Knotty Barrel Supper Club — Restaurant in Town of Minoqua

Outrageous and unprofessional customer service.

Our experience at this restaurant was nothing short of outrageous and disturbing. From the moment sat down the service was disorganized and dismissive. We had to ask 3 times for the complimentary cheese and cracker basket. The salad bar was dark and looked questionable at best. The menu was extremely limited, and to make matters worse, they were out of two of the six entrees they offered.

Things took at turn for the worse when the manager falsely accused us of swearing at our waitress. Rather than approaching the situation calmly, the manager stormed over with a bouncer. Instead of escalating the situation she doubled down— she accused us of not only of verbally abusing the server, but also of switching seats to “confuse the staff” about who ordered what entree. The whole exchange was bizarre and hostile, making us uneasy enough that when the food finally arrived, we were genuinely worried about whether it was safe to eat.

As if that wasn’t enough, the situation escalated again when it was time to settle the bill. The manager rudely asked who was with whom for the check. When we explained the original server had already made note of that, she started yelling “You didn’t answer my question!”. As we attempted to explain it again, she repeated “You didn’t answer my question!” over and over. She then told us to leave immediately and refused to let us pay. We assume our bill for 8 was easily over $800 with food and drinks.

It did that end there. She followed us outside with the bouncer and watched our every move. She also wrote down our friend’s license plate number. Why?! I can only imagine what she planned on doing with it. The entire situation was threatening, unprofessional and completely unacceptable.

We left feeling stunned and completely disrespected. This was not just poor customer service—it was harassment. We will never visit this place again and would NOT recommend this restaurant to anyone who values respectful service and...

This was a difficult place to rate as there's tons of potential and the effort and environment are easily 5 star. The food has a little ways to go to match the rest of the establishment but I think they'll get there.

Pros: Service and seating were excellent. Super cool bar, building and atmosphere. Loved the decor and outside seating. Limited menu with good options for most tastes. Portions were perfect and left room for dessert. Speed was on point. Enough time to enjoy apps or salad and food came out quickly after. Bar and staff were top notch. Drinks were excellent. We didn't order one, but the ice cream drinks looked phenomenal and big enough to serve four people. Never seen an ice cream drink that looked like it just came out of an old fashioned malt shop. Good selection at salad bar. Our dinners were cooked correctly and well temped.

Cons: (being picky) Salad bar hood is so low you have to duck and reach to get anything from back row. Lady in front of us had to hold her necklace so it didn't drop into the dressing. Was a little funny. A few of the salad bar offerings were either gone or too low to grab. They did quickly replenish the lettuce when asked. Ordered the chicken piccata and blackened salmon. Both dishes were just ok. The chicken piccata was pretty bland and could use some seasoning but the frustrating part was none of the linguine noodles were longer than 3 or 4 inches so it was impossible to twirl and difficult to keep on fork lol. Lots of sauce left on the plate that could have been enjoyed with a baguette addition. Pasta and chicken were cooked well. Blackened salmon dish could have been excellent but there was little to no blackening and very little seasoning. The sauce and couscous were excellent.

We'll definitely stop again as overall it was enjoyable and...

Shockingly rude treatment by Kelly, the Sunday evening General Manager.

After placing our orders with Jessica and helping ourselves to the salad bar, Kelly approached our table and accused us of berating our server and making profane comments. We were astounded and told her so. Nothing could have been further from the truth. No one was rude, no one was inebriated, no one treated the server poorly. We were 11 harmless senior citizens together for dinner on Sunday night.

Kelly stated our actions could be verified by cameras and digital recordings. Our response is: Yes, please do! Please review the recording. We urge ownership to do just that to see how older customers are treated. In fact, we insist that you preserve any recordings for future legal action on our part if we discover our food was somehow adulterated as several of us now fear.

It gets better. When we finished our meal and prepared to pay our check, Kelly asked us to leave immediately without paying. Well…..OK, was she trying to make amends? After all, the bill could easily have been close to $1,000. We told her that wasn’t right and we wanted to pay for what we had eaten. She refused and then followed us outside to the patio as we said our goodbyes. She continued to follow us to the parking lot to write down our vehicle license plate number. What was her plan? To call the police and report that we had left without paying our bill? Had she asked, I would have gladly provided my name, address, and telephone number.

I am astonished at such behavior by any employee but especially by a manager. Much worse than any experience in New York or even Paris where we’re used to such things. But in Minoqua, WI? I cannot explain such bizarre and erratic action but I can assure we will never...