Mine Shaft & Rock House

My husband and I stopped in for dinner and had a great experience. Food was delicious, staff were kind and friendly and the games were a blast! Hannah and Bob were kind and helpful and just generally lovely individuals. It happened to be my birthday and they made sure it was awesome. We will always come back when we visit the Michigan UP.

This Google listing needs to be split up from the restaurant Rock House Grill and the entertainment area Mine Shaft. They do not have the same hours. The manager told me they have not updated this listing in over 12 years, so the store hours are not correct for the entertainment area. He said for the most up-to-date information go to their website. We drove well over an hour to get there and after eating was not able to do anything else. No bowling no arcade. It was very sad for our birthday guests. The manager gave off the impression since they are the only entertainment complex in town. They don't care about the customer. They had a small group bowling using 2 lanes, but wouldn't allow us to bowl. Even though all the other lanes were open.

This was conveniently located next to our hotel. Good selection of food. There was everything from burgers, pizza, sandwiches, salads and more. The fried mushrooms were good.

Was trying to get to the hockey game on time, but waited at our table for 15 minutes and no one showed up to take our order. Not even for drinks. Place was more than 1/2 empty at 5pm. Not sure if they were short staffed, but no one even glanced our way. Had to bail to eat elsewhere to make it on time.

Came in with the boys and my fiance, the rockhpuse did not disappoint in The slightest with large portions, hearty selection and mouth smacking flavor from meal to meal. Pack and to go if you must but you are missing out on the dine-in experience of the mineshaft combo featuring several fun arcade like games and a bowling alley to rack up points after stuffing your faces at the rockhouse.

Our waitress was wonderful. Food was decent. The steak bites were my favorite thing. Cheap prices for bowling and games. Tables for seating were a little inconvenient for someone in a wheelchair. They stated that they only had one table that could accommodate which was already taken so my husband had to sit at a table that rested at his chin.

Amazing food, huge portions, and reasonably priced! I don't like that the only entrance is shared with The Mine Shaft so if you're bringing kids it's like walking into a casino with flashing lights and prize area.

Went to go bowling with my family and waited for service for a few minutes. When the employee arrived at counter he assisted others that walked up and weren't in line or waiting proceded to get them situated for bowling and others. When he finally got to me after assisting other patrons he proceeded to tell me that he didn't have room for my family to play or sit and eat. He said there wasn't room bc of the special Olympics. His attitude and service was horrible and I will never go back nor will I tell anyone to ever do anything there again! Broke my sons heart and uncalled for for his horrible behavior and attitude.

Really torn on this review. Debated 4 stars and would've loved to do 3.5 but as usual, Yelp doesn't allow that. Service was lackluster, place was kind of dead, menu didn't have accurate prices, and was a bit of a wait for the food. But on the bright side, decently sized menu, food was decent, and portions were good!

Very limited games ! If you're not bowing! It was a waste of time for me and the family! It has the potential to be something but it's just a not worth it spot for us!

The food was good. The mini golf was sad, needs to be cleaned up as in mowed. So many of the decorative woodland creatures were broken. Just didn't looked cared for just sad and depressing. The go karts looked interesting but also unkempt.

We live mine shaft! They have mini golf, bowling, arcade games, a simulator for baseball, air hockey, and an awesome restaurant with great food!!

Ass. Food was pricy for no reason. I'd probs just get McDonald's or sum next time tbh

This fun spot is located close to Houghton's Walmart. We are staying at the hotel next door. There's a pub restaurant, which we didn't visit on this trip. There's a lot of arcade games, skeeball, bowling, and mini golf. Oh, and virtual golf and batting cages (possibly virtual??). I just bowled. I just missed happy hour (3-6pm, I think). But, 5$ for 1 game and shoes was fine. I also played two games of skeeball. I love bowling and skeeball. Good times. I'm obsessed with movie, 'dogma,' and one of the characters in that film loved skeeball. Random, eh.

One of our favorite places to hang out in the UP :). Family friendly! Great staff at the restaurant, fun bowling, arcade, among other things! Can't recommend enough!

I ordered a simple hamburger, medium, cost $8.50. Apparently they don't know how to cook a hamburger, no flavor no taste, it was cardboard. McD's simple small hamburger has more flavor and it's 7 dollars less. In the last 5 years I have ordered 5 different items, not all hamburgers. I've tried to stay away from this place, but was invited to a birthday party. I'll just stick to the bowling from now on, and give the food the shaft.

