Amalia's Family Restaurant — Restaurant in Oconomowoc

The atmosphere was the most appetizing aspect of the restaurant. We really enjoy the old fashion family diner vibe, unfortunately that was the only enjoyable part of our experience with Amalias. I really hope that management reads these posts because the waitress that helped us the two consecutive mornings we visited the restaurant attempted to pull the same scheme both times we visited. The waitress who’s name escapes me since she never provided it, was very poor at her job. I have been a server, a bartender, and I have worked many years in the food hospitality business. I know the tricks of the trade and I STRONGLY suspect that our waitress is pocketing money from your business. During Both visits to the restaurant (we had the same waitress each time) we were overcharged for our breakfasts. It was hard to determine at first because the system in which they use to submit orders seems very ambiguous and old fashioned. Our receipt simply read “food” and there were numerous charges for each line of food. Those charges were each a dollar or two more than what we had ordered. I know a few $ doesn’t seem like a big deal, but for it to happen two days in a row seemed odd. Upon examining the bill we determined there was an additional $6 added between the two orders. We confronted the waitress regarding the charges since this was the second occurrence in two days. The waitress didn’t even let me finish speaking about how the charges didn’t match with what she ordered when she hurriedly grabbed both our receipts and returned moments later with completely changed receipts reflecting our actual orders. Since the food tickets are hand written and submitted to the cooks it dawned on me how easy it would be for a server to present us a bill that was $6 higher than it should be, hiding additional charges under “food” When punching in the order in their old fashion register. Then later when she is collecting the payment for the order she simply could delete the extra “food” charges from our order so the bill then matched her written copy of what we actually ordered and she could pocket the difference. Again I have no proof of this since our receipts were taken from us and She obv. didn’t confess her scheme to us upfront. However, The way she responded to our inquiries regarding the bill and additionally how poorly she took care of her guests,(almost like doesn’t care how her guests feel since she is making $ off the bill either way) I would say it’s something that should at the very least be looked in to. During both visits she didn’t get everyone’s drink order on her first trip to the table, she instead ignored the kids at the table until we called her over again to complete our drink orders. Our food was delivered with lightening speed but was not very appetizing (for the exception of the Belgium waffle-this was sublime) the food appearance was greasy and looked to have been reheated. Half of what we ordered was also incorrect and the waitress offered no empathy or apology for the mistakes...additionally after dropping off our new receipts the waitress ignored our table so we had to go up to the register and pay (no big deal), however that furthers my suspicion that there was some fowl play happening here.

At the end of it all, I will not be returning here to dine in the future. However, there are plenty of positive reviews depicting many seemingly enjoyable visits to this quaint little diner. I hope the issues we experienced get addressed, so this one individual doesn’t continue to tarnish the image of what seems to be a well liked place by most others who visit.

My ref# on my receipt was 9832, we visited on 8/25/19 at 10:04 according to the time stamp on the receipt....

Last Thursday my daughter & I came for a quick breakfast before I took her to school. We were greeted properly when we arrived. We picked our booth & the waitress gave us 2 small cups of water. These cups had the appearance of being dirty, but after a closer look I realized they were made that way. Odd to have cups that look like they have residue on them. I did not see turkey meat on the menu so I asked if they had any just to be sure. The server apologized & said they did not have turkey meat. I informed her that I asked because I do not eat pork. I then ordered a French vanilla cappuccino and again she apologized and said she realized it was on the menu, but they discontinued it a while ago. Hmmmm ok perhaps it should be removed or covered up. So my daughter & I placed our orders. The waitress comes back to inform me they are out of bananas so I wouldn't be able to get the Strawberry & Banana stuffed French toast so I needed to pick something else. I take another look at the menu & the waitress can tell at this point I'm extremely frustrated so she recommends I order the triple berry French toast. Since I'm in a rush I say ok fine. The waitress returns with our food, but jokingly says she needs to send the cook to the store because they were out of blueberries. So hmmmmm given the fact that blueberries were an ingredient for what I ordered how was she able to give me my order? Oh she made an executive decision that it didn't matter to me if blueberries weren't included in my triple berry french toast & that the strawberries & raspberries were good enough. Not to mention the tiny pieces of ham I found inside my french toast & the greasy taste they had. Please note pork makes me sick as I am allergic to it so luckily I found those chunks of ham that were included with my triple no excuse me double berry french toast. Let me add that with all their inventory issues & inability to give the customer what they want there was no offer to discount anything at all. I was charged full price for everything in spite of not receiving anything I ordered. This place needs to be ready to fulfill orders from their menu. A very basic restaurant...

I would rate as a 3.5, but Google only has full ratings, so I’m rounding down to 3. The service is great (speed and helpfulness). The food overall is a mixed bag. Some things were at the high end of normal expectations and some things were a little under.

We came in on a Sunday morning. It was very busy, but we were seated right away.

The restaurant is bustling with staff. Steaming plates of food come flying by with somewhat startling speed.

The food was pretty mid overall. The coffee is quite bad. We were not too interested in getting a warm up. Also, some of the customary diner accoutrements were missing…jelly packets would need to be requested, syrup in a plastic cup…little things that aren’t a big deal, but they are a little distracting.

The pancakes were good. Very typical of a family restaurant. They were average sized.

The strawberry banana French toast was a little bit of a mess. It was a little soggy.

The corned beef is made in house. It was decently flavored, but not that meaty. There were strands of corned beef rather than chunks.

The hash browns had some color, but were still very soft and not as flavorful as we would typically want.

The breakfast panini was decent, but the bacon was rather low quality.

On a different occasion I came in for breakfast. The gyro skillet seemed smaller than typical for a dinner but was priced at $16 or so. Coffee was $4. The toast was noticeably unevenly toasted. Two skillets and a cup of coffee ended up costing $55 with tip. There are several other places in town with better and cheaper food.

Ultimately, I have to downgrade this place to 2 stars for value and quality… Especially with several other notable options in the...