Did the buffet (we never do buffets) and the best I can say is it was cheap dinner food. The catfish was suppose to be the best, not true by a long shop. Don't think we will ever go back. But the server was very kind and loved my husband and mine wedding band and diamond and sapphire rings! read more

The food was prepared wrong and sit in the windows for 10 minutes I timed it and the server was rude. Also we went for the breakfast buffet but they stated after getting there that it was only on Saturday mornings. read more

The Watermill is a pretty good restaurant, the food was good and the service was very good, we had a girl named Brittany, I appreciate how she was right there when we needed her. The restaurant was really plain, nothing special, but the food was yummy! read more

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If you like fresh french fries, you should order the curly fries. These are prepared fresh in house and taste great. the regular fries come from the freezer. The curley fries are available for the white and sweet potatoes. They do not have extra seasoning as you can find at some places, just nice fresh fries -yum We had the hamburger and cheese burger. I got a one trip salad bar with my cheese burger. The salad bar had the standard offerings a was a nice treat. The meat was a standard prepared patty, but there was a nice slice of tomato and leaf lettuce on a fresh bun. read more

Watermill Restaurant - Nice serving of fresh cut french fries. DH shared with me. - American Near Me - Cave City, Kentucky

The food was good the building inside needs some attention. The fridge looked like it was on its last leg. They ran out of biscuits at 9am , I asked how do you run out of biscuits at 9am and she said we only have one cook. ? read more

Love this place. Im a vegetarian so there are not many places you can eat all the vegetables you want , your drink and dessert for $7.49. The staff is very polite and helpful also. They also do not serve alcohol which deserves a . read more

The reviews prepared me for the interior- looks like it hasn't been updated since it opened, and that's fine. There weren't a lot of measures taken to keep people sitting at safe distances, or wearing masks inside. I will say that we went when mask mandates were starting to let up for the fully vaccinated, but I... suspect not everyone sauntering around without a mask was fully vaccinated. We opted against the buffet for those reasons, and ordered off the menu. It was typical southern comfort food. I really enjoyed my chicken sandwich- I love a chicken sammie, but this one was crisp and well seasoned. You can get tater tots- so, do that! The food was reasonably priced and the service was friendly. I might be talked into trying to buffet in a few years when thigns are generally safer. read more

OK... So I was torn with the rating on this restaurant. The food for me was pretty darn good and I would rate the food a 4 star. However, this place is really dilapidated and needs to be updated. Take a look at some of the pics that I have. The restrooms are old and dingy and dirty, the tables are beat up, refrigerators are really old and worn and rusted and dirty. Because of this I would give it a 3 star. Now on the other hand, my wife and I had the lunch buffet which included fresh breaded catfish, fresh meatloaf, corn bread, rolls, pinto, beans, green beans cooked in ham, brown gravy, some type of corn, a pretty decent salad, bar, fresh peach cobbler, and fresh banana pudding as well as ice cream in small containers. You can see in the pictures what we ate. Since it was a buffet the service was fairly nonexistent, but the person who sat us and brought us utensils and water seemed friendly and hospitable. So you can see why I'm torn between a 3 and a 4 star!... I think when you look at the outside sign for the restaurant, which is in my pictures, it basically says it all!... I would give this restaurant a tentative "recommend" because I'm not sure I would come here again unless they cleaned and updated the entire place. read more

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It's ok the sweat tea is pretty good but the bathrooms are dirty and it's shetchy where they have a plank on the ceiling holding up the wall from falling in. The service is ok are server seemed pretty nice if u were really hungry I do not recommend this place. read more

On vacation and Watermill Restaurant was suggested by the hotel. OMG the food was delicious and the service was even better. This is a family run business I think and Kelli and her daughter were maybe the best, friendliest, efficient servers I've ever had. They do it all. Because of Covid they only had a small buffet. Main dishes were fried catfish and spaghetti and meat souse. The fried catfish was out of this world. If you go please have dessert first. I wish I did. The peach cobbler and banana pudding were delicious. Which I had them first. read more

