Caverns Palace

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  I recently took a trip to Howes Cavern with the family, which includes a 6,4 and 1 year old. We were accompanied by another family that included a 7 year old and a 1 1/2 year old. After a fun day of spelunking we were famished and looking for a local place to eat. After looking for a spot on yelp! We decided on the Caverns Palace despite mediocre reviews. We arrived dinner time on a Monday night and there was a small crowd, not too busy or anywhere near full. Our group of 4 adults and 5 kids was sat immediately by a cheerful hostess/ bartender. There was a little confusion amongst the wait staff as to who was going to wait on us. We ordered drinks and 2 apps, their sampler platter and an order of mozzarella stix for the kids. A plate of oil and vinegar was brought to our table accompanied by very fresh tasting soft bread. It was a very tasty and unexpected beginning. The drinks took about a normal time to arrive. The apps were a little slow. Our sampler included some potato skins with bacon and cheddar cheese, buffalo wings which we ordered "mild", some bruschetta, sweet potato fries and mozzarella stix. The skins were tasty, cooked well with a little bit of crunch on the edges. The wings were decent, not great. Probably should have gone with at least a medium. Tasty but a little slimy. The bruschetta was very tasty with nice fresh tomato chunks. Sweet potato fries were damn crunchy and yummy, would have liked a dipping sauce along side of them though. The mozzarella stix were standard issue, tasty and cooked perfectly but not exceptional or homemade. The kids ordered spaghetti and meatballs and chicken fingers. The chicken was cooked well and juicy. The spaghetti and meatballs was quite good, pasta was cooked perfectly and the meatballs were surprisingly very tasty. Kids meals came with a side (all the kids got broccoli), a drink and a dessert and were reasonably priced. The adult food was really good. I ordered the special burger which was a combination of meats. Veal, pork and lamb. It was amazing and seasoned just enough. I ordered it medium rare and it came out perfectly cooked. I was very happy with this burger. The bun was nice and hearty and fresh. The burger was accompanied by regular fries which were crispy and very tasty. My wife ordered a cheesesteak. It was of the real steak variety, not the steak-um type. It was cooked according to order and had a good a ratio of cheese and peppers and onions. The bread was also very fresh. Another adult ordered the same cheesesteak and was very happy. There was a bit of a mixup in the kitchen and the cheesesteaks came out of the kitchen about 5 minutes after the other food came out. To be fair the kitchen was slammed with another larger group at the same time as ours. A party of 10 was sat just as we were so it's understandable that there was a bit of a mixup. Lastly my buddy's wife ordered a grilled chicken wrap that she said was delicious. The staff was very friendly. The younger kids made a bit of a mess and my son dropped two cups of milk and they were very quick to clean and offer replacements (cups, not kids LOL). The manager I spoke to was a true gentleman. His name was Lou. Apparently the place got off to a bit of a rocky start and is under new management now. I urge anyone who is in the area to try the place out. We were very happy with our food and the level of service we received. There is definitely some truth to the other reviews. The menu is a little all over the place and the service staff is somewhat ineffective. I think the new management can and will remedy these issues however. Bottom line is the food was VERY fresh tasting and reasonably priced and we will most definitely be back the next time we are in the area. Highly recommended.

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  Posted on 08.20.13 Mike M.

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  This place is trying way to hard basically slim down your menu, and get better servers, and get a better salad bar.
  
  The food that we got was good, but the menu was way to big for the lack of variety it offered. As a vegan I could only order fries and a salad bar. The salad bar BTW is awful, it's got maybe 6 different choices of vegetables and 4 different toppings. There's no point in having a 1/2 assed salad bar, honestly.
  
  The fries were really good, and everybody I ate with enjoyed the food that they had ordered. It did take quite some time to get served considering there wasn't really anyone else in the building.
  
  Overall, I'd save my time and my money. I really wish they would just make a smaller menu. You can tell they were just trying so hard when on the drink menu two drinks with different liquors had the same name and they just wrote a 2 next to the second one. C'mon.

