Sussex Restaurants

Sussex restaurant reviews

View all Sussex restaurant reviews

A Taste Of Gourmet
Oct 7, 2007 by TheAngryDiner from Milwaukee
Overall Rating: 1
Food:[1] • Service:[1] • Atmosphere:[1]

• There was absolutely nothing to like about this restaurant.
• 5 star prices, negative 5 star quality and service.

“Based upon an article that appeared in exclusively yours (October 2007 issue), I decided to take my wife and son for a nice dinner in the countryside. The article promised a unique dining experience, and that's exactly what we received, but it wasn't a pleasantly unique experience. We should have known better than to even enter the place when, arriving for a 6:30 reservation, there was only one other party dining in the restaurant (and this on a Friday evening after the article had been published). The decor is catchy, and that's ok. What isn't acceptable is lack of cleanliness, especially for a restaurant charging 5 star dining prices. The single window air conditioner unit used to cool the room was on its last legs, and looked like it hadn't been cleaned in months. It was the same with the top of the chair railing in the dining room. The table cloth looked like it had simply been brushed off after the last diners had left, the wine glasses were cloudy, spotted, and looked as if they weren't really clean. Prices are what one would expect in the very best dining establishments. This wasn't a surprise. The surprise was the quality of the food. My wife ordered prime rib. What was delivered was not prime rib, but rather a poorly disguised chuck roast. The meat had been prepared with what tasted like Liptons onion soup mix. It was horrible, and made worse by the price charged. My son ordered the crab legs. At $70 a pop, what he should have received was the best quality crab legs. What came out was something that had been frozen too long, was tasteless, and lacking the sweet and pleasant flavor that crab legs are known for when fresh and prepared properly. The Auctioneer's Inn was known for its 2 and 3 lb lobster tails. Both of which were unavailable when we arrived (should never happen at a restaurant on a Friday night at 6:30 in the evening). It's just as well. The tiny tail that arrived had also spent too much time in a freezer, was improperly cooked to a consistency like rubber, and had absolutely no taste. It's not a good meal when the baked potato is the only high point of the evening. This restaurant is also supposed to be known for its tableside preparation of a caser salad. We were all set for a nice presentation. What came out were two salads in wooden bowls. No tableside presentation and no explanation. Worse, the salad was insipid. In short another real disappointment. Service was slow and inattentive. The waitress seemed to be aware we were unhappy and didn't even offer desert. Her intuition was good, because we wouldn't have ordered any anyway. We were not alone in our displeasure. The table behind us was also very unhappy with their meal. Having spent most of my life involved in the food industry, having spent many an evening in fine dining establishments, and having a somewhat refined palate, I know when a restaurateur knows what he/she is doing. Unfortunately in the case of the current owners of the auctioneer's inn, in my opinion, they don't have a clue. The chef doesn't understand the need to work with fresh ingredients, prepare his own stocks (and never use dried/prepared mixes for sauces), and how to bring food to the table in a reasonable amount of time. This meal was the worst dining experience Ive ever had in a restaurant charging such prices. The food was so bad; it wouldn't even have been acceptable at the prices charged by Dennys or George web. My advice to anyone contemplating entering this restaurant is to turn around and run, don't walk, away. Let it die the death it deserves. My advice to the owners is to get into another line of work, or hire a chef that knows what he/she is doing and get out of the kitchen.”

Old Templeton Inn
Oct 25, 2006 by Debi from Sussex, WI
Overall Rating: 9
Food:[9] • Service:[9] • Atmosphere:[8]

• Have never been disappointed.
• They will be closing due to highway construction.

“Have never been disappointed yet. Their "all you can eat" shrimp has been a regular for us. Will miss them deeply when they close.”