My s/o and I had an early dinner reservation for Roundup Rodeo Tues. 8/29/23, and I really wish I could go back in time and cancel that date.
First off, I want to stress that the server we had did her best to inform us about the menu and theming, but she was overshadowed by the poor acoustics of the restaurant. I had to ask her to repeat herself several times and she was basically shouting by the end of it and I still missed half of what she said. I missed out on ordering an appetizer because of the confusion. Our server was bright and cheery, and checked on us throughout the meal. I thought she was great!
The food came rather quickly. We ordered the meat, baked beans, corn on the cob (street corn style), tomato and potato salads. The biscuits came out first, then the rest.
Unfortunately, the chef lost the top of his salt shaker on most of our dishes. I’m not afraid of some salt, but the street corn was so salty I had to scrape the cheese/spices off. I needn’t have bothered, though, because the cobs were so tough I had one piece and that was enough. The biscuits were overly salty, but were pretty good as long as they’d hold together long enough to spread the pepper jelly over them. The brisket was pretty salty too, but it was decent. I don’t care for chicken dark meat so didn’t have any (don’t know if they served white meat as my s/o might have taken that). The sausage had a kind of weird under taste (I recognize that that might be my own subjective opinion, but himself said the same thing), and I honest to goodness couldn’t cut my rib meat with my butter knife. I gave up and handed it to himself who remarked it was pretty good jerky. The beans were ok at best for me; they tasted like they’d not been cooked in the sauce but added later, and were too spicy for our tastes. The potato salad was rather bland which was odd as everything else seemed to be over salted/seasoned, but I did like it. The grilled veggies were hard as rocks and burnt rather than “charred” and inedible. And I’m a veggie lover. The only dish I really liked was the tomato salad. It’s hard to mess up a good tomato.
But the thing that did me in was the pie. Now, I love a good pie, made with fruit and thickener and a good flakey crust. I understand that when mass producing pie for high turnover at a restaurant geared toward the younger set, one is going to have to cut some corners. BUT when that restaurant advertises “pie” on the menu, one can be forgiven for being confused when one is served a half cup mason jar containing some kind of thickened gel with whipped cream on the top. Not a crust in sight, though maybe cookie crumbles sparsely scattered on the bottom of the jar? maybe a few 1/8 inch pieces of something resembling strawberries, and a single 1/2 inch or less piece of what might have been a peach? I didn’t have my magnifying glass on me to see if there were other pieces of peach in the jar. The jury’s out on that one. There was enough either guar gum or something similar to make an overly sweet, kind of sticky gel like substance. There was a whipped topping of some kind. No telling what those ingredients were as it didn’t taste like much to me. Cool Whip? Could be. This was something a kid might like (or adult, I don’t judge). But it wasn’t pie.
The same could be said of the “cheesecake.” It was pudding like (so my s/o said, I didn’t taste it). There were a few graham cracker crumbs on the bottom. This was also served in a mason jar. According to him, no cheese could be tasted, and it certainly didn’t have a cake-like texture.
In my opinion, if something is called “pie” on a menu, it better have a crust somewhere and fruit. Ya don’t tease my tastebuds saying you’re gonna serve me peach and strawberry pie and then not deliver (Disney, I’m looking at YOU).
The theming of the place was excellent, and I had a lot of fun “freezing” when the humans come into the room. I loved how the Cast Members got into the act, and most of the diners did too, which was great!
So, all in all, not an experience to be repeated. I hope the chef finally got a new salt shaker as the old one kept losing its lid.
First off, I want to stress that the server we had did her best to inform us about the menu and theming, but she was overshadowed by the poor acoustics of the restaurant. I had to ask her to repeat herself several times and she was basically shouting by the end of it and I still missed half of what she said. I missed out on ordering an appetizer because of the confusion. Our server was bright and cheery, and checked on us throughout the meal. I thought she was great!
The food came rather quickly. We ordered the meat, baked beans, corn on the cob (street corn style), tomato and potato salads. The biscuits came out first, then the rest.
Unfortunately, the chef lost the top of his salt shaker on most of our dishes. I’m not afraid of some salt, but the street corn was so salty I had to scrape the cheese/spices off. I needn’t have bothered, though, because the cobs were so tough I had one piece and that was enough. The biscuits were overly salty, but were pretty good as long as they’d hold together long enough to spread the pepper jelly over them. The brisket was pretty salty too, but it was decent. I don’t care for chicken dark meat so didn’t have any (don’t know if they served white meat as my s/o might have taken that). The sausage had a kind of weird under taste (I recognize that that might be my own subjective opinion, but himself said the same thing), and I honest to goodness couldn’t cut my rib meat with my butter knife. I gave up and handed it to himself who remarked it was pretty good jerky. The beans were ok at best for me; they tasted like they’d not been cooked in the sauce but added later, and were too spicy for our tastes. The potato salad was rather bland which was odd as everything else seemed to be over salted/seasoned, but I did like it. The grilled veggies were hard as rocks and burnt rather than “charred” and inedible. And I’m a veggie lover. The only dish I really liked was the tomato salad. It’s hard to mess up a good tomato.
But the thing that did me in was the pie. Now, I love a good pie, made with fruit and thickener and a good flakey crust. I understand that when mass producing pie for high turnover at a restaurant geared toward the younger set, one is going to have to cut some corners. BUT when that restaurant advertises “pie” on the menu, one can be forgiven for being confused when one is served a half cup mason jar containing some kind of thickened gel with whipped cream on the top. Not a crust in sight, though maybe cookie crumbles sparsely scattered on the bottom of the jar? maybe a few 1/8 inch pieces of something resembling strawberries, and a single 1/2 inch or less piece of what might have been a peach? I didn’t have my magnifying glass on me to see if there were other pieces of peach in the jar. The jury’s out on that one. There was enough either guar gum or something similar to make an overly sweet, kind of sticky gel like substance. There was a whipped topping of some kind. No telling what those ingredients were as it didn’t taste like much to me. Cool Whip? Could be. This was something a kid might like (or adult, I don’t judge). But it wasn’t pie.
The same could be said of the “cheesecake.” It was pudding like (so my s/o said, I didn’t taste it). There were a few graham cracker crumbs on the bottom. This was also served in a mason jar. According to him, no cheese could be tasted, and it certainly didn’t have a cake-like texture.
In my opinion, if something is called “pie” on a menu, it better have a crust somewhere and fruit. Ya don’t tease my tastebuds saying you’re gonna serve me peach and strawberry pie and then not deliver (Disney, I’m looking at YOU).
The theming of the place was excellent, and I had a lot of fun “freezing” when the humans come into the room. I loved how the Cast Members got into the act, and most of the diners did too, which was great!
So, all in all, not an experience to be repeated. I hope the chef finally got a new salt shaker as the old one kept losing its lid.
