Voelker's Steak House in Beaver Dam, WI Provides Decent Food, Questionable Atmosphere

I have lived in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin almost my entire life and, even though I only live about two blocks away, I had never tried Voelker's Steak House, at least not until my 4-year wedding anniversary.

My decision to finally go there came from the recommendation of several co-workers and family friends who insisted it was a high-class place with great food. While I'll admit they were right about the food, it was far from being high class.

As you enter the restaurant, you are entering what looks like any normal tavern. In fact, when we first walked in, we weren't even sure if it was a restaurant. It wasn't until we decided to step in that we discovered the dining area around the corner.

One of the first things I noticed was the restaurant not only did not ban smoking (something neither my wife nor I do since she has asthma) it didn't bother to have a separate smoking section. As a result, no matter where we sat, the restaurant smelled like cigarettes; something that didn't exactly help our appetites.

Deciding not to drink alcohol, we both ordered sodas which were brought to us in beer glasses from the bar that obviously weren't very clean because you could still taste the beer when you drank. If you want a very disgusting drink, try mixing beer with Mountain Dew.

We both decided to order steak with fried shrimp and had a choice between the salad bar, soup or potatoes. After seeing the very small and somewhat dirty salad bar, we decided on the potatoes.

At this point, I will say I have no complaints about the service. Our waitress was very friendly and managed to check in on us on a timely basis despite taking care of a party in the next room. She was even nice enough to bring us desert, complete with candles, in celebration of our anniversary.

And, when they finally brought us our food, it was definitely tasty. In fact, for the first time in a while, I didn't have any leftovers from it.

Of course, then we got the bill. I will admit $34 for two dinners is probably cheap compared to some places. However, around here that is considered pricey especially since we could order the same thing at Ponderosa or a couple of other steak places around town for about $10 less and have either two or three side dishes or access to an all-you-can-eat salad bar and buffet.

As we walked home, we came to a pretty clear conclusion. It's a decent restaurant but, because of the price and atmosphere, it's not one we will find ourselves eating at on a frequent basis.