Minocqua Brewing Company — Restaurant in Town of Minoqua

We watched as two tables were seated after us. Almost immediately, the server came to ask about drinks. For us, after being seated for 20 minutes, I finally asked someone if we had a waitress. He, (maybe you) took our drink order and then we still waited some time before the drinks arrived. My wife and I ordered the cider boys cider (she has a gluten allergy). Most cider served in restaurants is of a medium sweetness, you have the extra dry version which should have been stated on the menu. She hated it and hoped to simply order a water. My son also finished his soda in a reasonable time and we waited for a long time just looking for our waitress to simply ask for a water and a refill. To put it in perspective, my son and wife decided to take a walk by the water and told me to make sure to order a soda refill and a water if I saw our waitress. Now for the food: a. My wife with a gluten allergy ordered a salad with no dressing or meat. Simply lettuce and other veggies. She also ordered mashed potatoes. My wife was ok with her bowl of lettuce and mashed potatoes. b. My daughter and I ordered the perch with fries. Didn’t expect the perch to be rubbery with the skin still attached. We order fish all the time and love perch. This is the first time I got it with the skin still attached……and absolutely the first time it was so rubbery. The fries and the fish were very, very greasy and the fries were soggy. Not sure how anyone can mess up fries. c. My son ordered the regular fish and chips. We were very surprised to see what amounted to 4 or 5 fish “fingers”. It almost looked like a kids meal as far as the quantities. He was reasonably ok with the cod; however, after my daughter tried the perch and didn’t like it, they traded some with each other. She didn’t finish the cod and he did the same thing with the perch. d. After we left, we went to culvers to order another meal so that we weren’t hungry. Related to the server: a. I was able to get her attention to order the water and the soda. She asked if my wife also wanted a refill on the cider and I said “no, she didn’t like it, it was too dry”. She said OK, and went to get the water and refill. b. I asked for ketchup when the plates first arrived, She walked away and came right back with the Ketchup, and asked how it was. We hadn’t even taken a bite, but said “fine”. c. After she took 3 almost full plates away, she might have noticed something was wrong, but didn’t. d. When I went to sign the bill, I told her that the food was not good at all. She had the nerve to say “I wish you would have told me”…..and “I asked you twice how it was”. She didn’t ask twice because I would have told her but I couldn’t even could find her prior to paying the bill. e. She never offered to talk to a manger, or even resolve the issue. All of this took over 90 minutes from the time we originally came in until we left hungry, disappointed...

We were told they didn’t take reservations. The host was upset and gave an attitude when asked if our group of 17 could be seated. We were told only half could be seated in 60 and the other half could be seated in 90. Half of the group ended up going elsewhere, but the nine of us did stay to eat. When our group name was finally called, we had the option to eat inside or outside. The restaurant was not full and in my opinion was actually quite empty and could have easily sat us. The food was terrible...I’m not quite sure why we chose to have dessert, but those were worse than the main meals. They did take those off of the bill which was nice...but don’t waste your time here.

Response:

You should let people know that you base seating off of what the kitchen can handle and not table top space. If we would have been told that in the first place we would’ve completely understood. The mashed potatoes were dry and looked as if they were under the heat lamp for hours. There was maybe a piece of shrimp on the only two shrimp tacos you get on your plate. One of the kids burgers was mooing and mine was burned. (We swapped because we couldn’t flag down waitstaff) The salmon was dry. As far as your desserts are concerned, the carrot cake tasted like a sponge and the frosting was even worse. The cannoli tasted as if the filling was curdled and the pistachios were soggy. And for the brownies with ice cream, the peanut butter ice cream (interesting pair) was overpowering. The brownies weren’t sweet and even the kids didn’t eat it. Another thing is that either on the menu you should list that your desserts contain nuts, or at the very least require your waitstaff to tell customers. 2 of the 3 desserts ordered had nuts. The cannoli has pistachios and the brownies with ice cream had peanut butter ice cream. That could be a huge issue for some people...like myself...

We were in Minocqua for the weekend and decided to stop in based on the reviews. The service was good; our waitress was very friendly and she was always around when we needed her. However, we had a less positive experience with our food. The cheese curds were $8. Being a family of 6, there were barely enough for each of us to have two; the amount of curds you get for the money is not worth it. I would understand the price if they were hand-battered, and from a local cheese factory, but these were not and are terribly bland. I ordered the Rib-eye burger. Per their menu says, " a Rib-eye Burger topped with Gouda cheese, caramelized onions, lettuce and walnut candied bacon, served with Cajun fries." The burger patty was extremely bland and the Gouda had no flavor. My caramelized onions were anything but caramelized, they were white and cooked el dente. The most misleading item on the burger was the walnut candied bacon. Basically they took walnuts, chopped them up, and then took the bacon and chopped it up as well and threw it in a pan and fried it together. But they took out most of the bacon and just put the walnuts on my burger. I removed my bun to check out the bacon and noticed it was just walnuts and two very small pieces of chopped bacon. It looked like the cooked bacon you get from a bag on the shelf of a grocery store. My wife got the reuben-- it was ok. Our kids had Chicken Fingers which was by far the best thing we had. Our son's Mac and Cheese was dry, and had no flavor as well. It looked like it sat in a pan all day and then was served. The thing that stood out for me was the lack of seasoning on the food, everything was very bland. If you are looking for pricey food with no flavor this it the place for you. Unfortunately, this will probably be the last time we ever go here, which is too bad because it has a great view of...