Back When Cafe

Our favorite date night restaurant in town! Love dressing up and enjoying the wonderful experience of Back When. We’ve introduced many friends to the restaurant, and even been to weddings Back When catered. Their food is always plated beautifully, and complimented by a great wine list (& amazing dessert — save room!) :)

It is great to have a place like this in the Wausau area. The ambiance is very warm and inviting. The waitstaff was very attentive even though it was a busy Friday night. My wife and I made a four course meal out of our trip to Back When. We started with the crab cakes with honey mustard and chipotle. They were fantastic! We would order again every time. We moved on to soup — lobster bisque and roasted red pepper. Both were great. For the main course we had baked cod (Friday special) and lobster stuffed ravioli. We both agreed that we would order the same thing again every time, but the menu had so many other things we wanted to try we can’t wait to go back! For desert we had tiramisu and apple-​cranberry crisp. Neither one of us would order anything else off the desert menu next time — they were totally perfect! All in all, we had a wonderful night all around!

The food is a wonderful marriage of Southern France and Northern Italy. Food was great. Wait staff was good. Lovely atmosphere. After dinner we booked a large party in one of their lovely private dining rooms.

What a gem of a place in this small mid west town. Picked it for a dinner with my family based on reviews I read and it did not disappoint. I highly recommend starting with drinks in the bar where the bar tender was very entertaining along with having a surprising exceptional wine list and it looks like they pour different wines by the glass each night.
I lovers the atmosphere in the main dining room and my lamb was exceptionally prepared. All in all it was a terrific dinner and I can’t wait to get back.

This is my second visit. The food was very good. The wait staff was inadequate for the number of guests. This resulted in slow service which was not the fault of our excellent waiter.
Upon arrival there was confusion which resulted in waiting as the attending staff sorted things out. This was a poor beginning.
I like this restaurant but would like better customer service. I will try one more time with hope.

We tried this place again, bringing our four year old for an early dinner. They didn’t have any children’s options, and they offered to make him pasta with a red sauce. We accepted but never got the pasta with dinner. When we reminded staff, we ended up canceling our order for his dish, as we had all eaten. Not for kids. They don’t want them here, even well behaved ones and even for early evening dining.

First time visit & I take food/​dining very seriously. I was classically trained for cooking, but did not choose that as a career. I believe this to be the finest dining experience in Wausau while still casual. Innovative menu with essentially four choices: filet (4 or 8 oz) with a wonderful selection of toppings; the best sesame crusted Ahi tuna I can recall; veal served three ways; chicken, plus a number of small plates as appetizers. This is as good as it gets for Wisconsin dining where many romantically refer to the Friday night tradition of boiling perfectly good fish in oil as «Fish Fry».

By far my favorite restaurant in town! They have great service and excellent food! If you love carrot cake, theres is a must to try! The staff is well educated and make great suggestions. Highly recommend it to anyone!

This place is fantastic. The food is delicious and locally sourced, the wine list is a little pricey but worth it, and the atmosphere is great for a dinner date or a night out with friends. I literally love it here.

I came here because it was highly recommended by locals. I’m also a proponent of the farm to table concept. I was dining alone, so I ate in the bar area. They offer a wide variety of wines. However, if you want a local wine you have to buy the whole bottle.
Caleb, the bar tender, was very knowledgable about libations and the menu. I ordered the french onion soup and pork chop dinner (see the photo). The service was quick. The soup was mediocre. But the pork chop was over cooked. Which was a shame because I had really high hopes for this place. Don’t get me wrong, it was tasty, but chewy, especially towards the middle.
I’m hoping this was an anomaly and will be back again to give it another shot next time I’m in the area.

I so want to like this place. Conceptually everything is spot on. A great location downtown set in a historic building. A farm to table concept with a seasonal menu. And a great bar area with an extensive wine list. So after an incredibly disappointing visit last year we thought we would give it a second chance. Here’s what happened…
We arrived at 7 to a half full bar on a Tuesday. Jeff the bartender was attentive and recommended a good wine. Good start and good recommendation. Thanks Jeff. It was nice if maybe a bit businesslike.
After being seated in dining room our waitress did the usual making sure we had drinks and menus. She was sweet but it seemed like she was uncomfortable (nervous) and didn’t make small talk unless prompted. After our third interaction I finally introduced myself in order to get her name. This is our second time here and both times the interaction with the wait staff seemed perfunctory and forced. Sigh…
Ok. The food. The carprese salad was alright but lacked seasoning and needed additional basil and mozzarella. I had the pan roasted chicken with mushrooms and asparagus and a pan reduction. There was no seasoning, again. Like no salt. None. The chicken itself was cooked perfectly. The pan sauce was thin, watery thin. The French onion soup was not finished under the broiler and tasted like nothing more than beef bullion cubes (it was the only thing I had that was salted). My wife had the filet and Alfredo. Once again, the meat cooked expertly and NOT seasoned. The Alfredo… Yup, not seasoned and lacking Parmesan too.
Ultimately, it wasn’t terrible. It just wasn’t good. It’s like all the pieces of the puzzle are there but nobody has stepped in to finish putting it together. And for the price it should just be better. And there are better places to go just blocks away.

Great food and circus! From the start it. Was an excellent experience. Food was Italian/​west coast fresh farm to table

This is my favorite restaurant in Wausau. The restaurant is charming, and cozy and the employees are friendly, professional and attentive. Our waitress, Ashley, was polite, courteous, and knew every detail of the menu and had great wine recommendations. The food was excellent and I can’t wait to go back!

