The Edward Ball Dining Room at Wakulla Springs — Restaurant in Crawfordville

UPDATE -- Went for dinner again, on 08/29/25; Reservations easy to make; met at door promptly and was seated at our window table. Our server was very nice (Chloe R.) and accommodating, and we ordered our drinks and entrees. It didn't take them long to appear. BUT, noticed he AUCE Shrimp dinner was different - the batter on the shrimp was not the same (?), as the previous times we've been there; usually the shrimp is lightly battered and almost like a tempura type, but this time it seemed heavier and too "done". Something has changed there - new recipes? -- not sure if new chef or what -- the other entree we ordered was the Liver and Onions which is always good -- again, but this time it was a bit overcooked, and hard to cut. Baked Potato was not quite done. When it came to dessert menu, there were 4 desserts that they were out of --- so I ordered the Ginger Yip Cheesecake, which was real good and rich. Overall a chance to eat out, in a great place, but not too many people in the restaurant for the "AUCE SHRIMP" night....which on other Friday nights, they are usually packed. (wondering why?)

Everyone deserves a Second Chance -- We went here again, last night, (02/15/23) for a birthday celebration, and had a very delightful meal. I had Liver/Onions, Vegetable Medley, and Tiramisu (YUMMY), and partner had Fried Shrimp (which is always good) and greek salad, and cheesecake. Everything was cooked to perfection and tastes wonderful. One thing I noticed, there was no bread or crackers served. Why is that? Our server was Emily and she was very attentive and friendly. The chairs still are very uncomfortable, and so low it's hard for older people to get out off, plus by being that low, you almost feel like you need a "booster" seat to sit on while eating! (ha). They really need to replace those chairs, as soon as possible........My previous review is below: A very disappointing Thanksgiving Buffet, this year (11/24/22). What happened? I've been coming to their buffets for MANY years and this is the first time that it has been "sub-par" --- And for 41.95 a person!!?? Meats were good, desserts were good-especially the chocolate cake. Greens were much too spicy, Squash casserole was much too cheesy, with no real taste, Mac/Cheese tasteless and runny. Stuffing/Dressing was WAY TOO DRY and crumbly!! Where was the oyster dressing, that Wakulla Springs is known for?? They could have done better by mixing up a Pepperide Farm package, with an egg and chicken broth!!! Salad choice was only a spring mix. What happened to variety of different kinds of salads? Also, no bread/rolls -- had to ask the waiter about them, then shortly I saw a plate of ciabatta rolls had been put on buffet.....who plans meals with no bread!? If things don't improve pretty soon, we'll go elsewhere for our holiday meals! I have company coming in next month, and now I'm afraid to take them down there for a meal, after I've bragged about them in the past!! We made reservations via Open Table, which worked out very well, and got seated promptly at our designated time. Service was...

As breakfast dining hotel guests we got down to breakfast at 8:30 to ensure we had plenty of time to enjoy a leisurely breakfast before getting to the 9:40 boat. Although I'm certain that it is extremely common that people eating breakfast there are planning to go on the 9:40 boat, we ended up having to run for the boat and very nearly missed it.

The waitress seated us directly and took our drink order but our first mistake was to not have our order ready immediately. She didn't return to take our food order for over 10 minutes. (This was in a nearly empty restaurant, and from what we could tell we were her only table, with another waitress covering three other tables). First sign of trouble but there was still an hour before the boat left.

Then she returned like five minutes after taking our order "to double check" our order. Which meant our order still hadn't been put in.

When she did, she brought my coffee and that was the last we saw of her for over 30 minutes. In the interim, my wife had decided that she would also like a cup of coffee but she was nowhere to be seen to place the order.

Finally she did show back up and I pointed to my now very long ago empty coffee cup which she seemed to acknowledge, but then continued to not serve us. Eventually we flagged down the other waitress who brought my wife's coffee and refilled mine. The food eventually arrived almost an hour after we sat down.

As a result we had to wolf down our food, (we couldn't finish the food we'd paid for in the short amount of time we had) and my wife didn't have time to drink her coffee (it was brought out hot, of course) so we didn't even have time to finish our food and drink and had to then run (not great after wolfing down breakfast) to catch the 9:40 boat, which was just leaving when we ran up. Thankfully the ticket staff told us "Just go and pay for your ticket when you get back."

At no point in this very long span of time did our waitress ever come by to say "I'm sorry it's taking so long" or even checked on us (refill an empty coffee, water) to give whatever excuse she had to throw out there to let us know that she knew that it was taking a very long time to make a simple breakfast in a mostly empty restaurant.

The other waitress was dealing with three tables without issue, all three having arrived after us and left before us.

This was a completely unnecessarily stressful breakfast experience. I don't recommend going for breakfast unless you give yourself 1.5 hours.

The food was fine and the prices...

We had reservations for the first seating for Christmas Day at 11:00 a.m. we were seated promptly in a sunny cozy corner for our party of seven. There was a nice fire in the huge fireplace in the lobby, where the buffet was set up. The staff seem to be really scurrying around and I remember thinking poor kids I hope they get this together :-) The friendly waitress took drink orders etc told us we could go to the buffet anytime. By the time we got to the buffet it was completely set up, service was available from both ends so the line moved nicely. The food was very good, not an overwhelming variety but certainly sufficient and top quality. The roast beef carving was excellent, salad ingredients were crisp and fresh, and what I believe was homemade dressing was really excellent, maybe a little salty for my taste, but I don't drown my salad in dressing so it was delightful. The pecan pie was excellent but let's be honest how can you screw up pecan pie? The pumpkin or potato pie looked so but I wanted something chocolate, The chocolate cake was the only thing I was disappointed in It was so so. The key lime pies looked like the typical uncooked stuff, so I avoided it. Overall, I was very pleased. For decades we have often eaten holiday meals at the wakula springs Lodge. Sometimes it has been divine sometimes we would swear we would never come back, but the ambience and convenience of a close by destination keeps us coming back. This time the food was excellent, not the best they've done but delightful. Thanks to The gracious and friendly staff at wakulla springs. Happy holidays and New Year to you all. See you again soon! PS, often someone is playing the piano which is always a delight It would have been nice for...