well worth the $4 extra, don't cheat yourself. SOOOOO GOOD! Overall, we had a great experience and would eat here again if we get to stay at Crystal Mountain again. read more