Bosque River Taphouse — Restaurant in Stephenville

I want to say, We walked in around like 2 in the afternoon, in an attempt to skip the lunch rush and dodge the dinner rush, there was maybe 3 other tables as a whole seated in the taphouse.

Reading other comments saddens me at reading peoples bad experiences to a newly opened space, but its bound to happen unfortunately.. with that being said..

I've had the privilege of traveling all over the U.S., born up north, living in TX as an adult, traveling from here to Cali to Virginia and a lot of the east coast, as well as internationally to places like Ireland, Germany, Kuwait and Afghanistan.. i've experienced a very wide variety of foods in both restaurant as well as home cooked settings.

The food we got here at the BRT I can easily and openly say was among the top 5-10 I've gotten to experience in my travels so far.

I would say within the top 2-3 I've been to in our travels around Texas.

Appetizer? Sunfisher Cheese Fries (I'm sorry i wasn't able to get a photo of that, It had slipped my mind, and they were gone before it registered that I should).

The meals? Pan-Seared Elk Medallions Butter Seared Salmon Little Kickin' Chicken Dippers

The amazing part about all of this, our 3.5yr/o daughter tried and enjoyed all 3 dishes as well.

From the moment we sat, we were approached for drinks/appetizers, Drinks came within a minute or two, Appetizer took maybe 10 minutes. Placed the order for our food and had it served to us I would guess between 20-30 minutes of initially sitting down.. We walked in expecting some kind of a wait from prior experience with other local places in town, So this was a pleasant surprise.. again, likely due to keen timing, and what I'm sure is now a mostly well rounded staff.

The food though.. That Medallion? My steak knife slid through it like a hot knife through butter, almost no pressure needed, an amazing rich taste and practically melted in your mouth.

The Salmon? Although the fillet was I would say on the smaller side, the flavour of it was amazing, the butter sauce used complimented the deep richness the fish had. (We regularly buy salmon and make dishes at home at least monthly if we can to change things up), I would say its about 1/2 maybe even 1/3 the size of a fillet we cut and prepare at home, but the overall plate portion between the salmon/medallion and potatoes was pretty spot on, specially after a filling appetizer, so thats more a nuance than anything.

Even the chicken tenders ripped apart easily and you could tell it was not something that had been baking under a heat lamp for ages.

All this food you could tell was made with care and from scratch or as close as that gets you in a restaurant setting.

We left feeling full and happy, not miserable, so all in all it was a great experience for us, we paid and had been gone in roughly an hour of sitting down, To me thats a very typical sit down experience time frame wise.

If I had any amount of criticism for our visit, for me personally It would probably be the portion sizes of the green bean side given with my dish, While my girlfriend finished all of hers (don't get it wrong here, They were crisp and fresh and flavored well as well) It's just not a favorite of mine, And I could of easily have switched this with one of the other sides like a salad or fries, but having the mashed potatoes (which was also another pleasant surprise by the way, this was a freshly baked potato mashed and seasoned, not mashed to the point of baby food texture, but a good mix of paste and p otato chunk, and was one of my favorites hands down).. But I would almost like to see a couple other side options, for something of this setting and the food variety.. maybe something along the lines of a street corn?

And i say this knowing the more options there are, its inevitable it will lower the overall quality, So please, Keep your menu small and simple like it is currently, try and keep staples in place that are popular, but please don't do what the majority of restaurants in town fall prey to, Don't sacrifice quality...

I decided to try this after my graduation and boy did they ruin my day. If I could give 0 stars that still would not be enough. The menu does not accurately describe the meals. I ordered Birria tacos and the description says deep fried, they were not. The meat ground, not shredded like most normal Birria meat is. They have no mention that the meat is not shredded Birria but instead ground in house and tasted like a hamburger. I did not like the flavor or meat so I kindly asked the waitress to instead put in a burger for me. After being berated by a manager for why I didn’t like the tacos they put the order for the burger in. I proceeded to wait for 45 minutes for a burger that I did pay for. The male manager was extremely rude when asking why it was taking so long, and trying to get it to go. The male owner/ manager did not have any customer service skills. Aside from that the salads are overpriced and barely offer enough dressing. They got my sisters salad wrong missing chicken. Then it takes 45 minutes for a burger to go. My family was already checked out and done eating still waiting for my burger while people being seated after me were done as well.

Overall this was a terrible dining experience for overpriced under seasoned food, and tiny servings.

As someone who frequents restaurants all over Oklahoma Texas and Arkansas, this establishment really needs to do better. At least our waitress was kind.

Also if you are the manager and reading this, we never asked you to “skip” and put my burger first we simply asked why people seated after me had their burgers but I was still waiting for 45 mins. Que or not a burger does not take 45 mins to make yall were busting out orders faster than that you just didn’t like that I sent the tacos back. Sometime people don’t like the flavor get over it and learn some customer service.

Then to add insult to injury the burger was made incorrectly too and used the same meat from the taco to make the burger so it’s a falling apart burger with the same meat not what I ordered.

Reporting...

An interesting new local brewery with a nice selection of beer. Alas, I don't think they are going to make it unless they change. This is my fifth visit. I usually sit at the bar. First night, the bar was dirty and the barman had on a company tshirt that was really grubby. In really bad need of a wash. The second visit, 5 hours later, same grubby attire. The next time I sat with businesses colleagues at a table. Beer was fine, as always. We ordered food but 5 minutes later they said there was a problem in the kitchen ( a fire - I guess that is a problem) so we had to leave at go elsewhere. The next visit I just had a beer. Their Sunfisher IPA was enjoyable. I bought a 4 pack to go. However, the bar top was again dirty. Tonight, the bar top was again not clean. I ordered a burger. It was good, it came with a Bosque sauce. That was way too sloppy. It would have been better without it, but I am sure others would disagree. I pushed the plate to the front side to be taken away. 15 minutes later, just gone as I am typing. There are around 7 or 8 employees front side, don't know how many kitchen side. Simply overstaffed at front and yet not immaculate. That kind of payroll is not sustainable. On an aside, the bathrooms are indeed clean. So, in summary, this place has potential. Could be the best place in town if someone was in charge and saw what I observed. Good luck, put in a good manager and I hope to see you on my return 5 years from now! The atmosphere and beer are good, food on par, but too many inexperienced staff unable to see through the...