Machine Shed Restaurant Appleton — Restaurant in Town of Grand Chute

We tried this place twice for lunch and dinner and once for breakfast. Our breakfast entrees were the reason we went back twice more, hoping to recapture that first amazing experience.

Firstly, I’d like to say that the service here is fantastic. Well and above the norm we’ve experienced since moving to Wisconsin. It really stands out and they should be proud of the people they employ. The atmosphere is small-town friendly and relaxing. I’m not a fan of the Country Americana decor on a personal level but it’s tasteful and well done. There’s even a pleasant and quaint little gift shop just inside the main entrance. There’s also an actual hostess that seats you, adding to the wonderful personal attention you get here.

Our breakfast included an amazing country fried steak, biscuits and gravy that was mouthwateringly good, light and fluffy scrambled eggs, a fruit cup with FRESH fruit, crisp and delicious slices of bacon, pancakes and syrup that were far better than average, quite excellent coffee, and a glass of apple juice.

Aside from a fantastic breakfast, I’m afraid the only other thing to recommend this place is the fact they serve generous portions for a very reasonable price, and the salad bar (which was small but the ingredients were crisp and fresh, and unfortunately about the only thing that tasted great).

It’s not that the food we tried was awful. Far from it. But everything was bland and under-seasoned, especially the steak (which was just plain awful even though it was cooked perfectly to our desired temperature). The flavor of the meatloaf was adequate, but the huge (freakishly huge) portion of bland potatoes they pile atop it robs it of it’s flavor. They drizzled a small amount of beef gravy over the top of everything (the gravy was admittedly the best part of the entree, which is a little sad when you think about it). I had to scrape off the potatoes and ask for more gravy and that was better, but not great because after scraping off the potatoes I found a sad little thin slice of underwhelming meatloaf (no wonder they hide it under a mountain of potatoes). They serve their meatloaf and potatoes on a slice of sourdough bread, which sounded amazing but ended up being a non-factor due to the overall blandness of the food.

I really wanted to like the food here more because the service is so darned friendly, but I simply cannot recommend anything other than...

After receiving some of the worst service I have received in a very long time, all while the manager was setting up the salad bar right next to my table. The manager finally comes over with an attitude after the server took my card and informed me if I had a problem, I should have asked for a manager. Cause now that she was running my card, she couldn't do anything to help me. Didn't care what the issues were at all. Just came over to be snotty.

I honestly don't mind being patient and understand if there are mistakes, especially if they were busy. We were 1 of 2 tables there (and 3 servers as far as I could tell), and it still took over an hour for us to get in and out of there. It took forever for the server to stop by the table to "greet us". We ended up ordering drinks and food at the same time. The server forgot our drinks, and when she finally got them to us, forget about getting refills. My order was wrong, and I could hear the server announce to the kitchen that she put it in wrong. during the meal, I only saw the server once When she walked by the table to drop a check at a different table, but didn't even stop to check in on us. For 95% of the time that we were there, the entire staff was hanging out in the kitchen, the only person I saw was the manager setting up the salad bar. When the server finally dropped the check, she let me know she was leaving the check there, but still had to add the drinks (1 soda) to the tab, so that wasn't going to be the total. Took her another 10 mins to come back for my card. After the server walked away, that's when the manager finally came over. Literally just to inform me that if I had a problem, I should have asked for a manager, but now she can't do anything... What kind of manager can't notice their staff isn't on the floor helping their tables? What kind of manager can't notice when one of the only tables of people they have in their restaurant is visibly upset? Her coming over with an attitude was completely uncalled for and unprofessional. Maybe a career outside of customer service would be better...

I have been here 4 times, and all were awful.

The most recent was on the 19th of January 2015. In this trip my girlfriend and I were seated after waiting for approximately 20 minutes (as there were open tables). We then were given menus etc. We then placed our order. My meal was 10$ and was supposed to come with soup/salad and coleslaw cottage cheese and bread. I was offered none, but my girlfriend was (Her meal was listed to come with the same as mine.) It was very apparent the server did not know the menu because she seemed uncertain of what to offer, but after checking was STILL wrong. Then after I ordered my chicken tenders she told us that the chicken would be a 12 minute wait at minimum. I thought this was strange, but we agreed to that and she went to put the order in. approximately 25 minutes later our food comes. We have now been in the restaurant for 45 minutes at least. What I get is not at all chicken tenders and gravy but fried chicken, and after waiting 45 minutes on a day where the restaurant was empty I didn't feel like fussing about it. I ate the chicken that was easily 50% fat, and my girlfriend refused to eat what looked to be the worst cut of pork I have ever seen. After finishing and waiting another 10 minutes or so for the bill the waitress comes to pick up the bill which was 23$ for one of the worst meals of my life that wasn't what I ordered, and was more expensive than what I had ordered as well. The waitress then after looking at the table and seeing no tip, which I had not placed yet says, "I assume you wont be needing change then." I was going to leave a tip, but all I had were large bills, and after that comment I asked polity for the change (which she seemed inconvenienced to get) and then placed 41 cents on the table as well as a dollar only so I could sleep at night without feeling like a bad person.

This is by far the most overrated/worst restaurant I have ever been to. Half the light bulbs are out and the other half are so dim or stupidly placed you have to strain to see the menu. Worst dinning experience...