About.com Rating

The Bottom Line

The Michigan theme for a restaurant is definitely under utilized in the Metro Detroit area, but "Michigan" should be better celebrated on the menu.

Visit Their Website

Pros

• Hunting-lodge atmosphere
• Conveniently located
• Good service

Cons

• Quality of dishes is hit or miss

Description

• Loon River Café is attached to one end of the Sterling Inn in Sterling Heights.
• The wait staff was both friendly and accommodating, and drinks were promptly refilled.

• The menu includes several Michigan dishes and/or ingredients.

Guide Review - Loon River Cafe in Sterling Heights, Michigan

The Loon River Cafe is decorated like a hunting lodge with large windows, wood furniture and a stone fireplace with a deer’s head over the mantle. The restaurant, however, is carpeted and much quieter for lunch than expected given the size of its bar.

Michigan Dishes

Given the restaurant’s theme and the claim on its website to have “the best that Michigan has to offer,” I expected the menu to contain either more venison dishes or more explicitly labeled Michigan ingredients/dishes. To be fair, the menu included a Michigan Cherry Salad and a Buffalo Burger made with Michigan buffalo. While there was a seafood section on the menu, several dishes, including the “Shore Lunch,” were made with “Atlantic” cod; and the Walleye, Salmon, Whitefish and Perch dinners were not labeled as from Michigan lakes or rivers. Some of the dishes were, however, named after a Michigan road or feature, including Moravian and Mackinaw.

Specific Dishes

The half-sandwich-and-soup combo had a nice presentation with a big bowl of soup in the middle of a long, oval plate. There was a small salad to one side and the half sandwich on the other.

The soup of the day – Potato Dill -- was very creamy and well seasoned, and the dill was also easily discernable. The potato chunks were perfectly boiled, which is an impressive feat in a soup. My only complaint is that there could have been more chunks.

The Yankee Pot Roast Sandwich had a fair portion of meat but was extremely dry. The natural pot-roast juices might have offset the dryness of the Ciabatta bread, but the jus seemed to be missing in action.

The Michigan Cherry Salad had the usual ingredients, most of which – dried cherries, walnuts and bleu cheese – were fine. The greens, however, were iceberg and the grilled chicken tasted microwaved. In fact, the chicken managed to be both rubbery and too moist.
Visit Their Website