Hidden Pines Restaurant — Restaurant in Branson

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⭐ 1 out of 5 stars Hidden Pines Restaurant – Hard to Find and Hard to Recommend

First off, this place was very hard to find. There’s one small sign pointing in the general direction, but after driving down the hill, we didn’t see anything else—no follow-up signs or clear markings. We finally discovered it’s tucked underneath The Summit restaurant, down a flight of stairs. Not exactly an inviting start.

When we walked in around 3 p.m., the restaurant was completely empty—just us. It was dark inside, decorated for Halloween, and didn’t feel welcoming. The hostess seated us, but the chairs were uncomfortable, even though the tables looked nice. The silverware looked cheap—like something from a dollar store.

We started with queso and chips. The queso was actually very good—nice spice and homemade flavor—but the chips were mostly crumbs, like the bottom of the bag. Strike one.

We shared a 14-oz steak and ordered a side salad. The steak arrived first, and when I asked about the salad, the server said she’d bring it. I mentioned salads usually come before the entrée, and she said, “Oh, sometimes we just bring them together.” When it finally came, it was bland—just some greens, a little shaved cheese, and a few tomatoes, with no dressing—for $6.

To their credit, the steak was excellent: tender, perfectly seasoned, and cooked just right. The garlic mashed potatoes and green beans were also very good. Unfortunately, the service didn’t come close to matching the food quality. Our water glasses sat empty while the two servers wrapped silverware in napkins and chatted. With no other customers in the restaurant, that’s just poor attention.

The server spilled water while refilling our glasses and made no attempt to wipe it up, then placed the steak knife right in the puddle. Empty dishes stayed on the table long after we finished, and it took over 10 minutes after that to get the check.

Adding to our concerns, I noticed one of the cooks step outside and then come back in still wearing his food-service gloves, using them to open the door. Hopefully, he changed them afterward—but it didn’t look good.

I honestly don’t understand how this place has an average of about 4.5 stars over 500 reviews. The reviews do not line up with our experience—unless there’s been a change in management.

Overall, the steak deserves 3½ to 4 stars, but everything else rates a 1. For the price, you can easily find better service, atmosphere, and attention to detail elsewhere.

Dine at your own risk. Not...

Not exaggerating, this was the worst meal of my life. My husband made a reservation here for Mother’s Day based on the positive reviews, so we were expecting a great meal before leaving town. We were the first table sat. The restaurant seems like it was an old club that was lazily converted into a restaurant. It smelled like old fried food and felt really hollow inside. We were the first ones there so were the first table to get our orders in. I was served a room-temperature mimosa, but ignored it and just put ice cubes in it to chill it down. After waiting a long time for our appetizer, we watched our server deliver it to the wrong table. She realized right after she did it and put her hands on her head. She had the kitchen make a new one for us, which we were relieved for because we had seen the first one sit at the food window for several minutes and assumed it would’ve been cold anyway. She never acknowledged her mistake or apologized. It took 20+ minutes to get the appetizer as a result, which was just queso and chips. The food took at least 30 minutes to be delivered from the time we ordered and it was so gross that most of us didn’t even eat. I got a BLT that genuinely was inedible. My husband’s steak was rancid. We would have said something to the server, but she never came by our table again. Plus we had already been there for over an hour and didn’t want to wait for new food. There seemed to be 3 people staffing the entire restaurant that morning. There was one guy working the kitchen and greeting and seating guests, which seemed unsanitary. My mother in law had to walk back to the kitchen to request our bill. After 15+ more minutes of waiting after requesting the bill, we were about to just get up and leave. The server saw us and finally prioritized getting that bill for us. Nothing was comped. No apologies were said. We were in utter disbelief at the entire experience. It was awful from the environment, to the food, to the...

Extremely disappointed!!! My group came here expecting a delicious meal on our Branson adventure, the waitress was delightful, her name was Gabrielle or Elle and she did guide us through the menu. The mimosa was phenomenal but I was sad to realize that would be the highlight of my meal. I ordered the steak and eggs, medium for my steak and over easy for my eggs, the steak came out well done and my eggs fried hard, not runny at all, and to top it off no seasoning at all on the eggs or potatoes that came with the meal. The waitress offered to make me a new steak and took the overdone one back to the kitchen. We asked for the manager to make him aware of how bad the kitchen screwed up our meals and he came over with nothing but excuses. My friend had ordered the chicken and waffles, which a hotel waffle would have been more appealing and his chicken was burnt. My other friend ordered the chicken fried chicken with green beans, her chicken was burnt and they tried covering it with their bland gravy as if she wouldn’t taste the burnt chicken. The manager did apologize and personally cooked my steak and it looked as if he was showing the kitchen as to how to make a proper medium steak because you could see into the kitchen. The only silver lining is that he comped our terrible meal, I paid for my mimosa and tipped the waitress big because she did a great job. The food sucks, it seems like all the 5 star reviews were paid because that’s the reason we came here and were highly disappointed. Like the other bad reviews I’m sure I will get a rude response with more excuses. As if they couldn’t make a good meal with only 3 tables being served. Gabrielle or Elle, if you read this, you did a phenomenal job and we were confused as to why you were pulled from finishing your service with us. Also, I would like to add, it seems like they spend more time focusing on their Halloween decor than the quality...