Pine Cone Restaurant

I usually have dinner or breakfast here at least once a week. They have a classic American menu, with a great breakfast selection. The food is good and priced right, especially for the large serving sizes.
They have two sides to the restaurant, one is more of an old truck stop style (I personally like this) and a more traditional restaurant dinning room side.
The wait staff are friendly and very attentive (with the exception of the waiter on the truck stop side, he is rude and doesn’t listen very well). The bakery is large and very good. Almost all of the bread and baked items they serve are home made and delicious. It is a casual place, good for family dining at a good price. I would recommend giving it a try.

We stopped for dinner last night and all had the all you can eat fish fry /​fried chicken. Comes with 3 side items and a huge dinner roll for only $ 9.99. Very good food the deserts were huge and good. We took some cookies for the kids, 8 inch cookies only .99 cents east. I would recommend this restaurant.

Pretty much everything a diner/​family restaurant should be. Great pancakes, sandwiches, excellent soups — be sure to add on the enormous dinner roll for .75! I’d skip things like steak and ribs here — but everything else I’ve had here has been perfectly good. Order knowing that you’ll be taking something from the glorious bakery cases on your way out!

We were to meet a few friends of ours, for breakfast here. There was going to be 7 of us in all. Seating was a nightmare. We had to wait forever to be seated.
Food was good and typical of what you would expect from a small town diner/​café. Bakery has a pretty good selection as well.

OK, the Pine Cone is your classic diner. When you walk in, there’s a counter with all kinds of yummy pastries and a friendly greeter. They show you to comfortable booths and tables. The staff is friendly and accommodating. This was a perfect place to meet a friend halfway between Milwaukee and Madison. The food is classic diner fare. I had an egg breakfast with toast and sausage. Everything was prepared just fine. Our waitress was super friendly and our check came without delay. The price was just what you expect. You pay at the counter. I would come here again.

This place was affordable and my eggs were good (toast was meh) but hang on! I was sitting at the counter and apparently the person next to me ordered the same breakfast except he ordered a sausage patty and I ordered sausage links. She gave him my meal in error (I didn’t notice) and then served me what was supposed to be his stating if I wanted the links she would order me some. I said yes please. Then she took a napkin and just (grabbed) removed the sausage patty from my plate (and gave it to my counter-​mate). LOL. I was too stunned to be grossed out.
I have never been served the wrong item and then have it removed by a human hand (albeit wrapped in a napkin). Usually they just let you have it because its their mistake (I didn’t want it but that’s not the point, right?) Finally, its a small thing but my take-​out meal comes with free ice cream and since I was traveling I asked if there was a substitute and was told no. Now that place is crazy with baked goods and they couldn’t offer a cookie instead? The Sunday turkey dinner special was just okay.

Must stop for any travel near this area. If you don’t have time for a nice meal in the back Restaurant where they serve trucker-​style home made food and bakery, then be sure to stop in the front part to pick up the same bakery and a coffee.
The front gas station portion has any snack you could want, a gift shop area, small groceries, radio repairs, small car repair items and the same large bakery offered in the Restaurant part. The bathrooms are always very clean and the staff are incredibly friendly.
The Restaurant is home style cooking at it’s best. Enjoy a cup of their chicken dumpling soup, with extra big sized dumplings. Their mashed potatoes have lumps in them (not from a box). Everything is made from scratch, and you can taste it. Don’t let the well-​worn booths deter you, this is well worth a stop.
We recommend the T-​bone steak dinner, we’ve never had a bad experience.
Since this is a Truck Stop, parking is very easy with any camper/​RV/​towing trailer.

Great little diner connected to a truck stop/​gas station. Classic diner atmosphere, including a counter with stools, paper orders lined up, & vinyl chairs that reminded me of grandmas house.
Generous portions on the breakfast/​brunch meals we ordered, & for only $ 8 each. My skillet had a potato-​onion base stuck together with cheese. Veggies and eggs on top were stuck to it with more cheese. Coffee was in constant motion, so was always fresh. All the lunch specials came with their huge dinner rolls-​which are also sold packaged at the huge baked goods counter. This is not gourmet or high quality cooking. However i give it 5 stars as a cute diner with simple diner food.

Delicious breakfasts! Giant rolls are yummy, love all their soups. Their bakery items are HUGE, and yummy. Had the steak and eggs, very good. Would definitely recommend and go back there.

On approach, this seemed like a really nice place. We were not disappointed. Pleasant interior, spacious. Acoustics made it difficult for my husband to hear, as he wears hearing aids.
I had broiled Icelandic Cod which was generous and delicious. My husband had breakfast food: chicken-​fried steak, which he enjoyed.
The bakery counter is located at the entrance, and a huge cream puff caught my husband’s eye on the way in. We left with one.
Service was friendly even though it was a little spotty. They were very busy, even at 3:00 PM.

