The Hangry Bison - Winter Garden — Restaurant in Winter Garden

I work in the office above this place and I was coming in once a week for lunch or early dinner/happy hour with my colleagues. The service here has gone Down hill tremendously but my latest experience here has turned me off for good. I came In with out of state friends and in-laws because I have had decent enough experiences in the past and wanted to show them a good time. We expected to wait a little bit because it was peak dinner hours and we saw it was busy. However we were sat after our reservation time with no apology. Our waitress Deanna was horrible. By far the worst service we have ever received. The second hand embarrassment I felt for her because of her attitude was enormous. I counted at least three times she rolled her eyes at our table for asking simple questions or trying to joke with her. No smiles, incredibly slow service. Honestly think it could have been a race issue because we were the only table that was all people of color around us and we noticed how friendly she was with other people at other tables. It was very apparent she did not care about us when she continued to fill other tables around us drinks but left ours empty for almost the entire time we were there. Another waitress that brought our food actually was the only person to refill our drinks. After getting our food which was cold we asked for some extra condiments to help spruce them up so they did not need to be remade. It took Deanna over 10 minutes to come back with anything we asked for. And she forget part of it so we again asked a different waitress to bring us what was missing. The other waitress was so nice and polite and brought us back our condiments immediately even though she was just as busy. Besides taking our drink order and then our food order and the one trip to our table to bring us half the condiments we asked for, we were not spoken to. However my wife is a little petty and counted 6 times she went to the 2 other tables near us ‘just to check in’ even though they told her multiple times they were fine and she continued to ignore us trying to flag her down. It was absolutely 100% deliberate. It disgusted and embarrassed me. We saw her constantly talking to a male manager who had dark hair and glasses on. We had hoped maybe she was asking for advice on how to be better at her job but they seemed to just be joking and flirting the whole time because he looked stress and she focused more of her attention on cheering him up than she did servicing our table. This was ridiculous to me because we already knew we couldn’t even ask to speak to a manager about her poor attitude and awful service because it would fall on deaf ears. Yes we had enough time to people watch because we sat for so long without being attended to we started to look around to try and find our waitress. It was pathetic. I will not be back. I told all of my colleagues and they will not be back either as a lot of them are also people of color. We will not be doing our once a week corporate lunches here either. And we absolutely will not be bringing back any family or friends and have actually warned several Facebook groups we are in of this terrible experience and many have said they experienced the same lack of service from different waitresses here and guess what.. every person who said that was NOT white. Not sure what the managers are doing to correct this or if this has been brought to their attention but now it has been. I sincerely hope this woman is addressed and so is the rest of the staff. However I’ll never be back to find out. Also clean the men’s bathroom. Absolutely disgusting in there every time I go in and sad there is no changing table for babies in there. It’s 2023 people racism, dirty bathrooms, and family facilities not available for men is completely...

We did a create your own burger, which is really nice since you didn't have to alter some of the pre-made options and remove things you don't like. Our burgers were really tasty and I liked having an option of the pretzel bun. I must say I was slightly disappointed in the fries. When I think of fresh cut fries I think of those ones that you literally cut and throw into the fryer and they just have a whole different taste and texture. These had a lot of little tiny pieces and small pieces. Maybe a few medium. Nothing big. They almost had the taste and texture of being pre-made or being warmed after sitting out for a while. They were a little bit dry too. I would go again but I would say that the tables that are meant for two people are awfully small. Maybe 28 inch wide max. So you feel like you're being squeezed into an area between other tables. We got there before the lunch crowd and we're given a tiny table whereas several couples that came in at different times after us got the regular round table that seats 4 or even the large booth that was made for several more people.

11.17.24 update: Service was great and the ambiance was very good with a beautiful evening and the place wide open. Though I must say, even though most of our party enjoyed their food this time my burger was wrong. I ordered it medium and it came well done. No I did not send it back but I probably should have. But we were with family that I hadn't seen in years and I really didn't want to make a big deal of it. The other issue with the food was that I ordered bacon on my burger which I had to pay extra for and I wasn't really paying attention cuz I only ate a small part of my burger cuz I wasn't super hungry since I had a late lunch but there was no bacon at my burger. In that regards I should have definitely sent it back if I was paying attention. I don't always get bacon on a burger so I wasn't really thinking cuz we were mostly focused on conversation since we hadn't seen family in a long long time. Though at least the fries were better than my last visit. Of course I care more about the burger which is mainly what they do there then the fries. I'm not saying I wouldn't go back. I would definitely pay more attention to my order next time and definitely after having a couple of misses on the food. I'm definitely sending it back if it's done correctly the next time. And this is the reason why I marked food category rating down from four stars now down to three stars. As far as I know the other three people the table had no issues...

The Hangry Bison is an EXCELLENT restaurant! If you’re craving all the comfort foods you could ever ask for (cheese curds, wings, fried green tomatoes, flatbread, calamari, and so much more), a wide selection of drinks, and most importantly a top-notch burger, this is the place to go!! It is always SUPER busy, so be sure to make a reservation! We visited for lunch on a weekday and it was more than 70% full at 1 pm! Imagine what a weekend is like!

The service here is excellent - we took our grandmother here to celebrate her 87th birthday and the waitress was so bright and cheerful, and she even brought cheesecake for my grandma at the end of our meal! I feel like any place that’s willing to bring a special dessert for someone on their birthday is a place that has great values and traditions. Best thing is, this place is a 10/10 with service AND food!!

The Hangry Bison’s cheese curds are amazing. However, you really can’t go wrong with most appetizers. We’ve not gotten their drinks before, but look at other reviews from other people and you’ll see they’re mostly quite positive! However, the star of the show is their burgers. They are most famous for their bison burgers; however, you can get beef, chicken, turkey, salmon, mushroom, veggie, and more options! There are so many choices! They have highly-inventive burger options (always with a special burger of the week), and if you still can’t find anything, you can build your own burger with exactly what you want on it! Want beer cheese, mac ‘n cheese, fried egg, fried green tomato, bacon, avocado, pepperoni, and like 10 other things on your burger?? You can do that here!! And they come out massive!!

Just this most recent visit, I got their burger of the week, and it was an absolute monstrosity. It was TWO grilled cheese sandwiches as the BUNS of the burger. Then there was the bison patty, jalapeños, bourbon bacon jam and more on the inside!! It was crazy and so big you couldn’t fit it in your mouth!! 1,000/10!

They have incredibly-good looking desserts. If you save room for them, I think you’ll love them! By the way, here’s one tip: if you get bison, order it medium-rare as opposed to medium because the meat is a lot leaner and fries out faster! So, bison at medium-rare is more like a beef burger at medium! Such a good place!! We will be back...