Full Kilt Pub & Resturant in Mt. Clemens, MI
Menu from Full Kilt Pub & Restaurant in Mt. Clemens, MI
(Click for the rest of the Full Kilt menu (photo gallery retired).)
For my Dad’s birthday tonight my mom wanted us (my mom, dad, sister, brother-in-law, and I) to go to a new resturant in Mt. Clemens, MI called Full Kilt. (As of this writing that is a parked page, but it appears to be registered to one of the owners.) The restaurant is located in what was previously another bar and grill at 143 N. Main St..
I feel a bit bad about saying this, but I’m not sure how well the place is actually going to do. While I understand that the place has only been open for a week and a half or so, both the menu and seating seem to leave a bit to be desired. As mentioned previously, we had five adults (average size) eating, but the largest table available in a mostly empty non-smoking area was a semi-circle-ish booth (think bracket shaped: ] ) which could only comfortably seat four of us. We were able to fit five, but I ended up sitting awkwardly in a corner with no reasonable seat back to lean against.
Feeling more and more like its original design as a sports bar, all the tables prominently face four large projected HDTVs, each of which was displaying something different. One CNN, One Fox News (no, I didn’t like watching The O’Reilly Factor while eating dinner), and two other stations showing dramas. I may be a bit different from the average person, but I tend not to have a television on unless I’m actively watching it, so if there is a television operating in a room where I’m attempting to have a conversation I’ll regularly find myself staring at it, having drifted off mid-conversation.
The music selection was interesting, with various bagpipe tunes playing prominently both outside the building and in the bathrooms, and in the background behind generic satellite radio alterna-rock. This wouldn’t be too bad, except it was just faint enough while sitting at the table that it constantly sounded as if someone’s cell phone was ringing in the distance. And how much bagpipes can one stand, anyway?
Now, the food… To start, I’ve posted scans of the entire Full Kilt menu (photo gallery retired) in my gallery, if you’d like to see them. While there are a few token dishes like lamb chops, shepherd’s pie, and fish & chips, most of the menu is filled with items such as the Patty O’Quesadilla, Erin Go Bragh (corned beef and sauerkraut on rye), and Shamrock Grilled Chicken which appear to be British / Celtic / whatever in name only.
I had the Emerald Isle Olde English Fish & Chips ($10.99), which had a nice, light, flaky batter coating, but was served with very dry, typically American steak fries. Before the meal we each opted for the Potato and Leek soup (also available ‘loaded’, or topped optional cheese and bacon on top) which, while decent, wasn’t anything special. Fairly decent garlic bread was brought in nice quantities, but it was served with a rather poorly matched blend of cinnamon and butter (it may have been margarine, I couldn’t quite tell).
Both my Mom and Dad had steaks which appeared decent and had steamed vegetables (carrot, broccoli, and asparagus blend) with mashed Yukon Gold potatoes on the side. They found the steaks decent, but nothing amazing.
One interesting bit to add, when my Mom didn’t finish her whole dinner, she asked for a box for it. The waitress took her plate to package it up, and while doing that someone else grabbed the plate from the counter and cleaned it off before it could be wholly packaged up. Because of that the waitress removed the charge for her dinner from the bill — a very nice gesture. I have no complaints with the friendliness and attentiveness of the staff.
My brother-in-law Craig also had the fish and chips, which he seemed to like well enough. He also ordered a beer listed as simply Under The Kilt which, based on the description, seems to be Dragonmead‘s Under The Kilt Wee Heavy. Unfortunately, the bar had already run the keg dry (and was saying that the brewer has run out as well) and hadn’t replaced it with anything else. Instead he ordered a Tennent’s which was served straight from the bottle.
All in all, I’d say the food is decent if one likes typical Chili’s / Applebee’s / TGI Friday’s type food, but nothing worth making a special trip for. I personally think that a order of greasy cod and chips from Chicken Shack and a can of Batchelors Mushy Peas taste much more like any food I’ve had in the UK. Full Kilt seems to be Celtic (or whatever — it seems confused) in the same way that a 40-something biker who goes home to a McMansion, SUV, and big-screen TV seems edgy. It probably really wants to be. Really. Seriously.
Sure, some of the problems (out of beer, occasional forgetfulness) are just normal issues with a recently opened resturant, but some of the problems (tables, menu, etc) seem a bit deeper rooted and less likely to be worked out.
Links To Note:
· Emerald Isle Olde English Fish & Chips. My meal. Not bad, but not great. The chips (fries, really) were especially dry.
· Full Kilt Menu Scans (photo gallery retired)
Bad Experience at Full Kilt
I was just at Full Kilt last night with a party of 6. I can relate to being squished into one of those round booths — only it’s even more uncomfortable with 6 people in it! We could barely lift our elbows to eat. The service was TERRIBLE!!! Took over 15 minutes to receive our drinks. Took over 30 minutes to receive our salads and bread (after asking for them!). (Both with no apology.) We had to ask for silverware, water, and more drinks repeatedly throughout the night — our waitress seemed to be terribly forgetful. We spoke to the manager, and while he was mildly apologetic, he did nothing to make us want to try the restaurant again — basically blaming the poor experience on being “new”. The food was actually pretty good, but the frustration of bad service highly outweighs the food. Two thumbs down.
Not sure if anyone will see this over a year and a half since the original posting, but I suspect that the lifespan for Full Kilt is nearly at an end.
On a Thursday night, the place was empty except for what seemed like a few regulars at the bar. Only one other party was in the “non-smoking” section (I put “non-smoking” in quotes because with the openness of the bar and the closeness of the tables to it, there’s really no such thing as a non-smoking section in the place).
The first big clue that Full Kilt seems like it’s going to go out of business was that half of the menu was out. No steak tips, no lamb, no brie, no salmon. What was left: chicken and ground beef.
Music was courtesy of the networked jukebox.
The second clue was in staffing. One waitress, two bartenders. And in a city where restaurant and bar options are increasing, Full Kilt seems like they’ve given up the competition and are just riding the dying wave of regulars and having been voted 2007’s Best Irish Pub in WDIV’s 4-the-Best polls (an egregious error, I might add, considering that The Old Shillelagh in downtown Detroit was number 3, predates the Kilt and will likely live long past it?) until even that supply runs out.
The establishment is far too large to accommodate the dwindling customer base, and even before they ran out of everything on the menu, the menu itself seemed to try to cover too many bases without focusing on any particular theme.
The third sign that they’ve given up was the presentation of the meal. Last year, the lamb chops I had were wonderfully prepared. This year, the shepherd’s pie was a smattering of ground beef and gravy on a plate (a PLATE), with mashed potatoes piled on top, accompanied by a pile of microwaved frozen peas and carrots. Nothing was baked, and the vegetables came from the frozen-food aisle rather than the produce section.
Cutting corners on the food tells me that they’re unable to afford to stay open anymore at the levels they were at last year. Nobody really seemed to care about the programming on the big-screen TVs, as we were regaled with CNN and “Family Guy”. Not exactly keeping in the “Irish Pub” theme.
Wow, that’s interesting to hear. The last time I drove past there, which was on a weeknight evening, the place seemed to be reasonably busy. Maybe that was just the loud music being piped in from outside.
After posting this I’d actually corresponded with the owner a few times via email. I think he found this post via a Google Alert. Thinking back to the conversation (I don’t have it readily available), I got the impression that he was going for a US bar and grill style place, but with all the ideas brought about when someone thinks Scottish / Celtic / whatever; not a place that is actually representative.