I brought my work colleagues to the Mine Shaft and Rock House to have a fun night out bowling. When we arrived, the arcade staff were frantically scurrying around the arcade and bowling alley getting the place set up for happy hour bowling. The lanes were empty so I figured they were just opening up. No one greeted us or told us we would have to wait a few minutes until they could serve us. Since it looked like they were just running behind on opening up, our group waited patiently for about 10 minutes. When it was time for us to go up to the desk to pay for our group, the staff person was definitely giving off the vibe that we were an inconvenience to his day and that we were causing him stress by being there. We got set up at our lanes, started bowling, and I grabbed a menu for our group to start thinking about what we would want to order. We waited around for a server to come over to us, but no one came. So I went inside the restaurant/bar area to order water for our table. The bartender was busy serving other customers so I waited patiently at the bar for about 5 minutes. The bartender walked by me several times and did not acknowledge my presence. She served two people beside me and didn't once look at me. Then she went off to the kitchen. I got fed up and went back to the bowling alley because it was definitely my turn to bowl. About a half hour later we decided to order pizzas. So I went back to the bar to place our order for three different pizzas. The server scanned my card to start a tab and I went back to bowling. A half hour goes by and we get our first pizza, it was missing a few toppings but we didn't care. Twenty minutes goes by and we hadn't received our other two pizzas. We asked where the other two pizzas were and they said they didn't know why it was taking so long. Ten minutes go by and we get our second pizza. At this point our bowling time is almost over. Finally the third pizza comes out and I asked the server if it's such-and-such pizza, she said yes, and she left. We opened the pizza box and it was the wrong pizza. After we were done bowling I went to close out our tab at the bar. There was a different bartender behind the bar this time. The bartender said she wasn't able to close out my tab because our server needs to do it. She asked who our server was and I said I didn't know who it was. I told her my card was in the system because the server started a tab. She again, very rudely, said that she can't close out my tab and that I needed to tell her who our server was. She started rattling off names of servers asking if it was one of them. I told her it's not my job to know our server's name was. Mind you, I only saw our server twice, when I placed the order at the bar, and when she dropped off the wrong pizza. We didn't see her enough to know who it was. She was not going around to the tables around the bowling lanes to provide any customer service. After sitting at the bar for almost 10 minutes, finally the bartender found our server to close our my tab. I am absolutely shocked that this place is still in business. If there was an award for worst customer service, the Mine Shaft Rock House would win. I could not believe how rude the bartender was to me -- she made it seem like it was my fault that I didn't know who our server was. Our server never came over to us during our two hour visit. The bowling alley staff person was on some sort of power trip and didn't want to interact with customers. Our food order was messed up. The staff were rude and not helpful. We did not not have a pleasant experience at all. I will not be back anytime soon.

The kids love it here...the bowling, games and tickets, fun atmosphere. Love their appetizers, wings! Mixed drinks a bit watery. Overall though, a good evening of family fun!

The little one in our group loved the arcade here. She quickly learned Skee Ball and won a bunch of tickets. The staff was very nice and helpful. There is a small bowling alley that I think we'll try next visit.

I love their BBQ pork sandwich and the pizza. Combine lunch or dinner with the best bowling and games in the area, this makes a great time for families and birthday parties.

Ate at this restaurant after a long day of travel and a late arrival to our nearby hotel. We walked in around 8:45 pm on a Thursday night and the restaurant was dead. We were quickly greeted, seated and served by a friendly waitress. We all ordered salads that were fresh and delicious. The wine selection was well-priced! Overall, this restaurant was an excellent affordable option for some hungry, tired travelers. Thank you for the great service!

We have visited The Mine Shaft & Rock House many times when we are up in Houghton. We chose to come here tonight to get the "arcade" out of the way on this trip for my kids and had dinner here as well. In the past, the food has been pretty good; not saying outstanding, but good considering it's a bowling alley, sports bar and an "arcade". I feel like the restaurant is now lowering their standards on the quality of food they are serving; compared to what we've experienced in the past. My son ordered the chimichanga special (he's hooked on them wherever we go, thank you DeadPool) which was served with beans that looked like they sat in a container all day just waiting for someone to order it and the rice had to of been the same we make at home which is a Knorr Mexican Rice. My mom did the build your own burger option; blackened, blue cheese, etc. The size of the burger was definitely a frozen patty; all bun, no goodness. The cost to eat here, definitely wasn't worth the headache we faced after the kids played in the arcade due to the line and the over priced prizes with several bins empty considering the lack of games to play. I felt bad for the 15 year old working the prize counter; lack of choice for people to pick for many tickets or cheap/stupid items for a few tickets. I was really excited years back when Houghton had a place to entertain kids on vacation and now we are left with a cool bowling alley, mediocre food, worthless arcade and a fenced off area with 18 holes in the ground that's called miniature golf--go karts were cool at one point. Please step it up--this is Something Houghton needs in regards to tourism and visitors will be disappointed if this continues.

