Pine Cone Restaurant

The banana bread French toast was out of this world! I would drive 2 hrs on occasions to eat here

A great place to eat. Friendly service with a smile. A1 food and bakery with a fair price

This place doesn’t look like much, but the food is solid home cookin’ and the service is super friendly. The baked goods are very good — and you can buy extra to take with you!

Excellent food! Stopped here for breakfast on the way back from the dells and it was fantastic. I had the chicken fried steak and friend had chipped beef. You get a lot of food for your money and our over easy eggs were cooked perfectly!!! Glad we stopped there!!!

We ordered the blueberry fritter French toast. Made with real/​whole blueberries. It was huge and delicious. Surprising sweet without being too sweet. The breakfast menu is very diverse and there are tons of choices.
Plenty of seating and it’s very clean. Easy on/​off the interstate. An excellent choice for locals & travelers.

I will have a hard time returning to this restaurant after a run in with the manager/​owner this morning. What an obnoxious, customer unfriendly person. When I said my eggs were not cooked enough he said I shouldn’t spend so much time on my phone and learn how to order properly? I have been ordering my eggs at this very same restaurant this very same way for over 40 years! What does checking my messages on my phone after I have ordered have anything to do with how my eggs are cooked. He made several other snide remarks and when I said maybe he didn’t need my business anymore, he said he didn’t. The food has never been great but it has been a convenient stop. Talking with the truck stop management they noted they have had numerous complaints about him but that the restaurant is not owned by the truckstop. I wouldn’t even give this place one star. Leastwise if I don’t patronize this place anymore I won’t have to gag everytime I use the ladies room which smells like a sewer.

The best thing was our great waitress. food not good… chicken n dumplings not homemade, you call that a Reuben… tough meat, bland and dry, onions rings. greasy, steak. so tough .one of them were cooked perfect just not seasoned… rolls were good. Baked goods huge for the $$ I won’t go back. too many flies

I was just there about an hour ago for friday fish fry, the entrance leading into the restaurant smelled like trash, dirty diapers, and vomit. I couldn’t breath it was gross! I really didn’t want to come here but my girlfriend likes there rolls (they can make bread. wow good job guys!) the server was rude and slow, but that wasn’t a surprise. The food was terrible… greasy, over salted, flavorless. The prices have been raised to the point where it’s more expensive to eat at this nasty trucker stop then go to the Esquire Club.

We are from Illinois and vacation often in Rhinelander. Every time we head up north we make it a point to stop at Pine Cone! Their baked goods are AMAZING!!! Cinnamon rolls drenched in cream cheese frosting! Peanut butter cookies that are so rich! Elephant ears, bear claws, eclairs! You name it, they’ve got it and EVERYTHING from the bakery is delish! We have had breakfast here as well and their breakfast does NOT disappoint! I personally like the thick and fluffy french toast while my husband is a bacon and eggs kind of guy. Don’t miss this one! It is WELL worth it!

Been here twice in less than a week. Here’s the deal. The Pine Cone is a 24 hour truck stop diner. The menu is expansive, covering everything from 2 pages of breakfast items, typical diner staples like club sandwiches and burgers, fish fry, pasta dishes, steaks, chops, fried shrimp… pretty much anything you can think of. I never go off the beaten path at cozy little diners like this. I always go for the greasy spoon stuff because Pine Cone is a greasy spoon. What’s not to love about a small town cozy place with some good grub and speddy service?
1^st Trip– I got a brat with hash browns and sunny side up eggs. Friend got a rueben with fries. We both had no complaints. it was very satisfying. Judging by the texture and of my friend’s corned beef on his reuben, I could tell it was fresh and the Pine Cone’s corned beef moves quickly. Alot of greesy spoons with 100+ items on the menu serve inedible slices of corned beef with a metalic shimmer on them. NOPE! Not here. Thick slabs of butter tender goodness.
2^nd Trip– My friend got the chicken salad club house with fries and I got the rueben since I never got to eat a bite of his on the last visit. It was delicious.
Another thing to note is the incredible bakery section. Try the cinamon rolls. They are to die for. I will definitely be back soon and try more than a cinamon roll next time.
I noticed reviewers write some complaints about Pine Cone so i was skeptical. But, if you stick to the basics like breakfast or something simeple like a burger or sandwich, I can assure you you won’t regret it. After all, we all love little cozy diners like this.

It’s nothing special. I’m new to the Madison area, and my local friends talked this place up and down. I went into the experience with a ho-​hum attitude, which may be affective of my ho-​hum review, but it’s really nothing more than a truck stop, cheap food joint.
We went later at night (there from about 10PM-​midnight), which was probably the best part about the experience — that its open forever. It feels like a gas station, as it should, because that’s where it’s at. Our waitress definitely reflected that she was 3^rd-​shifting it, because she was basically a 65-​year-​old zombie. Okay, part of the experience, I suppose.
The baked goods looked DELICIOUS. I was starving at this point, and them being the first thing you see when you walk in was probably what influenced me to get the cinnamon roll french toast. Also, though, I consider myself somewhat of a french toast aficionado. (Whatever that means.) Let me just say: this is NOT for the weak of heart — literally. Pretty sure I locked myself in to a diagnosis of diabetes within the next 6 months. There were three of their housemade cinnamon rolls — a perfect amount, you think, as you dive in with your fork. You immediately realize that you’ll need a knife for these bad boys, though, as the sugary everythingness of it is essentially encased in a caramelized shell of even more sugar. I LOVE that there is icing inside — not many cinnamon-​roll-​french-​toast-​serving establishments can claim this about the dish. However, after two-​thirds of the dish, I was ready to throw up, and had to force the rest down my throat (not because I payed a lot for it, just because I wanted to tell Unilocal that I almost threw up eating these). It’s just SO much sugar.
I did have some of my friend’s omelet, which was amazing, and I had a side of sausage with my plate of death, so I know this place serves stomachable food. Just stay away from the stuff that legitimately sounds like it could kill you. Because it can.

