Positive Reviews:
- "Food was good & service was great!"
- "Was very good. Good was fresh and portions were great. Meatloaf sandwich is huge!! Nice and friendly staff!! Was rehabbed by Robert Irvine and Restaurant Impossible crew and what difference!! "
Negative Reviews:
- "Decided to try the Wagon Wheel after hearing that Rest. Impossible just finished shooting there a couple of weeks ago. I figured this is the best time to go because they will still be using what they have learned from Chef Irvine, right? Wrong......my friend who was eating with me had a stink bug in her main course, it was on a piece of lettuce and looked to have been cooked up quite nicely....I noticed it was a little tough and cut it apart with my knife to find I had been eating undercooked chicken. VERY undercooked. Pink."
- "Burger = Burnt beyond medium well. Tasted like a forest fire. Fries = Soggy , undercooked, unseasoned.. Chicken Stew = Cement..Salad = Good...Grilled Cheese- Meh...never again and this is post Robert Irvine visit "
- "At this rate, with this menu, and this cook, and this staff, this restaurant cannot possibly survive. I would not recommend eating here."
- "Restaurant Impossible helped the decor, not the food...We probably won't be back for a while."
*Reviews from Yelp, Foursquare, Tripadvisor
Other Stories:
- A comment from a local message board - "I used to work as a server at the wagon wheel for over a year, this was back in 2010. It was really bad there the daughter of the owner Shelia drank her whole shift and had drugs going in and out of there. It is far from a family restaurant!! The food is so bad there that you wouldn’t even be able to tell that they are open because the parking lot is so empty! I saw everything that the customers didn’t and from what I saw I would not recommend this restaurant to ANYONE!!!"
- From a Local newspaper - "For the past two months, however, Gallegos said acceptance among the locals has been slow coming. “Some people like it, some people don’t. The clientele I had before this don’t like it,” she said. “They don’t like change. And neither do I. But this was a good thing.”
- From a different local article - "“We used to serve a lot of frozen food. But now, all the ingredients, even the fries are fresh,” said Mrs. Gallegos. “It was a little rough when we were first on our own with the new menu but everything is sorted out now.” The restaurant used to only serve breakfast and lunch but with the new menu it serves dinner five days a week.
Conclusion:
While there weren't many reviews for the Wagon Wheel, the ones that were out there were mostly negative. It seems that people have issues with both the food and the service. The locals who were frequenting the restaurant before seem to not like the change, but that is usually the case for restaurants on the show. It does seem that the owner has stuck with the changes that Robert suggested by not using frozen food and is serving fresh food. This might be one we have to watch if they can't get the issues worked out soon.
Update from 10/22/2013 - An article in a local paper stated that the granddaughter Jessica is now back from college and is managing the restaurant. She is introducing things at night like poetry night, open mic night, and comedy night to try to get more customers at nighttime.
UPDATE - The Wagon Wheel closed in September 2014 - More information on the closing.
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