Sportsman's Alamo Cantina — Restaurant in Town of Shandaken

Horrible service & they stole my clothes! I’ve never given a bad restaurant review before. But I have to now, because I don’t want anyone to go through what I did last Friday night. I ate there outdoors with two friends who saw what occurred.

I asked for Bistek A La Mexicana, cooked medium and with very little jalapenos. The waiter didn’t bat an eye. But when my dish arrived, the meat was visibly well-done, cut in small pieces (which the menu didn’t say), and very spicy. I said this wasn’t how I ordered it and that I couldn’t eat it. The waiter balked at having the cook redo my order. I saw my friend got a perfectly cooked thick NY Strip steak. Because it’s much easier to not overcook a thick steak, I asked the waiter to switch my dish to the Strip Steak – emphasizing I’d happily pay the difference in entrée costs! I even noted I didn’t need new sides, as they were fine, served separately. The waiter said the cook wouldn’t be willing to cook me another steak and abruptly left to go inside the restaurant.

Soon after a female staff came outside to our table. She didn’t tell us her name nor her position, but just proceeded to say there weren’t many jalapenos in my dish. Evidently our waiter hadn’t told her that I ordered my steak medium, but when I noted that, it made no difference. Just like the waiter, she said the cook wouldn’t remove my original dish from the bill and cook a new steak. I replied I never asked for the charge to be removed, instead I’d emphasized to the waiter that I’d pay the difference. Just like the waiter did, she abruptly headed inside without agreeing to put in a new order.

Only at the end of the meal, did the waiter tell me that this woman was the manager. If she was the manager, it was even more unprofessional that she didn’t introduce herself and also that she blamed the cook for not allowing the changed order! Cooks don’t override managers like that.

After she abruptly left, I felt I had no other option but to go inside and speak with the cook. The cook was similarly dismissive, saying, “Well, you got a steak.” The bartender saw our conversation had been heated, so when I returned to my table the bartender came out to speak with me personally about what I wanted. He was quite reasonable, and soon after I got a perfectly cooked steak. The waiter then reappeared and said he sympathized with my frustration at the cook but hoped I wouldn’t hold that against his tip.

But in deciding what tip to leave, my friends and I disagreed with the waiter’s stance. After all, no good waiter nor manager allows things to get to the point where a customer has to speak with the cook! And clearly the waiter hadn’t told his manager about the steak doneness issue nor my willingness to pay for the upgrade.

So we deliberately undertipped to express the unacceptability of service. Rather than maturely accept our decision, the waiter launched into an extended tirade of how it wasn’t his fault, and he had a family to feed, and that all this was coming after an already bad day for him. He again just blamed the cook and never acknowledged his part in the poor service. If he’d taken even a small amount of responsibility, we would’ve sympathized and tipped adequately, but all he showed was defensiveness, outrage, and self-pity.

So where do my clothes come in? I’d brought a long sleeve shirt and sweatpants to the restaurant in case I got cold, and forgot them there when I left. I soon remembered and returned ten minutes later with my two friends to our table. The waiter saw me looking, and said “What, you want your clothes back? You should’ve thought of that when you tipped bad!” I was too stunned to even reply. He then taunted, “What are you going to do, call the cops?”

Of course, I wouldn’t waste the police’s time on such petty spitefulness. Instead, I went inside to see if my clothes had been brought in, but the bartender said he knew nothing of them. I didn’t see the manager so I just left. And you can be sure that neither me, nor any of my friends will...

After a day of skiing at Belleayre, two families ventured to this restaurant for dinner—and what unfolded was a two-hour saga of bad food and even worse service.

Let’s start with the ordering process. It took an eternity just to place an order. Then, the food trickled out about 50 minutes later, one plate at a time, in no discernible order. The final dish arrived more than 15 minutes after the first.

As for accuracy? Nonexistent. Orders were completely wrong. Some were sent back, but hunger got the better of us—many of us just accepted the wrong dishes, dreading the thought of waiting even longer for a redo.

The food itself set a low bar. The burgers were so burnt that they may as well have been hockey pucks. The salads were striaght out of a trader joe mixed greens bag. At least the quesadilla was okay.

And then there was the attitude. The staff was shockingly rude. When we were finally ready to leave, we couldn’t even find anyone to take our payment. After enduring two hours of this ordeal, we brought our check to the front desk—only to be yelled at and told to return to our seats.

Bottom line? If you’re looking for a story of culinary chaos to tell for years, this is your spot. Otherwise, steer clear—unless you want to redefine your expectations for bad dining...

We drove 4 hours all the way from Long Island specifically for this place! First night we came by for a fun night and drinks and once we entered the bar we got nothing but dirty looks and nobody acknowledged us so we left. We gave them another chance the next day and walked in and saw a nice looking patio area which we were told by a random old lady sitting at a table (maybe the manager) “it’s closed” with an attitude even tho we saw two lads drinking beers on the patio so we sat outside and were never seen by a waitress so we left again. On the way out a nice Indian family of 12 having a birthday party was also getting weird looks and bad service. I normally play by the baseball rule of thumb 3 strikes and you’re out but only giving this place 2...