Papa’s American Cafe

This is my families go to restaurant when it’s birthdays, special occasions and just when I don’t feel like cooking. Only once have I had poor service and the manager rectified it after brought to their attention.
Great service, yummy food, fun atmosphere.

I have nothing but good things to say about this establishment. I am shocked when reading the other reviews. Papa’s has been a favorite place of mine for years. The food is excellent, as well as the service. The management is clearly very experienced in operating a business.
The best menu items are the buffalo chicken sandwhich, buffalo wings, or the Greek salad with chicken. I’ve explored the menu thoroughly and those are my personal favorites. Additionally, Doug (then owner) makes a divine bloody mary.
All in all, this is always my favorite and first place to stop when I’m back in Mason City. The prices are more than fair for the delicious food that’s served.

Nice place to watch a game. Place was packed at 7pm on a Saturday night. Took a while to get served but waitress was decent. Food was sub par and the place could use a good cleaning. My burger was luke warm, baked potatoes were tiny, and wife got food poisoning from the chicken wrap. Beware!

1 Star is my lowest option or I would go lower. I once again heard good things about this place and like a lot of the other recommendations from the locals in the area I was disappointed once again. There was football on at the time so I figured the place would be busy so I checked it out. I walked in and there was 1 table seated in the whole place. I hesitantly sat at the bar just to not be rude and order at least 1 drink to give it a shot. Well that’s what I did for the next 5 minutes was just sit there. The guy bartender finally came over like I interrupted his busy day and was like you want something? I’m thinking yes ******* a drink would be nice. He was really pissed that he had to do something. I very very rarely don’t leave a tip but this was one of the occasions I did not leave a tip. I’ve gotten used to the lack of service in the Midwest but this was one of the worst. And I know you can have a bad experience anywhere at anytime but the lack of people in the restaurant I can tell this isn’t the first or last.

My boyfriend and I were making a late night pit-​stop at Papa’s because we didn’t know what to eat for dinner. We’ve been to Papa’s before and liked how varied the menu was as well as the great customer service we’ve received.
As we made our way in, we were greeted by the bartender and the sight of an almost bare restaurant. We quickly scanned the menu and my boyfriend decided to go with the chicken parmesan while I stuck with the cheese ravioli. Along with our meals, we had the option of soup or salad. We decided on Wisconsin Cheese Soup and waited 10 minutes till it arrived.
The soup was good… but it was lukewarm at it’s finest. We were very understanding about the fact that it was late, so we pushed our worries as well as our soups aside and anticipated for our actual meals.
But we were disappointed. Our food came out looking better than it had tasted. My cheese ravioli was barely cooked and it tasted like it was still cold on the inside because some of the cheese didn’t actually melt. My boyfriend’s chicken was plain and had no flavor or kick to it and his spaghetti was nothing out of the ordinary.
For $ 38 bucks, I don’t think we’ll be making another trip to Papa’s anytime soon.

I ordered the Cajun-​broiled walleye with steamed broccoli and vegetable beef soup. The food was tasty — the soup actually had good chunks of steak, carrots and potatoes, and the fish was pretty decent, although the broccoli was just slightly undercooked — but the portions were just too meager, especially after waiting over an hour for delivery (which they don’t do between 2−5pm, highly inconvenient), and with a price of $ 15.50 plus tip, it’s not worth it unless you’re not in a rush, are not that hungry and have money to blow.

Thirty-​five bucks (with tip) for lunch.
I had «Seafood Alfredo» which promised «shrimp and crabmeat in an Alfredo sauce on linguini.» Well, there was plenty of linguini. Some white sauce that was absolutely flavorless. (Really — no discernible garlic, cheese or even salty flavors. None.) Two shrimp. And some Louis Rich Crab Tenders. I didn’t think you could legally call artificially flavored pressed fish «crab» but apparently this far from an ocean anything goes. And it was $ 12.
«Smothered Cheese Fries» was a small order of fries with a thin layer of grated cheddar cheese on top, popped into a microwave. With a little plastic cup of ranch and a little plastic cup of ketchup. And it cost $ 7.
My husband said his burger was decent. About $ 9.
Salad was out of a bag, dressing out of a bottle. Raspberry Ice Tea a powder mix.
Meh. won’t be going back. Prime & Wine is right across the parking lot, and has an awesome steak for not much more money.

I wanted to try a local place, but didn’t feel like going out or too far. Papa’s was listed in the hotel book, so I pulled their website up. Delivery available — perfect.
The phone service was a bit spotty, but I think part of it may have been my cell signal. The estimate for delivery (to my hotel across the street) was 45 minutes on a Monday night. It arrived a bit less than that.
I got the rib and chicken combo (with no plans to eat it all). The ribs and chicken were very tender, but had very little flavor. The sauce was pretty bland, and there was no smoke flavor at all. The coleslaw was OK, nice and crisp, but also was lacking something. I didn’t care for the beans at all. The bread stick was OK, but had a little too much garlic.
What I had was very average. Maybe some other items are better.

Average food, average price.