Pine Junction — Restaurant in Town of Mina

Normally, not one to write a review. However, this is something that should absolutely be fixed. We went to lunch here around noon. We walked in, and the restaurant was not busy at all. We waited a couple minutes for someone to notice us, and once they did, an older woman came up and simply asked "5"? We said yes, and she said follow me and took off down the hallway. I try not to think that customer service is dead, but here we are. This did not bother me until I realized this was only the beginning. We ordered spin dip and fried pickles to start and all 5 of us had burgers and fries/onion rings. The spin dip and Peta chips are to die for (although the dip was a bit greasy this time). The pickles were very dark and I immediately said it looks like they need to change their oil. They tasted fine though. We all got our burgers and the fries looked awful. Like they were cooked in used motor oil. They were not cripsy like they were burnt. You could tell they took the color of the oil. The burgers were all awesome! Although mine came with a special sauce and was extremely lacking in that department so I asked for more. I was informed that it would be a .50 cent charge which was slightly annoying because if it would have come with more on it I would not have asked for it. Again, no complaints, let it slide. After we were done and the waiter asked us if he could take our plates, noticing we had not eaten the fries we informed him how awful they tasted. Because they tasted exactly as they looked (kind of fishy to be honest). We told him we did not want to get anything else and we would take the fries home for our livestock, my chickens and ducks eat EVERYTHING. We just wanted to let them know to check on it or maybe not serve them as one from our party got onion rings and they were great. We wanted nothing from this encounter. He then returns with the same older woman and she (not politely, more confrontationally) asks what was wrong. We told her the same thing, and her response was "well we change the oil every monday." This was Sunday 9/29/24 at around noon. There was no apology, no sorry but she said multiple times she could get something else. At this point we were boxed up and paid. We said no, I believe, 4 times. It was not about getting anything in return. But a sorry for the inconvenience would have restored my faith in this establishment. We then leave and I am in the back of our party of five walking down the hallway. Everyone turns the corner to hit the long hallway and the same older woman is at a table with a server. The first 4 squeeze by her and as I come up she turns around and stands there for maybe 10 seconds. I am one to like my personal space so I stop and she proceeds to follow my party down the hallway. Not a ope sorry, no excuse me, no have a good day. NO NOTHING. I think, well that was rude. I understand people have bad days but when you are in hospitality, your customers shouldn't know that. Can speak from experience as I have many years in hospitality and many forms of customer service. One nice thing to see as we were waiting for one of our party to use the restroom...a young girl came out of a doorway into folks walking out and she apologized and said have a great day (something nice, could have been different). Atleast all their employees are not like that as I said aloud "that's how you have a customer interaction". The interesting thing is my birds in fact did not enjoy the fries either. Maybe next time hit up...

We we're very pleasantly surprised how beautiful the the restaurant was. The Ambiance was great it was he was decorated in a very eclectic manner and very Tastefully done there were so many great things to look at and very pleasing to the eye whoever did it certainly had great. Everyone in our party enjoyed our food the food was served in the proper manner the salads great, everyone said their burgers were awesome. Everyone that have the pizza really enjoyed them. The homemade french fries were great the appetizers were great really enjoyed them. The cheese cake and homemade pies we're out of this world. Our only complaint was that we could not enjoy ourselves because of being crowded. A rule that was made that we could not move tables together because the owner did not want tables to be moved they claimed it was a fire hazard. So 16 of us had to sit together at a table that would only act time, date 12 people comfortably. They claimed it was a fire rule moving the tables periods the manager there at the time stated that good merge that many tables together that it would be too hard to serve. And also would cause a fire hazard with that many people against the windows. The tables we wanted to put together certainly would not cover throw the doorways that she was worried about. And worrying about a sudden cancer windows with causing a fire hazard certainly was very ridiculous. if there was a fire hazard certainly that would be the first thing somebody would do would be to break the windows in order to get out. At least four or five people come running out telling us don't move the tables don't move the tables you can't move them the owners don't like them have the moves you just can't do that. If we wouldn't have traveled so far we certainly would have left but I already have 50 some miles in order to get there are once a month lunch and group would have left I asked for a drink to have the fruit modeled but they couldn't do that either because the owner doesn't allow food to be modeled because it causes a hazard as well. I don't know how they make other drinks that food has to be modeled. The the waitress Jade was very kind and apologize for the rules that the owners made accommodating I would recommend this place but I certainly would not recommend it for eight or ten if you're getting there for a special occasion or just for fun. But overall everything...

My husband and I decided to take our daughter, her husband and their two daughters to Pine Junction today for our daughter’s birthday. It was 63 degrees’ out and we drove 59 miles to get there. My family had never been there before. Prior to sitting I went to the lady’s room while my family was seated. When I returned to our table, my husband had gone to our vehicle to get a coat because he was too cold to eat where we were seated. Cold because my family was seated where there was a vent right over our heads and it was blowing cold air directly at them.

I walked back out to the host and asked to be seated outside because it was warmer outside than inside and we didn’t feel it was appropriate for our 9- and 12-year-old granddaughters to be sitting right next to the bar. This is where the host, got clearly aggravated with me and she appeared to be in charge.

The host informed me, we could move however, she “only had one table outside able to accommodate six people.” In addition, she said “we don’t push tables together, we just don’t, we aren’t allowed to.” I informed the host we’d sit at two different tables if that was the case everyone was cold.

Then we were taken outside at the end of the porch with half my family at one table and the other half of the family 4feet away. We would have been in NO ONES way pulling those two tables together, we were at the end of the porch! We paid 145 dollars for that meal. Including 2coffees and two sodas! AND weren’t even allowed to sit together.

That will be our last trip, that far to see they can’t accommodate more than one table of six outside! Disappointed for sure !! YOU might want to call ahead . The food was good , but a bit over priced and definitely not anything you couldn’t get at other...