Thunder Bay Grille Pewaukee — Restaurant in City of Pewaukee

We wanted to like this place, but first impressions are everything. The ashtray by the front entrance was overflowing and created an awful smell walking in. It could not have been emptied for days.

We opted to eat at the bar around 7:30 PM. It took quite a while for the bartender to even approach us...even though the place was quite dead. Her opening line was "how are we doing kids"?...Both my husband and I are 47 years old. This place is too nice for us to be treated like we are at the neighborhood corner bar.

I ordered the salad bar and my husband ordered the tenderloin tips. It took over 30 minutes to get the tenderloin tips....and the place was not busy. By the time my husband got his food, I was done eating at the salad bar. What made the wait even more frustrating was the fact that we had to sit there and watch the two bartenders eat a burger...behind the bar...in the open

In front of customers....I could not believe they were eating a burger while working They also never washed their hands after each bite . Yikes! When his tips finally came, they were covered in cheese. It was our fault entirely that we didnt read the menu fully to ask for no cheese. My husband can't have cheese. The bartender, Bailey, offered to have it re-made. That was great. The new food came out in about 6 minutes. So why did it take over 30 minutes the first time?

We weren't offered dessert or more water...even though we sat there with empty water glasses. I finally asked for more water for both of us. The bartender took our tips with cheese(the incorrect food) back to the kitchen and promptly came out with a to- go box and placed it next to her burger. So I guess she was taking that food home?!...All of my dirty salad bar plates sat in front of me the entire meal...unacceptable.

This was our first time here and we were excited to try something new. If the bartenders are allowed to eat in front of customers, what else is...

Not a great experience, not great food. We waited about 5 minutes at the front desk to get a table because no one was around. Two women came over to look at something but didn't acknowledge anyone. I decided to go to the bar to request service, then when someone came out, some lady who jumped in front of us tried getting her group in before us because "I have reservations." Whatever that means. Some man who I assume is a manager apologized and later came to our table to offer a free appetizer. The waitress acknowledge this moments later. At one point we had empty plates laying around all over, and when the waitress brought our food, she didn't bother to deal with those. Appetizer plates didn't get picked up until I was done with the entrée. At one point another waitress brought food to the table that wasn't our order. And when we got the check, the $18 appetizer was on the bill. I didn't even feel like fighting it and still gave 18% tip. The shrimp scampy was less than average, and my bison burger was overcooked, charred way too much, and was about an inch smaller than the brioche bun. No thicker than my pinky. McDonald's serves better burgers. Pretty certain this place is overrated. Staff seems scarce, inattentive, and unskilled, especially on the cook side. Questionable quality of ingredients. Sad that we paid $70 for such poor food and mediocre service. And a kids 3 piece chicken tenders is $8 with fruit and milk. $8. $8. Think about that. Someone made that pricing decision for chicken tenders. Oh, and the crab cakes had shell fragments in them, not much to be concerning, but enough to make for a good treasure hunt. I'm thinking 2 stars is generous, and I'm the type that never...

My wife and I went there for dinner with the intention of checking the place out, as we were potentially going to book a room for a wedding shower. We thought we would see what it was like beforehand. We were seated quickly, but then had to wait 15 minutes for our waitress to show up, and take our orders for drinks. When she returned, we ordered an appetizer and our dinners. Again, we waited a very long time for our food to show up despite the fact that the dining room was almost completely empty. She brought our salads first, again, followed by a long, wait, and then eventually our main Course. Our appetizer was never brought out, and when I mentioned it to our waitress, she asked if someone else had not brought it for us, saying that there was a big party going on in a different part of the restaurant and that the kitchen was very busy. She assured us that we would not have to pay for the appetizer that we never got. How kind. When our main courses were done, we sat around again for a long time before bringing our check. We were never offered refills on our drinks or asked if we would like dessert. Clearly, we will not be booking a room for the bridal shower, and it is very unlikely that I will ever return there for another meal. The food was average at best. In 35 years of marriage, it was the first time that I had ever seen my wife use salt on her food, saying that she had to give it some sort of flavor. In fairness, when I spoke with the manager, explaining the disappointment we had in our meal, I think he offered to pick up the tab, which was not the intention of the conversation, and his polite offer was refused. if I could give the service zero stars,...