8th Street At the Ivy — Restaurant in Cody

My wife and I stayed at the Best Western Ivy Premier Hotel in Cody, WY, and ate four meals at the 8th Street at the Ivy Restaurant over June 2 -4, 2013. The first night's dinner was quite good; the second morning's breakfast was excellent; the second night's dinner was good; the third morning's breakfast was a disaster. We arrived at the restaurant at 7:20 am and two gentlemen came in a bit after us. We four were the only people in the restaurant during this whole incident. They had a female waitperson; we had a male. We were promptly delivered menus, water and coffee. Our waitperson was slow getting back to us, but when he did my wife ordered a yogurt with fruit that was supposed to be drizzled in huckleberry syrup and cranberry nut toast. I ordered an omelet and the same toast. 40 minutes later we still had not been served our food--and no explanations. One of the gentlemen at the other table had a similar experience and he went to see where his food was. I got up to check on our order, and about that time both wait persons came with the food for the respective tables. We made a comment about the length of time that it had taken to get our food, and our waiter said that was because I had asked my eggs to be well cooked (I had the same order the previous morning and that hadn't seemed to have affected the time to get the food; also I've worked as a cook and still cook omelets for my family and the difference in cooking time for well done eggs would be about 30 seconds at most). Additionally, my wife's order was with canned fruit and without the huckleberry drizzle. Our waiter explained that they had run out of the drizzle. Her toast and mine were stone cold--and I mean stone cold. The second cup of coffee was barely luke-warm. Our waiter apologized, but there was no offer not to charge for the meal or to reduce the charge. My wife complained at the front desk, asked to speak to the restaurant manager, and got the female waitperson. She offered that the cook was slow getting started. One of the hotel desk people confided to my wife that they had received complaints about the consistency of the restaurant. We were given an email address to complain to Megan Stephen the restaurant manager (apparently the hotel and restaurant occupy the same property, but are different legal entities and are under different management), but that address did not work. So, we're left with this review.

My advice is to eat somewhere else. The Bar is well run with competent help; however, the restaurant is another story. Inconsistent is too kind; incompetently managed is a better descriptor. Frankly, we would stay at the hotel again--the rooms are gorgeous, but we would not eat again at the 8th Street restaurant. It is one thing to have an off day--for which there should be no excuse in a service business anyway. However, it is inexcusable that the customer pays for glacially slow service, poorly prepared food, BS excuses, and no offer to make it right--especially when there are only four people in the entire restaurant and different waitpersons for each...

My wife and I had an excellent meal tonight. We started off with the flash fried brussels sprouts which were very good. For the main course my wife had the filet mignon and I had the spicy rattlesnake pasta. We both had Caesar salads, which were excellent. The spicy rattlesnake pasta was outstanding. My wife had an issue with gristle in the filet. Our waitress, Nicole, immediately took care of it by offering us several options at which my wife asked for another filet. My wife was pleased with the second filet. The entire staff was impressive starting with the hostesses, our busser Donna Kay, and our waitress Nicole. I watched the staff continually circling the restaurant to help one another to fill drinks and clean off the table. I was also happy that Nicole gave us a carafe of ice water. It drives me crazy when restaurant staff does not fill water. We finished our first carafe of water and Donna Kay immediately came to our table and asked if we wanted another. I have only seen teamwork like that at one other restaurant...

Megan, the bartender, is a real piece of work. Never had a bartender act as if they were irritated by asking for a butter knife and plate for our bread at the bar. Decided to sit at a table instead of dealing with the attitude. When asked to speak to the manager, he came to the table with an attitude too. When asked if he had spoken to Megan, he responded "yes I wanted to know what I was walking into" as he threw his hands onto the table like he was looking for a fight with my wife. When I stood up to address him, he backed off. I told him I would like to pay for my drink and leave his response was "it's on us" threw up his hands and walked away.

Thought bestwestern had their act together with this type facility, but the people here are still subpar just like any other location. I used to use bestwestern for business for travel myself and my employees in the past, but this visit just conformed that I would rather sleep in my vehicle than spend my company money with another company that treats their...