Mid-Michigan Dining

• 1957 Cedar Street
• Holt, MI 48842
• (517) 268-0820
• No Known Website
• No Online Menu

Sammy's Lounge on Cedar Street in Holt.

I haven’t felt very well the last few days.  Nothing serious.  Just a summer cold.  Probably had the air conditioning blowing on me too much while I was sleeping.  Because of that, I wasn’t really in the mood to cook dinner.  I looked through the freezer, the cupboards, the fridge…nothing looked good, so I told J I’d pick her up from work and we’d just go out. 

I didn’t want to go to far from home and about the only thing that sounded good to me was a greasy burger.  We seem to always drive by Sammy’s Lounge but we’ve never stopped.  Since it’s fairly close to both J’s work and our home, I thought it would be a good choice. 

Sammy’s Lounge is on Cedar Street in Holt just past the downtown area.  The entrance is actually in the middle of the parking lot.  They have a great outdoor bar and beer garden that you have to walk through in order to get inside.  We headed inside where we ran into a hostess station.  One of the waitresses saw us and showed us to a table in the non-smoking side of the restaurant. 

The dining room is divided into two sections.  It’s a bi-level space with the bar/smoking section on the higher section.  The main dining room sits on the lower area.  The decor is very old school.  It looks like it hasn’t been updated since the place originally opened.  There are green vinyl seat backs on the booths and the furniture is classic 70’s restaurant.  The bar was the most interesting thing to me.  It wasn’t a regular size bar.  Instead of bar stools, they had what looked more like chairs that you would put around your kitchen table.  The height was about half the height of a normal bar. 

We were seated in one of the booths along the wall that butts up to the parking lot.  The booths are on a platform so the waitress almost looks you in the eye instead of looking down at you.  We ordered Pepsi’s while we looked over the menu which is typical bar food.  They have some sandwiches, some pizzas and even a small Mexican menu. 

Sammy's Lounge near downtown Holt.

I was really intrigued by the “Fire Grilled Pizza,” but pizza didn’t sound good to me at that moment.  I went with the burger which is a 1/2 lb angus beef patty.  I added cheddar cheese and chose fries as my side.  The bun came slightly toasted.  The meat was a little overdone, but not dry.  The cheese was melted perfectly into the meat.  The sandwich was alright, but nothing special.  It was a typical pub burger which, at this moment, all I really wanted. 

J ordered a crispy chicken wrap.  She was a little unimpressed.  There was what seemed like a whole head of lettuce and only a few chunks of chicken.  She actually had to ask the waitress for some ranch dressing because the wrap was almost inedible without it.  I know lettuce is cheaper than chicken, but there needs to be a better balance.  Even when she opened the wrap up, she had a hard time finding the chicken. 

The part of the meal we both liked were the fries.  The fries were fantastic.  They were fresh cut and fried perfectly.  Unfortunately, neither of us got very many.  They skimped on the fries which was disappointing because we both agree it was the best part of our meal. 

After finishing up, we sat for almost another fifteen minutes waiting for our check.  I’m not quite sure what their system is for waitresses, but it didn’t make sense to me.  The waitress we had didn’t have any of the tables around us, so she never had to walk by.  Because of that, it took her a long time to realize we were done and wanted our check.  We were on J’s dinner break, so time is an issue. 

Our bill was just under eighteen dollars before tip.  Definitely not a bad price, but neither of us were wowed by our meals.  Mine was fine.  J didn’t like hers at all. 

Sammy’s Lounge was alright.  It’s definitely a neighborhood place that I think plays more to the older crowd.  It’s not one of those young, hip places.  It’s more of a stable place where you always know what you’re going to get.  If you like the food, that’s a great thing, but don’t expect to go to Sammy’s and expect your palate to be challenged.