The Rafters Restaurant and Catering Reviews

We have stopped at this restaurant quite a few times traveling from Chicago to Galena, IL and Iowa. The food, service, and prices are great and a nice break from the road.

Very good waitresses were nice and very accommodating would recommend the haystack burger and the mac and cheese

Bad service, bad food selection, and bad pricing. Wouldn't recommend unless you just want beer.

Very disappointed! Waitress was very nice, management was fine, but was served a spoiled pork sandwich. Won't be going back.

Took a 2 hr drive to eat here again. Worth the drive any day.

Very good food and beers. Lively and friendly service too.

Expensive $17 for what was 4 piece chicken dinner came with two wings and two thighs not half chicken like it should have been

Attitude was atrocious just horrible. Not going there again

Worth the drive if you don't live close. Food is great and service even better!

Excellent food and nice choice of local beers. Had the haystack burger with loaded mac-n-cheese. Wonderful.

Quality food quality service nice decor
IHad daughter's wedding reception here. It's where I take my out of town guests wonder visiting me.

Sunday buffet was good priced just right at $9.99. On this Sunday they had bunch of meat to eat. Ham,Turkey, Roost Beef , bacon, sausage, weaners. Not carved but sliced up for you. To many other items to list.

Liked the buffet and the flights of beer from the brewery.

Best Brisket in the area. The Shrimp Mac n cheese is to die for!

We make a trip out here at least once a month on Tuesday for their taco Tuesdays. Such a great deal. We always come in the afternoon and have the place to ourselves. The staff here is great and the food is amazing. There is a local brewery attaches to it and the restaurant has fresh beer from them on tap.The cheesecake here is absolutely amazing. I repeat the cheesecake is amazing. If you stop here you must get the cheesecake. No matter how full you are you make room for the cheesecake from Rafters. It is so light and fluffy and you can get it topped with fruit.

We were on our way to Galena for my birthday and decided to stop in here for a snack and a few cold ones. I am so glad we did! We met some very nice people and tried some wonderful beers. They had a lineup of around 12 beers on this day. They offered flights so you can sample everything. The staff was very friendly and willing to answer questions as we sat at the bar. The brisket nachos and the Carmel Coffee Pecan Stout were my absolute favorites... a must stop if passing through. Beautiful facility, very clean, friendly people, and most of all a fun place. Rafters is the name of the restuarant. They invested some money into this place planning on it being a staple in the community for a long time to come. We will now be stopping everytime we pass by.

Went during lunch hour and the food was amazing and staff was super friendly. I would highly recommend.

They choice of local craft beers was great. I loved their brisket nachos.

Friendly staff and a menu that changes a bit every year. The food used to be more plentiful, for example the shrinking size of the French onion soup, but its still a decent place to eat.

The Rafters
9426 W Wagner Rd
Lena IL 61048

This was another restaurant on my nostalgia tour, a blast from the past. Years ago this joint was one of my regular spots but it has been years since I have been here. I was happy to see them still going strong after all of these years. What a beautiful building to have a restaurant in. What happened to the Limo that was always there? This is the place that I took my wife to after I proposed to her. Am I rambling?

I also have one of my favorite dining stories from here that I love to tell. One evening sitting in the bar at a table, we had finished our meal and ordered dessert. I had a slice of chocolate cheesecake that had some chocolate chips on it. What makes this all happen is that there was a fly bothering us and some others in the bar area that we were swatting at. I got a chocolate chip stuck to my finger and couldn t get it off. So I flicked it like a booger and it went right past my wife s head and hit the guy in the booth behind her. Right smack dab in the middle of his forehead and he swatted like it was the fly. It sat on his forehead for a while like he was a chocolate Hindu. I called the waitress over so that I could share my joy at what was happening. It was so funny I still laugh every time I think about that. And to finish it off when I signed the credit card receipt I signed The Mad Chipper .

I love pork chops and I order them many times to my dismay. There is a fine line of thickness to a good pork chop. A very thick cut will have a juicy center that has little to no seasoning and can taste like pure pig meat and edges that can be very dry. A thin cut pork chop will inevitably be dried and jerkyfied. The cut here was perfectly in the middle, well-seasoned, juicy and with perfect char marks. That amazing corn bread is killer. What the heck was that potato concoction? One of my favorite sides ever! Great food, atmosphere, drinks and service!

According To The Big Food Jerk.

The place hasn t changed much over the years and consistency is what we want in a restaurant and The Rafters delivers. Heck yeah I recommend them really good joint!

Great rustic feel and a great place for casual dining. Affordable and diverse menu. Nice gift shop too. Brewery next door is fun,and a great value on Groupon!

Excellant food , nice gift shop and awesome craft brewry!

Great food wonderful atmosphere the brunch buffet was terrific

Update: We have been back twice with friends for dinner and both times the food and service were excellent. This is just a top notch restaurant. It's so nice when you brag about a restaurant and when you bring your friends it exceeds their expectations. Thanks again, Rafters. Keep up the great work!!

