Dock Brown's on Saratoga Lake — Restaurant in Town of Stillwater

Finally, Some Good Food.

I've been having a string of super mediocre and mundane Friday dinners, not the way I like to celebrate the end of another work week, with even the more trustworthy locations failing to meet my expectations. Thankfully Dock Brown's is here to change that.

Order over the phone going with the Baked Pretzel Sticks and the Grilled Caramelized Onion Chicken Sandwich, coming to a total of $38 and change before tip. I made no adjustments to the choices, sticking with the fries for the sandwich and both the queso cheese dip and spicy mustard for the pretzel sticks.

Pickup was easy, though the staff was slightly confused about payment. Their online ordering system was down, explained to me they turn it off over the weekend due to peek hours, but sometimes forget to turn it back on after. After paying for my meal I was on my way home.

It takes me about 30 minutes to get home, and I did have a stop along the way, but even still everything was nice and warm. I tried a bite of everything with the lingering heat to make sure I got the best flavor possible, and I was quite ecstatic. The sticks were lightly salted, slightly chewy, and paired so well with the queso cheese. The spicy mustard was a whole grain kind I don't much enjoy, but the honey mustard I had with the fries was a whole different ballgame; sweet, mildly spicy, and so darn thick. The fries were nice and stiff, but not too oily or overdone, and had some hearty potato flavor. The sandwich was the big boss though, so I left it for last. A cross-section cut showed me it contained all listed ingredients, with some lovely layering. I was hesitant about that rather thick cut of tomato, a "fruit" I'm not too keen on in its whole or sliced form, but my bite changed my mine real quick like. Meaty, smokey, savory, sweet, and it all held together so well. Oh man, that was good.

Compliments...

We have been to this restaurant twice, and had terrible experiences both times. The first time was a Thursday at 4pm. There was no indication where we were supposed to wait for the hostess so we stood by the door until an older woman came over. She told us the patio was full (it very much wasn't) and sat us at an inside table, which we were fine with. When we got to the table I asked for a high chair and she points to where they are and told me to go get one myself. We then waited 10 minutes for our waitress. The menu is severely limiting and no kids menu (which wasn't too much of an issue). Our food came pretty quickly, and no issues followed. The second time was tonight (7/3) and it was even worse. We were greeted quickly and I asked for a high chair. The hostess showed us to our table and said she'd grab one. She then proceeded to seat other guests and never got us our highchair. Yet again, we had to go over and get our own. The menu seemed even smaller, but we knew what we wanted and placed our order right away. We ordered diet sodas which were extremely flat and disgusting tasting. We then proceeded to wait a minimum of 20 minutes for our order...which never came. Our waitress only came to our table once during this time. We watched two tables order, get their food, and pay. My husband found our waitress and she didn't even know what table we were. He told her we need to leave and to cancel our order. My husband paid for our sodas and our kids drink (which I couldn't believe they made us pay for) and left without any management or staff apologizing. I'm sure this place is fine if you're looking to get drinks, but don't bother ordering the food. It's...

We were there the other night to watch the band play and when we made a reservation, they asked us if we were staying for the band as well and we said yes because we have a friend in that band and the guy’s wife and kids were sitting With us. After an hour and a half at the table, the woman told us we had to leave because they had other reservations that Needed our table. Very unprofessional in the way she handled it. We went to order more and the waitress handed us our check and told us that We cannot order anymore because we had to leave. Apparently they asked six other tables to do the same and they didn’t wanna leave either. Granted we were one of the first people there and we did hear the staff talking about how she overbooked the restaurant Again. Our waitress was very friendly, and you can tell that she was visibly upset by what her on or told her to do. When I talk to The woman who said she own the place she told me to start talking, and the discussion is over and we need to leave. The crazy thing about this is when we went to Carson‘s after that our friend that was there sent us a picture that they never even used our table. Apparently A bunch of people were upset and left. We did spend over $300 that night. The only thing I can think of is that she was trying to cover up the fact that she overbooked the reservations for the night. I don’t know if this post will do anything but if you go there and ask for reservations, you have to ask how much time can you stay at the table, especially if you’re there to watch it their entertainment. I...