Sweetwater Tavern, Not So Sweet

in Discovery-it21 hours ago

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I really lament the days when there was a good food community here on HIVE. Sure, there is the Foodies Bee Hive, but I feel like a lot of that is geared towards home made food. I'm sure someone will pop in and argue differently with me, but the fact is, the days of Tasteem seem to be gone.

Make no mistake, Tasteem had their own share of issues, there was some pretty obvious abuse there, but as someone who enjoys food, it's pretty sad that food posts don't get rewarded the same way they used to. Watch, this post will hit trending and prove me totally wrong...

As I mentioned yesterday, @mrsbozz and I had an evening out in Downtown Detroit this past weekend. We met up with some friends before the Drake White concert and after giving them three options for dinner, it was decided we would meet at the Sweetwater Tavern.

Supposedly this place is a Detroit staple with a lot of history and successful enough that they now have a food truck and three other locations throughout the Detroit Metro area. The building itself dates back to the mid 1800's and while it started out as a hotel, it has become a well known restaurant and bar.

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Oddly enough, it sits right across the street from the Legends Gentlemens Club. Try as I might, I couldn't get anyone to bite on stepping inside with me. Actually, it was much too early and they weren't open anyway. I was a bit worried about how busy Sweetwater might be given the fact there was both a home Tigers baseball game and a home Pistons basketball playoff game in the city.

It turns out, my fears were unfounded. Our friends got their first and got us a table for six at the back of the bar. Unfortunately, my first impression of the Sweetwater wasn't that great. I get it is an old building, but it just had a dirty feel to it. Everything just felt kind of ick, but we were still willing to give it a shot based on the reviews we had read.

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We ordered a round of drinks and then put in our food order. Sadly, that was the last time we were asked about our drinks. It's a good thing I got a double shot of Maker's Mark bourbon, otherwise I might have been upset that I didn't get offered a second drink!

@mrsbozz got an order of onion rings with her chicken sandwich and I will admit, they were quite good, and the size of the order was quite big. She shared them with me and even then we still didn't finish them.

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Apparently, Sweetwater is widely known for their chicken wings, so being a bit of a chicken wing connoisseur, I knew I needed to check them out. Unfortunately, they left me pretty disappointed. Sweetwater doesn't offer you a selection of sauces like many places do. Instead, their claim is that they focus on one flavor and they do it the right way.

I honestly don't have a problem with that, I can appreciate a place sticking to one thing and doing it well. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case here. The wings seemed almost over-fried, and while they had a decent flavor, they definitely weren't the best wings I have ever had. I'm actually pretty keen on perfecting the ones I made myself at home a week or two ago, those were pretty dang good.

In addition to that, I wasn't impressed by the two sorry pieces of celery and the single small baby carrot they served along with the wings. It was more of an afterthought and quite honestly an insult to the rest of the lackluster dish.

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@mrsbozz got the lemon pepper seasoned chicken sandwich. The sandwich itself was good as far as I know. I mean if you have had one chicken sandwich, you pretty much know what you are going to get. My big issue here is the fact that she asked for some honey mustard on the side. The waitress said she would have to check and see if they had honey mustard.

It took us three more times asking the waitress about the honey mustard before she finally came back and let us know that they didn't have honey mustard. By that time my wife had about 3/4 of her sandwich gone anyway.

It's not like they were busy either. Yes, they did start to pick up as it got closer to 5:00 PM, but it's not like our waitress would have been spread too thin that we couldn't get decent service.

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One of the other people we were with decided to try the fish and chips which also gets pretty good reviews at this place. Once again, she ended up being disappointed. They look good in the photo, but her main issue was the fact that the fish seemed to be a little undercooked in the center. She ate around what she could, but she ended up having to leave some of it untouched. @steevc, @slobberchops, and my other friends in the UK would have likely been disappointed.

It seems whoever was running the fryer in the kitchen couldn't find the happy medium between overcooked and undercooked.

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Our other friends decided to split the wings and ribs combo. The food looked pretty good, but as you can see from their wings in the photo, they look quite a bit different from the ones I got. These inconsistencies between the two dishes speak volumes to me. The ribs smelled good and our friend commented that they were falling off the bone which depending on your BBQ experience either means they were really good or they were overcooked.

Each person has their own preference.

I will say, those same friends got a side of the collard greens and she exclaimed they were better than her moms, so that is one bit of praise for Sweetwater.

