Dalles House Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in St. Croix Falls

Overview - total time in restaurant approximately 1.5 hours. Arrived about 6:30pm and were told either 1 1/2 hour wait for main dining or immediately on patio. We elected patio for immediate seating. The greater grabbed two menu's and headed to the patio - so we followed. Upon arriving on the patio she turned around and was SHOCKED to see is following her "oh, I was not ready for you yet". We were the first to be sat at the patio but it filled in quickly after that. About 5mn later waitress, Olivia, came to let us know the special and take our drink order and an appetizer order. She came back a few minutes later to let us know that they were out of the special and au gratin potato - a bit disappointed but understood. We selected two new items and salad. Our appetizer arrived and we enjoyed that for 10mn or so. Olivia returned with our salad - she apologized and said normally the popovers would come first but they had another 10mn wait - so salad first. Not an issue - we could wait a few more for the popovers. We didn't care about that. Olivia would stop by from time to time and say she was watching for the popovers but they were not done yet - this was far more than 10mn. We wondered when our meal would be there - it had been quite a long time. Olivia stopped by again and said that the popovers were still not ready (keep in mind this had to be about 30mn after our salad arrived) - she said she could do a dinner roll. We did not care and replied that if the popovers were done when our meal arrived we would have them. If not - then dinner roll. I asked how much longer for the meal - she shrugged her shoulders and said she didn't know. My husband joked to me after she left - they must have butcher the cow to make my steak! After another 15mn later the greeter gal asked how we were doing - we were honest. Disappointed. She asked why. I did not yell or raise my voice in any way. I don't feel I was being rude when I stated it was our anniversary and we wanted a nice meal out (we were camping at Wild River State Park). First the special was not available (again - I can't stress this enough, it was a disappointment but not outlandish) well no prime rib, no potato, and so far no popovers and was about to ask where our meal was but she interrupted me right in the middle of my thought. "Well you didn't have reservations and Saturday nights are busy. Popovers take an hour per batch . . . " She went on as if it was our fault that we came and they had no food. At this point my husband had heard enough - it was 8pm and we had no idea if we were evening getting dinner or not. We were reprimanded for being patrons on a busy night, not having reservations, and not being happy for the poor service we were getting. My husband spoke up "enough (to get her to shut up, she would not allow us to speak or respond to her) - get us our bill and we will go." She then said she'd comp the meal and we left. I stopped Olivia on the way out as she was shocked to see us leaving - I explained it was not her but that "rude other woman" why we were leaving.

Thoughts: we suspect our dinner order was not placed as they were waiting on the popovers. Had we elected for dinner rolls our meal might have been served.

yes popovers take an hour to make - from the time you put the flour in the bowl! What do you do - take a batch out of the oven, then start mixing the new batch? If so - you are doing it wrong. Very wrong.

do people with reservations get first pick of the popovers?

We were there for well over an hour when we walked out. We will not be there again.

Don't go on a Saturday night unless you have reservations. PERIOD. Or you too will get poor service and a lippy waitstaff if you ask for your meal.

We wound up back at our campsite on a cold evening without having any dinner other than the salad and...

Edit: 5/5/21. I can no longer recommend this restaurant due to inconsistency. We order take out from here once a week, every week since we moved to the area. (11/20). The last 3 dinning experiences have been terrible. Let's start with 4/14/21 my wife and I came in for her birthday dinner. Made the reservation, as soon as we sat down our server told us that they were out of tenderloin and lobster tail. Those were the 2 dinners that we wanted,so instead we ended up ordering the ribeye. We both ordered the steak the same way medium, 1 came out medium rare and the other was well done. I let the server know and they offered to remake the well done, but I declined. Ended up at McDonald's after my wife finished her meal. 4/28/21 called in a ordered for pick up, our usual 1 house burger well done and 1 wisco burger well done. Get it home and take a bite, and find out that it was cooked to a medium. Very disappointed. Now today 5/5/21 placed another order for pick up. 1 breakfast burger, well done and 1 of the daily special, well done. Get home take a bite and what do ya know neither were well done. Unacceptable. We've been spending between $40 and $50 plus tip every week since 11/20 on lunch. If we would have been eating at the restaurant I definitely would have sent it back, unfortunately we ALWAYS get our lunch to go. I'm sure they would offer to remake our food if we were willing to box it back up and drive it back there, but I'm not. I expect my order to be correct the 1st time. Why bother asking you how you want your food cooked if they're not going to cook it that way? We might try again but it definitely won't be anytime soon.

Today (11/22/2020) was our 1st time ordering here, and I must say it was delicious! I had the wisco burger and my wife has the house burger. I thought that the wisco burger was going to come with 5 or 6 cheese curds on it, to my surprise it came with what looked to be a full order on it. The prices are right in line with other restaurants in the area. There is definitely a return trip in our future. Looking forward to trying the cajun chicken...

Happened to stumble across this place while in Taylors Falls, the atmosphere here makes no sense, the waterfall behind the bar? Weird considering that have it outside the window facing the bar. The menu is small and kind of expensive for the portions you get. Bartenders where kind of stuck up for their appearance. ( I only mention this because they seemed like they would be laid back and fun.) We definitely waited over an hour for our food. Our server, one of the bartenders didn't know what the special was including the soup she had to ask the other bartender, she seemed rather annoyed that we asked or she even had to help us. We never been there before so we ate at the bar like others there. She also didn't let us know that it would be over an hour to wait for our food which would of been fine if we had known, then when we asked she's was like well I guess I can call back and ask, yeah that would be great otherwise we will just pay for the drinks, popover and soup we had while waiting for our food, then she magically comes back and says they're plating it up right now. This was after we heard our bartender/server tell another couple that it would be over an hour wait and she knew what the special was then. The soup and popover was amazing (cheesy hash brown) the steak we had was more fat than meat especially for $42.99 and I had the lobster ravioli which came with 8 ravioli @ almost $30.00 with a lobster puree that seemed fishy which had over done noodles. I probably wouldn't eat here again solely for the service and amount of food that WE got for the price. I definitely feel like it may have been an off night as it didn't seem that busy to us based off the amount of people in the establishment vs parking lot. May try again while passing through but...