This is a fun, cozy little restaurant in the downtown area of Wausau! The food is pretty solid, and If you’re looking for a local restaurant that uses only local ingredients, which my S. O and I thoroughly enjoy, this is a nice find The décor and general splendor of the restaurant is quaint. But, as other reviewers have stated, the reason fort he low rating is because the service is sub-​par, at the very best.
Our reservation on a Saturday night was set for 9 PM… we came in promptly and felt very rushed around. Our table wasn’t ready immediately, which wasn’t a problem, but our waitress seemed very frustrated that she needed to take a table at 9 PM on a Saturday.
We ended up order an appetizer and two entrees, which were pretty good. The brie and jam crostinis were absolutely sinful and hit the spot before our meals. My boyfriend had the gnocchi, which were mediocre, and I had the Ahi tuna, which was pretty good.
As others have stated previously, for the amount of money you spend on a dinner here, you would think the service would be a little bit more high quality. I was impressed with the selection of meals and alcoholic offerings, but would have liked better service.

What a shame, untrained servers and rude. 4 of us went there for my moms 70^th birthday and We booked the reservation threw ope table. When my wife asked what the hot topics were on the menu the servers answer was «I don’t know I didn’t read the paper» (an attempt at humor) and then «I don’t know I can’t afford to eat here». Awkward at best! We order a very nice Pinot noir, and some apps. They were great. When our entrées came all was well at first but our server never came to check on us for the whole meal then when my brother bit into his second meatball it was not seasoned and nasty tasting. The first meatball was great, we all tried it but the second didn’t taste good at all. Probably just didn’t get mixed in well, so it tasted of plain baked meat. Not a huge deal, but when we told the waiter, he took it personally and was overly rude! He said «I didn’t make it» «so, do you want me to bring the chef over and you can tell him?». We were all floored, how upset he was!
I am a professional in the service industry, 14 yrs experance and currently work for one of the best restaurants in Wisconsin. If one of my employees talked to a guest like that and attacked a guest like that, they would be fired. I didn’t go into back when expecting amazing service, however, if the staff is not trained to Handel complaints properly, 1. They loose money, 2. They loose repeat customers, 3. The server lost out on an easy $ 20 – 30 in his tip, & 4. We were going to get another round of drinks and Deseret, that they missed out on.
We went to city grill for drinks and desert and they were fun and friendly!
They may have taken the item off our bill, but that was not what we wanted, besides not giving us attitude, we would have settled for a drink or desert as an offering, and they wouldn’t have lost $ 19 but only $ 6-​$ 10 in sales. As for the unprofessional server, I blame the management, they clearly have not been trained and without understanding the food that comes out of the kitchen, how can they do there job properly.
I was going to write this in privet and/​or call them but they don’t have an answering machine and there website isn’t functioning. VERY, unprofessional, again!
I know there’s not a lot of choices in fine dining in Wausau, however, when I do come back, Back When will not be on my list of places to go to. They made a very uncomfortable 70^th birthday for my mother when the server decided to argue with her.
P. S.- when you have open table, use it! If it says in the notes it’s moms 70^th, the host should great her with a smile and a very happy birthday, also your manager should have stopped by the table to check on us and wished her a happy birthday. Just sayin, that’s how us pros would do it!

Went here for a holiday dinner with my wife’s family. Thankfully we had a reservation because it was very busy. Cheese curds and bruschetta were the apps we chose and both were great, especially the bruschetta. I had the 8oz filet, medium rare, with a horseradish crust. The steak was delicious and cooked perfectly. The only disappointing part of the evening was that they ran out of the lobster bisque. Next time I guess.

I seem to eat here a couple times every time I come back to Wausau. Although I would normally give it 5 stars, it seems that the restaurant has stepped it up even higher than in previous years. Their farm to table menu is amazing without being overpriced, and the staff treats all of the guests like they are are a VIP. The food here rivals some of the best places I have dined at in San Francisco and New York, and the atmosphere makes me feel like I am at home.

Like a previous reviewer said, it’s four star food and one star service, considering the caliber of restaurant.
I expect no eye contact, conversation, etc, at Applebee’s, but a restaurant at this level should offer more pleasant interaction with the staff. I have no idea if there were specials, what the server himself liked… not even «welcome.» At one point, he randomly left butter on the table without so much as a comment about the bread that was coming. And when he brought the bread, it was clearly an artisan loaf but he didn’t even say «enjoy» or «this is _​_​_​_​_​_​.»
But the food is outstanding. Creative menu. Good portions and pricing for the quality. Lovely décor and lay out in a cool part of town. Hopefully they can bring the waitstaff up to the same level as everything else in the place because I would love to go back.
Oh, and no iced tea. It’s August in the Midwest. How was there no iced tea available?

Good food, nice staff, cool décor– a bit pricey but still a lot less than what you would pay for the same meal in Chicago or Milwaukee.
The dessert menu in particular was impressive!
Shout out to Jeremy, our very nice and professional waiter.

The place has a bit of history to it and I like how they’ve designed the rooms. The staff are very nice and very busy since the place is packed at most times. I would recommend making reservations ahead of time, this place is not one of those stop and immediately be seated establishments.
This place is a bit classy with dishes ranging from $ 5.00 appitizers to $ 28 entrees. The beer selection is always good and the managers make their rounds asking if everything tested good. I would suggest chillian seabass in parchment, it’s an A++ dish.