Buffalo Joe's Eatery & Saloon — Restaurant in Valier

Just in the last year, my wife and I have visited Buffalo Joes 10 times. We spend an average of $120 per visit and never tip less than 20%, despite the service being next to awful. We go because we like the atmosphere and the food is decent. It's usually a date night thing. Also, there's a lack of better alternatives in this area.

Last night we arrived for dinner and were told we would not be served and needed to leave, upon walking in the door and waiting to be sat. According to the hostess, we did not pay our bill from the previous visit. I was caught completely off guard (Little background here: I'm over 15 years in federal law enforcement. My wife is a registered nurse. I have a credit score over 815. Needless to say, I pay my bills) so I tell her there must be a mistake, we were there two weeks prior on St Patrick's Day for lunch and I know I paid. She says "no you didn't. We have you listed as 'walkouts'. Either you pay now or we won't serve you and you need to leave the premises immediately".

I tell her "whoa whoa whoa I've never bailed on a bill in my entire life so I'm sorry if I'm finding what you're telling me very hard to believe. There must be some kind of mistake". She says she can bring records of all our visits if I give her the last four numbers from my bank card used to pay for the visits. I tell her "great grab them and I'll grab my phone from the car and check my bank records".

Sure enough there's a charge on my account from Buffalo Joes for the last time we were there, March 17. I wait to show her we indeed paid last time, she said I need to wait, she's busy. So I do. She comes back with their records of our visits and apparently the date we 'walked out' was over two months earlier. So not last time, two visits ago. So according to her we had the audacity to return to the restaurant two more times (this being our third) since we supposedly walked out on the bill. Seriously?

I check my bank account for the time specified and there's nothing. I'm shocked. I think "how can that be? I've been eating at restaurants and paying my bill for over 20 years as an adult. To suddenly just walkout and forget to pay is like taking a shower but forgetting to take your shirt off first. I'm old (38) but I'm far from forgetting to pay the bill. I know I paid it. Or atleast gave them my card and signed a receipt with a tip but for whatever reason, it never went through. No idea what happened but we certainly didn't walk out on the bill and then have the audacity to return to the restaurant 2 more times after that like nothing happened"

She returns and I tell her, "you're apparently right. I don't know how this happened but I do know there is zero chance we walked out on this bill." She says "so do you want to pay it?" "Of course I do" I say and hand her my card. She runs it, hands me a receipt, I sign it and she says "okay right this way" and grabs some menus and takes off around the corner. My wife and I look at each other and my wife says "so she thinks we're staying and eating?" I say "apparently. Did you want to?" "Not at all" she says. And we leave.

I understand mix ups happen and they should too and not automatically assume we bailed on the tab, especially given our history at the restaurant. There was a better way to handle this and accosting me and my wife in front of everyone was not the way.

It may or may not be worth mentioning (I feel it may be relevant as it's the only explanation for the treatment we received) but my wife is partially Blackfoot Native American and you can definitely tell. Buffalo Joes is very close to the Blackfoot reservation and whether or not they have preconceived notions or stereotypes based on experiences with the tribe, I couldn't tell you. But that's certainly how it felt. And as a white dude, that was new to me and it felt horrible. We wont be back...

My experience is much different because my husband is renting an apartment there. It's not just a motel, there's also a few rooms that, during a major, full motel remodel, were turned into apartments. We just purchased a business in MT & due to the popularity of MT right now, with people moving from their state(s) to MT, our only option at this point is to rent. I'm still living in MN, while my son finishes high school plus we can't quite give up our home that's been in my family for near 66 years.

I just returned home, after spending a week at Buffalo Joe's restaurant & motel. My husband became ill with a respiratory infection which seems to have come from his C- Pap machine. The owners of Buffalo Joe's stepped right up & helped my husband, offering anything he needed such as getting him groceries & bringing him food. He wasn't eating much but they brought him a special request of a grilled cheese & tomato soup but it didn't end there.

My father, son & myself had a trip already planned to go there. Due to my own complicated, chronic, health problems, staying with him wasn't an option so the trip was almost canceled. The owners, Ted & Vicki, offered 2 extra rooms so we could be there but maintain a distance until he took a few days of antibiotics & had no fever for 3 days. Talking to him over the phone, I could hear how greatly he missed us & their offer allowed us to still go to see him. Again, it didn't end there; they picked us up from the airport (at least a 1 1/2 hour drive), brought us right to the store to get things he needed. Much more was offered & ultimately we were treated like family.

I had already heard from my husband, how good the restaurant was. The serving size was very impressive & the quality of the food was top notch. I'm still craving the Huckleberry ice cream! Delicious! Besides the food being amazing, the decorating of the restaurant is something needed to be seen & worth the trip!

I've been home 1 full day now & I'm already missing everything about the place. The woodsy, log cabin like smell of the room is still in my clothes & I found myself holding them to my nose to feel like I was back there. I've never slept as well as I did, in the large, cozy bed. The window treatment blocked out much of the light so I didn't have interrupted sleep.

My husband is still there & my father stayed behind with him, because he's going to be moving there. My dad is in the picture & eating the prime rib, which I was told was very good, as you can see on my dad's face plus it was so big, the leftovers were eaten the next day, by both my dad & husband, for at least one more meal.

I have to say that Buffalo Joe's is the heart of the town of Depuyer plus it makes it a great tourist attraction. It's definitely a place anyone needs to stop at, who's near the area or...

I've heard great things about this place so my husband and I decided to give it a try. The building and it's furnishings were really fascinating. I love the old time saloon feel it had. We were able to choose our seat and our waitress came by about five minutes later. We decided to start off with an appetizer, the pulled pork nachos, while deciding what we wanted. Once we put in our main order we figured the nachos would be out soon. We waited almost a full hour for our nachos. The waitress didn't come by once while we waited. Then maybe five to ten minutes after that our main course arrived. So we definitely didn't have time to really eat any of the nachos. Once she dropped off our plates she looked at my husband and said oops, I forgot your soup. So I mentioned I was supposed to have a side salad with my meal. Those were brought to us after everything else. By the time we received everything we had been waiting a little over an hour and the food was very disappointing for the amount of time we had waited. My mashed potatoes were hot(like unbearable hot), like they'd thrown them in the microwave before serving them and the temperature was not even throughout. The corn was good but cold and my steak wasn't really cooked to my preference and it wasn't really one of the best ribeyes I've had. My husband ordered the rainbow trout which seemed like it was cooked from frozen but they just microwaved it to cook it. He said he didn't even think it was the correct type of fish and it definitely didn't fall apart like fish should. It was tough and chewy. He also ordered the hot slaw which was not great. We had to pack up much of our food to go since it took so long to serve us but what we did eat was not worth the hype this place has been given. Especially not worth the price. We also realized as we were on our way home that we were never given our rolls either. Maybe it was an off day for them or maybe they were focused more on the birthday party they were catering to but this place I would not recommend. Terrible and slow service and the food...