Cowboy Town — Local services in Manchester

Came in a couple of weeks ago for the food and barrel racing as it was brought up by some of my regulars at work. We got sat by the host and didn’t get greeted until about 10 minutes later after a manager came over and asked if we had been greeted. The server told us they were in the middle of a shift change and she wasn’t notified that she had been sat so that’s understandable. The rest of the service was decent at best, asked for a second drink after our food arrived. Didn’t get the drink until our ticket came out…Thought it was just a fluke and a bad night. Came in again tonight to give it another try and I have to say, as a fellow server I have a lot of patience and extra grace for other servers, this was hands down the worst service my husband and I have ever gotten. Took about 10 minutes to get greeted (after the manager asked if we had been greeted, again). Since we had so much free time on our hands waiting to get greeted by our server we ordered everything at once. When the server was with us she was good, too bad she couldn’t keep being good. While waiting 45 minutes to get our food, our appetizer came out (brought by one of the cooks), then finally got our drinks after we finished our appetizer (brought by the bartender), also asked for water, never got it, watched a couple get sat next to us, decided it would be fun to time how long it would take them to get greeted, after 13 minutes they got up and left. Finally we got our food, which was the second time our server was at our table in an hour. We both got the barrel cut Ribeyes, both cooked medium rare. Cuts were insanely different, mine was paper thin, half the size of my husband’s, and cooked well done, his was cooked blue rare. Didn’t even try and send it back because I didn’t want to wait another hour for another one, or have to wait for the server to even come back. She didn’t even ask us how our food was. I had to ask for a spoon for my soup after 10 minutes. Also had to ask for the rolls that came with the meal. While waiting 10 minutes for our ticket after we finished I was curious to see if possibly they were busy and that was why the service wasn’t great. Nope, it was just us, an 8 top party, and some people sitting at the bar, our server was hanging out behind the dessert case talking with the other servers. Overall, I’m disappointed in our server. I could never imagine being this bad at my job especially when I know I make money by how good I am with my tables and guests. We want to like this place because it’s a fun idea and we loved the barrel races the last time we came, (came for the fun barrels tonight and apparently they were canceled, but nowhere did they post about that and after driving 45 minutes from Columbus, that was one of the main reasons we came) but overall this was not worth our time or our money. Might be back, but probably not as this seems to be how it always is. I’m honestly shocked at the good reviews and would love to know when and how...

Comically bad

Let me start by saying I wanted this to be good. I would rather drive here than into Columbus even though this is a longer drive for me.

We sat down at 5 pm on Sunday. There was only our group and 1 other in the bar area. The rest of the restaurant was almost empty as well. We put in our drink and appetizer order. I ordered the shrimp, I was told they were out of shrimp. The waitress suggested the loaded tots for the kids, I said that's fine. She then said they were out of tots so it would be fries...fine. We got our drinks fairly quickly and the appetizers came in a decent amount of time, then the waitress disappeared. After 40 minutes of sitting down she still hadn't taken our order. I got up, went to the bar and got a couple of us another drink. She finally came back to take our order. They were out of several of the sides, I ended up ordering the broccoli she suggested. The kids got their food about an hour in, they were out of the broccoli we ordered, so they decided for us that the kids would be eating green beans instead. The 3 kids' food arrived cold. 1 hour and 10 minutes in my wife got her side salad, another in the party did not. A waitress who was not working got up from her drink at the bar to refill tea and water glasses, the bartender came to ask if we wanted another beer. An hour and a half in and our food begins to arrive, cold. I and another in the group were given green beans as a substitution for the side we ordered. You get green beans!,you get green beans!, everybody gets green beans!!! To be fair, 2 folks that ordered baked potatoes got mashed potatoes instead. My 14oz ribye was smaller than the 10oz ribye someone else ordered. I ordered med rare and it came med well. Another steak ordered med rare and it came well done, they also finally brought his side salad. He explained he'd ordered a baked potato, they brought him a baked potato pretty quickly along with butter with hair in it. Our waitress disappeared again and the bartender had to come over and start clearing our table and track down our checks. To add insult to injury we sent the kids to the arcade while we waited to cash out...and the arcade games took their coins. And all of this happened while the "chef" and, i assume, the manager sat in the booth beside us. I kept waiting for Ashton Kutcher to come out of the back but it never happened...

The only positives to the night were the pork chops my wife ordered, they were cooked perfectly and the portion was very generous. The steaks were fair at best. All the rest of the food seemed to have come pre-breaded/precooked off the Sysco truck.

I really hope this place gets it's ship together, but I...

I was sooo looking forward to Cowboy Town opening! The inside looks great! The waitress worked hard. I don't want her to feel any blame because she has no control over this.

These are my observations:

1. when we got to the porch a girl(hostess )was just holding it open and blocking it while she talked to people on the porch. A lady on the porch told her we were there. Once we were in we just stood awkwardly while everyone was talking (not paying attention to customers).
2. I expected a few things would need working out after opening....and we were told several items were not available due to faulty equipment and delivery problem. This was No problem.
3. we ordered ribeyes and they(both steaks) were pitiful...1/4-1/3 inch thick with a bone. It had no seasoning and was at best barely warm. It's arguably the worst steak I've had at a steakhouse. Waffle House has better steaks!
4. my tater tots were also barely warm and mushy with no seasoning...I ate 1/2 because I was hungry.
5. I ordered the grilled mozzarella bread and it was not grilled and was bland. I sent it back...I think it got microwaved a tiny bit. It was awful...I had one bite and he had one bite.
6. his beans and mushrooms were ok but tiny portions. They were served in little sauce bowls that other restaurants use for dressing or ketchup.

We wanted to like it. It was awful! We had to go to another restaurant to eat after we left because we didn't have enough food...and I usually take half home everywhere else. You need outstanding food if you are going to pull in customers from other areas... especially at those prices. $94 with tip for a $25 waffle House meal which would have been hot and tasted better. I have never written a letter to a restaurant before...so that should tell you how disappointed we were!

I sent this to the manager of Cowboy Town . I received no response. I'm very...