MacKenzie River Pizza Co. — Restaurant in Great Falls

My server was Tyrel, who gives excellent customer service at this restaurant in addition to raising chickens as his own business. He was very personable and professional, providing that small-town conversational feel for someone like me who really appreciates it, yet leading with professionalism for those who prefer a slightly more detached relationship with their server. When I ate here last week, it happened to be on his birthday. Upon leaving the building, I was still in the parking lot when he headed out at the end of his shift, and he acknowledged me and chatted for a brief moment.

To me, this is highly commendable. Respecting your customer as a fellow human being rates very high on the list of attributes I am looking for when I evaluate quality in wait staff. I gave him the tip he earned (he earned a big one) plus a couple of random $5 gift cards to Starbucks (because I had them with me even though I don't frequent Starbucks, and when I asked him if there was a Starbucks nearby, he brightened up and gave me detailed directions to 4 Starbucks locations in the city).

I ordered coffee with cream and honey, an appetizer of Roasted Brussels Sprouts (bonus points to MPC for spelling it correctly on their menu), a Beet Salad, and a Pear & Bleu Flatbread. Everything was delicious. The coffee was hot and fresh, the Brussels sprouts were savory and soft with gently crisped edges, the beet salad was every bit as delicious as every time I've had it in Bozeman, and the Pear & Bleu flatbread was just a tad too blue cheesy for my preference (but I have never been a particular fan of blue cheese). I decided to broaden my horizons and take a chance on something different, and I did enjoy it.

I consumed all of the beet salad and Brussels sprouts, and 4 of the 10 pieces of flatbread. I saved the remaining 6 pieces (which can be seen in the accompanying photo) for a later meal, along with most of the dressing from my beet salad. Because I have never been a big fan of intensely-flavored sauces, I would have preferred half the amount of blue cheese sauce on the flatbread. Even though the blue cheese is delicious in combination with the other ingredients, I think next time I will order the Pear & Bleu with light sauce and ask to substitute the goat cheese crumbles that are in the beet salad instead of the blue cheese crumbles as listed on the menu.

I'd say 10/10 I'd eat here again, but according to this scale it's 5/5 and I needed...

Usually my kids and I love going to this restaurant but tonight was by far the worst interaction I’ve had. We went in to try their infamous cowboy nachos to share as a quick dinner and for my son to get a kids pizza. During the course of the hour that we waited at our table, people came and went and we never received our food. Our server, thinking she was attentive, kept letting us know every so often that our food was almost finished, just a few more minutes. I trusted her. After about 40 minutes, I finally asked if I’ could have a better update than “just a few more minutes”, My server then proceeds to return to tell me they never even put our food to cook! I am obviously shocked. I trusted her timeline and her response was that she assumed that it was cooking. She keeps asking if I would like to speak to a manager and by that point we’re so hungry that it would’ve been beyond embarrassing to have a manager at our table to fix the situation, especially in front of other restaurant goers. The server claimed because of holiday they weren’t stocked in the back and were running low on everything. I didn’t come at dinner rush for this exact reason, I knew they would be busy. I came in after 8pm, and it wasn’t to busy of a night. The fact that people around me came in after us and were fed while we were forgotten as we sat at a foodless table speaks volumes. We still enjoy the food and in a small town you are limited on options, so we will be back, but please do better. Tonight we walked out because we shouldn’t have had to wait an additional timeframe to wait for our food when we had already waited an extra extensive amount. An email from a manager would be nice, not a...

Normally I have a difficult time finding places that I can enjoy. I have a long list of food allergies and rely on information from staff and websites to be able to eat. When we first arrived I asked if they had anything that didn't have garlic and was told yes, so we decided to try it. We were seated and after about 15 minutes out waiter came to the table. The first lady we spoke to told me to tell him that I had allergies and that he would mark it as being for somebody with allergies so the kitchen staff would change their gloves. When I told him that I had an allium allergy he told me that everything there has garlic in it and most of the dishes had quite a bit. I ordered and we got our meal and there was quite a bit of garlic. Fortunately the meal didn't bother me, however the food was pricey and mediocre at best in regards to flavour. At the end of our meal our waiter didn't even bother to listen. He asked us how was in my response was okay and his response was well I'm glad you enjoyed it. It may have just been an off-day but the restaurant was not busy and the service wasn't even close to being good. Unfortunately as a previous chef and food critic I can honestly say we will never go...