The Ettlin's Cafe — Restaurant in New Prague

When good times go bad! Ettlin’s has been our families go to Sunday destination brunch location for a few years: Fresh, Good but a tad slow, which is ok for scratch. We, not unlike many other families have some urban sprawl going on. We have family from New Prague, Chaska and Prior Lake, but we all make the drive to connect even with the crazy gas prices. Yesterday we met there and asked two simple questions:

Is the OJ hand squeezed? (Opening question-we are a coffee family, just curious)“NO, that’s too expensive!” Unless they offer free juice… When did you switch up the sausage links? (When food was brought out) “We never have, I know, I do all the ordering…!” This was not the right question for me to ask apparently as you would of thought I had three heads… A curious question turned into the female owners personal combat mode of a 5 minute embarrassing dissertation of why she was right and I had no clue what I had been eating for years. One of the main reasons our family previously supported this restaurant was due to the fact that they purchased partial product from a local meat market, 14 minutes southwest of there (I asked the daughter of the owner a while back where they get their sausage links and she told me the name of the meat market and what to ask for; went there and it was spot on, in fact the meat market even acknowledges the relationship with Ettlin’s with a previous online post; don’t know if it’s current or not).

Jackpot, we can support two local businesses. One only needs to look at the Google picture reviews and clearly see the homemade links of past days compared to what we got (little sizzler type of item which were ok, but not why I go there).

The bottom line is it didn’t matter if you went a new direction with meat selections; we always got the same thing and have over a few dozen times, (because we liked the sausage and wanted to support local) what does matter is you pushing a point that you know what I have been eating for all these years. It wasn’t a right or wrong thing, it was a question; something changed and I only asked why? Maybe your chef consistently plated the wrong sausages on my visits or the last few years you used local… don’t know… Sadly my question didn’t form from criticism (maybe disappointment) but the outcome of how you addressed...

Well....I will only post my honest opinion, but that's all ot is.

My server/waitress was polite but not overly friendly, "like maybe a southern counterpart might be".

I ate alone which may contribute to amount of attention I recieved, but addiquite. I don't need to be checked on multiple times, but it feels nice when someone does.

Food was good - very good. French toast was delicious and if returned would probably get again, got a great amount of butter too. Hashbrowns would have been really good too, but was a bit thick vertically which gave a good crust but made middle "not the hottest?" But with salt and pepper I ate them all.

I have seen a lot of the negitive comments and they are whitey and amusing and will enjoy them with my family and friends, but I little unprofessional. Yes this is a family establishment but ......who am I to tell anyone anything.

Anyone complaining about price and giving bad reviews, please let other decide for themselves.

3 seems harsh but I rhino I need to start reserving 5's for the people who go abo e and beyond to earn it and 4's for people who just miss 5's.

Overall from my experience and from reading all reviews, you will get slow but well prepared home cooked meals with someone kind enough to bring your food to the table.

Also if it was unclear, I didn't have any problems with service. I...

We went there because of the Harry Potter themed drinks for our child.

I asked for hot water, I didn't get it. We were brought 3 ice waters instead. I had to ask another person for hot water.

We asked for extra napkins, we didn't get it, until we mentioned extra napkins within ear shot of the waitress. Then she remembered and brought some over.

I ordered a burger to go with a side salad. We should have checked before leaving because when we got home all I got was the burger, no side salad (or fries). My husband left a very good tip, too, for service that was not so good.

We waited about an hour or a little over an hour before we got our food. However, they do have signage saying it could take up to 40 mins to get your food.

The drinks were excellent. The soup was very good. The burger my husband got was amazing; however, he got sour cream instead of mayo for his burger (and so did I when I ate my to-go-burger at home with no salad or fries). The breakfast burrito was ok, kind of bland.

Our child got French toast and bacon which consisted of 2 pieces of French toast sticks and 1 big piece of bacon.

Sorry, I really wanted to give this place all good ratings but the service was not good and my burrito was a disappointment, especially when we drove over an hour...