Western Empire Emporium — Restaurant in Billings

Will never be back. We’re fairly new to Billings, and have been in for the weekend buffet twice. A little overpriced at $16 but when the good restaurants are packed it was a serviceable alternative if we didnt feel like cooking at home. Made the mistake today of taking my wife and daughter since it was Mothers Day. Waitress was cranky and inattentive, buffet was the usual but for a very undercooked, bland prime rib. Then we got the bill...$28.95 per person for the buffet. Our terrible waitress never told us the price, it wasnt in the menu, and when I complained to the cashier she said the price was posted on the podium at the entrance, so we looked....it wasnt anywhere to be seen. So I asked the nice young lady at the podium where the buffet price was posted, and she pulled out a scrap of paper from under a stack of notes on her side of the podium that had a hand written list of several things. In other words, its not posted anywhere. Nice scam. Its bad enough that most of the clientele look like they live in a trailer park and do all their shopping at Walmart, but to charge $28.95 for a bunch of hashbrowns, burnt bacon, biscuits and gravy, a one person omellette bar and a terrible prime rib is insane. The only decent part was the fruit selection. And for staff to be so condescending when asked about it, and lie about the price postings is just too much. I realize we are not their target customer, but they really should be ashamed. As i said, we will never go back, and will be making a concerted effort with friends, colleagues and social media to let everyone know to...

We truly appreciate the service Western Emporium provides to veterans and their spouses on Veteran's Day with the free meals. The service was excellent and the waitresses were prompt and efficient with service. The food was good, but the drink I had was rather weak, but still tasted good.

Unfortunately, one thing that bothered my husband and me was what was posted on a memo regarding their Veteran's Day service and menu. We have been going to the Emporium for several years now and have never had anything bother us as much as it did this time. I understand completely that this establishment has every right to post any messages they wish. This is a free country and the Western Emporium is a private establishment and can set any rules it wishes with regards to any messages. However, the message they posted today on one of their flyers was inappropriate considering it was Veteran's Day, which is a day to honor all veterans, my husband and myself included, who served this country to protect it's freedoms. Yes, they have the right to post it, but it's an attack on those who do not support a certain political party. If they are going to honor all veterans, they need to stop the attack against our political system regardless of who is in office. Incidentally, I would be saying this regardless of which party was degraded, because it's just wrong on a day like today. So, even though the service was excellent and the food was good, we will not be returning next year, but thank you for providing this service to veterans and their...

My wife and I went today to Western Emporium I had the chicken fried steak meal . The chicken fried steak was not very good it was soaked in cooking oil, the breading was thin and it did not taste good. I also had the biscuit and sausage gravy, the biscuit was hard the sausage gravy didn't have any sausage in it except for pencil eraser sized pieces of sausage and it was a white flour gravy that tastes like blah, like what you would expect flour and water to taste like.it's something your grandma would make when all she had in the house was flour and water, when I go out to eat I want to eat something that I can't make that taste better than mine and it seems to never happen. My wife had the New York strip steak with green beans and bacon. and soup . The soup was stuffed pepper with rice with Texas toast and tater tots. The steak was exactly half fat and Gristle and was undercooked the soup was good the tater tots were good and the Texas toast was okay and we each had water with lemon. I have never ate at this place before and based on this meal I would never go back my wife has ate here three times and all three meals were just okay nothing to...