This restaurant is located in the lobby of a historic hotel, and honestly the lobby was one of the highlights. It's attractive, has some history, and makes a nice first impression. The restaurant itself, however, feels like a typical hotel restaurant. The décor was a bit generic, and the tables and chairs don't add much character or atmosphere. Nothing about the dining room really stood out. The food was about what I expected from a hotel restaurant. It wasn't bad by any means, but it also wasn't memorable. Everything was fine, but nothing made me think, "I'd come back for that." Another thing that surprised me was how empty it was. Other than the ten people in our group, there were only a handful of other diners, despite it being an early lunch on a Tuesday in mid-July in Traverse City. The service was friendly and pleasant. It wasn't particularly fast, but we were well taken care of. Overall, I'd call it an average hotel restaurant. If you're staying at the hotel, it's a convenient option, and the prices seemed reasonable. But I wouldn't go out of my way to eat there again, especially with other good dining options in Traverse City. read more

There was no one eating here when we came, which wasn't that surprising since it turned out to be inside of a hotel, which I don't think we realized until we got there, but the food was surprisingly good! Our waitress was not very enthusiastic, but our food was all correct, so can't complain too much. I didn't get photos of everyone's food since there were twelve of us at a big table, and I didn't want to be annoying, but some of my family members got pizza, and they said it was really good. I got the three cheese mac & cheese, and that was also really tasty. I can't say too much about the ambiance - I honestly don't really remember. It was a pretty nice vibe in there, but nothing super fancy. It was a little bit odd, but the food was surprisingly good! read more

Minervas - ANGUS BURGER - American Near Me - Traverse City, Michigan

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Wonderful hotel and restaurant staff! I was with someone using a cane but they had just mopped the floor going into the restaurant and she did not want to walk across it. A member of the hotel staff heard and unlocked some doors for us to go a back way. She took us to a booth, got menus for us and told the server we were there. I liked this place before but now I love it. It's lovely & has really good food. read more

Minervas - Love some of the selections for beer week! - American Near Me - Traverse City, Michigan

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Unfortunately, both the food and service were subpar. The staff wasn't particularly friendly or attentive, and the food didn't make up for the lackluster service. Overall, a disappointing experience. read more

We live around the corner and come here occasionally. This place has really good food every time - steaks are always cooked wonderfully, pasta dishes are good, etc... but for some reason, the evening staff is always very "meh", They kind of perform half-heartedly, like they could care less or are bothered that they have to work a little bit Regardless, the food is worth the half-ass service We will still go back! read more

Food was good and service was great. We came on a Sunday evening and alot of restaurants were closed but it was great they were open because we were hungry. It doesn't look like a new or hip place but the character is welcoming and the food is a plus. The waiter was thoughtful and he worked hard to make sure we had everything we needed. read more

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We stayed one night at the park hotel where restaurant is located and tried to go to the bar Minerva's after a long day out sight seeing. The sign said wait to be seated but after standing there for 5 minutes watching and listening to the bartender make small talk with some ladies at the bar about how busy he was that day I said excuse me do we need to wait or can we sit down. He said "give me a minute" and went right back to just socializing. He said it so rudely we left and went to our room to have a drink and there was no ice on our floor. Sign said to go to front desk. Front desk then tells me to go to 2nd floor. The restaurant not busy at all by the way. The hotel is a dump too. Especially for $400 night. Stay away!!! read more

Incredible dining experience for Easter Brunch. The selection was fantastic and delicious! Staff very attentive. Plates cleared as you finished and we never felt rushed. It was a very enjoyable experience. We will be back! Thank you! read more

The restaurant was clean, quiet, and the food was delicious. I had Maple Glazed Salmon and it was perfect! After trying a bite of the prime rib, I almost wish I had ordered that entree. Go see Tony. He has excellent service, great recommendations, and the food presentation was superb. read more

