Barre Country Diner - La Crosse

This restaurant is an excellent choice for a meal, featuring delicious food and outstanding service. However, be prepared for crowds on Sunday mornings, as it gets quite busy.

I had breakfast, which consisted of a hash brown base topped with vegetables, eggs, and sausage gravy, while my companion enjoyed lunch with a grilled ham and cheese sandwich and a bowl of potato soup. We were both absolutely delighted with our meals! My dish had a wonderful crunch without being burnt, the vegetables were perfectly sized and textured, the eggs were cooked just right, and the sausage gravy was outstanding, packed with more meat than typically found in sausage gravy. My companion's grilled ham and cheese was flawless, featuring real ham instead of processed meat and generous enough to make at least two sandwiches. The potato soup was so delicious that we nearly bought a quart to take home, but we forgot to do so when we left. Neither of us could finish everything. Our hostess was friendly, and our waitress was very knowledgeable about the menu, providing attentive service without being intrusive. I enjoyed a sunrise mimosa (sparkling wine with orange juice), but they also offered a midnight mimosa (sparkling wine with grape juice) and a barre mimosa (sparkling wine with cranberry juice). My companion had coffee, and they also serve Bloody Marys, Grasshoppers, pink squirrels, and beer. The restaurant itself was spotless and inviting, with beautiful flowers and a lovely sense of community. I can't wait to return!

Fantastic breakfast place! Make sure to arrive early, or you might end up waiting because it gets really busy!

Always great food and great service at Barre Country Diner!

Update as of 2023 04 27 The skinny: Still a good place to go, just not as good as it once was. Since my previous review there have been some changes; most for the worse unfortunately. I have to drop at least one star off if not two. Change #1 Goodbye salad bar but hello side salad, or cottage cheese, or coleslaw etc. Just one is included with a standard entree. Want to have some cottage cheese along with your salad? Well you still can, but now it's an extra separate charge. Want a little pudding or pickled beets? Too bad; these were regular on the salad bar but went away with it. Change #2 Soup and salad (bar then just salad; see #1 were originally included with standard entrees. Now only one of the two is (your choice . It is an extra charge for the other one, but fortunately it's merely a $1 up charge. This is a negative of course but not massively so. Change #3 In my opinion, there has been on average a decline in service level. From my observations this seems to be due to a shortage of wait staff. That is to say that the wait staff on the whole range from decent to very good, but due to being stretched a bit thin they cannot deliver the same level of service as before; despite working just as hard if not harder. This is not a reflection on the wait staff. This may (or may not be in the court of ownership management. You can always get all the help you need, if you offer the right amount of compensation. However, if the amount of compensation required rises to such a level that it is financially counter productive to a business, then there's not a lot to be done for it. Change #4 The hours have been cut back. Originally BCD was open Thursday through Saturday nights. First Thursday service was discontinued. Then down the road Saturday was dropped too. So now to get the evening dining experience, it has to be a Friday night. Period. That's for you, me, and everyone else who wants to grab their supper at BCD, all concentrated into that one Friday evening each week. Remember point #3 above? Well guess what: you probably should prepare for waiting longer to be checked on by your wait staff during your visit. Also often times a long wait is in store just to get seated in the 1st place. Ownership management has stated this is due to shortage of cook staff. I don't doubt for a second the validity of that and I sympathize; but just the same the end result is their awesome Prime Rib now only available the one super busy night they're open. Bummer! Change #5 Prices have gone up; way up. Does it have to be that way? I don't know. Probably. They've gone up everywhere pretty much. And my oh my has beef gone up. Steaks and Prime Rib seem about DOUBLE what they used to be. Uhhg. Due to the expense we don't order that nearly as much, and it was one of BCD's main draws because the Rib is so good. So, that's my update for BCD. We still go there and like it, but we find ourselves going to other places instead more often now that are closer, sometimes cheaper, and equally as good. Pros: good quality food generous portions prices reasonable; not particularly cheap or expensive good service clean (are you paying attention Family Restaurant? Cons: can be pretty noisy when busy, more so than most due to poor harsh acoustics a little more out of the way for most people The pros and cons stack up such that we visit fairly often and recommend it!