Waterfront Grille & Event Center — Restaurant in Arnolds Park

I debated on posting this review for a bit because it truly takes a lot to want to negatively comment on a restaurant, but oh my god does this take the cake for worst dining experience of my life. We made our reservation on July 19th at 8pm on the patio. We arrived a bit early (around 7:40ish) and waited in the cascade of other reservations/walk-ins which was no problem! We told the hosts that we were early so we had no problem waiting at the bar and grabbing a drink until our table was ready, but they told us that that had an open table inside that was ready for us now if we’d like, which we happily took.

We were not only excited about great menu selection, but as this was my partner and I’s 4 year anniversary (which we had mentioned when we made the reservation as well as when we were met at the host stand) and only vacation/ “fine” dining dinner that we’ve had this year, we truly wanted to appreciate a celebratory dinner.

When we were sat, we waited about 10ish minutes for water and another 10ish minutes for a server to stop by. 20 minutes of just sitting and waiting. We were sat at a 2-top table, essentially smushed between two large parties and it seemed that our server truly did not care about us at all. I completely understand being busy and wanting to make money off of bigger parties, but from what we observed, her section was only around 4-5 tables. There was maybe 45 seconds TOTAL of actual service and checking in and the check ins were few and far between.

Now, the food. Jesus. We started with the “Bang bang brussel sprouts” , this was an insult to every brussel sprout I have ever had. Not exaggerating even a little bit, it’s quite literally just brussel sprouts, cheese, and Frank’s Hot Sauce. For 18$ I thought this had to be a prank. Careless, tasteless, and (very generously saying), bland. If we had not placed our entire order when the waitress first stopped by, in fear of being forgotten for another 20 minutes, then we wouldve just left.

Unfortunately the only thing we liked was the soup and salad starter for our entrees lol. I had ordered the fried chicken entree and my partner had the walleye. When mine came out, it had looked like it sat in the window for a bit of time, the gravy congealed and cracked at the top. Just cold. It was good but 28$ for a fried chicken breast with gravy? Laughable, but ultimately my fault. My partners 40$ walleye was simply not good, defrosted and salty. He choked through as much as he could and our waitress asked if we needed a box. We said yes but through 1 or 2 more bites, it just wasn't something that we could bring back and want to eat again.

Another 10 minutes pass since asking if we wanted a box, and in that time we figured dessert was not worth it here based on the fact that no one cared about our experience. $110 later, we asked for a wine bag to take our bottle of champagne home, she said we dont have any. So I asked for a plastic bag, they dont have any. At this point I said, “Is there any bag you have that I can bring home this champagne in?” Finally we got a brown paper bag to put that in.

The cherry on top is Toast, those awful handheld tablets. When it came time to pay my $110 bill, our inattentive, overwhelmed server just flips back the screen with the tip options of 20%, 22%, and 50% with the custom tip option below. As a server of 6+ years, I have never tipped less than 20%, and still tipped ours 20%. Seeing the options be 20%+ was just so insane to me.

There are a MULTITUDE of issues within this restaurant that need to be explored, from our greeting to farewell, it was just an awful experience. Save your money and go literally anywhere else. Awful...

Messaged them on Facebook to see if I could get a reservation. They told me to call in for it, so I did. They told me I had a party of 6 reserved for Sunday at 6pm.

The day comes, and we all get there a little early, so I called in to ask if we could be seated sooner, or if they'd prefer 6pm. They said my reservation didn't exist, but that they had tables open and to come on in.

We get there and they tell us there isn't enough room. They offered to have us sit outside, in the pouring rain and wind. I declined. They took another 20 minutes trying to get a table for us. They ended up having to move two tall tables together for my party.

They asked me who gave the reservation, and I had to explain to them that I had no idea, given that everyone that has answered when I called just says "Hello?" and doesn't greet you with the name of the establishment and the name of who you are talking to.

We finally get seated, the server was fantastic, she was really nice and friendly to us all, we had no issues with wrong orders or anything like that.

The menu is insanely expensive, which I expected at a resort restaurant. What I didn't expect is that the Cajun chicken would have no spice on it at all. I didn't expect that the salad would be half a head of lettuce that you have to cut and assemble yourself. I wasn't expecting a small plate of onion rings to cost $20, and have no seasoning on them at all. It was just bread, egg, and onion. The food was lacking, really bad. If you are used to having flavor with your food, avoid this place. It's bland.

It's like everything lacked flavor, or that the chef was so used to serving people that don't season their food, that they got used to not adding anything to the food at all.

To be fair, some of the food was pretty good, but it isn't worth anywhere near what they charge, and the customer service by the greeters/cashiers just wasn't worth it, either.

Did I mention they don't take...

It's a beautiful area, which is partly what made us want to try this restaurant. I can't speak on the resort side of it but the service at the restaurant is absolutely horrid! We waited by the podium for 45 mins after being told it would only be 20-25 mins. They sent us a text, we didn't get it, but it told them that it was not delivered but even though we were standing right next to them, they made us stand there and wait and then gave our table away. They could have just looked up and let us know it was ready, we didn't move, and they knew we were there. After 40 minutes of this, I asked, and they said, "Oh well, we texted you 15 minutes ago, but I can see it didn't go through. You'll have to wait now." I said, but we were standing right here next to you, and you couldn't just tell us? She blankly started through me as if i wasn't there. I was furious but kept my cool. Not to mention, we have a 3 year old toddler with us as well. We were finally seated, and then after being sat, no wait staff showed up again. We sat there for 15 minutes before finally just getting up and leaving. No one came to our table, not even to give menus or for drinks. I will never step foot in this place again. The staff there was very rude as well. I watched the hostess roll her eyes and become snarky with several people. Mind you... it wasn't even busy. These kids that are basically running it, there was no one working there that looked a day over 20, didn't have a clue what they were doing, and it was showing. Worst experience at a restaurant in Boji. So if you like waiting and getting passed up and having someone be rude to you and give you side eye if you ask questions... then this is your kind of place. Went next door to Bracco, which is right next door. Still seemed to be run by a bunch of kids and had some issues there as well, but nothing like...