Ole Sawmill Cafe — Restaurant in Forrest City

Heading home from a trip to the Ozarks and stopped here for lunch. It was our first time here. This is my honest review. The parking lot was packed. Thought we were going to have to wait forever since it was right after church but we were able to go right in and sit. The atmosphere was nice and welcoming. The buffet had a salad buffet, lunch buffet and dessert buffet. Lunch had roasted Smokey pork chop, pot roast, fried chicken, spare ribs, roasted turkey legs, sliced turkey and dressing, sliced ham, catfish, mashed potatoes, green beans, Mac and cheese, Lima beans, black eyed peas, greens, and some other sides I didn’t try. Dessert buffet had cookies, pre-sliced pieces of cake, apple cobbler, peach cobbler, bread pudding and soft serve ice cream. First the good. Pork chops had a great flavor. fried chicken was great and cooked to perfection. pot roast was tender and like homemade, just amazing. black eyes were cooked and seasoned just like I like them. The Mac was good and creamy and cheesy just needed a little better seasoning. Limas were good, more seasoning would have been a knock out. Mashed potatoes were kind of bland but really good with brown gravy. The soft serve was very creamy, top notch. The show stopper for me was the bread pudding, simply the best I’ve ever had. Had 2 bowls of it, yum. Ok, the not so good. The catfish was bland, not seasoned well and over cooked. Dressing was good but little heavy on the sage for me. Apple and peach cobbler was probably the most basic I’ve had, just peach filling with a crust. No added sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, nothing. Then there was the spare ribs. Just a hard no. Tasted like they were cooked in the oven way too long with no bbq rub at all and didn’t pull the membrane off the back. If those can’t be improved, maybe just leave off the menu. The few things I mentioned if tweaked just a bit, this place would be out of sight. I still highly recommend. The food was so good over all. Oh and for only $15 per person, the...

Food- Food looked fresh & appetizing. The trays were cleaned and wiped down. Decent variety on the buffet, Pulled pork, chicken, sweet potatoes, okra gumbo. Meatballs were tasty, chicken fried steak was crispy and tasted good, vegetables were seasoned good. Fruit cobbers could have been better if they were warm/hot.

Cleanliness - buffet line and tables were clean. Bathrooms were spacious and clean. Store area was clean and items were not dusty even though some things looked like they had been there a few years.

Service - waitress was friendly and on top of things. Kept the drinks full and dishes cleared. She smiled and thanked us. The guys around the buffet were friendly and let me know that ice cream was available. The cashier was the worst aspect of this business and severly lacked southern hospitality. Bad first & last impression. Upon entering the store part, we walked all the way through to the restaurant entrance before she spoke, simply saying "sit in the center section." No greeting of any type. Upon leaving, she seemed put out that we bothered her sitting there doing nothing, and was especially unfriendly when we told her we were splitting the check. She did not smile one time. She did not say "hello" "thank you" or invite us back. While waiting for the rest of my party to pay/ go to the bathroom, I listened to other customers checking out behind me, and she did not thank anyone. She was robotic and expressionless. No wonder the place is dead.

Get someone friendly and happy to be there greeting customers & making them feel like you are glad they are there and you will get better online reviews and make people want to actually come back to this place. We were traveling and saw the sign and stopped. If you don't care if we come back or not, we won't. A southern cafe needs to have southern hospitality. There is no excuse for the behavior of the cashier. Get her some customer service training or replace her and I am sure you will see your...

This is my reply to the companys reply. Your response is obviously full of more lies. Why not take ownership? Either you just serve poor quality food or you over work and under pay your staff to the point they no longer care. Either way we were not the only ones that had issues. A few customers complained to yall face to face.

We were staving. Final found a place to eat... We get there and walk in. The lady at the counter told us to just go in and sit down and that they were just about to get out new food( ribs and fish). We sit down order drinks then go to the buffet. Everything look bad. (Also never seen ribs of fish looks like we were lied to) But we were hungry. I fill my plate up anyway. Go put my plate down head back up to get a salad. All the lettuce was brown.. all of it. So I grab a roll and go sit down.. finally time to eat... not.... I try the country fried steak Soggy and old. Okay that's fine. Tried the greens.... tasted like water... tried the gravy and mashed potatoes.. no flavor and old. Tried the chicken again no flavor and old. Tried the roll... over cooked and stale tasted like Walmart frozen rolls. The sweet tea was sour even after informing the waitress and receiving new ones. Now last I over head another customer asking (what appeared to me a manager) if this was it? (She was also told about ribs and fish) She had no idea and had to go ask. She came back and just said nope that's it. Over all how is this place in business? They have the worst food I have every tasted and the lie to their...