Sparkling Waters — Restaurant in Bemidji

This was only my 2nd time eating here. When you walk in, it has a bit of an old Italian vibe to it. But someone had a thing for umbrellas. They're everywhere decorating the walls and hanging from the ceiling.

Our server was awesome. Thanks, Jess!

Now, onto the food.

1st time I was here, I ordered a half-rack of ribs. After three bites, I found it to be cold. I sent them back asking for a little more fire. They were returned within 3 minutes. I could tell from the steam rising and the sauce boiling that they were just thrown in the microwave and sent back out. The problem was that they were still cold! I spoke with the manager and had it removed from our bill. Alls well that ends well.

Fast forward a couple of years. The wife and I are on a date night, and I figured wth I'll give it another try (just don't order the ribs!).

I ordered a simple chicken fettuccine alfredo while she had the walleye. The breast of chicken I received was so thin that I was waiting for some old guy to jump out and tell me, "For the cost of a cup of coffee each day, this starving chicken can be saved!" Making matters worse was that it had no seasoning, was dry, and rubbery. The pasta was cooked well, but the alfredo sauce was more like a bland cream sauce topped with parmesan.

Even my wife's walleye, while visually appealing, had little taste, and the twice baked potato looked like re-heated slop in a bowl smothered in cheese (I'm guessing another culinary marvel from chef mic.

And call me old, vintage, seasoned, I don't care. But $65 buck for what we got.

I don't think we'll be back. Fool me once...

Horrible management, but our waitress was really good. They had to cook my steak 3 times. I then wanted to speak to the manager being she was the one that gives an okay to subtract items from our bill. Our waitress then came over to tell me her manager was to busy and that we have to pay full price being the stake was eaten (after the 3rd time). I was not okay with that. I said I will not leave till the manager comes over here. The waitress came back (not the manager) and said we can get you free desert. I then said I’ll pass on the desert, but still want to talk to the manager. (At this point we just decided to pay the bill). I hear the manager say to another customer, “hold on I have to go talk to a table over here”. She came over to do nothing but tell us that she was going to go call the police because we won’t pay the bill (which we did at this point). She also said she had no proof the stake was not cooked being the waitress did not show her the stake. (Not our problem). She didn’t even think to apologize or even an explanation to help me understand the situation. I could care less about paying the bill, I just wanted to know her opinion on the situation. Just right to “I’m going to call the cops.” At this point she was already walking away from our table still yelling. The whole restaurant was now watching this unnecessary issue. It doesn’t make us look bad, makes her look bad. Btw I was not doing anything illegal therefor calling the police would have been pointless and a waist of their time. That being said management please care about your customers a...

We chose to go here at the last minute on Mother's Day, which is of course a busy day but we called ahead and they said they could seat us. They did seat us right away when we got there, took our drink order (juice and lemonade) and disappeared for 10 minutes. When the waitress reappeared with our drinks she took our order and we sat for 25 minutes, long enough to notice that not one of the dozen or so other tables around us, more than half of which were there before us, had their meals. Not one. The servers would appear to refill drinks or bring bread, but that was it. The manager did come to make the rounds and we heard another table ask where their food was and she said they just had a rush and they were backed up. She then came to our table saying the same thing, it would just be a few minutes, and took my husband's water glass, saying she would refill it. She never returned. After a few more minutes we decided to leave and had to ask another waitress to try to find our waitress (who never came back after taking our order) so we could pay our bill, which resulted in another 5 minute wait. I have never had such poor service and utter cluelessness in my life. They are trying to go for fine dining and are way off the mark, playing old music and going with neutral tones doesn't make you a fine restaurant. You'll notice I'm not badmouthing the food, because after 45 minutes I didn't even see any. Needless to say at this point our kids were starving, we went to Applebee's and they surpassed Sparkling Waters in...