We were surprised to find that the restaurant is inside a local hotel, but after we ate there, we want to stay at the hotel! The food was delicious, I had the potato pizza which is divine. The pizza dough was especially good, which was a surprise itself. Not all pizza dough is created equally! My husband enjoyed his hamburger which was cooked perfectly. The service was great, it was a quiet evening and we had the lounge to ourselves. The waitstaff were all friendly and welcoming, and kept the drinks coming. We will definitely be back. read more

Horrible..stay away! I don't even want to give it 1 star...service was nonexistent. Food not good. The place is old and would be better off just shutting the doors for good this time. read more

Bartender made my first drink then said "is that going to be it?" He continued to reuse martini glasses after rinsing them with water and reused the couple besides me glasses for drinks. read more

I'm not sure why the reviews on this place aren't higher. The soup was fantastic both the prima potato and the chicken chili were excellent and we had much better service than we had at bubba's. read more

Well. . .during her work thing, I ventured out to get some lunch and found that the place I wanted to go had an hour wait. So I said to myself. . ."self. . .you're not waiting an hour." So back to the hotel I went and this place was right in the Park Place Hotel and there was a turkey sub on the board at the entrance that sounded pretty good. So. . .in I went. It was just me and when I went in the guy at the front looked puzzled as to why I might be walking in there. I actually had to tell him that I was there for lunch and it was just me. He seemed baffled. He showed me to a booth amongst the deserted restaurant and I sat down and looked over the menu. Some things looked interesting but I was after that Turkey Sub. My server came over and I decided to get a little something with my sammich so I got the Potato Nachos. When I told her I wanted to try the sub on the board when I walked in she had no idea what I was talking about and said she had to go look to see what this sub I spoke of was all about. She came back and quoted the board to me and I gave her my order. The food was good. The Potato Nachos were very good. I'm not a fan of chipotle anything but the chipotle sour cream was tolerable. Everything else was very good. The sub I was so looking forward to was just ok. I hate to say it, but I think the turkey bacon advertised was microwaved, if it wasn't, it was just bad, very disappointing. . .maybe it's because this is the hotel bar and it was lunchtime but I wish Mama Lu's wasn't as busy. read more

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Walked in at 2:00pm mid-week, the kitchen had just closed however we were warmly greeted by Cassandra and she quickly went in back to catch a chef then assured us he would make our lunch. Then we placed an order for quiche that is only served at breakfast...and again coordinated by Cassandra, the Chef said yes! Our food was delicious, service was wonderful and even got to meet Amy one of the hotel managers I believe! It's a great location in downtown at the Park Place, sidewalk was shoveled and cleared, easy access, great service and food in a friendly environment... we will be back!! read more

We had dinner here on Friday night. There were 6 of us in our party. We waited 1 1/2 hrs for our food. 45 minutes into waiting we were told one of the meals we ordered was unavailable. We watched 2 other tables that came in after us get their food & exit the restaurant. We also ordered drinks from the bar. Our server was extremely busy & male bartender was not. He did not once offer to help the server. I got up each time to get our drinks off the bar & delivered them to our table. I also cleared our table by putting things on trays due to male bartender again not helping! When last call came around it was for everyone in the restaurant except the male bartenders friend at the bar. He was served a few more drinks. This restaurant is a disaster. Don't waste your money. read more

TERRIBLE! Worst dining experience we have had in a long time. Waited 45 minutes for water, only to finally get some after asking at least 4 times. We had to get our own drinks from the bar, as did neighboring tables. Server, first name started with E, could not have cared less. Hotel manager offered us a free upgrade on our next stay due to our server's behavior. Restaurant was not busy enough to justify this. read more

