Chuckwagon Restaurant Lava — Restaurant in Lava Hot Springs

To be fair it was an extremely busy weekend over memorial weekend except there's no excuse for staff having dirty hands and dust being everywhere as well as the bathrooms not being upkept I felt like I needed to wash my hands after using the bathroom and washing my hands stop was friendly I have a lot of different types of allergies including some deadly allergies due to seafood shellfish the first lady who seated us was amazing she immediately brought me plastic utensils after making her aware that I was allergic to metal and would come back and ask if I needed any other accommodations due to my allergies I then told her yes that when they make my food they need to be careful due to my severe and a life threatening reaction to shellfish or any type of fish she immediately he went back and told management our waitress and the kitchen and came back and confirmed that they could go ahead and do that. Only to be told by my our waitress who I also informed of my severe allergy to which she responded with yeah I know she already told me and I cannot guarantee that we cannot get seafood or fish in your food due to the fact that your order will be made next to orders with seafood in them and that she refuses to be held responsible due to my issues. Which actually kind of frustrated me a little bit due to the fact that not only did I tell her about my allergies I also showed her proof as well as my sister and my brother-in-law vouching and explaining about the fact that even a small bit or a droplet of seafood juice getting onto my food and me consuming it will immediately send me to anaphylaxis. And regardless of using an EpiPen unless you can get me to the hospital within 10 minutes it will kill me. To which she also replied with we'll do our best but again we can't guarantee you won't be crossed contaminated. My other issue falls into the fact that the food was way overpriced for the quality of the food My sister and I both had the French dip and my brother-in-law had steak and potatoes one the French dip sauce the au jus sauce was not Audrey sauce it was beef broth to the bread to the French dip sandwiches was so crunchy that it literally crumbled into pieces when you picked it up The cheese was dry and crusty at the edges and the roast beef or the French dip was tough and rubbery My brother-in-law's steak was maybe as big around as a baseball and the sweet potato was rock hard with the exception the middle. I get it is a tourist town I understand that they're not the only restaurant there that uses higher priced items as a revenue increasing tactic and I could understand the price of the food being high if the food had been better quality the other restaurants we ate at were cheaper and the quality of food and the attention and willingness to put the customers needs and wants as a top priority would be well worth the extra cost in menu items. But having a restaurant that totally disregards safety and food allergen practices who then on top of all the above requiring a 3.5% surcharge for using any type of card for payment. And don't get me wrong I have been in the tourist and hospitality business My entire life I started a five star resort day spa with my mother at the homestead in Midway Utah and so I understand what a " surcharge actually is and I also confirmed with front desk and cashier that the surcharge is split between the waitresses the busboys the cooks on front desk cashiers and she said yes it is split between all of us which confirms that that 3.5 surcharge was an actual fact and added gratuity that was mandatory. Yet the settle oh you're not going to leave a gratuity tip for your waitress was everything okay to my sister when she went to pay guilt tripping her into giving on top of that another 35% gratuity on top of the 3.5 surcharge which to me is dishonest it's the only restaurant that did that The other restaurants did charge a surcharge for using a card but they also made sure to let us know that that surcharge was included as a mandatory gratuity tip for the employees that is...

TOURIST AND RESIDENT BEWARE!

If you show up here as A party of four or more be prepared to have the police called on you. In addition to that be prepared to wait over an hour for your food, terrible service, insulting discounts that get reduced because they continue to charge additional fares after the discounts after explaining to management and ownership that the service was terrible and being threatened by the owner of the establishment. The city of lava Hot Springs quickly remove this stain from their community as it is doing nothing to help the community as a whole. I advise anybody who sees this to act accordingly and never ever patronize this location. You will be better off, going to the local grocery store and purchasing your own food to cook for yourself. Abhorrent ethics and values of the owner management. The photo taken and included is of the supposed owner. Avoid this man at all costs. Overpriced food, underwhelming (to be nice) service.

Updates

Deputy Ellott of the bannock county sheriffs department arrived on scene shortly after the owner of the establishment contacted the police and achieved a more than desirable resolution where the discounts sought were provided the deputy had discussed with the owner of the establishment what we were and we’re not willing to. Deputy Ellott a prime example of service to his community through his precinct and I am very grateful for his assistance in the matter. However, I am still incredibly disappointed that a small business owner that is the face of many aspects of the tourism at Lava Hot Springs would have the audacity to waste the time of local law enforcement for something as menial, trivial, and an outright waste of both parties time when we could’ve settled the matter peacefully without aggressive confrontation from a small business owner. Tourist and resident alike beware!

as a small business owner, I find it incredibly embarrassing that the owner of this establishment has had his employees come to his defense to all type out a response to the review rather than just doing right by the Client in the first place. If even half of the owners and employees responses to my review were genuine they would’ve handled a simple transactional issue with more tact and professionalism than calling the local sheriff department when the client disputed the service after the waitress wanted to joke about me not being able to order with my family and allowing a family to not eat together as they order together because my “plate committed suicide” I have worked in several customer service positions INCLUDING food service. NEVER have I seen an establishment cop out any harder than this. If the owners so kind how come he couldn’t respect my mother, my wife, and her mother? I look forward to reporting this entire experience to the local better business bureau and the local chamber of commerce. This stain needs to be removed from an otherwise wonderful community! Imagine, an issue that could have been resolved by listening to your clients, meeting their needs, and providing a great customer experience where your whole towns focus is a great experience. The ownership and staff have had every chance to turn this negative experience into a positive one but CUSTOMER BEWARE. This is what happens when you dispute the way you were treated at the chuck wagon or any of its affiliates!

“Number one is we will take full responsibility for the meal (which was not mentioned in your review) we somehow separated from the rest of the table. Accidents do happen and we apologize that it took about 10-15 minutes longer to receive that item. We DID give you a discount on the ENTIRE ticket for our mistake.”

A 10% discount is not a 10% discount when you charge me a 3.5% fee to use my card. That is in fact a 6.5% discount. As for your clients that I got turned away, everybody in the world has the right to know the owner of the establishment will try to pull a “theft of service” criminal charge on a family of four because of they way they cannot control themselves...

Wow, what a hot mess of a restaurant. We showed up and was seated at the same time as another family, who was there before us. We both essentially sat at the same table, which was fine and ordered at the same time. It took almost 25 minutes for either of us to have a waitress see us. Once we both ordered it was another 25 minutes wait to get our appetizers. The other family got theirs first and we got ours about 15 minutes after them. Their severs was incredibly attentive and apologetic and brought them some warm bread (courtesy of Chef Mike - the microwave), we got nothing. The restaurant itself is fairly small and it should not take the time it did to serve us. While we waited we got a first hand show of what I can only assume was the owners, owners family, and everyone in town who is their friend. People were constantly coming and going from the serving counter, working with food and then leaving. It almost felt like the owner and their entourage did not care about hygiene food sanitation or anything else because they were busy. It took almost 2 hours for us to get our food. Even parts of it didn't come until we were almost done eating. The restaurant is a hot, unorganized, unprofessional mess. The only people who were constantly running around working harder than they should have, was the servers.

The food: this was actually pretty good, hometown food. There was nothing special about it, but it was good, which is why I have given them 2 stars.

I wouldn't recommend it, nor...