Lucky's Steak House

We had the pleasure of celebrating my sister's birthday recently, and she chose Lucky's Steak House in Davison, Michigan as our meeting place. Lucky's is a small chain of steak houses here in southeast Michigan. They have a faithful following among their local customers. Should you be going there for dinner, be forewarned, unless you are in a big group (10 or more), they don't take reservations on the weekend. This usually means be prepared to wait for a little bit, or try to enjoy a drink at the bar while a table opens up.

We only had a short wait before we were seated. Our waitress came over quickly and took our drink order. After she was done and started to turn away I had to stop her because she forgot our youngest son. This seemed odd due to the fact that he is still teething and didn't want to sit still. She returned with the drinks and took our food order, but again forgot our son. I had to remind her that he to was going to eat. Our waitress obviously had somewhere else more important to be.

One of the things you get with dinner are "Garlic Bread Sticks" with herb butter, and they are fabulous! We found that the butter was one of the things that kept our son happy here. So much so that he was dipping his fingers in and sucking his fingers, and licking the butter from the bowl. Thankfully there was more than one butter dish. Honestly if it wasn't my kid I would've been totally grossed out by the whole thing. Sorry fellow diners.My wife started off with a salad. I had a cup of "Chicken Pot Pie" soup. Our son has become somewhat of a soup connoisseur lately. When it came he demanded that he get to eat it. Long story short, he stole my soup. When I did get a chance to steal back a spoonful, I realized that it was an excellent beginning to the meal.

For dinner I ordered the "Grilled Florida Mahi Mahi", with mussels, sea scallops in a tomato sauce, with "Potato Au Gratin" on the side. My wife had the "Pecan Crusted Grouper", with broccoli and asparagus, topped with roasted pecan honey butter sauce. Everything was perfect!Our son ordered the "Chicken Fingers with Fries". Although due to his temper that night, he didn't want to touch his meal until the next day.

The only complaint that came from our table in regards to the food was from my mom. She said "this steak is too big". This has never been, nor will it ever be a complaint from us.On previous visits to this location we have ordered the "Aged Prime Rib" more than once. Each time we have been sorely disappointed. Being that this is a steak house one could assume that this would be a great option, but it has proven to be one of the worst versions of the dish we have ever sank our teeth into. On the other hand we have also enjoyed steaks and ribs here before as well.

Our Tip: Go! Enjoy! Lucky's cooks up some excellent dishes. Just stay away from the prime rib. Despite this most recent visit, the wait staff here has never given us a reason not to tip.

Ponderosa Steakhouse

Nothing says steak and all you can eat buffet like Ponderosa. Dinner with the family on the cheap! The glow in the dark surprise of a place like this is that you don't have to get dressed up to go. Jeans and a t-shirt are as much of a dress code as you'll need.

Both the wife and I ordered the sirloin with the buffet. The kids both got the buffet, the youngest being free!

The hostess was nice and talkative. Our waiter was also nice, but I swear he had selective hearing. Ignoring about a third of our questions.

The salad bar was made for the pickiest eaters... you had to pick through the bad lettuce to get to the good lettuce. Not to mention a few other items up there. There was a pasta salad that was good. Our oldest son easily found the smiley face fries, and chicken drummies, and was nice enough to get extra for his little brother.

After the first round, our steaks arrived. If you've never been to Ponderosa, understand you can order your steak to any doneness you wish. Also understand that you will receive it one of two ways: well done or overdone. My wife ordered it at medium doneness, I, at medium/well. What showed up were two steaks, hers was well done, mine was overdone. They came with corn on the cob and baked beans. Neither of us tried the corn, but it looked good. The beans were excellent. Being of perfect tenderness, a good sauce, and little pieces of bacon sprinkled in.
During the next round to the buffet we found pizza, and bread sticks for the kids. Our oldest enjoyed the pizza - one of his all time favorite dishes. The bread sticks got a mixed review. Our youngest had no problem eating his. Our oldest found out that his bread stick could be used to pry open a bank safe.

I decided to sample some of the other dishes: stuffing, mac and cheese, meatballs and gravy, meatloaf. The meatloaf tasted like meatloaf, but had that "I've been sitting under the heat lamp" glaze look to it. The meatballs tasted like a round version of Salisbury steak. The mac and cheese was the standard creamy buffet style dish. The stuffing had that great classic, stuffing taste, but there was a problem. The cooks decided to put big round slices of carrots in it??? I love cooked carrots! Easily one of my favorite cooked veggies. Just not when paired with stuffing. It didn't even look right!

You can't leave this place without a visit to the ice cream bar. We all went up for a cone of soft serve. Good stuff!

Our Tip: This staple of blue collar dining has been around for a long time and probably will be for some time to come. The standard of mediocrity that was set long ago still stands for this establishment. Don't be afraid to visit this guilty pleasure every once in a while.