Short Version: We stopped there with 6 of us and $300 cash for a meal, and when we had a complaint the waitress laughed in our faces and said "We'll you're just going to have to suck it up!" When we asked for a manager she bent over in half with laughter. Despite the manager telling her (after all hell broke loose) to "let it go" when she asked if she should write us a check for at least our drinks, some woman followed my husband outside to the car hollering at him that "if you want a free meal, go to Burger King!"
Longer Version:
My husband, three children, and a friend of the family and I all stopped at the Buffalo Head restaurant in Forestport, NY on the way home from vacation in Old Forge (where we've been going every summer for 12 years now). We had stopped there twice before many years ago, when we first began this summer tradition, and remembered that our experience had been decent enough, so we decided to visit again this July (2011).
This was the mistake that nearly ruined the entire vacation.
When we arrived around 7:45pm we were happy to see that the place was nearly empty. We assumed this would mean a reasonable wait between ordering and receiving our food, but this was not the case -- the time between ordering and receiving our entrees was about 45 minutes.
Despite the fact that we were displeased with the appetizers, served unsalted cooking butter with our rolls for some reason, received unreasonably tiny, brownish, wilted salads all but drowned in dressing, and sat for nearly an hour waiting for our food, we didn't complain this entire time about anything (except my husband asked for a replacement salad). We were still biting our tongues once our entrees finally came, determined to enjoy the rest of our trip.
Right then, the waitress stopped by and said "how is everything?" and my husband replied "not too great, to be honest - the second salad wasn't any better so I just gave up on it" and I added "it seems like nothing here has any salt - the nachos and the butter that came with the rolls were both so bland".
At this point, at any real restaurant, the waitress would apologize and then see about making us happy, either with an offer of bringing us regular butter and more rolls, or perhaps getting a manager, or at least saying "I'm so sorry you aren't happy with our food".
But this waitress burst out laughing, and said "are you serious?" I looked at my husband with disbelief and he looked at her and said "I'm not joking with you. I don't understand what's so funny here. Is there someone else I can talk to, like a manager or supervisor or something?"
In response, the waitress laughed so hard that she bent over in half and slapped her knee, then managed to spit out "Well you're just going to have to suck it up!"
We asked for a check for what we ate, then stormed out. My husband stopped to talk to the manager, who told the waitress to "let it go" when the waitress snidely asked if she should write up a bill. Nonetheless, some woman followed my husband outside yelling at him that "if you want a free meal, go to Burger King!" I have no idea what she had to do with anything, as she was nowhere during the fiasco inside. My husband calmly replied that had we been trying to scam them for a free meal, we would have actually EATEN IT!!
So, the service is horrible. The people who frequent the place are horrible. The food is overpriced for how tasteless, tiny proportioned, and poor quality it is, and there is absolutely no way any health-conscious person would be able to bring themselves to eat such things, based on our observation of the fact that everything is swimming in unsalted melted butter grease.
But if you don't mind being laughed at, yelled at, and told to "Suck it up!" as a paying customer, by all means go to the Buffalo Head restaurant, in Forestport, NY. read more