Back When Cafe — Restaurant in Wausau

I remember Back When I wanted to go to this Cafe in Wausau.....and then I went. Let me tell you about this experience that I had. We arrived and let the host know we had a reservation. We were sat next to the fireplace, our waitress showed up and got us a round of drinks. To start, we ordered the Fig Jam with Blue Cheese and Smoky bacon Crostini. The Blue Cheese was creamy and delicious, and the fig jam was exceptional. I was optimistic that these great flavors would transition into our dinner, unfortunately, this is where our great experience ended and our night took a drastic 180. I ordered the 16oz Ribeye - Medium Rare - Melted Brie Cheese - Brandy Mushroom Sauce - Garlic Mashed Potatoes, my wife ordered the Jumbo Shrimp over Pasta Alfredo, Parmesan Cream Sauce. When they set my Ribeye Steak down I noticed right away that the cut of meat presented to me looked a lot like a prime rib. Prime Rib and Ribeye are cut from the same cut from the cow, however, anyone that knows steak knows that it's all about how it's prepared. The steak that I was given was clearly cut from a roasting prime rib. While there were very faint grill marks, it was evident to me that the steak had been cut from the roasting prime rib and then tossed on to the grill to make it look like it had been grilled; there was no sear to my steak, nothing. It honestly looked like it was pulled from the Au Jus, thrown on the grill for less than a minute, and then thrown onto my plate. They cut 2 small pieces of Brie cheese on it, which was not melted, and maybe threw 3-4 small pieces of mushrooms on my plate. I ate a mushroom first to discover that this was no Brandy Mushroom sauce, this was tasteless Au Jus with no hint of brandy at all. I cut a small piece of my steak, with a small piece of my cool brie cheese, which still has not melted and thought this is not what I ordered. I politely asked our waitress to stop over to discuss what I had received. She was very apologetic and I explained that what I had been served was not what I was expecting. We discussed the issues with the meat; the presentation and the taste. She then brought over another server. Unfortunately, this woman had less manners and customer service know-how than the chef who prepared my steak and decided she wanted to belittle me about my knowledge when it came to Prime Rib vs Rib-eye. I explained to her that I understood, and then explained the differences and how they are prepared she rolled her eyes, took my plate and walked away. Mean while I glance up to my wife and asked her how her Alfredo was. I could see the disappointment, she told me it was very bland. I took a bite of the Alfredo and it lacked flavor, Parmesan was nonexistent, and the 3 jumbo gulf shrimp is misleading, they are just gulf shrimp, there was nothing Jumbo about them. Our waitress who was nice the whole time, walked up placed our bill on the table and walked away. Clearly we are no longer welcomed or allow to have dessert. We paid the bill, tipped accordingly and left the restaurant and will never step...

Edited to respond to owner (original review below): The menu, wait staff, and the suggested tipping price all seem to disagree with the notion that it was a “tasting” and suggest that it was a full three course meal. If it was intended to be a $25 “tasting”, then it should have been advertised as such. The wait staff said the prices were solely based on the entree. I added a picture of the “Downtown Dining” menu to the google map pictures.

A low class experience for a high priced restaurant. We went out for Wausau’s “Downtown Dining Week”. A week in which local business owners offer their specialties at a lower rate, putting their best foot forward in hopes for repeat customers. Unfortunately, the Back When Cafe did not. I don’t know if it was ageism or the fact that we ordered off of the deal menu, but we received slow service and disappointing food. As a table of two, parties of 4 and 6 that ordered after us were getting their main entree before we got our appetizer. We didn’t complain, we grinned and beared it, thinking that they must be making something special. What we received was the opposite of special. An hour and a half into the meal the entree arrived. I wish I took a picture, because you wouldn’t believe it. I got one tiny fried egg with 6 asparagus. Here’s the kicker, the prices were based on just the entree, the appetizer and dessert was “free” according to their deal. One lousy egg was $25! I can get a dozen organic eggs for $5. It takes less than 5 minutes to fry an egg, it must of took an hour and a half to splash balsamic vinegar on it. When I asked, “Where’s the bacon?” they said it doesn’t come with any, I politely pointed out that it did on the menu. After review, they brought me a bowl of hard, dry, crumbles of bacon, not what I expected. The desserts on display looked decadent, but that is not what they served. We received a small brownie and scoop of ice cream, another bad choice on their part. Despite the wait, small entree, and disappointing dessert, one positive part of the experience was the appetizer, a delicious strawberry brie crostini. Even though we were dissatisfied, we still left 20% gratuity for the full price of the meal, in attempt to prevent future ageism. The Back When Cafe will not receive our...

First time here and I was so disappointed with the service at this place as it was probably the worst service my husband and I have ever had. The hostess seated us and then no one came to check on us or get our drink orders for at least 15 minutes and we talked about leaving at this time and I wish we would've.

The hostess finally came back and asked us if a server had checked on us and we told her no one had come to check on us. The hostess ended up becoming our waitress. She was nice but clearly did not have experience waiting on tables. We felt like we were forgotten about for most of our meal.

The food was actually really good but it was so overpriced and the horrible service really overshadowed our entire experience here. Do not order the cheese curds here: there are much better ones pretty much anywhere else in town. The lobster bisque was fantastic and the Lumberjack Pasta was pretty good though nothing to write home about. They messed up my husband's order as they gave him vegetables instead of the garlic mashed potatoes he ordered.

After we finished, we waited at least 15 minutes for a to go box and our bill. They charged us for one of the lobster bisques even though she told us that both of our meals came with it. We were so irritated that we didn't even bring it up because we probably would've had to wait longer for it to get fixed and we wanted to get out of there.

For the prices here I expected top notch service along with nearly flawless food. The food saved this from being a 1 star review. We will...