Cattlemans Cafe Hays — Restaurant in Hays

Fried hair and Onion Rings!!! This afternoon my wife and daughter came into your restaurant for dinner as it was my birthday and I really wanted to eat some catfish. We have never been to Cattlemen’s Cafe before and were looking forward to the new dining experience.

Upon receiving our food I noticed that the $14.99 fried catfish dinner wouldn’t even be suitable for my dog. The catfish chucks not filets as described on the menu still had the skin on it. The coleslaw ordered with the fish tasted like mayo and shredded cabbage, and the only thing that was worthy of eating on my plate was the fried okra which clearly came out box frozen from us foods. Icing on the cake the onion rings that we ordered had a 8” piece of hair that was battered and fried into them. After quietly discussing the egregious food at our table, the server walked past and asked if everything was OK and I told her that I needed to be brutally honest with her. I explained to the server the concerns and red flags that we had with our dinner. and was promptly told by the owners mother as she was taking the plates away from our table with no introduction….. that if we didn’t like the food to GET OUT! I understand what it’s like to own and operate a restaurant. However, the experience that we encountered tonight is not how you keep a restaurant open.

The service and understanding provided by server was way more professional and productive than the owner and that’s a damn problem. How can any of this be...

This restaurant highly disappointed me. For starters, I have a gluten and dairy allergy. I sat on the phone with them double checking everything to be sure I could eat what I ordered. The communication with their customers is horrible. They didn't inform me that I wouldn't be getting the rice because it had butter. Which is fine, except I would've never ordered anything and gone to JD's chicken had I known that. Once I got my food, the chicken was overdone and very dry, also WAY too much salt. I couldn't eat it. I got the coleslaw and brocolli for sides. I only ate the broccoli from the entire meal. When I called, they told me they wanted to make it right. But informed me since I paid cash instead of card, they had to put it on a gift card. I asked them to please call the boss because I wouldn't be eating there again, and I didnt understand why I couldn't have cash back that I paid to begin with. The manager said she'd call her boss and have them reach out. I haven't heard anything. I called and left a message the week after. I then called again at the end of the week and left a message with a server explaining the situation, and asking for the boss to please call me. Poor way to run a business. Food sucked, service sucked even more. 0/10 recommend. My family and I also went there 1 other time, the food was very bland and not that great for the prices, we agreed we wouldn't be going back again. I should've stuck to not going back after the first...

We waited a couple weeks after the grand opening for business to slow down and for staff to get the hang of things and work out any kinks in the system before stopping in for a bite at 5 p.m. on a Friday. The place was still packed but we were quickly sat and drinks and orders were taken quickly!

We ordered the Pork Chop and the Chicken Fried Steak Sandwich, both of which were delicious and our ticket came to $38 (with drinks and sides) so very affordable. Time from being sat until food delivery was less than 20 minutes - kudos to the kitchen for being on top of their ticket times!

The only downside were the sides. We had a baked potato and mac 'n cheese with the porkchop - the baked potato was delicious, mac 'n cheese was straight out the box and not worth the $2.49 upcharge.

With the sandwich we had a side of fries which was described as "generous" on the menu but all together amounted to about half a potato if that. We will definately be back as there's a lot of stuff that looked great on the menu but we will just have to avoid the upcharged sides next go around.

Overall a good experience, special shout out to our waitress Keeley who took phenomenal care of us and the short girl who was running food for the servers - it was funny watching her jump up to check what food was ready in the windows, maybe get her a...