Attended a mini class reunion in a private dining area called Top of the Park on the 7th floor. It has amazing views of Traverse Bay and the sunset was gorgeous! The Beacon Lounge is also on that floor and has a cozy piano bar with great entertainment. Our party was served a four course dinner with one glass of wine for $55 per person. It was a buffet, and the salmon with a cream sauce was delicious but barely warm, as was the other food. Our water glasses were refilled and coffee was served at the tables. At 9:15, a waitress appeared and began clearing the remaining napkins and dishes from our tables. She told us that we only had the room until 9:00 and they needed to close up, as they were ready to go home. The saving grace was the view and the tables settings. There was also a nice dessert selection. I think the price was a little steep, but the tip was included. read more

This is the Best Breakfast in Traverse City. We went about 2 weeks after they reopened from the 7 month Covid Closing. The staff was so friendly and willing to go the extra mile. They had a limited menu - great, but fewer choices. I love their Eggs Benedict Florentine, but they weren't offering that. I asked our server if she could see if they could make an exception, and they did!! It was so delicious- no sundried tomatoes, but the fresh diced tomatoes substituted were delicious. It was the first bit of "normal" after Covid, and I so appreciated the extra effort. This is what you expect at the Park Place, and I am so glad to see the staff is still so excellent - friendly, courteous, and so very good at what they do. $20 tip on a $36 tab wasn't enough to show my gratitude for their efforts. I love this restaurant even more now. read more

I have been to Minerva's all over the Midwest, and you will always find consistent good food. My breakfast was excellent this morning. Nice menu! Excellent service, and great bartenders! read more

Absolutely ridiculous prices, I understand prices have went up everywhere but we aren't in New York. A sandwich and soda shouldn't cost 25$!

Came here with a large group of friends (like 14). We had reservations, but the place was pretty empty anyway, and we were seated promptly. The food is not bad, but not too memorable either. Overall, a pretty average experience. read more

I got room service from Minerva's during my stay at the Park Place Hotel. I ordered a side salad with ranch dressing and a three cheese Mac and cheese add grilled chicken. It was nice and fresh and hot when I received it. The food was decent but the Mac kind of just took on the flavor of the grilled chicken. read more

Minervas - Room service !! - American Near Me - Traverse City, Michigan

Still terrible food and even worse service. Find anywhere else to go. Breakfast server, Jane, appears lazy and inattentive. She has waited on us before and has only gotten worse. Seems angry to be there and having to serve people. read more

I so rarely give reviews. But I'm pretty frustrated. Went in to order some food and there appeared to be some kind of training session going on for the employees. Several of them looked up and acknowledged me - but nobody came over to... take my order? Tell me they were closed for a meeting? Anything? I looked at my watch. Appeared to be within lunch hours. Double checked the hours on their website. Looked around for some signage that said they were closed. Looked back towards the meeting again. Once again, several eyes met mine. Once again, no one budged. I waited about ten minutes before awkwardly leaving. Really hoping they cover effective customer service in their meeting. :-/ read more

I think Minerva is Greek for slow service. 40 people at the bar and one bartender. If you want a drink... bring one with you.

extremely poor service and large unrest among fellow patrons. leadership is seriously lacking and leaving their wait staff to get screwed. understaffed and underprepared on New Years Eve - food was good but bill was inaccurate and we waited almost 1.5 hours for food while others were reporting 2+ hour waits. seemingly a lack of concern for patrons, avoid if possible. read more

While in town, we were looking to have a "just the two of us" sit down dinner. Not quite looking for a high-end romantic night, but a nice dinner. The reviews for Minervas were hit and miss, but we decided to give it a try and are VERY glad that we did. The restaurant was clean and organized. We were greeted promptly by our server, who was very polite. She answered our questions, was patient when we weren't sure about drinks, and was on top of things. Wine list is small, but decent and reasonably priced. I ordered the Cajun seafood tortellini, and Mr. ordered surf and turf. Meals came with soup or salad. The salads were basically a miniature antipasto, with salami, onions, olives, parmesan cheese, and mild peppers. Pretty impressive for a starter included with the meal. My Cajun seafood pasta included shrimp, scallops, and salmon on top of tortellini, red peppers, and mushrooms. All of it was cooked perfectly and delicious. I personally like a little more spice, but the flavor was great. Mr. was very happy to see that they nailed the medium steak, shrimp, and sides. While we were eating, we could not get over how empty the place was, so we asked our server about it. She was honest and told us that they lost their long time chef. The next two that they hired weren't successful. She said that they are optimistic that things are turning around. We will be back during our next trip and are hoping to see them continue their rebuilding! read more

