Acoustic Café — Restaurant in Eau Claire

Spent many years going to this shop in Menomonie when I lived there and went through college. Revisited the restaurant on a trip with my significant other. Drove quite a bit out of the way due to the fond moments I’ve spent there in the past. The restaurant has definitely had some great changes over a short time and is one of the worst places I’ve been to in a long time. Seems to be the workers at the shop who want to portray themselves as peace loving hippies are some of the most rude and unfriendly employees I’ve ever seen working in the food service industry! Any question was answered with a snide remark. Ordered chilly and it arrived ice cold. I went up to the counter to address the cold chilly and I was told that I got exactly what I ordered. Every person in this establishment just had a terrible attitude towards anyone that wasn’t in their click. Ordering water isn’t even an option. Your only option is to buy bottled water $$$. Tried to order a whole sandwich only with no mayo on half the sandwich. The rude employee taking the order wouldn’t let us order that. We had to order 2 half sandwiches for an additional $4.00 just to get no mayo on half. I will never visit this restaurant again! I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone ever again! Pretty sad because this restaurant used to be one of my favorite places to visit. I’d drive miles out of the way to stop and eat there. This last visit and the combined experience with the food quality, very rude employees, and ridiculous concepts to swindle people for every single penny they can has definitely made me never want to visit this restaurant again. Every aspect that one goes to a restaurant for was absolutely unacceptable! Do not go to this restaurant! Go down the street to Ted’s Pizza!!! You’ll be glad you did! The Acoustic Cafe is an awful dining experience in every way possible! They couldn’t have failed much more miserably than they did during my visit to this once great restaurant that has lost everything that truly brought customers back...

I've eaten here many times in the few years I've lived in the area. The food is simple, but always good, and the staff are always friendly. I've seen other reviews where people complain about the staff being rude, which I have never experienced.

This review is two stars, because today I went in and there was a guy in line yelling and generally making me (and probably others) uncomfortable. He seemed to know every staff member's name and they seemed to know him, so I'm assuming he's a regular. I don't really blame the staff, because I'm sure there's not much they can do, and they're just trying to be friendly. However, if I were the manager or owner of the establishment, I would have asked this guy to either shut up or leave. He did at least fade into the background for a bit while at his table, but he popped back up to shout some 80's hits at the staff and stumble around in front of the trash can while I was trying to leave. Note that I don't think the guy was mentally ill or anything, just loud and obnoxious, with no regard for people around him.

Anyway, I know this isn't the fault of the restaurant, but, if the regulars make the place unpleasant, it's effectively the same as just having a bad restaurant, from a customer's perspective at least.

I guess I'm now going to have to double check to make sure this guy isn't there every time I go in. Fortunately, he's easy to spot - he'll be the guy standing by the...

A couple buddies of mine and I took a trip down here to relax. A family friend suggested that we go here, saying their Hoagies were very good. We came around 11:45 on a Sunday. It was busy, but the atmosphere was very nice. Felt open and was pleasing to the eye.

When we came to the counter, the cashier was very friendly, and we chatted for a bit. We ordered three 6 in. Hoagies, nachos and a couple drinks. Drinks came out fine, and they were pretty good, but nothing to be ecstatic about. And even though it was busy, we waited longer than expected for our food with the waitress forgetting our orders. Seemed a bit flustered, but that's nothing against them.

The food did not meet our expectations. When we got our hoagies, they came out barely warm, and just looked like a sandwich you might put together in 1 minute. My buddy received his nachos a short time after, and they looked terrible. It looked like a bag of shredded cheese was put over some chips and then microwaved. We could pick up a chip and the whole thing would come up with it. He did not finish them and genuinely upset him.

I might recommend someone to come and try this place because maybe we caught them on a bad day, but the experience was...