HEROES TASTES + TAPS — Restaurant in Branson

We travel to Branson several times a year and like to try out a lot of the newer places each time we go. I've passed by a few times and my wife and I decided to give it a go this past week as we had never previously been there. Start to finish, it was not a good experience.

The entry is on the side of the building, not the front. I think this was previously a different business/restaurant, possibly affiliated with the hotel. But I would have thought some renovations would have made sense since then. Almost the entire interior is shades of grey with no character at all. It felt more like we were walking into a church basement for a potluck than into a restaurant. There are pictures on the walls that are supposed to be honoring heroes but otherwise it's drab and ugly.

The restaurant wasn't busy at all. We observed at least 4 servers working. I don't time things exactly, but the server took a bit long just to stop quickly at the table to tell us she'd be right with us. It was close to another 10 minutes before she returned. It's hard to say what exactly she was doing as it appeared she only had 2 other tables besides ours and disappeared into the back for a long time and came out empty handed.

We ordered everything at once (water, drinks from the bar and food) for fear it would be too long again before her return. She brought the water pretty much right away. The bar drinks took a very long time. They weren't delivered by the server, but by someone else who I'm assuming got tired of them not being picked up. Our entrees arrived less than 1 minute after we had finally received our drinks (also not delivered by the server)

As a general rule, I expect food from a restaurant to be better than something I can make at home. It failed on all counts. The pork chop was seasoned well, but was chewy (which we related to the server who reacted with "oh" and walked away). The meatloaf was very plain. The mashed potatoes tasted like they were made from boxed potatoes with a beef gravy like they were from a TV dinner. The brussel sprouts were plain. The carrots were about the only redeeming item as they were actually cooked thru and somewhat soft.

Start to finish, the only stops the server made at the table were those noted above and then to drop the check. The ticket was about $70 which was so discouraging to have to pay that much for the experience.

It was very disappointing start to finish and with numerous dining options in town, we won't...

My family and I take the 7-8 hour drive from Texas to Branson at least once a year. There are always the old staples that we visit, but we always add something new to our trip. This one is no different. We had seen the Heroes Tastes on the strip. At first look we thought it may be something different. Then we looked it up and found out it was about the celebration of all first responders. We thought that was just a brilliant idea. So after reading the reviews, we decided to stop by and enjoy some good food. My wife and I were seated and our waitress Brittany (sp?) stopped by to get our drink order. She was very nice. At first glance my wife and I initially agreed that there should be more representation of the first responders on the walls. It was ok, just seemed a little lacking in my opinion. I ordered the fried green tomato BLT, my wife ordered the strawberry salad, and my six year got the kids chicken strips. My BLT came with smoked bacon and a fried green tomato on it. The bacon, though at first bite, had a good flavor quickly turned inedible. As it was very rubbery and not fried at all. The fried green tomato was very mushy and the batter fell off very easily. It was like they cut the tomato and didn’t pat it dry before battering it and frying it. All that together made me pick off a few things and not really eat it. The fries were good. The strawberry salad my ordered was really good ( as we ate that together because my sandwich was not eaten). Though in our opinions it may have needed some crispy bacon crumbles in it. The dressing was good. Even though the consistency reminded of a strawberry yogurt. But the taste was really good. Our son liked his chicken. Going by the prior reviews, people seem to like it. This was our experience. Will...

I would rather give good reviews than bad. But the experience we had this weekend, unfortunately I can't. It was our first time at this restaurant. We were very disappointed in the service and food. I ordered lemon with water. Our server said the lemon "was on it's way". It never arrived. Our order was taken by our server and we never saw him again. At all. Our food was delivered by someone else that acted like she was being forced against her will to bring us our food. I ordered the fish plate. The description on the menu states it comes with mac and cheese, however there was a $2 charge on our ticket for the mac and cheese. I ordered a strawberry lemonade adult beverage. The description on the menu said it had strawberries in the drink. It came without strawberries. It did have a lemon wedge that I put in my water (remember, the lemon for my water never arrived). My husband's soda remained empty. We waited (patiently) for our server to return to ask for a box and our ticket. The bartender was at a table next to us trying to resolve that table's complaints, and when he asked us if we needed anything we told him we were just waiting our server so that we could get a to-go box and our ticket. The bartender was the one that returned with both items. I jokingly asked if we made our server mad (knowing we didn't since we never saw him after he took our order). The bartender said no, he's just busy. Ummm.....too busy to take care of the table he was assigned? 🤔 Knowing we would never be back, we paid our bill and left. Such a shame because I would rather be giving a 5-star review, but I just can't. There were too many issues not...