Introduction

Photo: GD333 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Holland, Michigan's restaurant scene centers on downtown 8th Street, with a couple of options a short drive out. To sort out the best places to eat in Holland, we checked each restaurant below against its own site and current Yelp or TripAdvisor listings — all six are genuinely in Holland, Michigan and operating; a seventh candidate turned out to be a mix-up worth explaining.

Boatwerks Waterfront Restaurant

Opened in 2006 in a former marine-construction building on Lake Macatawa, Boatwerks offers New American dining with a waterfront patio — upscale pizzas, hearty salads, handhelds, and seafood as a specialty.

• Hours: Mon–Sat 11am–10pm (bar until 11pm); Sun 11am–9pm (bar until 10pm). Off-season (Oct–April) may see reduced patio-related service — call to confirm outside summer.
• Reservations: Genuinely unclear — one tourism source describes it as no-reservations/walk-in with weekend waits, but the restaurant also has an active OpenTable listing, which directly conflicts with that. Call (616) 396-0600 to confirm before counting on either approach.
• Good to know: Casual dress is fine (shirts/shoes required, no formal dress code); large lot plus complimentary valet.

Seventy-Six

A modern New American restaurant downtown, established 2018, known for weekend waits of 45 minutes or more without a reservation — worth booking ahead if you have a specific time in mind.

• Hours: Closed Monday and Sunday; Tue–Thu 11am–9pm; Fri–Sat 11am–10pm.
• Reservations: Not on OpenTable — book via the restaurant's own site or by phone at (616) 994-8414. Reviews confirm walk-in waits can run well past 45 minutes on weekends (one reported up to 2.5 hours on a Friday), so reserving ahead is effectively necessary for Friday or Saturday dinner.
• Good to know: Closed Sundays entirely, not just for reduced hours.

Salt & Pepper Savory Grill and Pub

Open since 2010, Salt & Pepper is a laid-back pub with upscale bar fare and a large beer list. One location note: its address sits in the Waverly/Holland Charter Township area, several miles from the downtown 8th Street restaurants, not walkable alongside the others on this list.

• Hours: Closed Monday and Sunday; Tue–Thu 11am–9:30pm; Fri–Sat 11am–10pm.
• Reservations: Recommended but not required — walk-ins, call-aheads, and online reservations are all accepted.
• Good to know: In a strip-mall-style location at 11539 E Lakewood Blvd, Suite 50 — not a downtown storefront.

Crazy Horse Steakhouse & Saloon

A steakhouse specializing in prime rib, steaks, ribs, chops, and seafood, with a casual southwestern-themed dining room. The business's own site claims an 18-year "Best of Michigan" streak — a self-reported claim worth noting as such rather than independently verified.

• Hours: Mon–Thu 11am–9pm; Fri–Sat 11am–9:30pm; closed Sunday. Also closed on major holidays (Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, New Year's Day), with lunch-only service on Christmas Eve.
• Reservations: Recommended, via OpenTable or phone. Note the restaurant intentionally caps reservation volume to preserve walk-in seating, and parties over 12 can't be accommodated regardless of booking method — call directly for parties of 6-12.
• Good to know: Happy hour Mon-Fri 2-5:30pm at the expanded bar.

Beechwood Grill

A 40-plus-year local landmark, recently renovated into a modern steakhouse-grill with wood-grilled steaks, seafood, chicken, burgers, and a 12-tap bar. One address note: it sits on Douglas Ave within Holland city limits — not the separate lakeside town of Douglas, Michigan near Saugatuck, an easy name mix-up.

• Hours: Mon–Sat 11am–10pm, closed Sunday.
• Reservations: Not accepted — the restaurant's own site explicitly states it's walk-in only at this time.
• Good to know: Both indoor and outdoor seating, plus carry-out.

Hops at 84 East

Established in 1993, Hops is a craft-beer taproom in a historic downtown brownstone, alongside brick-oven pizzas that are arguably its signature item as much as its beer list.