Remember when you were on family vacation as a kid? Remember you would stop at places that served REAL food? The kind if place that always had that mysterious «Trucker Seating Only» area? Waitresses had uniforms and names like «Flo» or «Betty», and most assuredly had a raspy voice brought on by years of Camels. A pie cooler was always present, as was donuts under glass. Most of these places are long gone, the only evidence of their presence being an old rusty «Eat» sign on a pole next to a highway. Sometimes next to a Mcdonalds or Subway.
Well, history has shined happily on Pine Cone Restaurant in Johnson Creek. Not only is the Cone still in business, but they are rocking it with huge portions of great tasting home made food. Prices are crazy cheap, daily specials are usually 6 $- and include an insanely large roll and choice of THREE sides. I suggest the Sage Dressing. Yummo. Daily soups are always a tasty choice as well.
Save room for dessert, the Pine Cone has an incredible bakery with a LOT of sweets, and just like the roll, they are Paul Bunyon size.
Pine Cone is far from gourmet dining, but if you’re riding 18 wheels or hauling the family to the Dells in the family roadster, there is no better road food around.

Goooooooood Lord! Just stopped in for a gas fill up and some snacks for the kids. Asked for a carrot muffin and the cashier says «they just came out» I say «that’s ok «she says «it might break» I say «that’s ok too! I’ll be sharing it anyway»
Well that has to be the BEST dang muffin I have EVER had of any kind! The mini bundt pan they’re baked in allows the middle cook perfectly and the thin layer of crispy crust over the top just made it all that much awesomely tasty. Pine Cone, you totally totally impressed this lover of all sweet things baked!!! I hope there’s more on my way back to Milwaukee.
Thank you for the clean ladies room. Let’s not forget to add that!
PS: I shared the muffin, a little.

Visited here today for the first time with my sister and her baby, as it is halfway between Milwaukee (me) and Madison (her). The Pine Cone is conveniently located directly of the interstate and next to a gas station and the Johnson Creek outlet mall.
The service was friendly, but a little slow. Our table was clean and had just been wiped down, so still wet. We got our own high chair, as our hostess disappeared after pointing us to a table.
The menu is typical American café. Breakfast is available all day. Prices were average. They have what looks like a very nice bakery. Unfortunately, I just started a low carb eating plan, so I just kept walking!
My sister ordered the tuna melt. It’s quite small for the price, but she said it tasted good. I ordered the rib eye and eggs. It comes with toast and hash browns. My sister took the hash browns in place of her fries, and I held the toast. The steak was awful. Very grissly. I didn’t take a single bite that I was able to completely swallow. It also seemed to be unseasoned, as it was tasteless. I ordered my eggs poached, and they were overdone.
Can’t say I’d recommend this place except to pick up some bakery while passing through.

This was the perfect ending to our trip to johnson creek! The service was prompt, quick, and friendly. The food was delicious, generous, and you could tell it was homemade. Food is also affordable! Will make this a common stop when visiting next.

My co-​workers were telling me about a place called Pine Cone Restaurant where they had cinnamon rolls the size of a car steering wheel! And I kid you not… this place does sell MASSIVE bakery items!
After getting the gang together for dinner, we jumped into several vehicles and headed down the road to a mega mall outlet center. Inside the outlet center was Pine Cone Restaurant.
Lots of free parking in the private parking lot, as we walked in, the place was packed with people so we had to wait about 5 to 10 minutes to get a table for 7 of us.
Upon getting seated, the friendly waitress brought the menus, and took our drink orders. Upon scanning the menu, I decided to get the Thursday special of Roast Turkey with Sage Stuffing, & Steamed Carrots. The meal also came with a Garden Salad & a Giant Dinner Roll too.
Upon ordering my dinner, of course I had to make room for some dessert, as I had to just try me a GIANT CREAM PUFF!
What can I say about the grub?
Well, the meal was not so good. I asked for a vinegar & oil dressing for my garden salad, but I think I only got oil, as I did not see any vinegar in it. The turkey was kinda dry & flavorless, but at least the gravy they poured on it made up for the short fall. I only took a few small bites of the sage stuffing to try, as I was trying to save space for dessert. The steamed carrots did not look too appetizing (color of the carrots), took a few bites of that, and left the rest too.
The highlight of my meal was the dessert! When the waitress brought the giant cream puff, I swear the cream puff was a big as my head! As great as the novelty of eating something real huge like that… let’s be real here people, no one need’s to be eating that much sugar in one sitting. If I ate all of that by myself, I would be in a coma! I cut the cream puff into six pieces, and shared it with the guys…
I’m glad I did that, as it was just too much food!
May I also say, the bakery items here look heavenly! A few of my co-​workers bought the cheesecake, giant cookies, & a few pastries too for the next morning for breakfast.
If you like sweets… you have found the place to go! I was told by one of my co-​workers, if you want to eat here at the restaurant, you should stick with the breakfast items… and skip out on the other items for lunch & dinner. Oh, well…

