Mary's Family Restaurant — Restaurant in Appleton

I’m writing this review with a heavy heart, as I genuinely believe this is the only way to express my sadness over what I perceive as the “gradual decline of Mary’s.” Before 2020, things were different. I haven’t had a proper full breakfast at Mary’s since 2019, and I appreciate a classic diner experience if everything stays the same! However, I feel this restaurant desperately needs a major makeover.

When I walked in, the service was okay, but they seemed understaffed, and I don’t blame them for that—good help is hard to come by. My concern started when I noticed a sour smell in the restaurant that seemed to follow me throughout my visit and even into the taste of my extremely overpriced food.

Let’s talk about how long the food took to come out. It was a very long wait for the number of customers dining, but not so long that I was worried. Again, understaffed equals slow food running.

My biggest concern was the price. I paid $18 (not including tip) for an omelet, a pancake, and an orange juice. I can walk down the street and get the same thing for $8 less!

I guess my reason for writing this is that it saddens me to see Mary’s struggling. They’re going the way of major price increases, lack of staff, and no new carpets. Maybe they should try a scented candle?

One final note, I will update my review if Mary’s does improve and address...

Many, many, trips here. Still only leaving it 4 total stars. The food is always a great home cooked meal. Pleasant from when I was a college student to now an extended family meet up. My only consistent hold back is the service. While always pleasant and smiley i have clearly not gone at a time in the last 10 years where I have the same wait staff. I love that it shows a family environment through and through but our waitstaff , this most recent trip, was either not trained well or choose her behavior. She table touched mostly adequately enough, but when requests were made she did not hear them or only heard half. Napkins were thrown/ dropped on the table, cream was not offered nor brought when asked with coffee, plates were not brought with an appetizer plate for a party of 8, we could hear her on the other side gossiping with the other waitstaff. They were not particularly busy, and as a large table we had the potential for a large tip. We hard children with us but did not leave behind a large mess to clean. We love the core of this restaurant and its place in the community and will continue to come while the food is great, but we don’t expect much from some waitstaff with these...

I grew up going to Mary’s and have always loved it. Today was one of the worst service experiences I can recall having. We had a reservation and were told they put another group at our table. We ended up being seated a little later than planned but it was fine. After putting in our order we waited over an hour for food. We were never one given a refill of drinks and even went up to ask for coffee. We also had to go get our own napkins and silverware. When asking for an update we were brushed off and the woman shrugged and said they’re busy. I asked to speak to the manager at this point, to which someone went to tell the manager and said they’d be up shortly; the manager never came up and at this point our food has arrived. Orders were missing component and the steak was completely overcooked. When I spoke to the woman as we checked out (to voice the concerns the manager never came to speak to me about), the only response is they are busy. We were there from 10:25-12:10 and during that time no one apologized or seemed to even realize how awful the service was. I will say they have lost some customers...