Ophelia's Restaurant & Inn — Restaurant in Independence

Wow. Where do I begin...? I read the reviews in particular about the Sunday brunch because that's what I wanted to check out. They were glowing & flowing with superlatives.

Excited to finally find a great Sunday brunch, I made reservations. We arrived 5 minutes early to a pleasant & friendly hostess & were seated immediately. Good start! She advised that we could go to the buffet right off or wait to order drinks. While my wife took our two kids to the bathroom, I waited to order drinks. An inordinate amount of time passed before the waitress came & I ordered coffee.

To summarize the food would be best: A number of salads appeared wilted & unappetizing, sadly. The prime rib lacked in flavor unless you ate a chunk of fat with it & it was DRY! The biscuits were wonderful & the gravy was really good but borderline tepid. Almost everything stuck to the serving spoons so firmly that the plate would've broke had a tapped on it hard enough to get the food off. (Maybe someone should clean them off from time to time) The grits were like masa but the shrimp was perfectly cooked & flavorful. The garlic mashed potatoes were almost as good as mine. Nice job on the scrambled eggs ( I had seconds) but the bacon should've been cooked longer. The chicken breast was flavorful but again on the dry side. Hash brown casserole was yummy but also really sticky. The fried deviled egg should be taken off the menu. It was odd tasting at best & left me wanting a traditional one. Mac & cheese was a winner!

On to dessert: Carrot cake was the highlight of the entire meal!! Wonderful! Blueberry bread pudding was flavorful & again almost as good as mine but dry. It needs a creme anglaise. Berries & yogurt was delicious. Chocolate brownie was more of a blonde brownie & disappointing flavor. Cheesecake was a real let down with the lemon flavor in it; shouldn't have been described that way. Not a fan.

Roasterie coffee was a treat and on point! But having to ask for a refill TWICE was unacceptable.

All in all the food was good but far from great. Disillusioned by the visit on all fronts including not having toothpicks on the way out! It's great to go to a buffet for the variety but if the quality is lacking you...

I wanted to have a great dinner for my family for Christmas. I had heard about Ophelia's from friends and decided that we would try it out. Made reservation for six on 12/22/16, 6:30 PM, got there 6:20PM and the table was not set up yet for our party, there was a table that was neatly set next to the one we was going to sit at and requested that table and was told that another party had reservation for that table, that party arrived 10 minutes later, why did we have to wait for our table? Drinks and appetizers were served in a timely manner. When it came time for our entrée, we ordered our food and the waitress returned and advised us that they were out of tenderloin tips, that was the start. We all waited 20 minutes or better for our food to arrive.||When the food came to the table only two out of six orders arrived. Twelve minutes later the rest of our food came out, by that time the first two orders were cold, sent them back for reheat, noticed that two of the four orders at the table lacked items that were on the menu. ||When the reheat items returned, the meat was well done instead of medium, and the salmon was seared so much it was black on the bottom, my wife did not eat it. Talked to the manager and he apologized for the food issue and stated that he would take care of all the entrée.||Well... that did not happen but he did comp. us for three of the dinners.||My Christmas dinner at Ophelia's with my family was a bad experience I wanted something better, especially from a fine dining establishment such as this one. ||Darn...

I wanted to have a great dinner for my family for Christmas. I had heard about Ophelia's from friends and decided that we would try it out. Made reservation for six on 12/22/16, 6:30 PM, got there 6:20PM and the table was not set up yet for our party, there was a table that was neatly set next to the one we was going to sit at and requested that table and was told that another party had reservation for that table, that party arrived 10 minutes later, why did we have to wait for our table? Drinks and appetizers were served in a timely manner. When it came time for our entrée, we ordered our food and the waitress returned and advised us that they were out of tenderloin tips, that was the start. We all waited 20 minutes or better for our food to arrive.||When the food came to the table only two out of six orders arrived. Twelve minutes later the rest of our food came out, by that time the first two orders were cold, sent them back for reheat, noticed that two of the four orders at the table lacked items that were on the menu. ||When the reheat items returned, the meat was well done instead of medium, and the salmon was seared so much it was black on the bottom, my wife did not eat it. Talked to the manager and he apologized for the food issue and stated that he would take care of all the entrée.||Well... that did not happen but he did comp. us for three of the dinners.||My Christmas dinner at Ophelia's with my family was a bad experience I wanted something better, especially from a fine dining establishment such as this one. ||Darn...