Jessica B. You have to understand that the mine shaft has to make money they can't just close down the whole year

I can't believe how slow the service is here ? The bartender was a complete b$&?$ !!! Not a very friendly crew and the manager Bob is just as clueless...never stepping foot in this place again.

This is a fantastic place. The food is unbelievable. The menu has an incredible selection. The staff was friendly and the restaurant was very clean. Later we actually bowled a couple of game. It was a great evening.

I went here not expecting much. I was surprised by the low prices and good food (keep in mind that I lived in Atlanta for awhile and things are A LOT more expensive there). Pros: Bowling was not too expensive, alcoholic drinks are pretty cheap (I bought a 4 beer KBC sampler for only $4 and a mixed drink for $5). Also, the building is fairly new and clean. Often bowling alleys are old and rundown - this place was not rundown. Con: The arcade area lacked a bit: some machines were out of order, there were not too many games, and the ATM was out of order. The black lights and disco lights in the bowling area were a little annoying - it was busy and we were not asked which lanes we preferred. The black light area seemed to be more for kids. The food was WAY better than I expected. I was expecting low par burgers and pizza. This place actually has a large menu and a variety of items. I rarely get BBQ ribs because of bad quality I have ordered in the past but I ordered it here because another review recommended it. This place has the best BBQ sauce I have tasted in a long time. The meat easily came off the bone. Also, I ordered the half order and the portion size was pretty big. I barely finished it. I would definitely come back for the ribs and other BBQ. My friend ordered the pulled pork sandwich and it was pretty good. She was full but finished it since it was so good. The chili was decent. The onion rings and sweet potato fries were decent. My friend ordered the Copper Country Chicken and it was pretty good, although there was a little too much oil. The nachos were just okay, but to be fair I didn't read the description very well. It comes with A LOT of cheese and not really any vegetables. The chips were not low quality like the ones that some places use. The nachos were actually baked in an oven and not microwaved (I know because I worked at a restaurant). Compared to large cities, the prices were low AND the portion sizes were larger. Locals might not realize this. I have paid a lot more for lower quality food in Atlanta. This place reminds me of a small Dave and Busters.

We were exhausted from a long travel day and the Mine Shaft was right next door to the hotel. It was 7 pm on a Thursday and the restaurant was dead. Our server was bright and bubbly and very attentive. We ordered BBQ wings, the penne pasta with sausage, a meat lovers pizza, and chicken tenders. Everything was great. We ended up with leftovers that we are enjoying for breakfast. The prices were great. My husband and ordered two 22-ounce beers and they were only $4 each. In Saint Paul, those could easily cost $8-10. We didn't go into the game area at all, so strictly speaking about the restaurant, our experience was fantastic.

Do not go here if it looks busy. It took us almost 2 hours to get our food. They kept telling us that everyone came at the same time so the kitchen was swamped. The least they could have done was brought out free appetizers to appease us. Once I got my chicken tender melt I had to remove the top piece of toast because it was too hard from sitting under the heat lamp that I couldn't bite through it. They were severely understaffed. Where's the manager or owner? Do they even care about their customers? This place could be great, but whoever is managing it will run it to ground if they don't make changes.

Well, yesterday's service was appalling! Traveled 2 hours and this was a planned stop in our daily itinerary. I had been there about 4 years ago and found it to be a fun place. Upon arrival we ordered kids meals for the 2 children and went to the arcade area to stretch legs and get active. About half of the games did not work properly so we decided to go back for food. Received appetizers and then pizza. Asked waitress why kids meals were taking so long and was told the meat was bad, but it was getting corrected and would be fine to eat. Tasted pizza and it was foul, fermented marinara taste, server took it back and with in minutes the owner approached us. Several time the owner came back to tell us their was nothing wrong with the pizza. After the 4th time we asked her to leave the table as we had already re-ordered and we were trying to enjoy our meal. She immediately got out of order and threatened to call the police. We offered to take our food to go and were escorted out of the restaurant. NEVER HAVE WE HAD SERVICE LIKE THIS! 3 of the 6 adults in our group are business owners and we could not believe the scene and circumstances. Definitely not a place for children! Our 2 and 7 years olds were crying and very scared! We will not return.

Understaffed and poor communication on our order. In the end it took 2 hours to get our food. Most of our meals seem to have been sitting under a heat lamp since the top of everything was hard and dry. The fries tasted like fish, maybe they reuse the oil for frying. I will not come back here.