The Ozark Mill Restaurant at Finley Farms — Restaurant in Ozark

I hate to leave this review. It's heartbreaking to be honest, but after my last visit ended abruptly with a panic attack and tears, I feel like I need to.

I visited Ozark Mill last March, and it was a wonderful experience. I loved the food and the atmosphere! It is right up my alley. Servers are really nice, the exterior and interior is out of a dream. The food was delicious! But this past visit was horrible. When you are serving guests food, you HAVE to be ontop of food allergies. I am a huge foodie and I like top tier restaurants like this one. Let's just say that I expect better.

Looking back at my review last year, I mentioned that there was a mishap with a dessert. I was told I could get the dessert with no nuts on it, and I would be safe. My nut allergy can kill me. It must be taken seriously, and I try to be very careful. If a restaurant can't accommodate me, I would rather they tell me that upfront instead of trying to make it work. I got the dessert, and it came out with nuts on it. Thank God it wasn't in the cake but ontop, otherwise it could have ended with a hospital visit or worse.

Well, I thought I would give the restaurant one more try because I did really enjoy going. Drove over an hour to be here.

I got a reservation and I was seated for their brunch. Little did I know, Sunday brunch is buffet style. I go into the buffet and I am trying to look for nut warnings, and nothing is really labeled. I try to find someone to ask after putting the items I want on my plate, and she says everything on the table and on my plate should be fine, but she can go ask the kitchen for me. The guy in the kitchen comes out and lets me know items ON MY PLATE, have nuts. I go circles with him trying to figure out what nuts and how I was supposed to know what I put ON MY PLATE had nuts when there is no warning anywhere. Eventually he just apologized and walked away. I didn't yell I didn't get mad, but I instantly set my plate down and walked away upset.

I could have died. Let me say that again. Because there was no accurate labels anywhere, I could have died or atleast had a miserable day.

Please please please Ozark mill take this to heart. You have a beautiful restaurant. You have friendly servers and I love your general store. But in the two times I have visited, it has become apparent that there is little to no awareness on how to handle very serious allergies.

I unfortunately will...

We went to The Ozark Mill for lunch at about 1:30 PM. The service was very good. The atmosphere was what I'd call upscale Ozarks. It was clean and there was plenty of space. The tableware was different: it appeared to be pewter (or very tarnished and rough silver) and was oddly unappetizing. We ordered Spinach Dip as an appetizer and it was very good. It's served with lightly toasted bread for dipping. Unfortunately, that was the high point. I ordered Chicken and Dumplings and was very disappointed. It was unlike any I have ever had. It contained very little chicken; I'd guess about 1/3 of a breast worth. The cornbread dumplings didn't work for me at all. The dish had an overall "off" taste that we think we traced to some kind of fresh, "flower-like" garnish; and yet was still oddly bland. Just not good at all to our taste, and was left 3/4 uneaten. My wife ordered the Midwest Reuben and while it was different (it was made with pulled pork instead of the usual corned beef or pastrami you'd find in a Reuben) she enjoyed it. The sandwich came with a large serving of french fries on the side, which were also good. Given the size of the sandwich and the amount of meat, it seemed like a reasonable value for the price. I did not feel that way at all about the Chicken and Dumplings: at $24, that entree was IMHO very overpriced considering the lack of chicken and no sides, not even a biscuit. We then had dessert. My wife had the Caramel Apple & Walnut Crostata. For her it was OK, but it was way over-spiced for my taste; I couldn't do more than a bite or two. I ordered the Chocolate Brulee Jar and it was OK. The mousse was somewhat thick and dense for my taste, but the flavor was good. We had tea and a soda. With tip, the meal cost $105, which is pretty stout for lunch -- especially one I can't say I enjoyed -- and neither of us thought that it was close to a reasonable value. Though the service was very good, as I mentioned in the beginning, I'd mention that I told our servers that I was very disappointed and unhappy with the Chicken and Dumplings, and they could see it was barely touched, yet I was not asked if I would like something else. That courtesy was pretty standard "back in the day"; you don't much see it at all anymore. Overall it was a disappointing experience at a pretty...

Another update: came for an event. Got the catfish. Hard outside and non flavor.

Update: My daughter and I came for lunch today. We got the salmon dip, if you like a lot of cream cheese, this will be good because there is a lot! Not so much salmon. The hog and feed pizza was great and love the artisan crust. Dessert was a strawberry pistachio shortcake which was great.

We so wanted this dining experience to be good but we were extremely disappointed. We had reservations and had to wait in a line for 15+ minutes with people with and without reservations. No one came out to let those with reservations in ahead of the others. Once we were up front we were told we would need to wait like everyone else. After a while we were called on the phone and we were sitting so close we could hear her just talking, not just on the phone. We were seated by the hostess and waited quite some time before we had anyone come to the table for drinks. We were ready to order and proceeded to do so. We had two waitresses, one in training. We were very clear we wanted our entrées after we had finished Cesar salad and cornbread, they both acknowledged this. After a bit the salad and cornbread arrived. The Cesar salad was moderate proportion and just ok. The cornbread which comes in a cast iron mini skillet was good but had goat cheese mixed with Philadelphia cream cheese per the waitress. That stuff on top is not butter, don't be fooled. The menu just states farmer's cheese. We weren't even half done with our salad/cornbread and here is our entrées, ugh! The presentation looked good, the catfish was one nice sized filet but was was not very hot. The Brussel slaw was a good amount but not tasty. The vinegar potatoes were barely warm and seemed overdone and tough. The other entrée we got was chicken and dumplings, again the presentation was good with a good amount of food but was not good flavor. It was very bland and overall not good. We were going to get dessert but didn't want to be further disappointed. We had to wait quite some time to get the bill to pay. Our waitresses were very nice and I understand training was in progress but need some tweaks. For the price we wanted some good food, this was not it. I know they haven't been opened long but by now they should have it together better with much...