Blue Oyster — Restaurant in Bemidji

The food was excellent. Stellar. Loved it. The drinks were amazing. The service was poor to average. The waitress was more enthralled talking to staff then waiting on her tables. That was disappointing. We had reservations. It was disorganized. We were moved 3 times. There was no hostess to greet us. I think they have to work out kinks. That is to be expected with a new restaurant. We had no idea where to enter. There was no sign and had to ask a few people how to get in. We will return but I hope service will be better. It is more high end and disappointing to not have good service. We noticed other wait staff doing their jobs so we do not want to penalize maybe one staff that was not proficient. I love the open concept, the bar and the top level. Asthetically that was exceptional.

2nd visit: UPDATE 3/14/25 UPDATE I am happy to see a painted logo added to the door to know you are at the right place. We had reservations and a nice table with a beautiful view. There was no hostess to greet us still. No manager or owner present. But at least we were not moved table to table this time. I ordered the Cobb Salad it was absolutely excellent. I will order that again. It was my best friends birthday he got Chicken Khaosoi and it was a delicious curry spicy sauce. Our server was Hannah. She was exceptional, far better service then our first visit where the waitress was too busy talking to staff and not attending tables. The drinks were not as good as our first visit, I know there is always a rotation of staff. That was disappointing. The ambiance is beautiful and the best in town. I will definitely ask for Hannah next time. I still want to know where is the hostess, the manager, no one to greet you. I waitressed all through undergrad and grad school so I know I am picky. Will I go again? Yes, yes, yes...I think all of this is just the initial stages of growth.

3rd visit. Hannah was our waitress again. Excellent service. Food was excellent. Still no hostess, some scrambling. I made a reservation. Table was not reserved. Luckily, still sat in a good place. I have never seen a manager there in 3 visits so not sure who's running the ship. Food and service is the reason we...

Great concept poorly executed with a chef that has a sugar fetish. Visited twice over the last week - it is one of the few restaurants in towns that is open past 8pm. Ordered the walleye dinner, blackened first night, and service was very, very good. Walleye was average, and it was served with candied carrots. In my opinion an extremely sweet side vegetable is a very poor pairing for a spicey main course. Second trip the service was borderline comical, though I won't go into all the details in the interest of brevity. Of more concern was the level of sugar in dishes that should not have noticeable sweetness. The signature "blue oyster" mushroom appetizer was so sweet that three hungry men could not eat more than a few bites each. My walleye pasta was likewise so sugar-laden that it was not enjoyable. I get it that this joint is going for the American-Thai fusion, and that coconut milk gives many Thai dishes a sweet undertone, but this place is...

A group of friends and I decided to try out Blue Oyster the other day to try something new. We loved the view of downtown we got from our table and the overall atmosphere of the restaurant. The only overall critique we have is that if service was faster we’d potentially come back more often, we’d order our drinks and it would take 10-15 minutes for our drinks and a couple times we even had to remind him about our drinks because we could see them just sitting on the bar. Some of our food was hot and some of the food was room temp at best, a little more fine tuning and timing in the kitchen and this place could be a hit. Cocktail menu could use some love, need a couple sweet fruity options and not just sour or bitters in everything. I’ll come back one day but I’ll give them a month or so to see if they get their...