Farmhouse Madeline Island

Reviews about Farmhouse Madeline Island

• 3 / 5

  By Graham Martin
  The Farmhouse is a good concept with good potential, but it has not yet achieved a level of food and service commensurate with what their target market expects. My wife and I have become breakfast connoisseurs in the Minneapolis-St Paul area, and larger metro areas when we travel. We know what makes a great breakfast or brunch, and have reasonable standards--we don't demand perfection. I just wish I could like the place more, but cannot give it more than three stars based on today's experience. (Details below.)
  
  Our party of four arrived at 8:30 on a Sunday morning, when there were still plenty of tables available inside. Unfortunately, there were only two servers working and just getting our coffee took ten minutes. This trend continued for the remainder of our meal, with us waiting at least 40 minutes for our food once we had ordered. I needed to raise my hand when we were finished and wanted to pay, because we received so little attention that we could have easily been there another 20-30 minutes without taking action.
  
  Sometimes the wait is worth it when the food is incredible, but the food--the main purpose of the establishment--was underwhelming. We ordered the brunch special: a plate of heart-shaped cinnamon doughnuts. It's unclear why they were so dry and stiff, or why there was no cinnamon or sugar on them, but they were just dry and tasteless, and went uneaten after one bite from each of us. I would prefer to spend my calories on food I enjoy.
  
  When the food finally arrived, it looked okay, but was only slightly warm--certainly not hot. We got the hash and the sweet waffle. For the hash they were unable to poach the eggs, so we received basted eggs, the yolks of which were half cooked and didn't really ooze out to mix with the hash. And the waffle was dry and tough, requiring significant force to cut with my fork. See the video of me trying to cut my waffle.
  
  Giving this review does not please me. I really want this place to do well; Madeline Island has long needed some newer restaurants and the Farmhouse is certainly a step in the right direction. I suspect that more than anything they just need more staff--more servers and more cooks would go a long way toward speeding up the service and ensuring hot and fresh meals. Presumably the doughnuts and waffles are better when they are fresh, but more staff would also allow them to pay attention to the details (like sugaring the doughnuts), which are really what make or break a restaurant experience.
  
  I hope Farmhouse is able to turn these things around in the near future. I would love to love this place, but it seems like it still needs some significant TLC.
  May 03, 2017