Cotton Exchange — Restaurant in Waterford

For the record, I NEVER write bad reviews about businesses. I feel bad service is no excuse for potentially harming a business's future prospects and reputation.

This is the exception.

Just got off the phone with the owner, Cathy.

Saturday, 10/13/2012, driving to Wisconsin from Illinois.

I went to the restaurant on Saturday per the advice of a local homeowner, from whom I was picking up an item for sale. He said he had trouble finding good food around that area, but the restaurant down the street that looked like a barn had been their best bet.

I went in with my business partner and ordered a burger. We went outside to smoke a cigarette while we waited(reason for stating this will be explained.) Went back in and noticed a sign on the table advertising a free appetizer with the order of an entree if one were to text a code to a given number. I asked the waitress if that was possible, and she said yes. The burgers and appetizer arrived. The appetizer, Oysters Rockefeller, were awful, didn't finish half the plate of six oysters. The burgers were not bad. We finished, paid, and left.

By the time that we had reached home, both me and my partner were bent over with stomach cramps that we had to assume originated from the food we had just eaten.

I called up the restaurant, and spoke to Cathy, the owner. I told her that all I wanted was my money back for the meal ($25 for garbage food). She AGREED, and took my credit card #.

Today is Wednesday, and I just ran over my bank account as I normally do, and saw that she ran the card, and did NOT refund the money!

I called up Cathy a little while ago, and asked her why the money was not refunded.

She told me:

-The appetizer was free, and I was just trying to get the rest of my meal for free! -We weren't even in the restaurant, and she doesn't even know what we were doing there. (The cigarette break previously mentioned.) -The phone call that I had made to her after the meal was awful. (I was bent over sick!) -I should have went to the hospital and have tests done to warrant the refund of $25! -She went on to say that she and a few other servers had had the burgers that night, and the meat was not bad. OK. I thought, maybe I was wrong. So I went on to say that, OK, maybe somehow it was something else.

I told her, though, that to ACCUSE ME of trying to scam her restaurant for a measly $25 was offensive.

Her Response?:

Whatever.

I said: It wouldn't be worth it to me to scam somebody for $25, when I make about $100 an hour on average. And it must be worth $25 to you to have a bad review, when I am giving you the opportunity to right the wrong of a night spent in pain.

Her response?!! Again, "Whatever", and hangs up.

So here it is, the first one-star review.

Awful place. Awful, awful service.

Would not be surprised if they go out of business. It is my experience that places like these do not stay...

First visit to this establishment. It’s very cool inside. Very welcoming atmosphere. I was pleasantly surprised… UNTIL: we along with 7 other people stood at the server stand for more than 5 minutes, workers walking by and no one saying anything to us. Finally getting seated we sat there for a bit before the waitress came over and acknowledged us. She was friendly and took our drink order along with the food order.

We had fish and steak. When served she accidentally switched the meals but no big deal. The steak dinner was served with cheesy hash browns. The potatoes were put on the same plate do all the liquid/juice from the steak soaked into the potatoes. Not very appealing and they were just ok. The steak was good. The fish meal had the wrong potatoes with it so that was a project switching them out. The steak meal was supposed to come with fresh bread and we watched others getting theirs served to them. We waited and waited and never got ours. We finally asked if it came with and the waitress said oh did you want them??? Annoying… the fish was lukewarm. The wrong potatoes were French fries and they were hot. The potatoe pancakes were finally brought and again were like warm. This restraint was pretty full. Nit sure what the hype is… I give it...

I. Am. Picky. I am crazy picky. I don't hand out 5 stars often. I own this. I own aspects of this. Check my other reviews if you don't believe me, then come back to this because it is important.

We were jerks for this one. Showed up an hour before close on a holiday weekend positively starving for decent food.

We ordered steaks. Yes. I said this. We were jerks. She got the Oscar and I got the cotton exchange ribeye. Now hold up.

We were expecting minimal stuff. Like majorly minimal stuff. Instead...

Well instead the steaks were sensational. Delicious, tender meat that melts in your mouth. Fixings however you want to eat it. An actual cheesy hashbrown casserole without onions people. Without the worst vegetable known to mankind, onions. Onions are a filler. Sure they're savory, but they're a cheat to true, definitive flavor.

An actual cheesy hashbrown casserole without onions.

I'm blown away.

The steak was phenomenal. Great job all around. Holy cow.

One improvement. Why was the au jus not on the side? It was swimming in a pool of au jus that didn't need to be there. It detracted from the steak.

You'll note, still 5 stars. There is no detracting from that. You guys...