Had a lovely breakfast with my dad here when staying at the hotel. I ordered the farmer hash, which was awesome - the potatoes and bacon were SUPER crisp, an ample amount of melted cheese, tons of sausage and ham, and a good portion size. Dad got an omelette which was nice as well. The server was friendly, and VERY on top of refills and anything else we needed. read more

We had a large party last minute who couldn't get in anywhere. Minervas was very accommodating, the food was great and our service was outstanding. Thank you Jeffrey Miller for the great experience. read more

I'll admit that this review is based only on the happy hour wine and the service... so I'd have to come back and try food (maybe) to add anything more to my review. In a nutshell (help, I'm in a nutshell!), this place has HH wine at $4.50 (decent enough to drink) and happy hour that runs 2x/day (4-6 and then again in the evening, forgot the time). Our server, Mark, was super personable and great at getting us refills on both the wine and the water. I also liked the location in our hotel... then I can just head up and sleep after the deal that you get on the wine. Overall great place for some HH action. They do have some bar-food specials during happy hour too that looked okay... but not really something that I eat on a regular basis (flat bread, wings, etc). They also have a decent number of TVs in there for watching the games... which was also nice. Overall great spot. read more

They have the best potato pizza I have ever had! My husband got the chicken strips they were excellent too.

My grandmother tells me that on Sundays happy hour starts at 2pm. She tells me this because she brings her husband here so she may purchase him exactly two glasses of wine (she can only have one!), and they always come after 2pm on Sundays. I'm not sure if that's really an advertised special, or just something the staff honors for my sweet grandma and her nice husband. But, there you have it. As it turns out, I also brought her here for dinner (her idea!) on a Thursday night recently. At 5pm. I arrived for our dinner at 445pm, which is usually lunch for me...however, we had quite a nice dinner. I did notice a happy hour crowd (this seems like a more appropriate time for happy hour, right?) and apparently all the pizzas are $6 at this appointed hour. I assume drink specials too. It seems to be THE place for Happy Hour in TC...so I suggest it for that, most surely. For dinner? It's AOK. Standard fare at reasonable prices. It's a hotel restaurant and it sort of shows. My steak salad was made special (on a rec from the server) with grilled onions and was pretty good. White chicken chili was pretty thick, but tasty. My dad had a pasta dish (some special where there were certain dollar amounts off pastas) and my grandmother had the cherry salad, which she loves. And if grandma is happy, I am happy and we really had a lovely meal without being rushed. And if they treat my Grandmother right on Sundays, well...that's certainly worth an extra star from 3 to 4 (bumps star rating). I mean that, it goes a long way. As others have said, there are far better restaurants in close proximity...but Minervas will deliver a meal when you need it. Located within Park Place hotel, good happy hour, and nice to the early birds! Of note: *I ate dinner here my Freshman year for homecoming. It's pretty much the same. *The Top of the Park (at the top of this hotel) is an entirely separate entity: http://www.yelp.com/biz/top-of-the-park-traverse-city (and highly recommended) read more

