Wagon Master — Restaurant in Leesville

So I will assume based on the fact that not a single critical review on Google has been responded to, that the ownership and management of Wagon Master knows that the residents of our community have no alternative, and sadly, they behave accordingly. So I don't expect a response. First, the service is always fantastic. I've never had a bad experience in that respect. If you can forgive the fact that ownership makes the employees pay out of pocket if someone doesnt pick up their order. I mean, thats just unethical.... I would even say nefarious. The accommodations are what you would expect from a home grown steakhouse. It's fine. Comfortable, the atmosphere is welcoming, appropriately lighted, etc. Now, the food. This, in my opinion, is the only real problem. It can't be blamed on the staff. I have no doubt they perform to the exact level to which they are trained, but a cook is only as good as his ingredients. For instance, when you order a thirteen dollar bacon cheeseburger, you don't expect precooked, paper-thin, microwave, Oscar Meyer style bacon. It's honestly just kind of insulting. Truly if you want a good burger in this town, Fatboy and Skinny's in the way to go. They at least use real bacon. Or when you pay twenty four dollars for a "rack" of spare ribs, you don't expect to get inch long bones and thin, shoe leather meat from the throw away end of the rack, and meat that's been cooked so long its like pot roast. Not to mention... eight bones? Come on, man. If you're not going to serve an actual rack, don't call it a rack. Call it an order. I have yet to order one of their steaks, mainly because I'm terrified that I'll be so unbelievably disappointed, and feel so terribly ripped off I'd never be able to forgive myself. Take for instance, The Duke. According to the menu, it's "Our largest ribeye", but I mean what the hell does that even mean? There's no weight on the menu or anything like that. And if the steaks are cooked like the burgers, I'd likely just get up and walk out when my thirty three dollar ribeye comes out medium well. I will, after writing this review, try one of the steaks. Otherwise, I'd feel like a tool for talking about something I haven't experienced. It's just a feeling based on my experience so far. I'll update afterwards. I think its clear that Wagon Master's ownership understands very well that they have no direct competition, therefore they feel no pressure to ensure the food is above and beyond, or even adequate for that matter. They don't have to. We allow them to do this, because we continue to eat there. Honestly, what choice do we have? Again, there's no competition. So ultimately, I feel taken advantage of. We drop a hundred dollars between two diners for mediocre food because we have no alternative, and they have no motivation to improve because, well we have no choice but to eat there if we want a steak or a burger at a decent, sit-down restaurant. It's an awful situation that, if we allow, will just continue. I would be interested to see a profit and loss statement detailing their food cost, but again, they haven't responded to a single critical review so I have to believe they likely just don't really care...

Only gets 1 star because zero or negative stars are not an option. We arrive at 7:15 pm. We are finally greeted and seated after standing for several minutes and having several more people enter to stand in line behind us. At 7:27 we were seated and given rolls. About 5 minutes later we placed our drink and appetizer orders. We tell the server we need a few minutes to decide on our entrees. About 5 minutes later she returns with our drinks and we placed our dinner orders. About 10 minutes later our appetizers come out. We eat our appetizers and rolls and another several minutes passes before the server returns and tells us they are out of one of the cuts of steak we ordered and that one of us would have to order something else. We change the order and wait. Our server completely disappeared for about 30 minutes after this. Our drinks are empty by this point. We flag down another server to inquire about our server, our food, and drink refills. We are brought back the wrong drinks and told that our food isn't ready yet and our server can't be found. At this point we ask to see a manager. We wait another 15 minutes or so. Several tables have been seated around us, ordered, eaten, and are finishing their visit. The time is now 9 pm, 30 minutes till closing and employees are cleaning around still seated customers with a harsh chemical that causes us to have reactions. A manager nor our server have arrived by this point so again we ask a different employee to simply get us our check so we can leave. We receive our check and approach an employee standing at a point of sale stand and ask if she can help settle our bill. The manager "Larry" now approaches us. He proceeds to tell us that the kitchen received our orders at 8:47 pm. We try to inform him that that is well over an hour after we actually placed the order. Larry proceeds to tell us it is our fault that everything has taken so long because we ordered appetizers to begin with. It is now almost 9:30 the restaurant's closing time and Larry announces that our 4 medium rare steaks are now ready. We refuse them and pay for our appetizers and drinks and leave hungry and extremely unhappy after driving for an hour one way to visit this establishment. Never again and we will tell everyone we know how we were treated and our...

It seems to be the place to go. I’m not sure why though. I’ve been in the area for a week and every time I drive by this place it looked busy. My coworkers and I figured it must be good. We decided to go on a Friday night. We arrived just before 6 and from what it looked like, the dinner rush. There is a lot of parking but whoever designed the parking lot, needs to be fired. It’s all a one way design. Every lane goes in the same direction, toward the local Walmart. Even the arrows point you in one direction, so the only legal way to navigate the parking lot...enter from the Main Street. Go down a lane, if there is no spot...leave the parking area and go back in the way you did before and try a different lane. Also, if you navigate the parking lot illegally, DO NOT drive a large truck! We were seated immediately. Good sign. The server arrived fast. She must not have a lot of experience because there was no rhyme or reason on how she took our orders. It showed when the food came out. No clue who ordered what. I ordered an appetizer “southwest egg rolls”, The Duke steak, medium rare with a loaded baked potato. The steak came out medium on a skillet on top of sautéed onions. No big deal, I can eat that just as well. The potato had its own plate. The first bite of the steak was ok. After the first bite however, I could only taste the onion that my steak was bathing in. I do like sautéed onions but this was over kill. To the chef, ease up on the onion soup. The potato was meh as was the salad that came with the meal. There were about a million servers there so I guess when it gets busy they can handle the rush but it still seemed that requests for refills were a little slow. Yes, I know this is the south and no one is in a particular hurry in restaurants. I travel all over and have lived all over, I know, I know. So now you are all wondering, what about the southwest egg rolls? Well, I like to end on a positive note. The egg rolls were the best part of my meal. Also, when we asked for the checks, they were brought out promptly and surprisingly accurate. Yes, they still didn’t know which belonged to whom. The servers also seemed pretty upbeat and for the most part friendly. In the end, I came, I tried and I left....