Watson's Shack & Rail — Restaurant in Champaign

When the kitchen is on, Watson's food is great. However, over five years and several dozen trips I've never had back to back great experiences. Food consistency and quality had been slipping for awhile but, after the pandemic reopening it fell off a cliff. The "Food" rating would be five stars if there could be any consistency in quality, since there isn't it's just average.

If you want drinks, slushies, or whiskey then this place is for you, just know your food experience will vary wildly from visit to visit, independent of day or time.

It seems they're either understaffed, undertrained/mistrained, or the kitchen really has no pride. Gravy fries constantly come with burnt on the outside, cold in the middle cheese curds, as are the wedges. Wings appear to come from anorexic chickens; a one-pound order leaves 75% behind in bone weight (wings were amazing the first 18 months they were opened, then all down hill).

That is to say nothing of the incompetence of Nick. Had him wait on us four different times, and each time he messed up our orders. Then he looks at you like an idiot with a dumb expression on his face when you explain what he did wrong; never once has he apologized for being a colossal screw up, or offered to make it right. He always looks disgusted when we tell him to remake an order correctly; likes it's our fault he continually doesn't know what he's doing.

He took my brunch order (at the bar), immediately turned to the computer to put in the order, then had to turn around and ask what I ordered--not 10 seconds later! And to top it off, one time he was the one who brought our food out; spilling my wife's ranch--that had no business being on my plate--all over my food. When I said, "I will not eat that, you need to send it back and remake it please," he looked at me with that moronic look again and walked away. Had to have the bartender correct another Nick screw up.

We've had easily over a dozen different people wait on us over the years; only Nick was ever a problem. As such, the one-star service rating is directly due to him.

All that said, we still give them second chance after second chance, as they can be that good (and the CU food scene is meh). As long as we can avoid Nick, our dining experience is only dependent on the whims of the kitchen and not an incompetent server.

YMMV, but probably not. If you get great food and service one night, don't expect it the next; manage expectations...

The food here is decent. Nothing we had was bad, by any means, but it was unremarkable. The crab hush puppies barely had any crab, the gumbo was dry, and the I ordered a spicy chicken sandwich that was anything but. The worst thing about this restaurant, Thou, was the service. From the very start of our experience, it was unpleasant. The hostess greeted us by glaring and huffing while she asked what we were there for. Our waitress was inattentive. It took 10 minutes before she even came to our table. Our food took just over 45 minutes for us to get our food while people around us who came over well after us got theirs. And during that time, our waitress didn’t check on us once. It felt like we were being ignored because we were a family rather than a group of men getting drink after drink. It was very unprofessional. When we finally did get our food, a lot of it was lukewarm and the egg on my sandwich was over cooked. However, it took another 10 minutes for our waitress to check on us, and when she took the sandwich back, instead of refiring the order, the made another egg (which they over cooked AGAIN. It’s not hard to make an over easy egg. Come on!) and plopped it on top of the old sandwich, which by that point was at least 25 minutes old. It was very clear that our waitress didn’t care about our experience, and while the food was decent, the bad service ruined everything. We likely would have been willing to try this place again, maybe they had an off night in the kitchen, but not after the was we were treated. No one even said goodbye or thanked us as we left. Once again, the hostess just glared. Customer service and congeniality is essential to running a restaurant and it’s clear Watson’s doesn’t understand that. Do yourself a favor and take your...

In town on a Friday night for a long work trip, I decided to check this place out for dinner.

Being alone means you eat at the bar, and being alone, married and pregnant can suck.

I was so happy to see a decent non-alchoholic drink offering... their "peacemaker" was phenomenal and perfect for a refreshing beverage on a hot night... and it gave me a fancy looking beverage while I ate at the bar

Bartender Anne was delightful, and quickly let me know to check the menu becuase things have changed (and based on some die-hard fan reviews apparently this place is very different now). Luckily I had no clue what I was getting into!!!

The bar had a great displayed selection of quality bottles, from my vantage point I could see an excellent variety of tequilas, and whiskeys and bourbons.

Bonus points for offering a popcorn tofu Pop Boy sandwhich and a side of Vegan potato salad... I'm a straying vegetarian while pregnant, but I love seeing quality options that are a true standing dish, and not just a menu item minus the meat.

Their fried chicken sandwhich was far better than I ever expected it to be. I haven't had that good of a fried chicken sandwhich since I lived down South in Georgia. A lovely chance for some proper fried chicken, while still being in the midwest.

Fries weren't hot or particularly great... But the sandwhich alone made this a 5 star experience. The really good drink helped, and it was nice having a bar tender who kept my water topped off...