Old Bavaria Inn Restaurant — Restaurant in Helen

Would give this place less stars if allowed. My wife, our two boys and I were trying to get a table on the night of the tree lighting in Helen. My wife had gone in on her own to get on the list where a young man told her it would be about 20 minutes. 30 minutes later I walked in on my own and spoke with the same young man who kindly apologized but said it was still 20 minutes. I didn’t say much as all of Helen was packed. However another 40 minutes go by and still no call for our number. My wife and two boys went back in and met the older gentleman you will read about in some of the recent comments. My wife was told by the man “ look miss I don’t know how long it takes people to eat” and he did this by yelling at her. I entered in as he was yelling this at her. Him not knowing I was with this sweet woman he chose to belittle. He looks at me and ignores her and asks me as kindly as he can “ yes sir how can I help you?” So I replied “ how about you don’t yell at my wife”. This man is so brilliant that he began yelling at me the same words he yelled at her. I tried to get him to slow down and relax however he responded to my pleas for him to lower his voice with “oh there is no lowering my voice it can only get higher from here” so in the effort to allow his already trapped patrons see who they were supporting I told him to show me how high he can get. Which he kept yelling, while using his belly to force my family out the door. The pettiness doesn’t end there yall, he began to demand the little white card they hand out so you know what number to listen for, before kicking us out! When we couldn’t find it and after he made a pointless threat to call the cops we moved from the threshold of his door not before he began to cuss at me in front of not only my children but every family outside and inside his establishment. My wife tried to go back in when we found the number card he demanded back and I stayed outside with the children at her behest. I could hear him call me several words I cannot type as my wife who was trying to get him to see he cannot talk to people like that was being down put and berated for asking for a decent interaction with an owner of a restaurant. The faces of all those on the first floor was so sad. This man believes that the idea that the customer is always right is out the window and that he can prove it because he’s been in business for 27 years. The man has hated every moment of it as it shows with the way he yells at every family that has a request or question. I had to separate myself from the man for the sake of my family, I’ve got too much to lose to let a sad man who has no understanding that his attitude and treatment to his patrons won’t affect his business rob me of my joy. The food I could see on the tables near the door did not look appetizing nor appealing. However, I will not address the food nor the staff as this experience had nothing to do with them. All I can say is that as a husband and father I don’t think that this restaurant is family friendly. The owner or whoever he is doesn’t believe in customer satisfaction, he is literally riding the coat tails of being in a destination that people will always visit. The man is taking advantage of his location by serving up subpar service and from one of the latest reviews subpar food as well. Highly recommend you and your families stay away from this place. I just feel sad for the staff, if this guy can yell at a woman fighting to be respectful imagine the turmoil the staff works in. Sorry for the long review but this place needs to be put on alert...

We were a group of three visiting on December 2. 2022. I had eaten at Old Bavaria Inn about five years ago and it was a great experience. Not this time! We went straight there upon arrival to find out if they would accept a reservation for lunch. They do not. The woman at the hostess stand (Claire) was far from friendly, abrupt and obviously not happy to be there. She said it would be a 45 minute wait. I asked if they text, or have another means to let you know when your table is ready, she said no, you just had to wait outside. There were lots of people outside waiting for a table; we joined the group. While waiting we overheard a very upset lady come out of the restaurant and explain to her group that when she went it to check on how much longer, the hostess informed her that the manager had erased (why?) some names from the wait list. Apparently since their name was not there, it was one the names erased and they would have to wait another 35-40 minutes for a table. They give you a number so it was not like these people lied about being on the waitlist. They had apparently already waited 35 minutes and were very unhappy. They left, as I would have. Your manager makes a mistake and you make no effort to expedite getting these people a table? That, and Claire's negative personality should have been our sign to leave. Finally, our number is called after about 40 minutes. We end up having to carry a stroller up the stairs to the second floor, even though there were empty tables on the bottom floor. There was already a table of 6 seated upstairs looking at the menus. We knew it was going to be a wait for the food, so we made a quick decision on what we wanted so we would be prepared to order as soon as the server came to the table. Claire comes back upstairs three more times within minutes, seating three more tables. She then informs the room that she will be waiting on all the tables up there and to be patient. She walks by our table and I politely let her know that we are ready to order, when she is ready to take it. She ignores me and proceeds to take the drink orders for the LAST three tables that she seated. She ignored the six people who were there even before we were seated, and she ignored us. The six-top got up and left. We also got up and left. On top of the terrible service, the cruddy attitude, and the obvious poor management, the bathroom had no soap in the restroom. That is unacceptable. The interior is also run down and ill kept. Time to put some money into cleaning and renovations. What a vastly different experience from the pleasant memories I had of my first visit there. We ended up eating at Heidi's Haus and it...

Poor Management Rude staff Unhygienic Overpriced

If I could give a 0 star I would. I was so excited to come to Helen and try the Old Bavarian Inn's food as people I know had raved about the food. To say I was disappointed is an understatement. We went to Helen during the Christkindlmrkt so I expected there to be somewhat of a wait due to the amount of people in town for the event. Upon arrival to Helen we went to the restaurant to make a reservation to be told by Claire the disrespectful hostess (our first clue) that although the website states you can, you CANNOT make a reservation. You instead have to take a number and wait for 45 minutes out side of the restaurant door until you're number is called. So we decided to wait during the wait we witness a party of 5 leave because the had been waiting beyond the 45 minute time they were told to expect to wait only to be told that their number was erased and they would have to wait an additional 30 minutes to be seated, after waiting for 45 minutes prior. (That should have been our second clue) So when our number was finally called is when the miserable experience unfortunately got much worse. Once we were seated on thee upper floor the hostess continued to sit 5 other tables back to back. Once Claire finally finished seating customers she came back to the upper floor to announce that she would be the only waitress for the area. Which would be fine I was willing to wait but when she started to take customers orders not in the order the were seated and purposely skipped over our table multiple times after walking past us eventhough we stated that we were ready to place our order. We got up and left. Not to mention within that time we witnessed 2 other tables leave as well. Also there was. No handsoap in the bathroom which is extremely unsanitary. For the price they charge for their food the service should be much better.

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