Cotton Patch Cafe — Restaurant in Lake Worth

My husband and I have been here to eat dinner several times. We have not had good service there ever but keep coming back because we love the food. Night before last the service was exceptionally horrible. We were seated and waited 10 minutes before my husband got up and found someone to ask if we could get service. She came, took our drink order and appetizer order. We knew what we wanted for meals and gave that to her at that time. We asked if she could bring corn bread instead of rolls. She explained that since there were so many big tables that they were out of cornbread but would bring some as soon as it was ready.

In the mean time, 2 table with 2 customers were seated around us. Their waitress was there immediately and took their drink orders etc right away. (Still no sight of our drinks). Lucky couple x2 gets their drinks AND cornbread. My husband asked their waitress if she could please bring us some cornbread and she did. We now got our drinks (water) and cornbread. Waiting on our appetizer........

Close to 15 minutes later our waitress came back and said “did no one bring you your mushrooms?”. “No they have not (obviously)” She said she would go check and I asked her for a drink refill.

Mushrooms come out about 5 minutes later...no drink refills. I asked her again if I could please have some more water and explained that as busy as she was (not really) that she would be better off just bringing us a pitcher. Nope.

15 minutes go by, everyone around us had their entrees including a new couple that came in after we got our mushrooms.

The waitress came over and explained to us that it was my husbands dish that was holding everything up. Apparently if you put in a large order with too many items, things get overlooked and they had not prepared the sauce for his Cajun Duo. Huh?

We wait again...

Husband walks over to the serving area and gets a pitcher of water and walks back over to our table. While on the way back to the table he passed her and she never even acknowledged him.

About 5 minutes go by and we decide we should just go...this was not getting any better. We get up and lo and behold she comes walking out with our meals very surprised to see us heading towards the door.

I told him we should just eat it since it was finally here and if we went somewhere else we would just have to wait again....BIG MISTAKE!

My crispy chicken on my salad was barely warm at best, his meal as well...but that sauce was warm.

My husband complained to her about this being so beyond ridiculous and she asked if we wanted to speak to the manager. Now we are NOT that couple that likes to complain to see what we can get free EVER, but figured this was so bad that it was ALMOST humorous (where is the hidden camera) that we felt management needed to know.

He listened very intently and agreed that this was way below standards. She was fairly new but there were no other excuses. He insisted the meal was on him after we explained that was not our intent. Done. I was willing to chalk this up as a bad night for everyone and let it be................

Within 2 hours or so my husband began throwing up violently. He does not have a weak stomach and has not been sick for years. I was worried he may have contracted the horrible stomach flu going around. After he had gotten rid of dinner he was fine again.

Needless to say we will not be visiting Cotton Patch in Lake...

On June 27th, we were traveling from Springtown back to Fort Worth. We stopped at Boo Rays for seafood in Lakeworth. There was a notice on the door about an employee with covid and they were closed. We immediately decided we wanted the Cajun Duo and looked for the closest Cotton Patch. We arrived at the restaurant and proceeded to enter. There were signs on the door stating the new county ordinance requiring face masks, so we wore ours in. As the host seated us, I noticed 4 servers in the expo area near the kitchen, hanging out, with face masks on, but around their necks. I asked the host why we were required to wear face masks but they weren’t? He asked whose not wearing and I pointed towards the servers. He went over, stood next to them and kept looking towards the kitchen. Our sever Dustin greeted us after several minutes. He got our drink and food order. 2 unsweetened teas, 1 with lemon, 1 chicken/ dumpling soup with pepper and 2 Cajun duo’s. We got 2 teas with lemon. Soup came out with no pepper. He came back to refill my wife’s tea. Since this was his 3rd visit to my table with his mask covering his beard but not his mouth, I asked him why we were required to wear masks into the restaurant to cover our mouths, but he wasn’t required while working inside. He said “Honestly, nobody’s told me to!” Then he walked away. We still had not received any rolls at this point, so my wife stopped another server and asked for some. When she brought them, we tipped her a couple dollars. The next 2 times our server Dustin returned to our table (after my statement,) he put his mask on correctly before approaching, spoke to us with attitude, then would lower the mask below his mouth, covering only his beard and chin as he walked away. We did notice a party of 7 being seated next to us and no one said anything to them about not wearing a mask when they entered or walked through the dining area. When we were ready to go and couldn’t find our server. We flagged down the other server again, asked for a to-go box and tipped her again when she brought it. THE CAJUN DUO WAS THE BEST WE’D EVER HAD! But, the portions were quite a bit smaller than we get from cotton patch in Watauga. There’s always been enough left over for a second meal, until this time. The 2 stars are for the food, as the taste and flavor WERE GREAT! The service and experience will keep us from visiting this restaurant again!

Our server was tipped $4, the other server was tipped $3 or $4. Imagine if he had made our experience better. He would of made twice as much and we might of...

Our first clue that the restaurant has really gone downhill should have been the fact that it was nearly empty at 7:30 on a Friday night. It was very dark inside the restaurant, lighting-wise.

The menu is smaller than it used to be. The only steak option is a 6oz sirloin, so I ended up getting chicken fried steak.

A month ago, their chicken fried steak was delicious. Tonight, it was dry and flavorless. The baked potatoes had dirt from not being washed well. The rolls were the size of half dollars, and they were room temperature, not warm

But the biggest disappointment was the service. I never complain about a server. You don't know what's going on in their life that might cause them to have a bad day. But tonight? Our meal was comped before we ever got the ticket. The server kept mixing up the items (refills, etc) for our table with a booth two rows over. He put their drinks, complete with straws with lipstick on them, on our table. He put their (cold) okra on our table. He put our baked potatoes on their table. It just never stopped during the entire meal. The kicker was that he brought out my dad's entree with no sides. My dad had ordered baked sweet potatoes as his side. The server set chicken fried steak in front of my dad and said the baked potatoes would be out in 5 minutes. 15 minutes later, he approached that booth and told them it would be a few more minutes for the sweet potatoes. Finally, when we we finished with everything on our plates, he came to check on us. We told him that the 5 minutes for the sweet potatoes was now 25 minutes. He goes back to the kitchen, then comes out and says it'll be another 15 minutes.

My dad asked for the manager. He came over and, before we said a word, he said he was so sorry for everything and was comping our meal.

That was nice of him, but we weren't looking for free food. We wanted a pleasant experience.

So... We probably...