Grackle — Restaurant in Maple Grove

I tried so hard to like this place. The food, especially happy hour, is great!! The service… terrible the 2 times I’ve been there.

The first time I went with a couple other people and it was just off… The other 2 arrived before me and were told there was a wait (yet multiple open tables). I’m sure servers were cut, but it was dead. Way more open tables than taken tables. They were quoted 20ish minutes. I didn’t realize they had already checked in (and were sitting in the car as they were expecting a text when their table was ready) so I went up to the host stand. I was seated right away at a high top in the bar area. I called my friends in the car and they said they were still on a waitlist. I assume the host just forgot about them? I’m not sure, either way we get seated. We were 1 of maybe 6 tables in the restaurant? We had such slow service. We weren’t greeted for 10 minutes. It seemed like not a lot was going on, so we were left confused why it took so long for someone to come over to us. Fast forward, the drinks were good! Someone in our group ordered some pasta with chicken. The pasta came out with no chicken and the server didn’t notice (either did the person who ran our food). Maybe the server/bartender forgot to ring the chicken in? Not sure. When we finally got our servers attention, she just laughed and said “I’ll grab some chicken”. No apologies, just a laugh. 15 minutes later, the chicken came out but the pasta was almost gone, it was getting cold.

The second time (I went alone), happened to be the same bartender, and was the exact same! Waiting almost 10 minutes to be greeted, at the BAR, should have been my cue to just leave, but I wanted to have some drinks and get food. When I was finally acknowledged, she got me my drink quickly. 10/15 minutes passed and I eventually got to put some food in. The food was awesome! I was left with an empty plate and empty drink for a while before anyone came back. At that point I just wanted to leave so I asked for my check.

Being a bartender myself, I can understand being busy, understaffed, shift change, ringing food in wrong, etc. but not acknowledging people in the bar/bar area, having a customer with an empty drink for over 10 minutes, and someone with their meal missing an important ingredient (THE MEAT), just isn’t acceptable. Then to see everyone just hanging out to the left of the bar, as I’m sitting there with no drink, was my final straw. I think one of the people to the left of the bar was also a manager, so it was frustrating.

Since it was the same bartender(s) both times, maybe I’ll try again down the road, but it’s hard to give your money to a restaurant that has staff who seem to not care about the customer.

This is just my experience! I’m sure there are great bartenders/servers there, but my 2 experiences have left me...

This is a new location so I'm not fuming at the bit writing this i think they just need a few more weeks to really get their groove going. And we also visited on a Friday that was extremly busy. We had an hour long wait which is no big deal however people that were waiting went to go drinks and the area they got these drinks also happened to be where the waiters picked up their tables drinks and just didn't seem very efficient because people were crowding a walkway making it difficult for the servers to go through. This is a cool looking interior but it's very loud so maybe not the best spot for something like a first date. The food was awesome and came out pretty quick given how busy it was. But we ordered drinks which took about 20 minutes to get. Then my drink was not good and very sour and so I sent it back because it seemed it was missing an entire ingredient our server got it replaced with a new one and it was delicious and the first one was actually missing the alcohol which was a frequent occourance because we overheard other people sending back things like G and Ts because it tasted more like a gin and soda water. Our waters were only filled up once the entire night. I think if we were given an entire carafe it would've been much smoother and easier. Once the food did come out we were missing about 4 different things we had ordered like fries and sauces, which were eventually brought out. The bill was as expected however the server said she comped my drink? But in reality she just gave me the first drink that wasn't made right for free and I still paid for the second. So I don't think that technically counts as a comp?

Overall it's a cool place but I think they just need to work out a few kinks and Im not sure I would visit again on a Friday given how busy it got. But the food was definitely a winner.

Note if you are gluten free there are options however the GF next to the items means gluten friendly not gluten free. Something to keep in mind if you are really sensitive to cross...

I am writing this review with two intentions:

1. In the hopes that the wait staff, in particular, will be better trained. This is a matter with serious health repercussions.

2. Commend and recognize another staff member for literally "saving the day".

I took a colleague out for lunch on their last day at work. My colleague ordered the Wild Rice Burger, and requested a gluten-free bun. When the item was brought out the person who delivered it, not the waiter, informed us that the burger itself, had bread crumbs in the patty. This was not acceptable because my colleague was seriously allergic to gluten. Unfortunately, the waiter failed to alert us to this critical detail.

Another burger, completely gluten free, was provided to us without cost as a substitute, along with a salad, to compensate us for the time waiting for the substitute burger to be made.

Because of this near-miss incident with gluten, I think the wait staff need better training to accurately inform customers which menu items are 100% gluten free, especially when the customer specifically asks for a gluten-free sandwich bun. This should be a good clue to the wait staff that the customer has a gluten allergy or sensitivity.

Lastly, I would like to acknowledge, recognize, and thank Miss Jourdan. She is the person who delivered our burgers, informed us of the gluten in the patty, and got us a gluten-free burger and salad. She literally saved the day by safeguarding my colleague's health in preventing them from getting seriously sick. Miss Jourdan salvaged a very upsetting and potentially dangerous situation and transformed it into a pleasant and enjoyable experience. If she isn't part of the management team she definitely needs to be. Her actions alone are the reason I would consider returning to...