Tavern on McGillen

• 23901 City Center Circle
• Mattawan, MI 49071
• (269) 668-7515
• Website
• Menu

What’s this?  A Saturday night off?  Not only a Saturday night off, but a Saturday night off that J and I had nowhere to go.  I normally have to take vacation days to get a Saturday off and that usually means we have plans to go somewhere.  This time, it worked out on accident that I had the night off, so we did what we do best.  Shop and eat.

Since our restaurant of choice didn’t open until 4:00, we did our part to stimulate the economy.  A little shopping in Portage worked up quite an appetite and by 4:00, we were hungry.

We made the short trip west on I-94 to Mattawan where the people that have brought us the Craftsman Chop Company, Mission Pointe, and the East Eggs have opened up a tavern in the McGillen Crossing center right next to the East Egg.  The address is still not showing up on the mapping websites because it’s so new.  The easiest way to explain it is to go to the intersection of McGillen and Main Street.  You’ll see the commercial development that is rapidly popping up on the corner. 

Since East Egg does breakfast and lunch, the Tavern on McGillen only does dinner.  It shares space with the East Egg although the dining areas are two separate entities.  The Tavern is much smaller than I expected it to be.  You come in to the bar area which has a nice, big horseshoe shaped bar.  There are few pub tables scattered around the edges.  There’s then a partial wall that separates the dining room area which kind of wraps around the outside of the space.  The best spot in the dimly lit dining room is next to the large windows that overlook the man made pond.  You get the waterfront dining feel from a nice, cozy, comfortable dining space.

The food and drink menus are similar to the menus at Craftsman Chop Company and Mission Pointe.  J started out with an Iced Tea, but I strayed from my usual cola.  I’m really happy I flipped the menu over to see the drinks because they had the ESB Ale from Paw Paw Brewing Company.  I’ve have been itching to get out that way to try the brews at SW Michigan’s newest brewery, but I felt it would be kind of a dickish move to drag my pregnant wife to a brewery that doesn’t serve food just to watch me drink.  I can’t find any information online about the Paw Paw ESB so I don’t know if it’s a new brew or what….but it was delicious.  It was a dark amber beer with a mild bitter flavor.

After ordering and before receiving our server brought out a bowl of home made potato chips with french onion dip.  When we sat down, I was really hoping they served the chips like the Craftsman Chop company.  I love home made chips and these chips are  no exception.  They’re thinly sliced and cooked to a deep golden brown…and for a guy that doesn’t like onions, I really like French Onion dip.  We went through two bowls before our meals came out…we could have went for three, but declined the third bowl fearing we would fill up on chips.

If you can believe this, I actually passed on the burger.  Well, sort of.  Since I’ve had the burgers at Craftsman Chop Company and East Egg, I decided to go with something different.  I still had a sandwich…and it still had meat, but it wasn’t ground up and in patty form.  The sandwich I ordered is the Signature Sirloin.  The sandwich still looks like a burger, but instead of ground meat, the sirloin is cubed and grilled to a juicy, tender medium.  It’s then topped with a bleu cheese sauce and served on a soft, white bun.  The meat was very good and very tender.  I’ve had sandwiches like this before and the meat can be hard to bite through.  I did not have that problem with this sandwich.  The bleu cheese sauce was a great compliment to the meat, but there was too much of it.  It was a little messy and made the bun a little soggy.  I loved the flavor, but I would have preferred a little bit less than what was served on the sandwich.  The accompaniment was seasoned steak fries which were lightly seasoned and just a little crunchy.

J ordered the turkey club.  The two slices of wheat bread held a large pile of turkey, bacon, tomato, lettuce, and mayo.  She didn’t say much other than it was really tasty.  She didn’t leave anything on the plate which is usually a good sign.  Her sandwich also came with fries.  She ate all but a couple which were offered to me, but as I feared, we both kind of filled up on chips before the meal.

Our bill was just a tad over $23 which included my $4.50 beer.  Tavern on McGillen was exactly what I expected it to be.  Good food.  Interesting  atmosphere.  A large drink menu.  It’s one of those good places that can double as a great night out with a loved one or a casual night drinking with the guys.

Home Made Chips w/French Onion Dip

Signature Sirloin w/Steak Fries

Turkey Club w/Steak Fries