Archie's Waeside — Local services in Le Mars

TOP QUALITY RESTAURANT Imagine- I thought La Mars was famous for being the ice cream capital of the world only!

A little spendy but well worth the money, this was our first visit to Archies Waeside and hopefully not our last. Living just south of Kansas City, we have many fine steakhouses to choose from. Archies food ranks equal if not better. I read a review saying it was a freezer burned steak- lol- everyone has an opinion but there was nothing but quality served to us.

I am glad we looked for Archies Waeside before nightfall because I think it would be difficult to find if you go after dark and are not familiar with its location. It is located next to the county fairgrounds and an RV dumpsite is right across the street. No big deal, one of the best restaurants I have eaten at in KC was located at stockyards. Location does not affect the well deserved popularity of Archies Waeside. It was in full swing the night we dined so the so called requirements for a successful restaurant, including location and decor do not apply to Archies.

On Saturday night, October 9th, it was extremely busy. We had made reservations for six and were seated quickly. Our waitress, Amanda, was fantastic. She was very knowledgeable, great for making suggestions, and attentive. We could not have asked for better. Thanks so much Amanda!

Only five of our party could make the dinner- all five were impressed with the food and service. Of the five, four requested medium rare steak and one asked for well done. All the dinners were delivered at the same time. That was amazing in itself but amazing as well was the well done steak was truly well done! It was just as tender and delicious as the medium rare. I know ‘well done steak’ is against a chef’s inclination but it is what it is.

One diner did not want salad and Amanda recommended options which included jello. The diner said it was great and appreciated having that option. For the rest of us, the salads and ‘in house made’ salad dressings were delicious. I believe I understood Amanda to say the tomatoes were from the restaurant garden! Now that is cool!

We enjoyed the relish tray of carrots, celery, cheese, and dill pickles. The usual bread served at steakhouses was missed but with the quick service, it was easily forgiven and forgotten. Maybe lesser steakhouses use bread to fill diners up so they don’t notice lesser quality steak?

This is a Steakhouse and the steak was delicious. So we stuck with the entrees of rib eye and tenderloin. One diner added shrimp to his steak dinner. He said the shrimp were very good. Another added mushrooms but was underwhelmed and would not recommend.

The decor is charming with all the Christmas houses and trees. Robert of Restaurant Impossible would flip out but you can’t deny that it works for Archies Waeside. Keep your hands off this place Robert! Just because the decor is ‘dated’, doesn’t affect the cleanliness because it appeared spotless and did not have the musty odor associated with dated decor. The owners evidently concentrate on the steak and service so if you can’t get passed the decor, that is your loss. They could give lessons to other restaurant owners.

Although we live south of Kansas City and have great beef available here, I hope we can return in the future to enjoy Archies Waeside...

Having heard a lot about Archie's in my last ten years of living in the area, I admittedly had pretty high expectations. I finally made it there to try for myself.

Getting in the door is harder than it should be for someone. Not a fan of the online wait-list being the only option. I think it's an okay option, but when you can't call ahead and make a reservation at all, I think that's a little bit of a poor method. The group of eight I was with had to attempt a couple times before we actually got a table. I would have thought a restaurant would really want to make it easy for people to get a table as that's how they make their money. Once we were there, we had to wait until every member of our group was there or else they wouldn't seat us. Basically, I think it's an okay option for a couple, but groups would do better going elsewhere. Coordinating a visit to Archie's as a group is a huge pain.

The food was pretty good. Again, I'd heard great things about this for 10 years at this point, so my expectations were pretty high. I didn't feel that it lived up to the hype. The appetizers we got were a couple plates of fried vegetables, cheese balls, and onion rings. They were good.

The salad was what came next. It's a pretty standard salad. Nothing much to note really. The plate of extra veggies and cheese cubes were nice to top it how you wanted. The cheese seemed to be just cubed velveeta. I would have expected some nice real cheese with it. Cubed cheddar or gouda or something. The thousand island I had was good. The Russian dressing they served was had by a couple people in our party. They all liked it and it was a different option than what you may typically see.

I ordered the Archie's Special - Extra Thick steak for my entree along with a baked potato. The steak came out Luke warm or even a tad cool. Part of that could be on me for ordering an extra thick steak rare, but it should at least be warm. I think their kitchen could have done better that evening coordinating the cook times on their steaks so that they were all ready close to the same time. It seemed like they finished some earlier than others and held them all until they were all ready. Cool steak is not great. The flavor was okay. Nothing special. One in our party got the regular rib eye and another got the certified Angus prime rib eye. Tasting one right after the other delivered little difference in flavor, tenderness, or juiciness. Perhaps slightly more tenderness from the Angus, but not worth the premium price extra.

The service was good and attentive. Our drinks were kept full and I didn't feel like I was missing anything during the visit.

So, all said, the food is okay. The price is high, the service is good. I will likely go there again a time or two - I don't like to fully judge a place based on one visit. This is my first impression, but I will adjust it accordingly when I am able to go a...

Finally made it to visit this allegedly top ten steakhouse, and it is horrible. I’m not understanding how this place is famous is any capacity. The food, from beginning to end, was flavourless and awful. Poor list of appetisers — onion rings, cheeseballs, Mexican cheeseballs (jalapeños added), and a combo plate with fried cauliflower, fried mushrooms, onion rings, and cheeseballs. We ordered the onion rings, and they’re nicely not greasy, but the onion is sliced too thinly; the result is a breading-heavy ‘memories of onion’ kind of basket of fried glop. The salads are dull and soaked in oil (I cannot recommend their ‘Russian’ dressing, which appears to be simply vinegar and oil…lots and lots of oil). The accompanying ‘relish tray’ is carrots, celery, pickle spears, and cubes of cheese served in a puddle of water and without any character. Their steaks and cheeseburgers are completely flavourless — they do not use any seasoning whatsoever and also do not sear or cook it properly; everything is also served with a nontrivial amount of liquid on the plate. Fries were unremarkable, and the dried cake of mashed potatoes they call hash browns also has no seasoning and is difficult to swallow, it’s so dry.

Nothing here seems to ‘go together’; it’s all random and lacking in any discernible flavour. The texture of the meat is off, and off-putting. Whomever is cooking is obviously not tasting anything, because there’s no way to not notice how bland and unpleasant literally everything is.

No dessert options, but that might be a small mercy, because they’d probably find a way to ruin that, also.

Our party was extremely disappointed and frankly beside ourselves with the high prices versus complete and total lack of any kind of quality. I’ve had better salad, onion rings, steak, and potatoes at small truck stop diners. The service was adequate but negligent; no decent server should have presented any table with food that looks and smells so clearly off, with everything but the fries and hash browns sitting in an absolute lake of water on the plate.

There is nothing I can recommend about Archie’s other than the kitschy decor. The overall feel is dated, and the food is horrid. None of us will ever return. Avoid at all costs; the reputation you may have heard about is undeserved on all fronts, and Archie’s reputation has to be built on the wish for a well-regarded restaurant, not the actual restaurant that exists. The hype versus the reality is mind-blowing; it’s as if all the reviews are about some other, completely different restaurant, because there is just no way that anyone who has ever experienced any other restaurant in their lifetime can possibly overlook the utter lack of flavour and quality going on here.

RUN, DO NOT WALK, AWAY...