Mississippi Pub — Restaurant in Inver Grove Heights

I initially chose this place hoping to find a dog friendly patio to go to. For some reason, this place pulls up on Google as being that, but knowing that doesn't necessarily make it so, I called to check. I found out they are not, but we chose to go here anyway as my companions had never been here before. When we arrived, the patio was full with the exception of 2 tables, 1 being a 4 top and 1 being a 2 top. I stood beside the 4 top as there were 5 of us and looked for a server to ask if it was seat yourself as there was no sign indicating either way. Another couple had come up right behind me and went to the 2 top. As they got there, a server went running by. They quickly asked if there was another chair as it was a high top and only had 1 chair. She told them no, another table had taken it so they would have to sit at the other table, indicating the table I had already been standing at. She had not even looked at it before telling them to do this, and they rudely pushed by me and sat at it! Not wanting to start anything, I made a comment about their rudeness and left it at that.

As it appeared it would be awhile before another table would open up my companions said they would be fine sitting inside. Once inside, we took a seat at the only open table, which clearly needed to be wiped down. The server took our drink order but never addressed the dirty table. A customer at another table had the same issue and ended up wiping her own table. As she passed by, we asked to borrow her cloth.

As we dined, we were unfortunately near a table of screaming children, so we completely lost the ambiance we had been hoping for of a relaxing patio on the water with live music. I also don't understand why they have large windows that appear to open directly up to the patio, but don't use them when the weather was ideal for that very thing.

The server was friendly but slow to offer refills and check back. When we received our bill, we had been charged for extra items we had not requested or asked if we wanted, such as seasoned sour cream.

Overall, it was a very...

Our server was rude and incompetent. We visited on a Sunday when they were nearing the end of a buffet. Since there were only about 20 minutes left of the buffet time, we said we were ok with waiting to order off of the menu when the buffet was over. The server said she would come back to take our order right at 2 o'clock. Well, at 2:15 she still hadn't stopped by our table. We could see another server quickly taking and putting in orders, but ours was busy chatting with people behind the bar. At 2:25, she said she'd be right with us, and took the order from a large table next to us. At 2:35, she finally stopped at our table to take our order, saying, "I bet you guys are starving, huh." This is also the first time we were able to ask for drink refills (55 minutes after we'd arrived!!). Immediately after, we overheard another server telling a table that since so many orders had just come in, it would be 30-45 minutes before food would be available. We then heard someone (A manager? Kitchen staff?) reprimanding servers for not checking the list of items that they had run out of before taking orders. At 2:45, our server informed us that our food could not be made because they didn't have any cheese. We told her that, in that case, we were just going to leave. She said, "ok," and walked away. We waited for some time for her to return, then just left some cash on the table for our 2 soft drinks and left. As we were leaving, she yelled at us (through a screen window and over other customers), "Aren't you going to pay for your drinks?!?" We told her that there was cash on the table, and she rudely yelled louder, "I'M SORRY YOU GOT MAD!" as if this was all our fault. (By the way, we weren't actually mad until she yelled that. We were simply tired of waiting for more than an hour without getting a food order in, and we were very polite to her, even when saying we were going to leave.) I absolutely will...

Update August 14 - Was there for tasty tacos last night on Taco Tuesday with food and drink specials. Kind of a perfect climate sitting out there on their deck watching the Mississippi River, boats, swans, and barges roll by. The shrimp and the fish tacos were excellent; the fish being a favorite, but the Chipotle beef and the Tostadas were very good as well. Quite generous for “tacos” and I don’t know that I would typically order all four varieties, my date and I had ridden bikes up there. Really great attentive and fun service in a very busy hopping atmosphere last night. This has been a consistently great experience-kind of an unsung treasure in a beautiful Marina setting.

I called the Mississippi Pub to find out if they would be playing a somewhat specialized sports event that we were wanting to see this afternoon. "Elias" assured me they could, and was quick when we got there to make the changes necessary to make sure we were front and center for an event that was important to us. He remained incredibly engaging, friendly and attentive throughout our time there today. He suggested great beers(there are some great ones currently on tap). We had Kraken shrimp and the Steak Frites, both we're very fresh, prepared well, and tasted delicious. All was served in a relaxed atmosphere with great views of the Mississippi river from almost anywhere in the restaurant. We will definitely...