First of all, I’ll get the obvious out of the way — yes, the baked goods are ridiculous and amazing.
BUT DON’T BE FOOLED.
Pine Cone is so, so much more than 3lb eclairs and bear claws the size of your face. Their food is some of the best diner food I’ve ever had. I’ll be honest and admit that I usually order the same thing (BLT and chicken dumpling soup), but each is an exemplary specimen. BLT with the freshest, crispest veggies, perfectly cooked bacon, and — and here’s something so many restaurants fail on — plenty of mayo! Ever notice how so many BLTs are lacking in the mayo department? Not at Pine Cone. A literally perfect sandwich.
Now. About that chicken ‘n dumpling soup. Here is, word for word, an actual text message I sent to my boyfriend: «Do you think if we called ahead, they’d sell us like, a quart of that soup to go? I think it’s worth trying.» Most chefs CAN make chicken soup… not many can make it PERFECTLY. Pine Cone does. Well-​made soup is very, very important to me, and something I tend to judge a restaurant on. This soup is perfect — excellent meat/​veggie ratio, dumplings that are neither too fluffy nor too chewy, but right in between, just salty enough… I could go on and on, but the bottom line is, if you’ve never had this soup, you owe it to yourself to go out RIGHT NOW and get some.
My boyfriend usually gets the biscuits and gravy, and they are also excellent (we eat a lot of those too…).
Prices are cheap, service is fast, food is unbelievable… that’s all there is to it. Get yourself to Pine Cone.

I eat here often. I always say I’m going to get something different but I never do. The biscuits and gravy are so good they will call to you in the middle of the night and keep you awake. That’s not a problem, they are open ²⁴⁄₇.

This is the standard for a 24 hr place. Everything is outstanding. Baked goods and all made from scratch. You can’t find one thing that ain’t delicious. What a great place to eat.
Outstanding.

I kinda like this place a lot.
Nothing fancy but solid diner menu with good baked goods.
Love the fresh hot dinner rolls and breakfast lunch or dinner specials or off menu is equally tasty with generous portion. Maybe not healthiest food or greatest atmosphere but darn good grub and friendly service

I may not be a truck driver, but I do appreciate the portion sizes. If you are looking for big cookies and other bakery items, be sure to stop here!
I love their chicken and dumpling soup. It’s always warm, and hits the spot!

This place is actually a pretty good diner, which is surprising considering its a truck stop.
I’d say that even though it’s pretty similar, this Pine Cone is actually a smidge better than the one out in Johnson Creek. It’s still a truck stop, mind you – the food is still greasy and hearty, but this location always seems a little bit cleaner and the servers a bit more on-​the-​ball. I’ve had messed up orders at the one in Johnson Creek, but never here.
The bakery of course, is the main draw. They have a huge variety of sweets and they’re always very delicious. I’d say for the baked goods alone they’re worth checking out if you haven’t been – in that respect they could easily compete with standalone bakeries.
The prices are extremely low compared to a lot of places around Madison, as well.

Wow! A hidden gem. Best bakery.
Had the giant cow cookie, under $ 3. Great flavor. The pig cookie is super cute.
The giant cinnamon roll is nothing like I have ever seen before. It is gigantic and very good.
The pumpkin square with cream crease frosting is wonderful. And the size is enormous!
The dinner rolls are sweet tasting and huge! It’s a meal in its self.
This is worth the stop off the highway.

I like this location better than the one near Johnson’s creek. It is a bit tight when you walk in, but the charm soon takes over.
I was not really impressed by the food. However, their pastries won my over. Try it all! The pie was delicious. I went with a simple apple selection. Delicious, perfection. It is nothing crazy, no fancy name but truthfully one of the best piece of classic apple you can find around here.
The service is a little slow but once again, it is a small restaurant with lots of charm. You get what you get and I love it. It is near a Christmas tree farm so it is the perfect place to stop and get some cocoa on your way.

Some times Jane and Michael Stern are on point and other times the story of the place beats the food. I would definitely return to the Pine Cone. It’s a bakery and diner attached to a truck stop on the Wisconsin highway. I live in Chicago and work in a famous Mexican restaurant and I get up to Wisconsin for the old school steak and butter as much as possible: it gives me the energy to do my job. Pine Cone has eclairs and cream puffs the size of my cat. And I got a pig cookie. This little truck stop gives me the big energy to get even deeper into steak and butter territory.