Wausau Mine Company — Restaurant in Wausau

We had to go to Wausau for a medical appointment and asked friends for a restaurant recommendation. They told us to come to this place. No idea why. It was easily one of the worst 3 restaurant experiences of my life. One we got there and were seated, dim bells began ringing. We vaguely remembered that we'd been there a few years ago when passing through town and hadn't been impressed. But, we were there already so we figured we'd give it a second chance. Big mistake.

It took ages for our waiter (Ryan D) to take our drink order. We also ordered an appetizer at that time.

We had finished our appetizer before Ryan D re-appeared to take our food order. When he came back, he literally said, "I forgot about you."

We asked for drink refills when the food came. They didn't mateialize. We asked a second time. Finally, after we finished our meal, he brought the drinks. One of them was wrong even though he double-checked before bringing them.

The food was TERRIBLE. I had the French onion soup to start, which somehow tasted both watery and burnt. The bread crouton took up literally half the cup, and I couldn't get my spoon in without sloshing soup all over. By the time I finally accessed the soup, there was maybe 1/3 cup left...which was fine since it was awful and I didn't finish it anyway. Oh, and did I mention that the cheese topping had the consistency of a rubbery Kraft American single and appeared to have been microwaved rather than baked? (The menu claims its baked, but no way...where were the bubbles and crispiness that come from baking?) It was pretty bad. But, that was still better than my entree. I had the shrimp scampi; the pasta was mushy/overcooked and the sauce had zero flavor. The dish was topped with tons of garlic...which was basically raw. So, I've had garlic flavor in my mouth for the last 4 hours. My partner had the cod. It arrived cold and rubbery, and his potatoes were seriously under-cooked. Our bread also had zero flavor. Every single thing was terrible. Well, not the cheese fries we had as an appetizer. Those were mediocre.

The ambience is horrific. The place is so loud that you can't hear anything over the restaurant roar. Plus, it's dingy and just feels kind of gross. And, tons of screaming kids. (To be fair, the restaurant can't control that. It was just the icing on the cake.)

The service was bad, and the food was equally bad. We can't even blame it on being busy because it was 4:15 pm. It wasn't empty, but it was definitely before the big dinner rush. By the time we left, people were putting themselves on a 45-minute wait-list. For THAT? Are you joking? I always recommend supporting local businesses, but in this case, I just can't. Go to any of the chain restaurants to have a much better meal and service.

We will never ask these friends for a restaurant recommendation...

If you’re looking for a good prime rib, look elsewhere. We had a party of 5, one of which was hoping for a delicious prime rib. We were here on a Saturday evening around 5:30, so peak dinner hour. As soon as walked in the door, we were anticipating a wait but were not quickly greeted by the host. The host and another employee were discussing where to seat some other parties and it took almost a minute for them to even acknowledge my presence. When they did, they said it would be about a 25 minute wait and gave me a buzzer. We were absolutely prepared to wait, but the wait was the only positive thing of this experience. We were seated in less than 15 minutes! We ordered drinks, watched as 2 other tables of equal size and bigger were sat, and patiently waited for our drinks. Our drinks came and we ordered our food: a prime rib meal, a poor man’s cod with sweet potato fries, a 14” meat head pizza, and a chicken pot pie. We quickly got to talking during the wait. As we were mid conversation, I noticed the 8 top table received their food, which looked oddly identical to the food we had ordered (prime rib, cod, and pizza). Then the other table that came in after us received their food. Our server seemed impatient at times, and quickly came to check our drinks and let us know there was a mixup in the kitchen, but our food would be coming shortly. About 45 minutes after placing our order, our food came. The prime rib was rubbery, nowhere near prime rib texture. The poor man’s cod was good, but the sweet potato fries were burnt and cold, the pizza was barely warm, and the pot pie was fine, except it had the appearance of vegetable soup with a tortilla thrown across the top of it. We finished what we could of our meals, but the majority was not finished. The server gave a passive aggressive “I’m sorry” with no attempts to reconcile the multiple issues. The owner was made aware and gave us a bunch of excuses as to why, such as “we were slammed and short staffed” and “we had a record amount of people in that evening”. This is not the first year, second year, or even the third year this place has been in business. I had greater expectations for this as we’ve had very good experiences in the past. For what we paid, I don’t think we’ll be dining in again any time soon, but as the owner said “if you come back, hopefully you’ll have a better experience.” Sounds like they’ve given up on trying to make anyone’s experience a worthwhile one. Go elsewhere if you’re looking for edible food with people who somewhat...

Overall, a really fun restaurant. We visited Waudau Mine Company during an impromptu visit to Wausau on 10/19/25. It was an interesting building on the outside, and smelled fantastic. Upon entering, it was pretty dark, but I will admit that I kinda liked that. The decor was themed and kitschy, and made to look as though you were in a mineshaft, complete with fake legs hanging from the ceiling. It seemed like a rather small dining room, but it wasn't really an issue. It was kinda between meal dimes when we arrived, so we were seated immediately. We were advised that the Italian fries were the go-to appetizer, so we ordered them. When they arrived, I think we were a bit surprised that they were pizza sticks...I guess we were thinking some kind of loaded French fries, but they were delicious.

We were all pretty impressed with the variety of items on the menu. It had more variety than most restaurants, so it took a bit more time to read through. My two younger sons (7 and 11) ordered the kids meal chicken Alfredo, something we haven't eeen on a kids menu before, and both were pleased with it. The portion size was good- my 11 year old was concerned that it wouldn't be enough for him, but it was plenty. My 15 year old ordered a personal pizza, and said it one of the best he has ever had- but he ate the entire thing, so I didn't get to try it and can't vouch for that. I ordered the chicken wild rice soup, which was just okay. The real star of the show was the Kaleb burger that my husband ordered. It was absolutely delicious! Juicy and flavorful, and cooked perfectly, he also said that it was one of the top burgers he has ever had. I did try some of this, and can agree that it was an outstanding burger. We would definitely return to Wausau Mine Company for a meal next time we are...