Pheasant Restaurant & Lounge — Restaurant in Brookings Township

Starting with the good. Service: 5ish (skip to the end for the “ish” part), polite, prompt and attentive. Atmosphere-ambience: 5, live music (though elevator jazz), very clean, well-appointed tables, flatware, glasses, dishes and linens. Class rating for Brookings upper class dining. The fries my wife had were great. Now to the bad. For appetizers I initially ordered the chislic, as in the menu it was stated as being very authentic however they were out of lamb early in the night (7:30ish) so I ordered the cheese balls instead. The cheese balls were over-cooked, as the outer breading was a few shades too dark and half of them had most of the cheese either completely or half of the cheese boiled out of the cheese ball. I would not dock it really as I know that sometimes the oil is a hair too hot and contributed I believe to another issue. That issue my wife ordered the duck wing platter. It was overcooked, as well with the breading obviously darker than it should have been and was somewhat on the dry side. Again not by itself worth docking a point as it was still "OK". Now to my part of the order. The chili I ordered was bland as in no spice at all and a slight off flavor I can’t place that didn't contribute well to the bland flavor. By itself not worth docking a point as given the majority of clientele being older, I can understand the lack of spice. I also had the garlic, mashed potatoes. There was simply too much garlic. I like garlic but not that much however, that is to taste and again by itself not worth docking a point. BUT all together definitely warrants docking a point. Now we get to my main dish. I ordered the walleye. It was prepared very well damn near to perfection. I was enjoying it. Until the halfway point where I encountered two bones. Then the next bite I encountered another and another, it seems that half of the fillet had a row of bones that were left behind after preparing the fillet for freezing by the processor. Very sharp fine ones. Thus, I did not finish it. Now this is definitely not the fault of the staff. I understand that they come from Canada and perhaps this is a one off. Though when I brought it to the server’s attention she did acknowledged that yes they were bones however did not offer any solutions to the situation. It would have been acceptable to either offer some discount or free drink or well about anything other than nothing. I know that the owners take pride in the quality of their product and establishment at a whole. My recommendations are as follows. Check the temperatures of your fryers to validate that the temperatures are accurate the same for the overs as well. Verify cooking durations are followed and adjusted if needed. Maybe back off on the garlic a bit. In addition, have some kind of policy when customers encounter things like fish bones. One or two I understand is a given but I hit six or seven and just stopped after that. I might try it again after a few months and if improved I will adjust my review to reflect...

We came to Brookings in June, after reading reviews we were disappointed to see it was closed so when we came in October we were excited to eat here. We made reservations for seven. We were greeted warmly and seated immediately. We also were helped with wine selection in their back room which was really cool. So at 7:24 we still had not gotten our chosen wine or had yet to order. Finally the wine bottles we picked were delivered and upon delivery of the $35 and $20 wines that we chose I was told the wine I originally picked was out of stock. I was given an alternative and price was adjusted but was left with a white wine on the table right next to my husband’s red wine. Now I’m not a wine connoisseur but I’m pretty sure that white wine should be brought to a table with ice in a bucket. My husband had to get me a glass of ice to put in my wine glass, only way to chill the wine. Also, my husband ordered prime rib, we were told at 7:30 that it was too late in the evening to be able to have medium rare. That should have been our first red flag. At 8:30 he finally asked for the manager, which wouldn’t come out from the back and sent our poor waitress out to tell us he was busy in the kitchen and knew we wanted to speak to him. The main dinning room was 50% full and we were told the back was full. We had a reservation for 7:00, regardless of how full they were, don’t accept a reservation for 7:00 if you can’t feed the diners by 8:00. I’m sorry to say that we will never go back. They really should figure it out, they aren’t as highly rated as they show. Be careful, if you want to eat here, don’t go hungry and don’t expect to be less...

We understand covid has affected businesses, but covid is no reason for lousy service and lousy food especially from a restaurant with decades of history. Let me explain, after choosing the sausage & spatzle over the cheaper French dip sandwich, I was expecting a to be amazed for a sausage costing $22.00. Not so...what arrived was a sea of spatzle and one small sausage that was dry as sand in a Ziplock bag! We had to ask for everything and even got up to get our water refilled. When I mentioned how horrible the food tasted, all he could say was, "he was surprised". To prove my point, I actually squeezed the sausage- not a drop of juice came out! He said he'd get me another sausage. 30 minutes later, the same situation appeared. What was insulting was how little was done to rectify the problem. To add insult to injury, the server actually charged me $4.00 more for what was supposed to be a replacement sausage! We weren't even offered desert! What a serious disappointment. Add the cost of the iced tea, I walked out of there $34.00 lighter. People who think Pheasant Restaurant is good obvious haven't eaten outside of Brookings let alone outside of South Dakota. My rule of thumb is, if you can't make pasta or hamburger/sausage, there's not much reason to order anything else or return. Incidentally, the French dip looked more appealing. Perhaps a refresher course on cooking, service and personality would be beneficial, especially at these prices and before the next wave of covid...