Three Guys & A Grill Restaurant — Restaurant in Town of Russell

To be fair, I had high expectations for this restaurant in Elkhart Lake. I've had their food at events they've catered at, and it was very good. This, unfortunately, was mostly disappointing.

To start with the positive - the location and atmosphere are great. This feels like a lodge you might find a bit further up north. I liked the open kitchen and it's surrounded by Broughton Marsh Park, the vibes around this place were great. The prices were totally reasonable - inexpensive even - for a typical restaurant in Elkhart Lake.

We ordered drinks and cheese curds as a starter, and then a kid's burger with cheese, a reuben, and a BBQ pork sandwich. The cheese curds came out first and were easily the highlight of the meal. They were ideal cheese curds. Hot, melty, and slightly squeaky on the inside, lightly battered and crisp on the outside.

Then our food came out. Unfortunately, this may have been one of the worst meals I have had at a Sheboygan area restaurant. The cheeseburger was beyond well done and dry (no doneness options were presented. I doubt this was the intent) and it didn't come with the cheese. Cheese was later brought out and the waitress offered to bring it back to be melted over the hamburger.

The BBQ pork sandwich was way too wet and sloppy. There was far too much sauce for the amount of pork, and fell apart like when you put too much sloppy joe on a bun. It came with burger toppings (on the plate, not directly on the sandwich), and I don't know if I'd ever put lettuce, tomato, and onion on a pulled pork sandwich.

I love a good reuben, and this was not a good one. The rye bread was 3/4 burnt, and the corned beef, cheese, and kraut were incredibly dry, as if it had been sitting in a toaster oven after they cooked it.

It looked like they were shorthanded and shortly after we arrived it got busy. I wasn't going to request the food is recooked as we didn't go there for a two+ hour lunch, and the waitress never asked how the food was or if we needed anything else. One of our drinks got a refill after the appetizer came, but no other service until we were ready to leave.

I am pretty forgiving when it comes to restaurants, but I wouldn't order anything other than appetizers here...

Sunday, we walked in, no one gave us the time of day, we stood waiting at the door to be sat, saw no signs saying wait to be seated, so after standing there for a good 5 minutes we decided to grab a table. All open tables were dirty but we found one by the window. We sat and waited a good 5 or more minutes before a waitress came over...and her first words out of her mouth were...."oh did you seat yourselves?" In a snotty voice.. I said yes I'm sorry we stood there waiting and all the staff just looked at us, and after waiting there and not seeing a sign we just grabbed a table, I'm sorry. Her next thing she said was "our kitchen actually closes in 10minutes" SAY NO MORE! I have been in the restaurant business 25years....I knew as soon as we walked in something was off, by the way no one gave us the time of day, and when she instead of saying hello when she finally came over, opened with "oh did you seat yourselves " we were probably not going to have a good experience. So I let her know, that I was also in the business and I would not do that to them, and she was so happy and thanked us. So we left. Now...first off, I have never been there before, I saw no hours sign, and no wait to be seated sign...and I figured at 630 on a Sunday we would be safe...I was looking forward to trying this place because I've heard good things, and since I'm a chef I do like to try new places, see the menus...but sadly this experience left me with no desire to come back. Staff....I get it, it's close to closing time! But please, instead of ignoring guests, and making them awkwardly stand in your doorway, greet them! And let them know right then and there, hey, good evening, how many? Just to make you aware our kitchen closes in a half hour....instead of running the clock down to closing time...and making your guests feel very uncomfortable, and unwelcome. Our bad, for coming later...and unfortunately we will more then likely not come back....

Had a great group dinner here tonight. Charming log cabin atmosphere, deer heads on the wall and very loud and crowded for a Thursday night.

I imagine it was because of the $11.99 ribs special. My roommate and the 3 other people at my table ordered them. I can't eat a lot but stole a couple ribs from his plate. They were tender and had just enough sauce to make them juicy. I ordered a Mojito to drink, nice lime and mint, very refreshing. For dinner I had onion rings. A huge plate, golden brown fried deliciousness. And the best part of the meal for me was the chili. Not too spicy and a great smoky flavor. I usually order chilli because it's easy for me to digest, and if I had known how damn good this chili was I would have ordered a bowl, not just a cup. It really was very very good.

All in all, a great place to go to eat. Gave a 4 for atmosphere because it was so noisy it was hard to have a conversation with anyone. We had a reservation which apparently was lost so our group was split up into 2 tables in the front of the restaurant. I think if they sat us as a group, at a larger table we probably would have been in a better area. But they were quick to try and accommodate us, even though they were very busy. I would definitely return here. But maybe not on a...