The Thirsty Buffalo

Completely awful and outrageously overpriced. I’m in town for a conference and after a long travel day, I went in to grab a quick lunch. I ordered the onion ring appetizer ($ 9) and was expecting for that price to have freshly made beer battered rings with «zesty chipotle ranch» but got soggy deep fried frozen rings. I ordered the steak taco special ($ 13) which were 2 worse-​than-​taco-​bell quality tacos with bland and chewy steak-​like meet, oily cheese and gauc that was clearly squeezed from a bag (swirled on the side like soft serve ice cream) with a side of canned beans mixed canned corn and canned tomatoes and mushy rice. Total $ 27; complete robbery!

You may notice my last review for this place was just a few days ago. I was looking back on a previous trip, looking at places we’d been that I hadn’t reviewed yet, and trying to find new places. Noticed I’d not reviewed for our last stay, wrote one.
Well, we’ve just gotten back from our most recent stay. And this is the worst bar at the resort.
We stopped in for a quick snack and some water.
It isn’t peak season yet, so I get that it’s slow, and the bartender wants to make a buck. But she charged us for Sprite, when we ordered soda WATER (which everywhere else we went was free!). Well, our 10 dollar snack nearly doubled to just under 20 with tip because she charged us both $ 3 for water with bubbles. I was pissed. Like I said in my last review, yeah it’s a resort, it’s going to be pricey, but we shouldn’t have been charged for freaking soda water. Seriously? So that… did come as a surprise. When we asked why we’d been charged, she kinda shrugged it off and said they charge for soda water. Then why’d you ring it in as Sprite? And why don’t the other resort bars charge for it? Just didn’t sit right with me. We paid, I didn’t feel like getting into a confrontation.
She wasn’t very attentive either. I had to flag her down for a refill a couple times (I hate doing that. I know it’s annoying.). We were the only patrons in the bar. At one point, when we were talking to her, she just up and walked away… what?
I don’t know if it was because it wasn’t peak season, or what, but they need to step up their game. There are plenty of other bars at this resort. And I don’t know about you, but I am willing to walk to get to them.
On the plus side, the cheese curds were amazing. We got them in buffalo sauce. Next time, we’ll get them to go. Or better yet, I’ll just make them at home. Because as food-​gasmic as they were, it wasn’t worth the crap service.

Excellent place to grab a bite to eat. Very fast and friendly service. Great place to watch a sports game.

Our server was really nice, but holy cow is that place OVERPRICED! I mean i get it, foods going to be expensive when you eat at a place that’s in a resort, but all the appetizers were $ 10 minimum. All the burgers /​sandwiches were $ 12 minimum. Soda was $ 3 each and it came in a small cup with a lid on it, at least you got free refills. But for the 4 of us our bill was almost $ 65 and the quality of the food was cafeteria food at best. There was not a lot to it except a patty, bun, cheese, and lettuce and fries that tasted like they had been sitting in a freezer for a few months before getting cooked.
My opinion is to grab lunch at a nearby subway if your looking for cheap or find a small family restaurant that’s around. (But even those can be a little expensive in the Dells sometimes… it is a tourist town after all) Or if your room has the appliances, use them instead and spare your wallet the agony of overpaying for crappy food.

MK & I had a quick lunch here before heading off to the wedding (10÷04÷08). The had a cool appetizer which was Cheese curds, but you had the option of getting them dunked in either BBQ sauce or wing sauce. We got the wing sauce and were pleasantly surprised. It tasted pretty good and left a good sting in your mouth for awhile.
I had the buffalo burger (real buffalo meat) with bacon and pepper jack and MK had the Quesadilla. Both were okay, but sort of «food servicey» Nothing was blatantly wrong with them, they were just blah.
Overall, I love the Wilderness Resort as a place to bring the family but they KNOW they have you trapped on location while you’re having fun in the water parks and so the prices for this food (and any of their restaurants) is very high for what you get. The lunch I described above with one beer and one diet coke was almost $ 50!!! Just absolutely crazy. The appetizer alone was $ 10!