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And to think, I almost went to Cracker Barrel. This place is not new and it is not updated. What it is, is real. Real good food. Real welcoming people. Real down-home service. Real genuine local flavor. Southern food. Southern hospitality. I had the Pancake breakfast: 2 eggs scrambled, bacon and 2 huge, fluffy pancakes. $5.95. With coffee and tax: just over 8 bucks. Friendly people, fresh food and a great deal. Don't get hung up on the exterior, get inside and sit your butt in a seat already! (I love Cracker Barrel, btw, this isn't meant to hate on them). read more

Watermill Restaurant - Fill yourself up with some real grub for a fair price. - American Near Me - Cave City, Kentucky

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Amazing food and amazing sevice, definitely returning for the 3rd time soon, had to take off 1 star because there are dead insects in the windows. read more

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After reading some reviews about their fried catfish we decided to try this restaurant for dinner while visiting the area. Well... our experience was pretty underwhelming to say the least. The food was below average and the restaurant is very run-down inside. read more

Came in while traveling ignoring some of the bad reviews. Seemed to have some local following but strongly recommend going somewhere else. This place is filthy from floors, bathrooms, waitress uniform to the cash register. The food must not have been good because there was a fly eating a dead fly on our window. Ordered, paid and tipped and left without eating. read more

Last month on our trip we went here and the food was good but the family didn't like it But the thing was unacceptable was a lady pushed me out of the way on purpose and that got me saying I need to write a review about this She needs to keep her hands off of customers and don't be rude But I wasn't able to get her name and I didn't get her name because I didn't say anything So just because the family didn't like this place I am never coming here again with the family next time we visit Kentucky. read more

I admit I almost didn't go in because it looked sketchy but we were hungry after the cave tours so I went on in. I can't begin to say how good the food was. The food was just like what I'd go after church with my grandparents to eat in the south. I've eaten at a lot of high class restaurants, outrageously expensive everywhere from Atlanta to LA and I'm just going to say that the home cooking they have here was superb. The restaurant doesn't look the best on the outside, but it was cheap and it was so good. Everything was fresh, it's buffet style salad, hot food, and dessert bar. There was a lady in the back peeling potatoes, that's how fresh it was. We paid $30 for two of us. This took me back to Sunday lunch from years ago. 10/10 read more

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Buffet lunch with lots of options. We had just finished a cave tour and were hungry. Desserts were homemade & delicious. Super friendly staff, Kelli kept us laughing. Older diner type restaurant but good food. We would go back! read more

Good basic American fare. The breaded chicken sandwich was excellent. The curly fries were a little greasy, service was very good and welcoming. I think the big draw to this restaurant is the all you can eat salad bar, and the buffet. Overall good solid meal. read more

Food was good. I wish there were more meat choices. The sides were killer. The dessert was okay. The catfish was good.

Such a gem. We ordered breakfast to go and greatly enjoyed a meal you pretty much can't get in Cleveland (where I live), unless you make it yourself. The fried baloney was amazing and so was the breakfast porkchop. Great prices too. read more

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My family and I enjoyed dinner here tonight. The food was good, and I highly encourage visitors to order off the menu. The buffet did not look so great and was very limited. Also, the price for the food is hard to beat and the service was good. read more

This is our second attempt to eating here in 3 years living here. The 1st time, we came and sat down and no one came to our table, so we left. Today, we tried again. Most of the food is good. The VERY sweet corn was not. The fried fish was good but we had to eat our whole meal while waiting for them to fry more. This place makes lots of money as it's packed, often. I guess they can't keep help. read more

The exterior of this food establishment seems to resemble the neighbors along the side of the street. I tried not to let the broken water wheel (in a mound of parts and pieces) discourage me as I walked in. I was, however, somewhat intrigued that there was a ticket booth before the entrance to the restaurant. After using the restroom, I became fearful to eat anything from here. Bless those iron-clad-stomach patrons within! read more