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  Posted on 04.14.13 Megan E.

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  I didn't care for this place much. The salad bar was sad, there were barely any toppings. The chicken was dry and the cesar salad was very tasteless. The burgers are WAYYY OVERPRICED and are pretty small for the price! The restaurant was very cool looking though. Our waitress was very nice and helpful also. I think if the food got better it would make some serious dough haha. There's nothing around so there's no competition or anything. It wasn't terrible but the food needs a HUGE improvement. I am going today and giving it one more shot hoping the cook was just having a bad night.

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  Posted on 02.21.13 Sara H.

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  *** bottom line because this review got looong: good food / bad service. maybe it will get better in time, but my experience was not good ***
  
  this place has been under construction for a very long time and finally opened recently. my group arrived around 7pm and it was packed. by 8pm it was much less crowded (a bit less than halfway full) and by 9pm it was nearly empty. the menus are giant and have all types of pizza, pasta, burgers, fried appetizers - that kind of stuff. many of the meals include a side of vegetables, or the salad bar and they're all big so you definitely get your $$$ worth (although the prices are very reasonable to begin with). the real issue here is the service
  
  i ordered a "spelunking" (strawberry daiquiri with whip cream on top.. unnecessary but okay) and it took and hour and 15 minutes to come. i figured the waitress had just forgotten and didn't want to bother her since she was obviously frazzled with the amount of tables she had. after about 30 minutes she ran by and told me it would be right over, but it only came around 40 minutes after that when my food came. at that point i didn't even want it and although it tasted alright, it tasted very bad with my food. she blamed the bar "being behind" but the place was only half full at that point and she had said it would be right over 40 minutes ago so it was very clear she had forgotten to put it in or the bar had just forgotten and instead of owning up, she chose to make a bullshit excuse
  
  another thing that bothered me, was that there were no prices on the cocktail menu. before ordering we asked the price of the cocktails and our waitress said she didn't know the exact prices (okay....) but they averaged $4.50. when we got the bill, mine cost $9. AND IT TOOK OVER AN HOUR TO COME! are you kidding? one more time: over an hour and double the price she quoted!!!
  
  my mother wanted to order the gyro which is a mix of meats, with only one meat and our waitress wasn't sure if the kitchen could do that, so my mom said if they couldn't she'd just have pasta. our server never came back to let her know which entree she would be having, which meant she never knew if could use the salad bar or not, since the pasta came with free salad bar but the gyro did not. finally my we flagged her down and asked, and she explained that the "manager had said it was possible to do only one meat, but then chef said it wasn't," so she was having pasta and could have salad. at this point we'd been sitting there for a very long time and everybody had finished their salad. by the time my mother got a plate of salad, her entree came. as usual, no apology or comp from the waitress or management
  
  when the food came, she brought out three of the four entrees and left my grandpa (who's birthday we were celebrating... i think this is important here) waiting for his steak for 15 minutes. again, she said it would be right out and again there was a wait. it was awkward sitting there waiting for him to get his food, while she disappeared and hid. of course, when she finally brought it, she never apologized or offered a compensation which also reflects badly on the manager who should have been aware of these problems and trying to smooth them over. she was lucky we were with my grandpa who let's these things go, because if i had been here with a different group, i would have definitely complained.
  
  the food was actually quite good though. i had the chicken parmesan, which was a large portion and i enjoyed.  my father had the short ribs with a jack daniels glaze and they were also very good. everybody liked their food and the salad bar seemed fresh, but the service was unbearable and really made the experience sour.
  
  i know this place just opened a few weeks ago, so i'm sure they're still settling in, but there was no excuse for the number of mistakes we experienced. i usually don't criticize staff on yelp because i work in a restaurant myself, so i understand what it's like, but this was just horrible. if i'm feeling generous, maybe i'll try again in a few months

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  Posted on 12.08.12 Becky F.

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