Ponderosa Steakhouse — Restaurant in Illinois

While traveling on vacation, I accompanied my daughter and her family to this restaurant on our way home almost three weekends ago. (We had a Ponderosa in our hometown but they moved out of our area. My daughter had great memories of me taking her and her sisters to Ponderosa when she was a child. She wanted to repeat the experience with her own children.) We arrived in the mid-afternoon. We were able to get a table right away and our drinks and bread/butter were brought immediately. (Their rolls are especially good if you are a bread person!) I think our server's name was Timothy, he was very good. He took away used plates, refilled our drinks, and made sure that we were taken care of. We had three adults and two children in our party. All of us were very satisfied with the selection of foods. The salad bar was well stocked and all of the selections were very fresh. They had numerous choices in salad dressings. My son-in-law got the potato soup and he said it was delicious. We especially enjoyed the meatloaf, fried chicken and baked chicken. The vegetable selection was also delicious and it made us think of home-cooked meals: green beans, corn, carrots, stewed tomatoes, mashed potatoes/gravy, fried potatoes. The dessert bar was also very tasty, with many selections including cookies, ice cream, and all the toppings. The restaurant was clean. The food selection area was very well maintained and clean. There were many other diners in the restaurant, but there were no long lines to wait in to get food. The restaurant was not loud; we were able to have dinner conversation easily. We did all use the restroom before we got back on the highway. While the restroom was clean, the ladies room did have an unusual smell. And the only other comment I would like to mention is that the toilet paper dispenser was hard to use. There is one roll on top of the other roll but it's difficult to pull the paper out. There is plenty of parking here, especially big areas if you come in a bus or have a truck. We were very happy to enjoy this restaurant as part of our vacation. (One of my other daughters is actually thinking about taking a road trip just to come to this...

Looking forward to lunch at Ponderosa. the food is decent. Went to the hot bar .sat down with my plate. enjoying everything 3/4 of the way through my plate, a worker started spraying down a rag and wiping the hood over the salad bar. the chemicals were so strong I could smell it from my table about 10 ft away . it changed my perception of the food and I could not eat anymore. everything was drenched in the smell of the cleaner. I asked the waitress why she was doing that over the food why she was wiping down the hood with extremely strong chemicals. She said oh it was the fabuloso in her bucket sitting next to the drink machine I said no this is stronger and I can smell that too. I told her I couldn't eat anymore because the scent was knocking me over and I can't even smell most of the time. She kind of shook it off. I told her that I have a food sanitation license and this is contamination of all the salad bar underneath. The waitress responded that the person who was cleaning it is from the Fayette County health department. I told her that she needs to go back to school and learn that this is contamination. Told her I would not eat anything off of that salad bar now. She says well the manager tells her to do that every 2 hours because the hood gets gunky. I told her the manager needs to go back to School himself. She walked away I guess the conversation was over nothing was going to be done about it. So I did not get to finish my lunch and had my senses assaulted with cleaning chemicals. The only time I will ever say anything like this is if the situation can be dangerous. How many people are eating food that has been contaminated with chemicals from cleaning over the food surfaces ? We get enough chemicals in our Foods as it is that are causing all sorts of health issues I refused to pay $14.99 plus tax again to be assaulted with chemicals .you never clean unless the food is gone from...

I have been to this Ponderosa numerous times and have never been a big fan but it has always at least been decent. Not tonight! The chicken livers on the bar were burned to a crisp. I went to the kitchen doorway to inform the young man standing there about them, he looked at me, then turned and walked away. I proceeded to tell my server about the burned product and her answer was very disturbing. She said, "I can't throw them away. I can put in a handful of fresh livers for you, but we cannot throw them away." Sure, she did offer to cook some fresh, but after hearing her refusal to throw bad food wlaway, I had lost my appetite. I got a phone call and was telling my brother-in-law about the situation, when the server came back, interrupted my conversation to tell me to stop complaining because she offered to cook some fresh. I asked her, "if you won't throw away burned food, how can I trust that you will throw away expired food?" Well I cannot trust this restaurant to be concerned about the food they serve then I will certainly never return! As I was walking out, a man used the tongs to remove some livers, and when he picked it up, he threw them right back into the container. I asked the gentleman, "can I ask you why you passed on those chicken livers?" He said, "because they are burned real bad." So, obviously they were going to sit there until they got thrown away at the end of the night anyway. The bottom line is that I could never suggest this restaurant in good conscience after...