Let's start with the worst thing about this place...CIGARETTE SMOKE!! It's bad enough that they allow smoking at all, but they have the smoking section right as you walk in--and right where the buffet is located. The food is mostly low quality buffet items, but they dress up a few things well enough. The cream corn is good and they have a decent salad bar. They are open for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and offer a buffet or menu ordering for all. read more

Watermill Restaurant - Breakfast buffet: country ham, scrambled eggs, potato wedges, and gravy. - American Near Me - Cave City, Kentucky

I've got to find the words for this place. If you're only going to read a couple of sentences, all you need to know is don't eat here. Ok, I'm not unreasonable, but the red flags flew when a couple of employees brought the rolling trash can through the dining room to take outside and then back in while we were waiting on our food. I'm not sure if that's a common occurrence, but that's gotta be a health violation. We should've left at that point. The buffet isn't sanitary. No one is following rules. Everything is messy. The lettuce is brown. There's no nice way to say that. I ordered from the menu and it came with a salad bar trip unfortunately. My order got confused with another at the table and the waitress basically just shrugged and watched us sort it out. My "chopped sirloin" wasn't cooked to the temperature requested. If pressed to say anything good about this place, they have peanut butter and jelly on the kids meal and that's nice. The prices are also very cheap, but I'd rather pay more for food that doesn't make me expect food poisoning. read more

Let me preface this by saying, I never leave reviews but Avoid this place at all costs. First off, it smells so bad. Like smoke infested and spoiled food plus unclean atmosphere. I saw flies buzzing around and many tables were left dirty. They only had two servers on a Saturday morning at 11am. We were here for two hours for a table of 3. We waited 40 mins for food and half our order was wrong or missing. The veggie omelet was more veggie than egg. The chicken was sandwich dry and hard, my sister said it was inedible and she couldn't even eat it. The burger was dry. The ham MY GOD was disgusting - dry and salty. The cornbread was dry and starchy. Diners are usually a safe bet but this place was disgusting!!!!!! I've had some bad experiences but this place was the worst. Oh, and two of the toilets wouldn't flush. At least out waitress was a sweetheart and very apologetic. read more

Honestly, McDonalds is better than this place. The only positive thing about this restaurant was the friendly staff. The building and food were gross. There's probably a total of 10 chairs in that entire building that aren't completely shredded to bits. There was no type of cleaning done. Food all over the ground. The place hasn't been updated since the 80s and stinks of stale cigarettes. The food tasted like grabbing stuff from the freezer section at a grocery store. I wish I had taken pictures, because the photos that are shown for this place is NOT the same as it is now. Unclean Nasty food Smelly read more

Not sure what the best part of this place was: the floor covered in filth, the deep-fried "something" advertised as chicken (but probably not) the chairs shredded to bits, or the crumbs being swept from the tables straight onto the floor? Got the full cave city experience for sure. The service was satisfactory enough. read more

We had a great breakfast. Everything was done perfect and plenty of to eat. Great for a quick stop.

When i asked the front desk of the hotel i was staying at for a place to eat we were told this was the best place for home cooking. They had a buffet with burned chicken strips instant mash potatos and not much else. the best thing they had was the salad. Said salad was just a regular iceberg lettuce salad. It wasnt very clean either. The service was ok not great but ok. The bill for 3 people was $40 which is bad because mcdonalds would have been better. should have gone to the Cracker Barell read more

After a long day, we were really looking forward to dinner. Dad chose the buffet, while Mom and I ordered BBQ. However, our excitement turned to disappointment when they informed us that they had dropped our BBQ order. We reluctantly chose something else, but the replacement--a simple chicken sandwich--took forever to arrive and was disappointingly mediocre. To top it off, the restaurant was quite dirty, making it an overall unpleasant dining experience. read more

Always good food the buffet with catfish and all the other fixings are always good I go there every time I'm in Cave City.

