Oaklawn Track Kitchen — Restaurant in Hot Springs

I don’t typically leave reviews, but after our recent experience, I felt this needed to be shared. First, let me be clear: the food was a 10/10. The kitchen staff were absolutely on point and clearly know what they’re doing. Unfortunately, the front-of-house experience didn’t match that same standard.

From the moment we walked in, it was apparent that the restaurant lacks structure and organization. There was no host, no clear seating system, and very little communication among staff. We were seated with no silverware, and when it did arrive, our server (Emersyn) placed it on the table only to immediately take it back and stuff it into her apron without explanation — it was an odd and unprofessional interaction.

While the servers were visibly working hard, the entire operation felt chaotic. Food was sitting in the window for over 20 minutes before being delivered. My husband’s chocolate milk was served with something clearly unsanitary on the rim of the glass. At one point, we watched a 10-person party get turned away simply due to poor planning and lack of capacity.

When we went to pay (since we never received a bill at the table), our server quoted a price without so much as eye contact. I asked for a ticket, and she pulled it from the printer with attitude and dropped it on the counter. When I handed her the money, she snatched it from my hand and returned the change without a word.

To make matters worse, the roles seemed totally unclear: the cook was helping wash dishes, and the dishwasher was bussing tables. While flexibility is part of restaurant work, this looked more like confusion than teamwork.

This restaurant has so much potential — again, the food was fantastic. But it’s in urgent need of leadership, training, and staffing. A business consultant could easily step in and help implement clear systems: assigned sections, a host to greet and seat guests, an expo to manage food flow, and training for front-of-house staff on customer service.

I’d love to come back for the food, but until these issues are addressed, it’s hard to recommend the overall experience.

Here are some simple improvements they could make: • Hire an expeditor (expo) to organize food tickets and ensure plates are correctly assembled and delivered. • Assign each waitress a specific section with a seating chart to avoid confusion. • Waitresses should be responsible for bussing their own tables—instead, we saw the dishwasher also clearing tables, which isn’t efficient or sanitary. • A designated host should be seating guests, handing out silverware, and keeping track of who’s...

Sinking ship. They really had the communities hearts in the beginning with their pizza sized pancakes and large portions. But now, you pay $3.50 for a bottled orange juice that is probably 75. Cents at the store and it’s a generic brand. Let me explain my disappointment. Took a friend there last week, this friend is a great member of our community, he requested chicken with his scrambled eggs since he doesn’t eat pork. Pork seemingly being the only breakfast meat options available. And I asked for a bacon egg and cheese sandwich. It took almost an HOUR for our order to arrive to the table and there were only 3 other customers, two whom had been there before we arrived. The kitchen staff stood around the window and talked, laughed and discussed personal issues. At one point we noticed the three other customers becoming impatient as well since they two others that had been there before we arrived were actually still waiting on their food until just about three minute before we got our food. When we asked the waiter what’s taking so long, he said they were “cleaning”. In the middle of breakfast service you stop cooking to clean??? It was like 9am. Ok I received my breakfast sandwich and it was BLACK!! Burnt!! The waiter sat the plate on the table and I immediately picked my plate up and sat it back on his serving tray. I just looked at him and calmly said “it’s burnt”. I mean seriously? I waited an hour for that? My friends breakfast came with a pancake and it was literally the size of an English muffin. His chicken was that precooked, processed, fake chicken. And it was dry as helll. What is going on???? They didn’t bring syrup, butter or any jam. I am not sure what is going on, but this is part of the casino, and the casino is the biggest business in town. Let me tell you, this is pathetic. I hope they are not proud...

I would never recommend or ever be back at this restaurant. The server took our order we waited about 15 minutes then the manager came and told use they was out of hashbrowns so we had to change our order after waiting probably around 30 more minutes the food finally came to our table we was missing half our order then when we tasted our food it was cold still missing half our order and told that we had to wait probably another ten minutes I went to talk to the manager after explaining everything that went wrong to the manager expecting her to be apologetic and at least try to fix it or be able to heat our food her response was what do you want me to do about it she wasn’t even sorry about what happened I explained this was our second bad experience. When she came to the table to collect all the food that was brought to our table our kids was upset I told them don’t worry we will go to McDonald’s and the manager said that will probably be your best bet and guess what it was we ordered on the app on the drive to airport road McDonald’s and it was all ready. We live in royal we drove close to 30 minutes to get to the restaurant by choice to try them again absolutely worst experience ever do...