The Elias Inn Supper Club — Restaurant in Watertown

We have eaten here twice, the last time being the Friday fish fry. I will be reviewing our fish fry experience. We arrived around 6 and were told there would be a short wait. The hostess appeared extremely stressed out. It wasn't a warm welcome. We proceeded to wait in the bar area, and my partner went up to the bar to get drinks. The two bartenders completely ignored him as they slowly went about their business- they weren't overly busy but I understand that appearances can be deceiving. My partner felt that they should have at least acknowledged his presence since there weren't many people that needed to be served at the bar. It was odd that one of the bartenders didn't at least see him and say they would get back to him when they had a minute. Eventually, without drinks, he left the bar to wait with me at a table. Luckily, our wait for dinner wasn't too long and the hostess led us to our table. Halfway through the walk, the hostess got a phone call on a phone she was carrying, stopped and took the call. She then turned around and gave us an odd look like we weren't following her properly or something. We were led to a table that was two small tables pushed together. The plates were positioned on the crack between tables. We moved those over to one of the tables and sat down. My partner sat in the chair on one side and I sat on the bench on the other side that was shared with two other tables. The bench was uncomfortable and awkward. I either had to lean way back for back support or lean forward with none. There was an empty table across the room that had two chairs and I wish we would have been seated there. This may have also helped us with the sound level in the room. I could hear everything said on either side of us. The young women to my right were especially loud making it almost impossible for us to talk to each other unless we stared yelling, too. The room is like a small cavern with nothing to dampen the sound level. This made it especially difficult for my partner who wears hearing aids. One more note about the room- the gold tinted windows that my partner was facing that were behind me made it difficult for him to see my face. He said my face was in the shadow from the bright glow. So he couldn't hear me or see me! We eventually gave up and just ate. Now on to the food and service. Our server seemed friendly enough at the start but things changed as the dinner progressed. She never explained the fish fry. She also seemed stressed out. Other servers appeared more friendly and relaxed. (Maybe just our bad luck.) We got our drinks and ordered the all you can eat fish fry ($19). One note on the chardonnay I received- it was not very good. It was quite weak and watery. I noticed this right away. I was surprised when the bill came and it cost $9! Anyway, one positive is that the food was pretty good. I only ate a chicken wing so it's hard to say how the chicken was, but the fried fish was decent and our first serving of baked fish was also good. The side dishes were okay, but the German potato salad would have benefited from some bacon to cut the taste of the dressing down. The problem with the food came when we asked for more. We wanted some more of a side dish but she acted like this is an unusual request. We did get some more coleslaw and, one small piece of fried fish, and two tiny pieces of over-baked fish. This was all seemingly disapproved of by our server who appeared bothered that we asked for anything extra even though we didn't get much to start with. We were also left for long periods of time without her checking in on us. We didn't eat a large amount of food and we weren't annoying. At the end of the meal we were not asked if we wanted coffee or dessert, or anything else. We were not allowed to take home the one piece of chicken, a thigh, or french fries we were given at the start! This was a very bad experience for us. When we go out to eat we like relax and talk while we enjoy the food and atmosphere. We will...

Honestly, we were super let down by this place. First off we went on a Friday night and didn’t find out they do not have a full menu on Friday nights until after we waited for our table, sat down and ordered drinks and then the waitress told us that it is only family style fish and chicken on Fridays. The hostess didn’t say anything nor did we see any sign by the door, host stand or bar area where we waited stating this. This was a huge bummer to my husband who was looking forward to their more German style food menu.

We stayed and sadly the fish and chicken were nothing to rave about. For a Wisconsin fish fry, I definitely wouldn’t return here for the bland fish. We shared a tray of potato salad, beans, bread and coleslaw. The fries weren’t warm at all when served to us.

Our brandy old fashions were good but our glasses sat empty while we ate and our waitress never offered to get us another. I also found it odd that she didn’t offer any refills of sides. For 4 people the small bowls of potato salad and coleslaw seemed so odd and they were all emptied quickly.

Great cozy atmosphere but all in all, it was a sad experience for a...

I cannot rave. It wasn't bad per se, it's just not good. Decor really isn't anything special or even mediocre. Just sort of a regular old Wisconsin bar. We sat at the bar and our bartenders/servers were nice, but not exceptional. The food was nothing special either. The relish tray was nice, but a cup of 2 pieces of salami with 2 cheese cubes made me feel like I was at Uncle Jethro's Annual Picnic. We opted for the Seafood DeJong. It was sort of just a tasteless melted together casserole of frozen fish and taste-free sauce. The icing on the cake that prompted this review though, were the Old Fashions garnished with an OLIVE! More than once and not because someone asked for it. We also witnessed a tall Old Fashioned made. A tall Old Fashioned.... and, again, garnished with an OLIVE!

So, if you are a foodie or a proper diner, this place is not. It is, however, THE spot in town and the...