We went on Mother's Day, they were only offering the buffet. They only had catfish or Turkey option. Was a little disappointed in the buffet because since they were not busy food did not turn quickly. Mac and cheese dry. Catfish overcooks from sitting under warmer too long. Mashed potatoes runny. Probably will not recommend or return. read more

A classic hole in the wall with great food! Don't judge it by the outside! We were pleasantly surprised. Their salad bar was fresh with lots of choices and came with my dinner. Delicious cole slaw, chopped egg, shredded cheese, little gherkins, beets, cucumbers, and lots of dressing choices. I would have liked some fresh spinach leaves but had plenty to eat. My husband had their buffet and went back for seconds on their fried catfish. He's the catfish king. It's his favorite and he orders it everywhere he can. The buffet included the salad bar, hot food, and dessert. I ordered from their menu and had the lemon pepper grilled salmon. It was cooked perfectly and seasoned just right. They were out of sweet potatoes so I had a baked potato. My only complaint was they didn't have any real butter,1 and I can't eat margarine or whipped spread because of my allergies. We'll be back! read more

The second we walked in we were blasted with cigarette smoke. Disgusting. Sure, they have a non-smoking section, but the buffet is located in the smoking section. I don't want to ingest cigarette smoke at all and certainly not when I am standing in line to eat. Just because you have a non-smoking area and put up a sign doesn't mean the stench doesn't drift throughout the entire place. Before sitting down our family went to the restroom. The men's restroom felt like some scene from a post-apocalyptic zombie movie. The urinals haven't been in operation, or cleaned, most likely for years. The garbage bags covering the irons and dead bug filled urinals was a clue. The bathrooms, much like the rest of the place, gave off this vibe of "touch the walls at your own risk." My wife said the women's restroom was filled with a raunchy stench that turned her stomach. Now that I think about it, I am curious if anyone has actually died in their bathrooms. If you can't keep your restrooms clean and not smelling like New Jersey armpit, what does that say about the rest of the place? Maybe the food was good. Some of the reviews suggest as much. It would be similar to eating a great burger served to you in a dirty diaper. The brief moments we spent there, destroying our lungs and senses were more than enough. We left and went down the street to find a place where we could eat without needing a CDC suit. read more

Watermill Restaurant - They take great care of the restrooms - American Near Me - Cave City, Kentucky

Do not go here there buffet is empty and very dirty I took my family there for the buffet and the was no food on the buffet and whatever casserole that was there was dried out unfortunately I didn't find this out until I ordered our drinks and went up to the buffet and saw that disaster my family and I left without eating anything be warned and if you go watch for food poisoning read more

We were looking for a light lunch in between caves and happened upon this. We didn't find what we were looking for. The buffet was stocked full of wonderful southern comfort food. Skip the salad, even though the dressings are wonderful, because your stomach wants the other stuff more! I had the catfish (melts in your mouth), potatoes and gravy (will make you want to slap yo momma), and green beans (wonderful flavor) with cornbread (a tad bit dry). My husband had the same, but he enjoyed a roll with his, which he said was amazing. We finished with the yummiest peach cobbler and banana pudding (not the best I've had, but still good. 4 stars because of the aesthetics, but the food makes up for the environment. We wanted to eat more, but ran out of room (see pic of my husband). read more

Watermill Restaurant - Peach cobbler and banana pudding - American Near Me - Cave City, Kentucky

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Wanda was such a nice server. Being from California, the prices were a wonderful surprise. The buffet had great catfish. Everything tasted great. The wait wasn't long and everyone was so friendly. read more

It's an old building so if your looking for modern keep going. The food was delicious. The service was awesome. Sweet staff and the ranch and 1000 dressings had to be home made. Yummy read more

I've been eating at Watermill Restaurant over half of my life and even worked there in the late 1980's and I can honestly say that it never disappoints. read more