My Dad got married tonight, and after the ceremony, he wanted to go to Stagecoach Inn in Manitou for some grub, so off we went, with the family in tow.

My first impression was that this place is cool. I love the stagecoach up front, and the nice building, and the decor. After one look at the menu though, I was mostly just in shock. The prices seemed astronomical, especially since most of it was pretty standard fare.

My wife and daughter got chicken fried steak, I ordered the "fungus amongus" burger (a mushroom cheeseburger), and my son got a corndog kids meal. We also got an appetizer of fried mushrooms to share.

I have to say, when it came out, I was pretty dissappointed. At the very least, for twelve bucks, I expected there to be a few more mushrooms on it. There were like six. The fries were soft, and not very hot. I would be upset if I got this at Denny's, let alone a "fine" restaurant like this.

The actual taste, while not bad, wasn't exactly great either. I ordered it medium rare, and it came out a lot closer to medium than rare. The meat was very lean as well, so it seemed dry.

Since we came with a large party, I didn't really expect the service to be stellar. It wasn't. But it wasn't horrible. You always have to be a little more patient when you bring a large party, so I would say the service was acceptable, and was about what I expected.

Another downside to being part of a large group is mandatory gratuity. I'm usually a pretty generous tipper, but if a restaurant adds it to my bill, regardless of the quality of food or service, I'll pay exactly what they put on there and not one penny more. Almost always, I would have tipped more if they had left it to my discretion. I really hate the whole mandatory tip thing, but I guess there are jerks out there that will skip out on tipping after a server has put in a lot of time and effort to take care of a large group, so I suppose it serves a purpose - but with me, it usually hurts them more than it helps.

Speaking of the mandatory tip, I was shocked.. SHOCKED.. to see how much they added - 20%!!! Mediocre food, and average service does not warrant a 20% tip, I don't care how big the party is. With the overpriced food and an appetizer, plus this outrageous tip, my total bill came to 72 bucks. 72 bucks for a burger, a couple chicken fried steaks, and a corndog! Youch!