Old Burdick’s Bar & Grill – Michigan Avenue
100 W. Michigan AvenueWe learned something about Kalamazoo this morning. Actually, we learned a really good thing. Even on a Sunday morning, there’s life downtown.
J and I had needed to start the daunting task of unpacking and organizing our new living space. When we both got up, neither of us were interested in starting right away. We only ate one meal yesterday and we were both hungry. Since my parents bought lunch yesterday, we didn’t feel bad about checking out another new place.
The restaurant we chose was Old Burdick’s Bar & Grill. After I told J where we were going, she said someone she worked with had recommended the place. Old Burdick’s has three locations in Kalamazoo. We went to the downtown location on Michigan Avenue inside the Radisson Hotel.
When we got downtown, we started looking for parking near the hotel. This is where we realized that people actually went downtown…even on a Sunday. That’s an encouraging sign. When we first moved to Lansing, we headed downtown on a Saturday afternoon to see what Lansing had to offer. It was dead. There wasn’t a single person walking around and the restaurant we went in to looked like it was closing time instead of the middle of what should have been the lunch rush.
After circling the block a few times, I found a spot on Michigan Avenue near the restaurant. It was a brisk fall day, but we weren’t that far, so the walk wasn’t bad. We went in under the sign that said “Burdick’s,” but once we got in, we weren’t really sure if it was the right way to enter or not. I noticed a hostess stand down the hallway from where we went in so we headed there.
There’s were a couple groups standing near the hostess station and one lady standing behind it, but no one acknowledged us or the other people standing there. Finally, another lady came back and showed us to our seats. I’m not really sure what the first lady was doing. She didn’t answer the ringing phone or seat anyone.
The dining room area is huge and really spread out. Burdick’s is sort of a sports bar and sort of a casual dining restaurant. The bar area has the TV’s and the atmosphere, but the dining area doesn’t overload you with ESPN. The only TV I could even see was back in the bar area.
Before we were seated, the hostess asked if either of us were college students. They have a special menu on Sunday’s with items 1/2 off if you have a valid college ID. Neither of us did, so we got the regular menus.
Our waiter came over for drink orders. I got a Coke and J got an Iced Tea. He dropped the drinks off and went back for sweetener for J’s Iced Tea before taking our orders.
Once again, we both found a lot on the menu that sounded good, but we ended up with our typical meals. I ordered a burger with bleu cheese and applewood smoked bacon. I accidently found out on our first visit to Lansing that I liked bleu cheese. I don’t know why I ordered it, but for some reason, I did. Ever since then, I’ve been putting it on everything. The 1/2 burger came out a little pink in the middle but not bloody which is just perfect as far as I’m concerned. The bun it was served on was toasted, but still soft. The whole package was really delicious. The sandwich came with fries which were beer battered and cooked really crispy. They were fantastic.
J ordered a Buffalo Chicken Wrap. The wrap was a flour tortilla with crispy Buffalo chicken pieces, lettuce, cheese, and a Chipotle ranch dressing. She said it was delicious and brought half of it home for lunch tomorrow. She really loved the fries. She’s a huge fan of the really crispy fries and these were really crispy. She knew she could take half the wrap home, so she filled up on fries.
Our bill was just under $20 which is perfect for pub food. Service was only alright. Our waiter was working his butt off. I could see him running around trying to get to everyone, but with Sunday’s being half price for college kids, there were a lot of big parties with separate checks. That was eating up a good chunk of his time. It took a little over a half hour from the time we were seated to get our food. Throw in the wait time for a hostess and it’s pushing forty minutes. Still, it was a Sunday so we weren’t in a huge hurry. We’re just the type of people who like to eat and get out.
Old Burdick’s is a really great pub in downtown Kalamazoo. If I was traveling and staying at the Radisson, I would be ecstatic to have a quality restaurant in the hotel. If I worked downtown, it would definitely be in my rotation. Clean up the service a little bit and you’ve got a great place.
SW Michigan Dining 
Thanks for the great review and the input, we appreciate it!