Chances R Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Laurie

Great, home cooked food. The staff is very friendly, salt of the Earth type people. In addition to a large, diner style breakfast menu, they have a dinner menu with many rotating specials. The portions are generous, and clearly the cooks have been here a while. Everything is amazing, right down to the homestyle gravy, which so few restaurants can do THIS well. They also have a large dessert menu with dozens of pies, cakes, cheesecakes... My favorite is the turtle cheesecake, with a (real!) caramel sauce that is thick and buttery, and generous sprinkling of pecans. My husband got some sort of pie, I think blueberry perhaps. He loved it, as well, but it wasn't as good as the cheesecake. We have eaten here several times and they are always packed full, yet the food is always up fast and prepared perfectly. They are very family friendly and have both a bar side and restaurant side, which is nice because there is no smoking on the dining room side. On the weekends they do a breakfast buffet that is large with all the bacon and sausage, waffles, pick your own filling omelettes made right in front of you, and of course all of the sides, fixin's and gravy you can eat. A true...

We came to Chances R at Lake of the Ozarks to celebrate my grandpa’s 80th birthday. Google said they closed at 9:30, so we arrived at 8:20 — plenty of time, right? Apparently not. Our waitress was rude from the start, rushed us to order, never refilled drinks, and had no idea how to answer basic menu questions (like the difference between two fish options — her response: “Well, you figure it out.”) 😳

The only bright spot of the night was the busser, who went above and beyond — took our drink orders, brought napkins, helped with sauces, even helped me order a birthday dessert. Honestly, we thought she was our actual server.

The manager came by after I brought up the poor service and asked if she had been rushing us — then did absolutely nothing to fix it, even after I said it was my grandpa’s birthday.

If the closing time is different than what’s online, fine — but tell guests when they walk in instead of treating them poorly to rush them out. We still tipped the server out of courtesy, but the busser is the only one who earned her $20 tip.

For the price we paid, we expected to enjoy the experience — but sadly, we left disappointed. Do better,...

I've been eating here occasionally for the last 20 years when I go down for the summer to my grandpa's cabin (now my parents retirement home). It is very much the stereotypical small town bar and grill place where the staff know all the patrons by name. It is nothing fancy, but their prices are reasonable and the food is just fine. It is usually pretty packed, so sometimes service can slow down, but they still remain friendly and try to get to you as fast as they can. Even though there are two separate areas for smoking and non-smoking, you can definitely smell it everywhere. I've had most of their dishes and nothing is bad. I prefer their breakfast food to their dinner items, but that's just me. You do still have to pay at the register like the olden days, so don't hold the check at your table waiting for a server to run your card. There is a 3% fee for using a credit card, so just be aware of that. It's best...