We just stopped by after golfing and we will absolutely be coming back and we will be bringing friends. The onion stack appetizer is wonderful and they have a great selection of local beers that you can sample (4 for $10). This is simply the best service I have had in years. Friendly greeting as soon as we came in by the cook I think. The bartender and our server were equally nice and friendly. They made us want to come back, and we will, even though we live more than an hour away. Well done, Rafters!!!

Great atmosphere and really good food! Nice kids menu choices but also good for an adult night out. Nice bar with local craft beer selections (and the brewery next door). There's also a very sweet gift shop offering a variety of housewares, local goods, even some furniture and you receive a discount when dining in.

I was there yesterday for the Sunday brunch buffet. The food was good and our server excellent. My only complaint is that the food items on the buffet were not marked. I have low vision and could not tell what most of the food was. If they had small signs starting what was what, it would gave made the buffet much more enjoyable. I'm not sure I will be back.

The Rafters is a unique establishment. We had fish as it was the special on Friday. The meal was delicious. The corn bread is served hot and fresh. It truly was a unique experience. There is a gift shop and brewery as well. The whole place also runs on solar power.

The highlight was the mac n cheese! That was amazing. The rest was all pretty good but not amazing. I had some of the Habanero cherry sauce as a side for my meal. It could be great if the flavors had marinated properly. It tasted to raw & therefore wasn't great.

Good food, good beer, friendly staff and pricing very reasonable.

This is a cool one of a kind dining experience. The people here are really nice, and they make you feel at home.

Very nice restaurant. Big, clean and very nicely decorated. Pretty simple menu but very good food. Service was a little slow right during the lunch rush. Botique gift shop is a bit pricey. Great beer selection.

Rude waitres and not so delicious food. We had to wait 10 min for the waitres to come to our table another 15 min for just the water. Our meals were missing half of the stuff from the menu. When we asked for the menu to confirm we got a different one. The waitres still charged us as for full meals.

Was so happy they brought back the pork belly tacos, but..... I prefer the pork belly cut up like it used to be instead of slabs like bacon.

Very friendly waitress. Food came quickly and was delicious. My husband really enjoyed complimentary birthday cheesecake. Our family will be back soon to try other menu items!!!

Excellent food, Great service, Pleasant atmosphere, will definitely be going back.

Ordered the pulled pork with coleslaw. It was very good. Service was great!

Second year in a row that we stopped at The Rafters for Sunday night dinner on our way home from Galena. Outstanding dinner and martinis both years with Kim (if I remember right) as our waitress. She was the best taking the time to explain the different martinis and making sure we were satisfied with the taste. Great place. Wish we lived closer.

Stopped here on a whim, traveling home to Chicago from the JD county fairgrounds. Our server Garry was friendly, helpful and funny. Eveything we ate and drank was excellent, and the shrimp mac and cheese was the BEST in my life. I would drive over 2 hours for no other reason except to eat there.

Great food and great service! The pork ribeye is not to be missed!

Great food as well as gift shop, furniture store, and brewery & bar!!

Service was great, food was delicious; clean, pretty restaurant! Looking forward to going back.

They catered a wedding at our venue recently. The food was excellent (prime rib, salmon, chicken, and other great plated food); the staff was friendly and courteous; and the on site management was organized and efficient.

Good food and service. Atmosphere is worth the trip .

Excellent burgers! Perfect lunch stop between Chicago and Dubuque. And it helps that their neighbor is a brewery.

We loved it highly recommended food and environment was great

Super! We had driven by a few times, and thought that the resturant was interesting and inviting. On our trip to Chicago, we stopped in for dinner. The service was excellent. The three of us enjoyed the all you can eat fish (Friday), dinner salad, and burger. We had an appetizer of onion rings which were great. We will be back again.

We had lunch here. The brisket is fantastic. I love true smoke quality BBQ. This hit the mark. The Rafters is catering my Son's wedding in October if 2020. We are so glad they chose them for the caterer.

We love Rafters! We don't live near but when we camp at nearby Lena KOA, we always make it point to eat here. Great craft beers, made onsite, and a cute gift shop. Great food!

Awesome food and surroundings!! We will be back again!

Delicious! We were just driving by on a strange route from Cedar Falls Iowa to South suburbs of Chicago and were very hungry when we ran across this restaurant. We had the brisket sandwich, breaded chicken beer battered and delicious potatoes and fried onions. Also had a yummy Lemon shake up cocktail.

I still find this place is location a bit baffling, but it's undeniable that the food was good, the waiter was quirky, friendly, and helpful, and everything came out piping hot and delicious. The cheese curds were good, though the place was confusingly empty for the dinner rush. I hope that they do well!

Service was slow , food was great and good price for sunday

Friendly staff, great homemade cornbread and great food.

Food was very good, staff was friendly and attentive, atmosphere was superb next to the waterfall. Overall Great place & we Will be back

Bbq was ok.. ... didn't blow me away. Small portions