• Hours: Mon 3–11pm; Tue–Thu 11am–11pm; Fri–Sat 11am–midnight; Sun 11am–3pm (brunch) then 3–9pm (dinner). Kitchen closes at 10pm Mon–Sat. One tourism listing claims it's closed Sundays, which directly contradicts the official site's own posted Sunday hours — trust the official site.
• Reservations: Accepted online, though not required for a taproom-style venue.
• Good to know: Correction: the tap count is currently 60-65 taps, not the 70-84 sometimes cited — the official site's own "About" page states 60 taps of craft beer plus wine-on-tap, and the tourism board separately confirms 65 taps plus wine and two beer engines. Treat "70-84" as outdated if you see it elsewhere.

A Note on "Secret Garden"

One entry in our original research turned out to be a restaurant in Amsterdam, the Netherlands — a scrape mix-up caused by "Holland" pulling in a result from the actual country rather than the Michigan town. It's excluded here entirely, since it has no connection to Holland, Michigan.

Worth a Stop on the Way to Holland

A good share of the searches that bring readers to this page ask about the best restaurant on the way to Holland rather than in it, so here is how the three main approaches break down. Distances and drive times are road-routing estimates from OpenStreetMap data to downtown 8th Street; summer weekend traffic on US-31 can add to them.

From Chicago and the south (I-196 / US-31): Saugatuck and Douglas are the last real towns before Holland, about 11–12 miles and roughly 20 minutes short of downtown, and they are the best-documented stop on this stretch: we've separately verified six Saugatuck restaurants and five Saugatuck cafes and breakfast spots. Two that suit a mid-drive meal: The Southerner, a riverside Southern-cooking restaurant under James Beard Award semifinalist chef Matthew Millar, and The Butler, a waterfront spot in an 1892 grist-mill building. For coffee, Uncommon Coffee Roasters' original cafe has been open since 1994, and Pumpernickels bakes its "Saugatuck Cinnamon Roll" on site. Hours, including seasonal closures, are in those guides. South Haven, further down the coast, is about 30 miles and 40 minutes out; we haven't verified restaurants there yet.

From Grand Rapids and the east (I-196): About 28 miles and 40 minutes from downtown Grand Rapids. Zeeland, roughly 10 minutes before Holland, is the only town on the way, and we haven't verified any Zeeland restaurants, so the honest advice is to hold out for Holland. Of the six on this list, Salt & Pepper on East Lakewood Boulevard is the first you'd reach from that direction: it sits about 3 miles northeast of downtown in Holland Township, the closest of the six to the US-31 corridor, and it's closed Sunday and Monday.

From Grand Haven and the north (US-31): About 21 miles and 35 minutes. Salt & Pepper is again the first of the six you'd pass. If you're arriving along the lakeshore from Holland State Park instead, Beechwood Grill on Douglas Avenue, about 2 miles northwest of downtown, is the closest on this list to that side of town; it's walk-in only and closed Sunday.

Practical Tips

• Seventy-Six and Boatwerks are the two most reservation-worthy options if you have a specific time in mind — though Boatwerks' actual reservation policy is genuinely unclear from available sources, so call ahead.

• Salt & Pepper is worth the short drive out of downtown if a laid-back pub atmosphere is the priority.

• Don't confuse Beechwood Grill's Douglas Ave address (within Holland) with the separate town of Douglas near Saugatuck. It's walk-in only — don't plan around a reservation there.

• Seventy-Six and Crazy Horse are both closed Sundays; Salt & Pepper is closed both Monday and Sunday — check before planning an early-week or Sunday visit.

Sources and Verification Notes

Each restaurant's operating status, address, and character were checked against its own site and cross-checked against Yelp or TripAdvisor. The "Secret Garden" Amsterdam mix-up was independently confirmed via the actual Amsterdam restaurant's own listings before being excluded. Hours were confirmed directly on official sites for all six restaurants. Hops at 84 East's tap count was corrected from an earlier "70-84 taps" figure to the current officially-stated 60-65, since neither the restaurant's own site nor the local tourism board currently supports the higher number.