Station 22 — Restaurant in Provo

UPDATE 8/1/2021: Honestly, wishing I had as good of an experience as the first time I came to this restaurant many years ago. Now what remains is a shell of what it used to be.

POSITIVES: I appreciate the simplicity of the menu, which means the chefs are more focused on specializing these dishes instead of spreading themselves thin. Their chicken does taste good, as do the dirty fries. But the absolute best part of the meal was the side of Mac n Cheese (apparently award winning, but none of them were able to tell me what award it was/who awarded them/when the award was given). The chicken country fried steak was also a winner in my book, and probably the best out of the entrees we tried that evening.

NEGATIVES: we had high hopes for these meals, and most of them didn't deliver. The fried chicken sandwich was too sweet with the xandee ranch and coleslaw, and we just an awkward combo for our tastes. The chicken and waffles tasted okay, but felt very scant, and would leave you feeling hungry (considering it's like $13, that's pretty awful). The Whiskey Chicken had an interesting tangy flavor that was almost like A1 steak sauce, plus the whiskey flavor, but it failed to really impress anyone at our table who all tried it.

On another note, the service we had was pretty abysmal... Out waitress seemed a bit of an airhead, as we had to remind her not one, not two, but THREE times for multiple things! First it was for straws, then it was for the fry sauce she forgot, then it was to refill our waters, and also for our boxes at the end. I'm sure she felt stressed that night, and was pretty busy... But come on, if you're forgetting the basic things the customers are asking for, and they have to remind you 2-3 times for each of these things, you gotta write it down, or figure something else out.

PRICE: easily $15-20 per person.

RECOMMENDED: the only things I can really recommend are the chicken fried steak, and the Mac and cheese.

I really wish I could have tried the fried cookie dough balls for dessert or the cake they had... But we were pretty disappointed overall with the food and service that we didn't end up getting dessert.

FIRST REVIEW - 3/24/2013

POSITIVES: Station-22 claims to have one of the largest selections of non-alcoholic bottled beverages on the pacific. Our waitress even took us back to the shelves to examine the selection. The place is small but comfortable, until it gets too packed in the evening (best to go right after lunch, just before dinner). NEGATIVES: They're a bit understaffed. When it gets busy, things will get slow, or they'll forget something. They will compensate with extra food or a special starter though. Also, the music isn't the best background music, and sometimes is too loud. Their s'mores dessert wasn't all that impressive. The marshmallow was all hard by the time it came to us. PRICE: $8-15. RECOMMENDED: I had the Chubby Checker w/ bacon (a burger with pulled pork, bbq sauce and onions) and it was amazing. The Jack Kerouac is OK, nothing to scream about. My wife had the Golden State burger, which...

I was pretty bummed with the overall experience that my wife and I had tonight. I recognize that the staff was doing their best to wait on a large party somewhere else in the restaurant, but being understaffed or busy or any other issue doesn’t excuse all of the mistakes. Apologies for the novel, but it demonstrates how management handles unhappy customers.

We ordered the 5-piece meal with either a mix of boneless meat, thighs, and legs, or all boneless if the mix wasn’t possible. After a longer-than-average wait, a plate of barely warm thighs and legs was dropped at our table. The breading was already soft and falling off the chicken, so we figured it had probably been sitting for a while. We knew that they’d have to throw away the chicken if we sent it back, so we decided we’d just eat what was given to us. Textures were off and we wished we could’ve had boneless, but the chicken didn’t taste that bad.

My fries were fresh-ish, but my wife’s fries were cold. They forgot our biscuits and we had to remind our waiter to bring them. After eating two of our fried funeral potato bites, we discovered a long black hair peeking out from beneath the other four. I should’ve taken a closeup picture, but you can still see part of it in the picture provided.

We finally said something to our waiter about the hair. He offered us free dessert, but we said we just wanted a different batch of funeral potatoes without hair. He said that he’d accommodate and that the manager wanted to personally apologize, so we figured we’d wait to mention everything else until then—don’t shoot the messenger, right?

The manager never ended up approaching us. After close to 10 minutes of waiting, we finally told our waiter about everything else. Honestly, the only thing they got right was the biscuits (the only reason I gave 2 stars instead of 1). He offered us 50% off. I had a waiter at Texas Roadhouse that comp’d the whole meal just for a long wait—we weren’t even bothered, but he felt so bad that he offered. With that in mind, I was surprised that after an incorrect order, less-than-fresh food, and literally hair in my potatoes, that was all they were willing to do.

I mentioned that I’d pay what we needed to, but thought they should comp the meal, so he said he’d talk to the manager. 50% was all they could do because we ate some of the chicken—chicken that they would’ve had to throw away anyways, had we said anything sooner. Still no sign of the manager, so we paid and left.

When I first came to Station 22 a few years ago it was amazing, but based on my experience and some of the recent reviews I’ve seen, the new recipes and poor management have taken it downhill. Don’t...

The food was very good. Our server, Clay, was friendly but not very attentive. When he came to take our order 2 of our party of 3 were ready to order but I was not quite ready. I was in the process of telling him to take their orders 1st and I would be ready by the time they finished ordering. He didn't even listen but left while I was still talking. That was okay but he didn't come back for quite some time. Was he busy? It didn't appear so. He was behind the counter laughing and socializing with a few of the other employees.

He eventually came and took our orders and the food came in a reasonable amount of time. However, he did not come back after a few minutes to see if everything was okay. For the most part it was but I wanted some salt and by the time I flagged him down, my meal was mostly gone. Also, no refill on my water until I was almost finished eating. I felt like I had to ration my water to make it last through the meal. My friend, who was drinking soda, ran out before she finished her meal and was never given a refill. He didn't ask if we wanted dessert but that didn't really mater because we didn't.

When he left the check on the table, I put my credit card in the tray and waited, and waited, and waited until he finally came and got it. While I was waiting, he was again behind the counter socializing (not busy).

The restaurant was nice but it was lunchtime and busy. The busy was only a problem because we had been seated at a table very near the entrance and there was very little room for the incoming guests so they crowded around our table waiting to be seated and dodging the departing guests. It was a real goat rope when people were coming and going which was frequent.

Lastly, the entrance door had an automatic door closing device that didn't work properly and left the door open about a foot which caused a cold draft to blow directly on us. Brrr! One of the nice employees kept running (literally) to close the door which was much appreciated and I told her so.

Bottom line... If you go there for a meal, be ready to enjoy some good food but ask for a server other than Clay and ask to be seated away from...