Mabel Murphy's — Restaurant in Fergus Falls

My wife and I ate here last night, and our experience was kinda mixed. First of all, if you go into this place knowing what you're going to get (like we did) you'll enjoy yourself a lot more. I don't know the history of the building, but it appears to be an old house that was transformed into a restaurant; at least that's what it appeared to be. Second, this place is not handicap friendly; I had to pull my wife's wheelchair up a couple of stairs to get to the bathrooms, and even then the stalls aren't wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair.

Our first server (more on this later) was great! He was very personable, and was very attentive to our table, which was even more impressive considering that he was the only person there waiting on tables (aside from the bartender). We decided to start with an order of their Brandied Plum Wings; WAY better than we were expecting! I would have to say that these wings were probably in my lifetime Top 5; simply amazing!

My wife ordered the Teriyaki Chicken; it came with choice of side (she went with Garlic Butter Mashed Potatoes), and either salad or Beer Cheese Soup (she chose the soup, for me). Unfortunately, the soup was one of the worst-tasting beer cheese soups I've ever tried; lacking in cheese taste, and the beer was unnoticeable. Sadly, the only flavor came from the Italian croutons that came with it. My wife said she loved the mashed potatoes, but that she could barely taste the teriyaki on her chicken (which looked like it was pounded quite flat).

I went with their Pub Burger; 1/2 lb. patty with lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, ham and BBQ sauce. Despite the size of the burger, it was cooked all the way through with just a slight bit of crust from cooking (loved it), and everything else on the burger tasted great. I upgraded to onion rings, and they weren't dripping in grease (always a bonus). Just after our server brought us our food, he informed us that another server would be taking over as his shift had ended. Nothing we haven't experienced before, but this is where things definitely went south.

We were both nearing the end of our drinks, and I was hopeful that our new server would be stopping by shortly to get us both some water. Three different women sped by our table, several times, over the next 15 minutes, and no one stopped. After trying to flag someone down (unsuccessfully) several times, I got up and went directly to the bar. I informed the bartender that we would like two glasses of water, and to also order dessert. Mind you, this place was not busy; there were maybe seven or eight other couples in the restaurant at the time, but these three waitresses were flying around there like the place was packed, but not one of them took the time to stop at our table!

The bartender apologized for the confusion, and she ended up being our server for the rest of the night. How sad is that! We ended up getting a Salted Caramel Brownie Sundae for dessert, and it was actually pretty good. I paid for our meal, and we left. I would have given this place 2 stars, but I feel obligated to acknowledge our first server and the bartender who helped us. The food was a mixed batch (ranging between 1 and 5 stars), and the "confusion" when different servers took over certainly...

We have been to Mable Murphys a handful of times when we travel to the area, our first time was about 2years ago...we had a great experience in the bar as dining room was "full" ... the other time we were there it was just OK but decided to give them another chance.... We just visited again over the weekend with a friend who has never been and is also a professional chef, I was excited to go and show her what we loved! I called to ask if they were taking reservations they said no but shouldn't be to bad of a wait.... we arrive just before 6 to a 35min wait...sit in the bar area 3 adults and 2 kids...order appetizers/drinks all that was OK... move to dining room after 40minutes (mind you they were NOT that busy, parking was plentiful and there were maybe 8 full tables in the dining room) We ordered kids spaghetti, kids macaroni, the special for the evening Guinness glazed steak, Alfredo and the crab stuffed shrimp...Not to terribly complicated nor meals that should take an hour and a half to finally arrive .... When the steak arrived it was WELL DONE, the mushrooms were obviously canned and thrown on the side...the alfredo sauce was very watery, again obviously canned, spaghetti wasn't spaghetti at all but Alfredo noodles (if you had a very picky kid that would NOT go down well I assure you) and the macaroni basic Kraft or generic brand...nothing was made in house I assure you... We each ordered a side of broccoli because we knew the salad bar was sub par .... each broccoli side was different, one well over cooked (sitting under the lights way to long) and one drowning in at least a half cup of butter and the other zero butter at all... For the price of our meals I fully expect higher quality food to be served with more attention to preparation and presentation than what was offered... My chef friend was appalled and went to speak with the "hostess" about our troubles in a polite professional way, where she discovers said hostess is in fact the owner of the establishment...She "comped" our meal by removing the chocolate milk and kiddy cocktails from my bill (maybe $5-$6) and $3 off the other tickets... seriously? we were there for 2.5+hours, receiving applebees quality or less food, and mediocre service to have the owner basically shrug off the issues, throw a few bucks at us in terms of "comp" and give us an in-sincere apology...It was extremely disappointing and I am sad to say with the inconsistency and obviously internal kitchen/management issues we will not be returning... the next night we went to a Brew Pub with top notch food and service for...

It was a nice place across from the Walmart where I was staying the night. I had met up with another truck driver from Winnipeg and we decided to try it out for supper. It was a reduced menu and we had to sit on the pub side as the restaurant side was closed due to Covid-19.

Wasn't in the mood or appetite for a full blown steak dinner and really wasn't feeling yet another burger so my buddy ordered the mozzarella sticks and nachos and I also ordered the nachos.

Service was good the nachos well passable were not great. Wrong chips were used as they were to thin and became soggy fast. Nachos came with salsa on the side but yet huge scoop of sour cream in the middle. I wish it was of come on the side like the salsa.

Changes made were no olives, double the jalapenos. Which were not doubled in my opinion and were not fresh but the soggy tasteless ones that come in a big jar or can. Cheese was put on sparingly and beef was not seasoned from what I could gather. So I could not even finish this soggy mess.

The salsa was said to be home made but had a horrible olive aftertaste. We had asked our server if olives or olive juice was used in the making of the salsa. She scurried off to the kitchen and came back with a no. All in all I would like to return at some point and order something else from the menu as I really liked the atmosphere and the service but the nachos definitely fell short from even being ordinary.

I wish the food had been better, hopefully I make it back here again and have a...