Windjammer

Made the mistake of bringing the mother in law here for lunch during her last visit. The food was horrible. It was literally not edible for ²⁄₃ in our group. The location is so nice… it is just sad that southern Indiana is a center for mediocrity.

First I would like to say that I am loving the four winds hotel and marina! It’s a gorgeous atmosphere and everyone is really nice. We are boaters here and normally cook our own food. However we have gotten food from windjammer 3 times. Our first experience, two employees (1 working bar and the other serving drinks to table) talking about how good their drink special was. They both tried the customers drink, and then that same drink was served to the customer. We were sitting 1 seat away from where this took place. The sad part is I don’t think they even knew it was wrong …
This past Saturday I ordered the onion ring burger. It was huge and had tons of toppings. I got more than halfway through my burger before I realized there was wax paper left in my sandwich. It was separating paper left on either the cheese or the hamburger patties. I am still so disturbed that this happened. I notified the waitress and didn’t pay for my meal. The worst part is the manager never even came over to my table. I also notified the front desk (knowing very well that’s it’s not their problem.) I won’t be eating there again. It’s obvious that the employees aren’t getting the direction they need to be a successful restaurant. The hotel does all the hard work to get people in. All the windjammer has to do is have better customer service.

I’m writing this review with the hopes of informing others, but more importantly informing the management about our recent experience. I truly want this place to succeed as it is a beautiful setting on Lake Monroe that has enormous potential.
The menu offerings were as my party of 4 expected… typical pub grub and drink options. We ordered the nachos to start along with mixed drinks and beer. The nachos were quick, and the portion size was enormous. Unfortunately, our drinks were terribly slow to arrive, and the Bloody Mary was an unrecognizable dark brown. We assumed it was there own blend, and ultimately decided it just wasn’t made correctly despite it being the special of the day.
Eventually our food arrived, but service was terribly slow. There were several wait staff just standing around, so we must assume it was a kitchen limitation despite only a few other tables being occupied. Two of our 4 meals were completely overcooked and blackened from the fryer. The chicken tenders were unrecognizable. After trying to suffer through them, we eventually gave up and notified our waitress. She first seemed surprised, but then indicated perhaps they were a little overcooked. She did offer to adjust the check, and for that we were grateful. Unfortunately, the slow service and mediocre food will not immediately bring us back.

So first of all, understand that this is the Four Winds Restaurant Bar. It is a hotel bar and that is what it feels and tastes like. The menu is simple and tastes average. If you are not too drunk to drive, do yourself a favor and swing into Bloomington for some good eats, otherwise if you are in for the night, this place isn’t the worst.

Just left this place after horrific service, lousy food and to top it off the 2 young children with us never received their food. 2 of the meals brought were wrong. Shrimp was burnt and the waiter tried to argue that the meal was the correct meal. They ended up comping the meal but honestly most of it was thrown away. When we asked to talk to the manager he said he isn’t there and shortly after we overheard another waiter apologizing for more bad food and said he spoke to the manager and they weren’t charging him for something. Another lie came out with one waiter telling us there was only 1 cook and the other came out and said they only had 2 cooks. It’s too bad nobody can manage this place like it needs to be.

We were staying at Fourwinds Resort and decided to stay on property to eat. We popped into the Windjammer about 5:30pm. It wasn’t very busy — about half a dozen tables filled and a few people at the bar area. Although it wasn’t very busy, things seemed a little frantic with the waitstaff. We saw at least 3 waiters at various times but the would disappear into the kitchen for several minutes. Maybe they were helping prepare food? No idea.
We ordered the fish and chips, cheesesteak with sweet potato fries, and the fried green tomato BLT with potato salad. The fries served with the fish and chips had some kind of batter coating. Apparently the fish and cheesesteak were good because I didn’t even get a taste. I really wanted to like the BLT. After all, it has FRIED GREEN TOMATOES! I really liked the tomatoes and the bacon, but the sandwich just didn’t come together. There was a little avocado sauce smeared on the bun, but it just didn’t give enough moisture or creaminess to the sandwich. I experimented with some leftover tartar sauce, the brazenly asked for ranch dressing. Ranch is so good with FGTs and I figured that it couldn’t hurt. It wasn’t bad.
Overall, it was okay. I’d probably eat there again if we just didn’t feel like getting out the car and driving.