The Other Place — Restaurant in Waterloo

First off, I would like to state that I normally do not do reviews to this extent, but “The Other Place” certainly requires one. I have been in restaurant management for over 20 years, so I know that upper management feeds off of these reviews to improve operations, as I encounter my own guest comments on a daily basis, good or bad. This may have been just an off night for this location, which happens but not to this extent. I apologize if my review is long winded.

I traveled with my family from the East Coast (1200 miles) to celebrate the Christmas holiday with other family members. On our last night in Waterloo Iowa, we all decided to go out for a nice dinner (or so we thought) at The Other Place. After being seated, it took nearly 15-20 minutes to place a drink order. Once we were finally greeted for our beverage order, we also placed our food order at the same time (mainly apps and a couple of sandwiches) which was a little unusual, but we were given ample time to review the menu. Anyways, after another 15 minutes or so, my sister asked the manager if we could at least get some water for my kids while we graciously waited. By this time, some 30-40 minutes later, our party of 7 was getting a little agitated, like a lot of customers that I was observing around us. We finally received our drinks as another party of 30-40 people were being seated. Another 20-30 minutes went by (over an hour at this point) and we finally received 2 of the 7 items that we had ordered and we were all like great our food is finally ready or so we thought. Then suddenly a wave of food was being brought out to the large group that I had mentioned previously, which was sat a good 30 minutes after all of us. This was the last straw for us and my sister went up to the manager (whom was oblivious as to what was going on with his business) to find out what was going on. He could not even muster up a response or any type of excuse for us, which is very disappointing. We all got up and walked out at that point. We all came hungry and left hungry. My impression was that I thought this was a full service establishment and not a self-service one. We were not expecting the hour plus wait for service or we would have phoned in our orders or brought our own beverages and some playing cards to pass the time.

I would like to recommend Subway over this establishment for anyone looking for good service and food. We were all greeted with a friendly “welcome to Subway”, served promptly with fresh, good food and we were even thanked for our business. This may not be the ideal place to have a nice family dinner, but at least the service...

Have always enjoyed the OP - this location in particular. I think I like the physical setup of the restaurant, but also the staff all around have always made me feel comfortable and welcome.

Great place for couples & small groups with a good variety of seating options for parties of various sizes.

Recently however I was part of a party of 16 for a family outing. I was thoroughly impressed and would highly recommend this as a place for a larger group. Our server was attentive, friendly, and especially patient with the (several) kiddos as they flip flopped their drink & meal choices. (Quick note - we called ahead earlier in the week to make a reservation since we were a rather large group; probably definitely go this route if you can)

The wait for the food was reasonable - for whatever reason, seems like members of large parties expect the wait time for food to be the same as it would be for 2-4 people. While that would be great, it is literally not possible. That being said, with 4 pizzas total, a couple hot sandwiches, and more - the wait time was not too long, and ALL of the food was HOT (not too hot, I mean this in a positive way).

To be honest I haven't focused on the sports bar aspect of the OP for quite a while, however I think this is a fun place to sit at the bar and chat if you do want to catch a game or two (or yell at the T.V. if that's more your style haha).

If you need a mixed drink recommendation, I enjoy their long island iced teas. They're lighter on the cola than many others, and I have never had one too heavy on one of the liquors so that it sticks out & overpowers the others. Personally I'm not much of a beer drinker, but I believe they have a decent beer selection as well.

Overall - great local restaurant, if you like supporting local businesses you should...

Don't get chicken! I ordered Buffalo style chicken breast, no bun (which I've had several times before). The waitress brought me the breast with no sauce. No big deal, she brought the sauce. I took one bite and immediately spit it out. Disgusting! They used to serve nice big juicy breast but it seems they have switched to a premade breast that is microwaved. It was rubbery and possibly undercooked. The waitress never came back to our table to check on our food. The restaurant was not busy at this time. I ate the French fries for dinner. My friends had pizza and they were happy with it. I didn't want to make a scene so I left the table and told the waitress privately about the issues with the chicken and told her I would not pay for it. She brought me the check that was discounted. When I showed her the chicken and said why would I pay for it, she said sorry that's all my manager will do. She was rude and the manager didn't even come over. I had to ask waitress to clear dirty plates in front of us 3 times. Horrible service....