The Pine Cone is something you joke about with friends. The joke is how terrible the place is, and how you still somehow end up here once in a while. If you travel to Milwaukee from Madison or vice versa, you’ll end up here. Never again after last night, though. Seriously, whoa.
Everything at the Pine Cone comes from a can or a jar or a 10 gallon bucket. When they say «homemade», it was made by them from 10 different containers fresh off the Sysco truck. I watched a woman dumping frosting out of a large bucket and slather is on some cow cookies. Lovely.
3 of us ordered one of the specials, which was baked chicken. Like everything at this place, it came with tons of sides. Canned corn, terrible stuffing that tasted like cardboard and mashed potatoes and gravy. Everything was awful. The chicken was overcooked and bland. The stuffing, again, was awful. Just a plate full of terrible food. One of us ordered a steak, which was of a similar awful quality. The soups were all mediocre, as was a side salad. A massive pile of coleslaw was edible, heavy with mayo.
Calorie counters, don’t be fooled by their taco salad. The menu is hilarious, in that a deep-​fried taco shell full of meat and dairy is supposedly low in calories. Come on!
Service was odd, when the waiter said we were getting special treatment when he wiped down our table. We were quite hysterical from the awfulness, and I’m sure the staff wasn’t happy with our laughter. It took a long time for our check to arrive, and we had hoped to leave a good 10 minutes before it came. We were ready to get the hell out of this dump. Not even the complementary ice cream (served in coffee mugs!) could improved upon this disaster of a meal.
The food here will most certainly have you running to a restroom within 30 minutes of consumption. You really should feel suspicious when a 3 course meal costs $ 8. I wouldn’t even feel comfortable taking children here, as the food may be too awful on their little stomaches to handle. A few notches below what you’d get at Perkin’s. I’d fill up on gas at the Pine Cone gas station and those cow cookies are pretty delicious, but don’t eat at the restaurant. I’m still recovering from the gut rot.

This isn’t a place that you go to for five star cuisine but everything is good. I’m an avid sneaker collector so I go to the Nike outlet once a week and always eat here. The prices are phenomenal and the portions are huge. Today I had the Kansas City strip steak and it was cooked and seasoned perfectly. My wife ordered the pork loin and it was very tender. I’m not a big fan of their house bbq sauce though. They also have a baked goods section with absolutely wonderful everything. Cream puffs that rival the Wisconsin state fair’s and cookies the size off dinner plates. If you’re in the area or just passing by I recommend stopping here for some good eats.

This place could probably be carried simply by virtue of its convenient location halfway between Milwaukee and Madison. I generally have no reason to stop, but if I do happen to get hungry on one of my (frequent) trips across the southern half of the state and especially if its late at night, this is probably one of the most convenient options in the suburban wasteland between the state’s two largest cities (given that I refuse to stop in Waukesha County, ever).
Prices are low and food comes out quick. They do pretty hearty foods; omelettes, skillets, stuff like that. Everything is pretty greasy, but it’s edible enough. It’s truck stop food – if you’ve had it even once you know exactly what you’re getting.
The baked goods seem to be their specialty and they’re…well, surprisingly pretty good. The stuff they make here could hold its own to many standalone bakeries. They sell cookies and creampuffs and whatnot and they’re all huge and very tasty. I don’t have much of a sweet-​tooth, myself, but I sometimes stop by to get a cookie or something as a gift for a friend and they’re always received well.

This place may be the bargain pf the century. We stopped here on our way back to Chicagoland from the Dells, We were hungry and wanted to grab a quick bite. The Pine Cone is open 24 7 and is located in the parking lot of outlet mall heaven. Prices are unbelievably low but unfortunately the food quality show it. Their baked goods are remarkable. The dinner roll you get with your dinner is worth the price alone! Big and fluffy, I think it comes from the dinner roll fairy godmother. I had the onion steak which was mediocre at best. Also, very unfortunately the restaurant has a lot of flies. It’s kind of disgusting really.
The baked goods in the front case are huge! I don’t think that I have ever seen a cream puff as big as the ones here. The hubby bought a couple of the dinner plate size cookies and a hoagie roll sized éclair to bring home. I tasted the éclair and it was pretty darn good. I would be willing to try some of the baked goods or breakfast here but I think that I will pass on the dinner items in the future. — Except for the dinner roll!

The 12oz ribeye steak (12.50) and eggs are awesome. The desserts you walk by, leave you salivating.
The menus has lots of choices and are very reasonably priced.
The staff is friendly and helpful
They have big truck parking. :)