Caucus Club Restaurant

My wife and I ate at The Caucus Club this past Friday night before going to the Symphony. It was not restaurant week in Detroit which may explain the reason this place was SO TERRIBLE! We arrived at about 615 pm and my first clue should have been the totally EMPTY dining room. My wife ordered the salmon which was undercooked, thus fishy tasting. I had the pork tenderloin special which may as well still been oinking at me! Aside from this, the owner, Chris, was our waiter and did not ask if we would like separate checks. (We were with another couple.) At the end of the ""dinner"" I asked him to separate the checks and, of course, he charged the wrong cards with the wrong meals and long story short, we were charged twice for someone elses meal. After a heated discussion on how it should be done, the waiter goes to the back and vents on his waitstaff about how hard it is to do separate checks. IF AN 18 YEAR OLD KID AT APPLEBEE'S CAN HANDLE SEPARATE CHECKS WITH BIGGER PARTIES, IT SHOULD NOT BE HARD TO HANDLE AT A SO-CALLED FANCY RESTAURANT! The phone call the next business day consisted of the same guy making excuses as to why he messed the bill up. He said he was swamped at the bar as we were checking out. This is a lie because I went to the bathroom before we left (hence why I heard him complaining) and there was no one in the bar. This restaurant was a ghost town when we were there and it is very obvious why. I have eaten at $50/plate and $100/plate restaurants and this place was a disaster. We could have spent the same amount of money at Applebee's and actually enjoyed our food and had competent service. more

Detroit needs good, solid restaurants downtown. I finally got around to going to the Caucus Club to do my bit to keep it in business. I may have been too late. There were 6 diners at 6:30 pm. I had to flag down the waiter/bar tender to find a seat (there are two entrances). We were not offered a drink: ""You ready to order?"" The perch was GREAT as were the ribs and the sides, which is why I feel badly about the 3-star rating. The onion soup was lukewarm (and not very good); the salads were skimpy and dreary. We were not offered coffee nor dessert. Crumbs stayed put. One drink got whisked away before it was finished. Criminy! Pros: Clubby interior. Right downtown Cons: Long in the tooth; subpar service; more

Along with Mario's, the Caucus Club is the last of Detroit's old school restaurants. The menu features your classic meat/fish/potatoes fare. The hamburger steak and Steak Velez (along with heaping sides of creamed spinach and hash browns) were incredible on my last visit. The ribs, I'm told, are among the best in the area. The service is as you would expect from a storied Midwestern eatery: impeccable. The wait-staff is invariably open and friendly, going above and beyond to make their guest feel at home. A must when visiting downtown Detroit. Pros: Food, Staff, History more