House of Embers Restaurant — Restaurant in Lake Delton

My husband and I went to this restaurant for the last night of our honeymoon. The outside atmosphere looked lovely so we decided to eat there. We arrived and were not greeted, but just stared at and we were forced to introduce ourselves. We had made reservations so we didn't have to wait. We were told that they were short staffed for the night, so we waited much longer than needed at our table just waiting to meet our waitress. It took about five minutes before we got any water, which I realize isn't that long in perspective but when you're sitting there with nothing to do it feels much longer. There are much cheaper restaurants that I've been to and had much faster service. Many of the menu items were, in our opinions over priced considering how cheap the inside still looked. We ordered crab cakes, which was the only thing that we enjoyed about our meal, and escargot. The Escargot was the worst I've ever tasted. It was rubbery, had a dirty taste and had a terrible after taste. The entrees we ordered were the prime rib and lobster and the BBQ chicken and ribs. The prime rib was good, but my husband ordered it well done and received it medium rare. His butter for the lobster was so hot that it exploded at the table and we had to blow out the flame beneath it. I was sprayed on my arm and head with butter. My ribs were good but not as good as I'd hoped. The sign said that they were voted best in the area, but to be honest I've had much better at a Ruby Tuesday. My chicken was good on the outside, nice, and crispy but the chicken itself tasted like gingerbread and definitely not what chicken should taste like. I wanted to tell the waitress we didn't like our food but I didn't see the point. She didn't ask us how we liked our food at any point either. She was only there to drop off the food and take it away. When we left no one said thank you or have a goodnight. Nether of us are the type to complain but when we left our food was not sitting well with us. I know it is not food poisoning because that takes longer to set in, but we both started to feel like we were going to vomit. When we got back to our hotel my husband did do just that. At that point I felt the need to call the restaurant and see if we could get a refund. He was of no help or sympathy. I felt like he was calling me a liar. He told me he knew the food was fresh and there was no way we got food poisoning. I agreed with him and I said that I know it's not food poisoning but something was still wrong. He asked if we were at water parks today or did anything else strenuous like that, but we hadn't. I can see how that could be relevant but I just felt like I was on trial while talking with him. I also understand that he needs to protect the business against people that would scam the restaurant, but I was not one of those people and didn't like being treated as such. I work in customer service and this was the worst I've every had in person and over the phone. We spent about 85 dollars on our dinner and I was hoping for some better treatment. I would've at least liked to get my husbands dinner refunded since he was the only one that vomited. We will NEVER be returning to this restaurant and will make sure all of our friends and family know not to go here as well. My husband is still sick and not getting any better. He's fallen asleep now, but he is moaning in his sleep and saying that it hurts (meaning...

Where do I begin with this place? I wish I could give this place 0 stars. Here is a run down of our recent experience at this restaurant:

We were seated immediately in a dimly lit room with extremely outdated decor. Our waitress did not know how much drinks from the bar cost so we had to wait for her to find out before we ordered, which is fine but still a slight inconvenience.

We ordered our food and waited a substatial amount of time to receive it. When it arrived, one of my friends meals was incorrect (he ordered the half slab of ribs and instead was given the ribs and chicken). The waitress fixed it, but still an inconvenience. Another friend ordered the prime rib that was on special. She asked for medium and the meat she received was rare, stringy, and tasted terrible. How someone let it leave the kitchen the way it looked i still haven’t figured out. My meal was entirely incorrect, I ordered chicken Parmesan and received chicken Alfredo. In order to not be difficult, I said it was no problem and I would just eat was was brought to me. However, it was the worst chicken Alfredo I’ve ever eaten. The chicken was mushy, like it had been frozen and then over cooked and the sauce was completely bland.

Once our food was delivered to us, our waitress disappeared and we did not see her again. We were never asked if we wanted refills or how the food was tasting, nothing. My friend went to the hostess station to ask for a manager where he was told that the manager was too busy cooking and asked if there was something we needed and that she would try to get him for us.

My friend returned to our table where our waitress finally reappeared and asked if we wanted our checks. We said we had requested to speak with the manager, who never ended up coming to speak with us. Instead, another waitress came to our table and asked if she could help. We explained our situation and she took it upon herself to to fix it. She was very short with us and had to return to our table 3 times to verify who had what on which checks and seemed more annoyed each time. They ended up removing my meal and the prime rib from our total, but we never received one apology and were made to feel that we were to blame for our horrid experience.

Based on the reviews I’m reading here and responses from the owner, it appears he does not care about his customers and only cares about being right and defending the pile of trash he calls a restaurant. Please save your money and...

For our 36th wedding anniversary, we wanted to treat ourselves to a memorable supper club experience, hoping to indulge in delightful food and ambiance. While we certainly got the ambiance, the experience itself was somewhat lacking. Upon arrival, we were guided to a charming, intimate booth tucked away behind a curtain, which set a cozy tone for the evening. However, my excitement quickly turned into a mishap as I went to sit down and unexpectedly fell backward. It turned out there was no wall behind the curtain—just open space! To my surprise, the hostess didn’t check on me at all after the fall, leaving me feeling a bit neglected. 🥺🤨🧐

Once settled, we ordered some drinks and a plate of bruschetta to start while we waited for our entrees. The drinks were decent, and the bruschetta was passable—neither particularly impressive nor completely unsatisfactory. For my main course, I chose the pasta and meatballs, while my wife opted for a wedge salad, hoping for something fresh and flavorful.

When the dishes arrived, I was taken aback by the presentation and quality. My meatballs were disappointingly small and shockingly hard; there were only a few on the plate. When I attempted to cut through one with my fork, I was met with resistance—no matter how much pressure I applied, the meatball refused to yield. My fork finally pierced through, revealing a gray, unappetizing interior. In that moment, I felt relieved that I hadn’t consumed any of it. Honestly, it felt like these meatballs could have come straight from a wholesale store like Sam's Club or Costco, and they would have still been a better choice.

My wife’s wedge salad was similarly uninspiring. It consisted of a large slice of iceberg lettuce, simply drizzled with globs of lumpy ranch dressing, which overwhelmed the freshness of the lettuce rather than complementing it.

When our server returned to check on us, I couldn’t help but express my disappointment about the meals. I even showed her the meatballs, hoping for a response or acknowledgment of our dissatisfaction. Instead, she just asked, "Are you done?" At that point, there was no denying we were. Reflecting on our reservation made earlier, I also recalled mentioning that we were celebrating our 36th wedding anniversary; it felt disheartening that this special occasion went unnoticed throughout the...