As I said before, the building is old. It is also narrow and they try to pack a lot into a relatively small space. The bathrooms were pretty nasty and that alone should have been a hint to us that this place might be one to skip.

I wish I could recommend the Sweetwater to you, but there are so many other options in Detroit that I really recommend you try those instead if you find yourself in the Motor City.


Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports


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All pictures/screenshots taken by myself or @mrsbozz unless otherwise sourced

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Too bad it wasn't great! I have been to place that give you that ick feeling and yet had awesome food. I think restaurants need to have quality in all dishes, not just one or two. If you can't do it right, don't bother doing it at all. At least the Makers was good!

Yes, the Makers Mark was absolutely delicious! The food wasn't all together horrible, but I don't think I would probably ever go back here. At least not to this location.

You can't win them all, but at least you know the bourbon will always be good!

Idk, sometimes you go to a place that everyone raves about and it doesn't live up to your expectations and when basic things like the food and service are lacking it's honestly disappointing. When the wings are too crispy and the fish is still raw inside it feels like the kitchen isn't paying attention and that's sad especially when the place has a good reputation, even the little details matter because when you pay for a meal at a place that's supposed to be one of the best you want to feel like they care about you. Old buildings can be great but when they're not clean and the bathrooms are in bad shape it just makes you want to leave as soon as possible 🤷‍♂️

This one was a definite miss!

Just from the pictures i nearly pity you folks for having such a bad service... the wings looks dry, the bun of the sandwich kinda soggy with a careless presentation, and if you say that the center of the fish and chips where under-cooked - it sure wasn't a fresh, but frozen product. This restaurant really needs a better cook. 😬
And you might have to create a Tastee-community... #justSaying :smirk:

Yeah, I am wondering if maybe they were still recovering from the rush of the sports fans earlier. I don't know for sure. It just didn't live up to the hype.

Hmmm, rush or not... the quality of a kitchen wouldn't/shouldn't change. There is something different "wrong". I can't really say more just with pic's, but they talk a lot already. :smirk: But hey, just a Dude talking with only 45 years of "chef" cooking experience. Hehehe.

The onion rings and chips, ie your fries look nice, as does the fish, just looking at them and without cutting into them. Sounds like it just needed any minute or so to perfection. Your wings definitely looks overdone, not nice at all.

So in your opinion, are ribs falling off the bone good or not?

I don't mind ribs falling off the bone, but usually you find them that way when they were first boiled and then finished on the grill. BBQ purists feel that there should be a little bit of tug to the meat before it comes off the bone when you bite into them.

I hear many places boil them by first coz it's much quicker and it won't dry out too much. Now I'm gonna check my ribs next time I order them

If you are getting them at a restaurant and not specifically a BBQ joint, they are probably going to be boiled or baked first.

Yikes, that's such a disappointing experience. It’s never fun when you’re excited to try a new place, and it just doesn’t meet expectations. The inconsistency with the wings and service really makes you think twice about going back. Thanks for sharing your honest review!

No problem! It was definitely a let down. I've had much better wings at other places. The hype was totally unfounded.

Hah!

This post definitely brings me back to the @tasteem days. I really saw potential in that use case and it is a shame it fizzled out.

Wow that is not a glowing endorsement by any stretch of the imagination. Those rings do look good but the lacklustre wings, service and facilities make it an avoid on my list.

Now the gentleman’s club…

Haha yeah, apparently according to the website Legends has five star cuisine. I guess I will probably never find out! I know Waivo or whatever it is has a platform tied to HIVE, but I have never really paid too much attention to it.

Since I am new here, can anybody tell me what is @tasteem?

Now the gentleman’s club…

I need to know, too!

When I saw Sweetwater I thought of the US music gear retailer. Fish and chips needs to be cooked right. The place I get mine are good. I don't really know how they judge it, but it must be experience.

Yes, I think it is more of an art than an exact science.

Stick with the meat, but not those chicken wings. I can see plainly that they are overcooked. Chicken is a tough one to master when it comes to getting it right.

I usually don't mind a little overcooked because then I don't have to worry about food poisoning, but these were just a little too far.

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Too bad it wasn't all that good. They tiny veggie side was a joke. Oh well. Better luck next time!

We are really into restaurant experiences, is there a good place to post about those on Hive? We had a few great food experiences during our visit to Manhattan, NY. Also, Vancouver BC (Canada) was a food experience tour as well as some local chefs...

The food didn't look that good and I know how much you love your wings. You would think if a place only does a food type one way then it would be awesome 100% of the time!