Great Northern atmosphere and fantastic food. Order anything off the menu, you won't be disappointed. Great staff too!!

The food was over cooked. The hamburgers were dry and the onion rings were greasy. I probably wont stop for food again.

Good People, Good Drinks, Good food... What else do you need???

“5 Star” especially when considering the value. This place was a dump with OK food until the present owners took it over. Now the food is much better and the service and ambiance much improved. The Friday night fish fry is one of the best even though it’s cod. An out of the way “don’t miss” place in Northern Michigan. Up North the way it used to be.

I assigned Moosejaw 5 stars based on what it is- it is a very unapologetically Northern Michigan bar / restaurant, with no pretenses of class or attempts to sell itself for more than it is. In contrast to the "generican" (generic + American) food that is usually found at these establishments- generally, something that was made in a factory, frozen, and dumped in a deep-fryer with the assumption that only someone who has had a half-dozen beers will be eating it- Moosejaw has excellent fare. This is a place actually worth going out of your way to eat at, not a destination of desperation when everything else is closed. As far as the menu goes, the main weakness is the somewhat limited selection; there just isn't that much variety. One other caveat: well, if you're looking for healthy, keep driving. The burgers and sides are really best split between two people- 1/2 pound burgers, and a big pile of onion rings, way more than one person NEEDS to eat at a meal- but right about what you WANT once you dig in. The patties themselves are fresh, made from burger from a local market (Jurek's; sorry local food aficionados, not sure if the beef is from a nearby farm or trucked in). There are quite a few permutations of burgers on the menu, all of which are good. Honestly, I consider these the best burgers I have ever eaten in a restaurant. The onion rings are awesome- as far as I can tell, hand-battered, definitely not those horrible frozen bagged things. Presentation is about what you would expect; nothing fancy, just the sandwich and the chosen side in a basket. The appetizers are similarly very good- the flautas could be a meal in themselves, and should be split at least 4 ways if preceding a meal. I've never had the desserts, but heard they were likewise very good. As an added bonus, all of the food was very reasonably priced; you get way more than what you paid for. Next, a word on the structure and staffing of the building. In general the staffing is good, but the last time we were there a waitress didn't wait for us to leave to start setting up for the next cutomers; she rammed our table with the next table and made it very obvious it was time for us to leave. Odd, since they had open tables and no people waiting to be sat; however we had been there for two hours and had 4 courses, but still, it seemed a bit rude. She also wasn't our waitress. The building itself is, well, a bit rough around the edges. The general presentation is that this could be any one of a thousand bars in Northern Michigan- it exudes that generic character that is either comforting if you're a native, or emblematic of the local yokels if you're an outsider. I prefer this honesty to the fake "Northern Lodge" type of establishment, but to each their own. The interior is about what you'd expect; a few TVs, some sports pictures on the walls, a pool table, and a fireplace. One oddity is the place where a stripper pole was previously attached during one of the building's earlier, wilder manifestations; perhaps this is emblematic of the patina acquired from many years of use, and an eloquent argument for not radically remodeling. One thing that could definitely use some work is the bathrooms- why would you have a urinal side by side with a toilet and no divider? Anyway, bathrooms aside, I'll say that if you don't like the ambiance, well, there are plenty of places in Petoskey or Harbor Springs that will be happy to charge you twice as much for a smaller quantity of inferior food and a healthy dose of blandness. For better or worse, this is what the North truly is. In conclusion, if you're in the neighborhood, you are doing yourself a disservice by not stopping by. I would recommend eating here rather than at any of the over-priced, fudgie-catering places in Mackinaw City; it is definitely worth the detour if you are heading that way on US-31. Likewise, if you're taking a tour on M-119, or skiing at Boyne Highlands or Nub's Nob, it's really not that far out of the way. If you like good, hearty American food, you'll be glad you did.