Mill Haus Cider Co. — Restaurant in Eatonville

Barely can give a 3 because atmosphere and intent of cider mill and beer garden wins but the food…not a destination for that. One feels they enter a venue in Garmisch Germany or some Bavarian village amidst the small town Americana of Eatonville. I see by maps of where people are from all over visiting so it’s likely showing as a place to check out. We drove over an hour away for music and BBQ. Ambiance can’t be beat. However a major major shortcoming is the menu and service. I can understand the challenges of being fully prepared to run an indoor/outdoor venue in the Pacific Northwest but if one is advertising sliders and is a featured item ..this did not make any grade at all having about a teaspoon of meat contrary to other pictures I’ve seen. With multi smokers on site that were inactive and a somewhat big crowd on a Sunday that place should be smoking to hog heaven!! I think they were running out of meat, ordered both chicken and pork sliders and needed side of sauce added because too dry. The rolls are served unconventionally attached as. 4 in a row. My sliders looked nothing like the photos posted. A clever way to save meat but if you want to keep a steady return of folks rather than just tourists they need to seperate those sliders Mound them up with meat and a pile of slaw; no pickles on the side so add those and how about a standard pork beans or baked beans in a small dish. If you want to bring in those locals and hard working class regularly from Yelm, Tacoma, Graham, sorting; get that place firing on all cylinders. Servers should go around asking what else refills (there was a lot of standing around). Take the credit card and keep an open tab. Big hard Working ( not fat big but large big ) northwesterners want to get a full meal here for $15-20 and it is not a full meal. Allow tipping at the end when clearing the bill and the servers will do much better. Put some Koj in the ponds to clean up algae and add a feature for kids. I’m Mexican so didn’t try the tacos because I’m usually dissapointed with restaurant tacos. My advice to the restaurant… prepare as if every customer is putting you on television and you get exposure on national TV. That top bun in the slider should be falling off, seperate the slider buns so all the stuff that falls off can be eaten at the end. Ambiance in areas where grills werent used (east side of restaurant) have something smoking coming out of there even if no volume. I saw alot of people waiting, including me for 45 minutes plus, and to see empty smokers with the wait time didn’t sit well. Invite me back and I’ll give opinion on tacos and if improvements needed will give free advice. Salad was good. I get the feeling owners are hyper conscientious of food costs because of the high overhead. They could review their system for efficiencies ensuring the bottom line, quality food and drink to happy customer, is met or exceeded all hours open. Dog friendly a plus and prickly pear cider can’t be beat, r be...

We were really excited about having our wedding reception at the Mill Haus. It was going to be small, about 30 people. Elena was handling all of the planning via email and we were very careful to make sure we were clear about what we had in mind. Elena seemed to know what she was doing. Lesson learned here…DO NOT make arrangements for an event like this without going through the owner. We showed up and they had not saved enough table space for us, not to mention the parking lot was packed and our guests had to walk a significance distance to get there. We were told not to worry about the food because we could just order off the menu when we arrived. That made me nervous but we went with it. The groom ended up waiting IN LINE for a long time to order food for our guests! Then we waited over an hour for the food to arrive. We were planning a nice, simple reception, only two hours. Essentially, by the time our guests walked to the facility, then the groom waited in line for food, and then the food finally arrived, our reception time was up and it was close to time that the Mill Haus was wanting to close up. The Mill Haus is a GEORGOUS place. They have done an incredible job of creating a beautiful garden atmosphere to enjoy food and friends. There was potential for it to be a perfect evening. But after working hard to make sure we would have what we needed for our small reception we were treated like there was absolutely no priority in accommodating for us. On the contrary, it felt like we were a bit of a nuisance. The owner finally came over toward the end and apologized but didn’t really make an effort to “fix” anything. (He claimed that Elena should not have agreed to the plans made. ?) They were packed that night and the gals waiting tables worked super hard. Kudos to them. If you’re just a couple of people looking for a good evening, you’re sure to enjoy yourselves. But until they change their policy and procedure about how to handle reservations for larger groups, it’s not...

We stopped here for lunch on our way back home, to the south. They had a cute art fair, with honestly local artists only...unlike the bigger, fancier one up north. This place was well rated and I will admit has a very cute setting with a huge amount of outdoor seating. Unfortunately we did arrive on a hot weekend and the only thing they have to mitigate the heat is ceiling fans and large openings. They do have a cute water wheel and koi pond. They tacos were better than any other restaurant we have been to and most taco trucks. I did not expect a cider house to have such good tacos!

The setup is walking up to the counter first, after standing in line, to place your food order. There is a shorter line beside it, for liquor drinks only, no food. We ordered our tacos and I ordered the blood orange cider. They hand you a number and you find yourself a table and wait for them to bring out your order. I was exploring outside, while my husband stayed at the table, when they brought our food and took our number. I walk back in and notice my drink was not delivered but figure most people are sitting outside and they will be over shortly. After several minutes and eating half my tacos, I get up and have to wait in line yet again, simply to ask for my cider. They laugh about it and say they couldn't find me because I didn't have my number....like I hid it from them. They took it when they brought our food, without asking if we had any other food or drinks coming first. They did hand me a glass after that, but I wasn't able to enjoy much of it, as we were almost done and needed to get on the road again and they fumbled getting it to me for so long.

They do buss the tables. I would still return in the future, but be sure they do not take my number before delivering...