Mel's Funway Park — Attraction in Litchfield

The park itself is a BLAST - the go karts are fun, the golfing is great, the bumper boats are cool (tho they could stand to be inflated a bit more)...

The restaurant is AWFUL, hence my review. Eat ANYWHERE else before you arrive, especially if you have kids who don't wanna spend 3 hours eating lunch. There's NO option for quick food, just a full service sit down Mexican restaurant (which is ridiculous given that it's a kid's place). We were 1 of 2 tables today - we had 6 people in our party, and the restaurant was dead. It took an HOUR AND A HALF for them to bring out HALF of our food - 3 people got food, 3 didn't. 30 mins later, 1 more person got food and I got my side of beans/rice (but no fajitas). 30 mins after that, I got my fajitas (my beans/rice were stone cold, inedible). 30 mins after that, my friend's daughter finally got her meal (2 soft chicken tacos with cheese only and no sides... the fastest/easiest meal in the world and they made a 7 year old wait 2.5 hours for their food when everyone else has finished theirs). There is no possible circumstance that lunch at a mini golf place should take 3 HOURS. They charged us full price for our whole meal, and didn't refill our chips or drinks a single time. Some of our party had to leave after lunch, because they only had 3 hours to spend there - so the money they spent on mini golf and go karts was completely wasted (we bought tickets before we bought lunch), because they didn't have time to do any activities at all after how long lunch took. It was a really terrible experience. We had a great rest of the day, but it was a pretty awful way to start - and they didn't apologize or discount anything. I will never even consider eating there again even tho the food was ok when it finally came out, and I definitely suggest that everyone else stays away from the restaurant and just goes for the activities

EDIT: Revised down to a 2-star review because I emailed Mel's last Tuesday (a full week ago) when it happened, and they couldn't even be bothered to respond. Bad service from the restaurant and the...

I rated Mel's @ 3 stars because of a few factors, if I could have given a half star, I would have given them 2.5.

The positives:

It has a good amount of attractions, for a mini golf place. The staff is friendly, and (for me at least), it's local.

The negatives:

1- I can't stand the layout. When you go between the attractions, you have to cross back, and forth across the parking lot. When with excited (not always paying attention) young kids in tow, it always stresses me out having to walk across that lot. I hate to sound like a whiney overly safety concious parent, but it's a hazard that doesn't need to be there. I never understood why they don't just make a walkway between the attractions. 2- The mini golf is not good. it's obvious they didn't put a lot of thought into the layout of that either. Lots of spots where the ball gets stuck in a corner, or easily jumps the area, and ends up going into another hole, or the water. Also, (last night was much better) the music is usually blasting out of that tinny PA system. I find it annoying, when trying to have a conversation with your kid(s), and you can barely hear over the stupid sound system. 3- The place needs some TLC. It's starting to show it's age. The go cart we had last night was a POS. I never took my foot off the gas, once, and got lapped by the whole field. That's tough to do in the time frame they give you, so you know that thing was beat. Most of those cars wreak of gas fumes. Had two kids in two separate batting cages, and both had issues with putting in the token, and either the pitching arm not working at all, or working, and not feeding the balls. Either way, that equals disappointed kids. It wasn't worth it to me to have to stand back in line to try and get the tokens back. Which brings me to number- 4- The line to pay for this stuff, is usually way too long (not so much length wise, but just standing there for ten minutes to buy something) is too much. And it's on one end of the park, which forces you to have to cross the length of the parking lot, when going between...

I just about got arrested tonight at Mels Funway Park. I walk in to the restaurant from the outside sitting area, I have already received my food, and other then the mediocre food everything was fine. As I approach the restroom, a very large employee sitting down at a table eating very rudely says "the restroom is for paying customer's only". Now, if she was polite, I guess I would have just turned around and politely told her I was a paying customer. But seeing as she was rude, and obviously on some sort of break I just ignored her and kept walking. She then yells, " the restroom is for paying customers only". I turned around, and say "really". I then walk into the restroom, but before I do, the "owner" stops me from screaming across the restaurant, " she said the restroom was for paying customers, get the hell out of my restaurant". So now I'm a little heated, I say " before or after I pay my bill?" He says "o, your eating here". I finally enter the restroom.

When I come out, the obese woman sitting still eating, says "sorry". I said " no, your incredibly rude" the owner then kicks me out, tells me to pay and leave. I go outside, find my waitress, I explained the situation, and that I needed to pay quickly. She said wait let me go find the owner. Oh joy I thought, I get to see him again. After about 5 minutes of me standing outside of the restaurant waiting for somebody to come outside so I could pay them, I walked away.

Once in line at the bumper cars, they lovely police officer taps me on the shoulder.

Let's just say, the night was ruined. I did not get arrested, however my five year old son seeing me taken away from him and spoken to five police officers, over having to go to the bathroom completely ruined our evening.

Obviously the owner of Mel's has made plenty of cash over the years, they no longer see that need to practice customer service. The food was not that great, the beer was warm, and the service was just "a friend helping out".

Don't go here, if you do, avoid the...