AVOID! The Absolute Worst! Let me start by saying words cannot begin to express how bad our experience was at this establishment. I left with elevated blood pressure (at 6 months pregnant!) because I was so upset and in disbelief at the treatment we received. To say it was "poor" is beyond an understatement. It was prime dinner time on a Friday night and the place was dead (should have been our first clue). We joined some friends who had already been seated (party of 2 turned into party of 7). Rather than welcoming us the server seemed visibly annoyed at our presence (hello - you're tip just more than tripled!). As it turns out, her tip did not triple.. in fact it disappeared entirely as our entire party was asked to leave the restaurant. The server became defensive and argumentative while one of our "joiners" was attempting to place a drink order, unsuccessfully, three times. After involving the manager - who, in his leading comments, falsely accused my husband being drunk as he and my father had visited the bar during happy hour several hours earlier (with equally disappointing service) - he further escalated the issue by involving the front desk manager. Long story short - the attempted dining experience should have NEVER escalated to the level it did or involved the number of staff the restaurant chose to involve. In addition to our server, restaurant manager and front desk manager, there were at least 3-4 other employees on hand to witness the situation. Mind you, no other diners were disturbed as we were the only table seated in that section of the restaurant. A truly upsetting experience and profoundly unprofessional way for management to handle the situation. Food: unable to comment as we were not even given the chance to order Customer Service: F- Bottom Line: avoid at all costs read more

Just moved to the area. The host wasn't at the booth and was instead on his laptop in the corner. Waitress offered me a drink that she then informed me she had never made and didn't know how to make. They didn't have the ingredients for it either. A mojito... which isn't very difficult. The food wasn't hot and took a very long time. It was a breakfast sandwich, which shouldn't take a half hour. Overall I'm very disappointed and hope that not all restaurants I'm my new home town aren't like this. At least the sandwich tasted ok, albeit not hot. read more

Minervas - American Near Me - Traverse City, Michigan

Steak bites, gross, ate one of the four. Was disgusting, over cooked and chewy. There was a fried piece of indescribable meat on the plate. Sent it back. Waiter was great and apologized a bunch. Moscow mule was loaded with lime, all you can taste is lime. Such a bummer. read more

We had actually meant to go to Amical but didn't have a reservation and would have had to wait over an hour for a table. Anyway, there was no wait at Minerva's. Their "famous" white chicken chili was not my favorite and their house salad (vegetarians beware) bizarrely comes with shreds of ham (or something) and unimpressive iceberg lettuce. I was also under the impression that we should have gotten bread, but it never came (I never asked, so I probably could have requested it--but it wasn't that important to me). My husband and I both got pasta with cream sauces and both enjoyed them. I got the wild mushroom ravioli. Its description was a little misleading, it seemed like the ravioli would have been stuffed with mushrooms and cheese. In reality, it was cheese ravioli in a creamy sauce that had lots of chopped up mushrooms in it. Nevertheless, it was still satisfying. Our waiter was pleasant enough, but seemed a bit rushed and was not overly attentive. I would probably suggest going somewhere else, since this is supposed to be the "foodie town of the midwest"--but it seems pretty good if you're staying at the adjoining hotel or you aren't looking for an epic meal--just something tasty to eat. read more

I've been trying to come up with some redeeming qualities so I don't have to give a 1 star review. But I really can't think of any. The restaurant itself is grimy. Your shoes stick to the gross, stained carpet and you skin sticks to the unwashed tables as if they'd been coated in maple syrup. The dining room may have been nice at some point, but it hasn't been kept up well and smells like a musty basement. The service was bad. After waiting more than an hour for our food, some of our orders were messed up, but we just lived with it to avoid being there all night. The food was ridiculously overpriced for what it was. I paid $12 for overcooked mac and cheese (they forgot to add the chicken) and it was sprinkled over the plate. Not nearly enough food for me, and I take home half my meal at most restaurants. It's a chain that seems to be trying for a "fine dining" feel. Sorry, but jacking up the prices on your low quality food doesn't make it fine dining. read more

I had breakfast here just the day I had an interview. My soon to be colleagues took me here :) Like I said earlier....people here are super nice. It's a good place......even though it's simply breakfast, it is better than Melrose or Stella in Chicago. read more

For a hotel bar- it not that bad. However, because it is a hotel bar you end up overpaying. The menu is limited, but has enough variation to keep you happy for a weekend. read more

Minervas - American Near Me - Traverse City, Michigan