Bronko's Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Middlebury

I am sad to write this review. I remember when my boss swore by this place. Of course that was nearly 10 years ago. I am back in the area and was passing by tonight with an empty tummy and not much time to wait on food, so the sign for their buffet sounded like a good idea. Boy was I wrong! Granted it was a Wednesday night around 5:30 PM, so not PEAK of the week, but still. I stood in confusion waiting to be helped, then received no direction even after saying that I had never been there. It took forever for my drink order to be taken. Then I had to find out where the buffet was on my own and such. I started with wilted salad (no croutons to be had anywhere) and mostly-water ham and bean soup with no crackers anywhere. Meh. That was the best part of the meal. I tried a little bit of everything from the hot side after that. The Alfredo and shells was watered down so horrible and COLD. The marinara and shells were nasty and cold. The potato wedges might have been good if not old and cold. The chicken was at most like warm and nasty greasy. The pizza wasn’t cut nearly at all, and was so cold and hard that I could barely break it apart. I never could tell what kind it was (other than gross). The garlic bread was “garlic rock” and cold. I nearly broke a tooth on the one bite I managed to break off of it. So I had maybe a bit or two of each thing and then was DONE. I put my napkins and silverware on my nearly full first plate of “hot” food, pushed it across the table and waited for the return of the waitress with a check. 15-20 minutes later someone dropped off a check and ran away. I had no idea where to go to pay. I hunted her down and asked. I looked at the bill and was SHOCKED! I could have went ANYWHERE else and got better food for about half the price. She asked, finally, if everything was ok. I asked when was the best time to come in to get hot, fresh food. She acted like she didn’t know what I meant. I said all my food was cold and I only ate a bite of anything. She then proceeded to tell me it was MY responsibility to tell them that their food was cold and old, instead of them actually checking the temps and times. Seriously?!? “Hello, Health Department?” She was then acted like it was a big deal that she would go and adjust my bill by 10%. Wow. 10% on an overpriced bill for food I didn’t even eat? Not worth waiting more time. I left a tip still, even though I was never really helped. Oh wait... the server one time brought a drink refill that I am pretty sure wasn’t what I ordered and tasted funny. The teen girl employees sat at the table next to me for a long time yapping on loudly with their teen gossip, not even considering looking to see if anyone around them needed a refill. I told the lady (only one who looked old enough to have any sense) that I would just pay my bill as it was my mistake for coming there, but one I would not make again! So sad! My brother says the CR 17 one is good, but they don’t offer buffet I guess. I still would be hesitant to attempt them either. I gave a one-star review, but this was generous.

Follow up: I contacted the management regarding this issue and there has yet to be a response as of 4/3/2018. They don’t even care how bad they are. Never going...

This place is clean for one thing, no slippery greasy floors, no food left in the seats, no fingerprints on the salt/pepper shakers etc, no food on the tablecloth. The food... the salad is Greek style with the lettuce, tomato, black olives, peppercini, red onion, other addition were right next to it. The salad bar was my overall favorite here. They strayed away from putting meat on the pizza (remind you this is a buffet) the pizza didn’t come out fast enough, they made sure it was literally almost gone, and I mean almost gone before they made another one. The pizza had four sections on the huge thing, one side was cheese, one side was veggie, one side was a one topping like sausage (very tiny sausage) nothing like Italian uses, and the other side a single veggie topping 😬so yeah that was the pizza. The same for the fried chicken, they only fried like a certain amount of pieces and they didn’t fry more until it was bout gone. The soups were watered down till there was no flavor 😕 the pasta was bland, not Italian pasta by far, more like CiCi pizza type pasta 🍝 for real. The wait for pizza and fried chicken was ridiculous, I heard several people talking about it at tables till some just decided to take their ticket and leave. You can see the staff standing around in the kitchen not making food that needs to be made, so they must have a manager or owner that had told them what not to do, El Cheapo 😂 One waitress I’ll mention is Macie she’s nice, I arrived early and she let me inside started me on my drink. The other waitress with a long blond ponytail, I didn’t get her name but she was rushing me off after just my first (1st) plate emptied. I was like “Girl plz” I haven’t had my money worth yet, and totally ignored her, which cost her $7 on her tip because I normally tip $10 so she only got $3. But the table in front of me, she “asked” them were they ready for their ticket. So she just a stereotype c*nt is that what they call them type. Anyway I won’t be back to El Cheapo! I’m not tapping my feet waiting on pizza or fried chicken, nothing screams Italian to me with flavor there. I’ll stick to the several real Italian places around Elkhart county that don’t...

Absolutely the worst service that I have had from any server ever! I suggested to a friend that we try this place since he liked Italian food. We waited over 20 minutes just for a waitress to come to our table, we ordered our food at the same time since the wait was a long time. She told us the only thing good there was the pizza or the chicken. So I ordered the chicken parmesan, my friend the lasagna. We ordered bread sticks. They didn't come as we witnessed every other table getting drinks and appetizers. We didn't get refills on drinks as we waited. Wait time for bread sticks approaching a half hour. Finally they came and our food came right after. She dropped everything and left. My friends lasagna was good. My chicken parmigiana, the first bite was amazing. Went to try the sauce and it was bitter. Not the worst until I went to eat the noodles and rest of the dish and found that the noodles hadn't been drained properly and were sitting in water. The sauce wouldn't even stick. The waitress never came back. I finally picked and ate what I could. We waited and she dropped off a bill and left. Not one word asking how everything was or if we needed any thing else. So we got up to pay since she didn't come back, only to be told by the hostess that we paid at our table. I told her the waitress said that she was busy. I honestly don't know doing what. The hostess went and got her. We had to have her split the bill. I did tip! A tip is a bonus that is earned. I went to wait outside. My friend paid his and joined me and said she was extremely mean and rude when he didn't tip so he told her he didn't tip for bad service. NEVER AGAIN! The server's name was Jasmine L. According to the receipt. Order...