I'm gonna get a little long winded, but the short is, they cut corners and its not like it used to be. WAY over priced for the area!
We went there for dinner on my mother's 83rd birthday with family while I was in town to visit. We noticed immediately that the menu had changed recently and prices increased. But we were hoping the quality had stayed the same. And if you reviewed the menu on their website, you will be even more surprised once you get to the restaurant and see the menu since it is different and prices are much higher than shown (at least from the date I wrote this).
We started of ordering appetizers; cauliflower, mozzarella sticks and the beef ravioli (not on the online menu. The cauliflower and mozzarella sticks seems the same, but the new item was completely awful. The stuffing seemed to be something produced by a pet food company and tasted equally. And we could tell they were all frozen items, but were not surprised by that.
Most of us started with a salad to start, which were all decent, but two of us that ordered caesar salads were terribly surprised to find that the do not know what a caesar salad is and brought us salads with carrots and egg in them, and dressing that was closer to vinaigrette and lacking any taste of an anchovy; the basis of the salad.
On to the entrees. One person got the catfish, two others the center cut sirloin (early bird special), while two others got 6 oz. filet mignon. Everyone thought there's were decent, but definitely not worth the price. The steaks in Iowa are always great quality, so we were at least not disappointed that they cut corners on that. This was the only reason I did not give them one star.
As for the service, our waiter was trying very hard, and was pretty attentive (for a restaurant was pretty empty at 5:30pm), but he definitely didn't have it all together. Forgot us asking for ranch dressing, forgot one of our drinks we reordered later, and also mixed up our items on the checks when we asked him to spit them up.
I have eaten at this restaurant for the past 20+ years since it is located in my hometown where I grew up. And since I moved away in 1995, I have always gone there when I am in town to visit family and friends. The food has always been pretty decent and reasonably priced for the area being a small Iowa town. And I have had many fond memories with friends and family. So it comes with heavy heart to see the restaurant increasing prices to that which are equivalent to a large City like Denver and Chicago, but cutting corners decreasing quality of service and food.
And I am not the only one dissatisfied. A few nights before I asked my local friends to meet me there and they all said "it is over priced and has gone way downhill". But we went just the same to see for ourselves.
I can't see how too many people in a town the size of Keokuk, with a median annual salary of $36K can afford this place now, and why they would continue to go there. Guess because there's not much else out there. But if I lived there still, I would just stay home and grill for these prices. No matter how much I made. read more