Buckets Sports Grill — Restaurant in Soldotna

Buckets Restaurant: Where Flavor Goes to Die (But You Still Pay Extra for the Funeral)”

You ever walk into a restaurant and realize halfway through, this is what regret tastes like? Welcome to Buckets — where the only thing heavier than the food is the upcharges.

Now listen… we knew we were in trouble when they hit us with $2.50 per ranch. PER. RANCH. That’s not a sauce, that’s an investment portfolio. And don’t even look at the barbecue sauce unless you’ve taken out a small loan. That was $3.50 a dip, y’all. For that price I expected a hickory-smoked angel to come down and anoint the burger.

Speaking of burgers — tried to switch up the cheese and got charged $2.25 extra. I didn’t ask for unicorn milk, I just wanted cheddar instead of plastic. I guess “customizing” your burger is their love language… and love is expensive.

Now the chicken sandwich? We’ll give them that one. That thing was anointed. But the waiter hugging our drinks like she was baptizing them into her chest? We didn’t order the “full-body beverage blessing,” ma’am. Just a refill.

Pretty sure they lost their serving trays, too. Either that or it’s a CrossFit-themed restaurant where waiters carry everything with raw forearms and misplaced eye contact.

Let’s talk appetizers. The fried pickles and poppers were cooked perfectly… and that’s the nicest thing we can say. Bland as baby food from the ‘80s, but hey — at least it was warm, right?

Then came the $6.50 root beer floats. Which is fine, if they’re serving it in a vintage mason jar carved by Amish monks. But no… it was regular. Just regular. Like your disappointment.

Also, you’ll find a 15% automatic gratuity, which they added themselves — probably to pay for all that premium ranch.

Positives? Sure. They had outdoor seating and a kids’ play area, which was nice… gave us time to question every life choice that led to ordering those jalapeño poppers.

Final verdict? Should’ve gone to the grocery store, caught the chicken ourselves, and seasoned it like the Lord intended.

Buckets: where you leave with less faith in humanity and more debt than a college grad. 2 stars for the chicken sandwich...

I took my wife and her sisters out to dinner the other day and the experience we had was bad enough we will never eat there again. It took between 45 minutes and an hour to get our food. When my wife placed her order, she asked for a plain bucket burger and specifically asked for no mayo. Her room temperature burger was slathered in mayo. One of her sisters got cold nachos with cheese so bland and tasteless, we aren't even sure it was actually cheese. Her other sister got overcooked chicken fingers, which were barely above room temperature. Half of my steak bites were hot, the other half were cold, but most were a 50/50 mixture of meat and fat. I will say, though, the hot meat dipped into the blueberry sauce was very good. After bringing out our meals, the waitress only showed up once to check on us, at which time we told her the food was ok, but she walked away before we could explain further. She didn't ask how we enjoyed our meal or if there were any issues when she brought the check, despite most of our food being uneaten, and again, left before we could express our displeasure. A different waitress picked up the check and ran my card. I suspect she overheard us complaining among ourselves because she seemed overly friendly, brought our to-go boxes right away and apologized. At one point, we overheard our waitress saying to another table she used to work in an airport bar, which tells me she is not new to the industry, which reflects even more poorly on the service we received. The thing that brought decor down from an excellent to very good was the speaker box on our table was not working properly. With the volume turned all the way up, you had to hold the box up to your ear in order to barely...

I called ahead of time for a "pick up" order for Bucket's Chicken Tenders. When I arrived a few mins later (I knew my food wouldn't be ready just yet). The restaurant was packed as it was in the middle of tourist/Dipnet season. Most of the waitresses were visibly stressed and seemed a bit overwhelmed, not one smiled. However the one waitress that helped me "Brooke" was cheerful and smiled. She asked if we needed a seat, I let her know I had a pickup order. She told me it would be a few mins and politely asked if I wanted a seat. She provided me ice water and a table to sit even though the restaurant was full and people were still waiting for seats. She treated me just like a sit-down customer and it was highly appreciated. The wait was a bit long, but I knew it was a full house and expected it to take a little longer. When my food arrived Brooke asked if I "needed anything else?" I got some napkins and left. Whe I finally ate my food about 10 mins later it was still warm and tasted delicious. The cooks did a good job even with a busy day. The only reason I am giving a 4 Star instead of 5 is because while I was waiting I couldn't help but notice that most of the waitresses did not appear to be in the best mood in my opinion. It would of been nice to see a happier...