The Copperfield — Restaurant in Mendota Heights

Open Letter:

January 28, 2023

John Mason Hightop Hospitality 1342 Grand Ave Suite 204 St Paul, MN 55105

cc: The Copperfield 735 Maple Street Mendota Heights, MN 55118

Mr. John Mason,

My family of six adults and one child had reservations at The Copperfield this morning at 8:30A.

We were seated promptly. The restaurant was less than 50% occupied.

Water, coffee, juice was ordered immediately and served promptly. We placed meal orders as soon at the server was ready to take the order.

My granddaughter’s pancakes arrived within 15-minutes. Nobody else in the party was served. This is sometimes done to keep young children happy and because it allows the parents to get them settled in and they can enjoy their meals when they arrive.

After that, one or maybe two meals were served every 5-10 minutes. The time between the first meal arriving at the table and the final meal arriving at the table was about 30-minutes. Those who received their meals first had completed them before the last meal arrived. This is not what dining out together should be like.

The server explained that our orders were delayed because of “orders to go” and “doordash” orders were taking priority over ours in the kitchen.

Your customers, sitting in your restaurant, should be your highest priority and the opportunity for you to exhibit your best service. You failed.

I will not tolerate being a second class customer because I’m attempting to dine in your restaurant.

UPDATE: Two weeks after providing the email The Copperfield requested and one week after they should have received letters via USPS, there has been NO FOLLOW-UP.. To be honest, I'm not surprised.

On a side note, I went with a group of 18 to McCoys Copper Pint in Shakopee for lunch. No reservations. The dining room was busier than The Copperfield's. We were seated immediately. From time of order to the time the first meal arrived at the table - approximately 15-minutes. Time between the first meal and the last meal arriving - less than 10-minutes. And the types of food ordered were of greater variation. The Copper Pint also allows for online ordering, I don't understand why The Copperfield has difficulty managing their kitchen when McCoys Copper Pint seems to have it down to an art to benefit their dining...

Today, April 29, 2023, I got delivery from The Copperfield. I ordered the Mac Daddy Burger with Waffle Fries for $15, and the Fresh Berry and Cream Cake for $8.

The Mac Daddy Burger was excellent. It was juicy and flavorful, and the waffle fries were crispy and delicious.

The burger was kind of sloppy. which might have been from delivery, and I ended up using knife and fork in a more civilized approach 😊. The patty was really well done on the outside and the center was still a little pink and the whole thing quite juicy and delicious. The cheese nicely melted onto the burger and the top of the bun.

The Copperfield has their own burger sauce, and while it's the typical sort, it's very tasty.

Rounding out the toppings: 5 dill slices, red onion, two nice tomato slices and shredded green leaf lettuce (yay no iceberg!). The bun was puffy, like, and delicious, and held up everything rather well.

The waffle fries were exceptional: no floppiness here! Even after the trip in the box with the burger, they remain super crispy and delicious, and stayed warm throughout my meal.

They added two extra condiments cups: ketchup and burger sauce, which were quite welcome.

For dessert, I indulge in the fresh fresh berry and cream cake, which I gratefully set in the refrigerator upon arrival. While they don't have a take-away box that holds the slice completely, it offered the delightful prospect of licking the whipped cream of the lid 😋

This cake is a tour de force of sponge separated by layers of chocolate ganache and berry cream, made from real berries (raspberries I believe) and whipped cream. The whole is slathered with thick, lovely whipped cream, and accompanied by an handful of mixed blackberries and raspberries. Truly a delight that would win the hearts off any British bake-off fan.

Total cost delivered was $31.93, including a $6 driver tip.

I am happy to include The Copperfield in my regular rotation of take-away, and will be thrilled to attend in person when the...

The food was tasty but was also pretty hungry when I arrived. The food looked better from the reviews that I pictures that I saw on Google and as people do make look better than it actually does. Sometimes. Service is really horrible. There was everything going on from our main dishes coming out before our appetizer. The appetizer never arriving then request for small things like extra plates and butter were about as slow and just outright inexcusable.! I would highly suggest considering not coming to this place due to the fact that from what my girlfriend has said there are horrible conditions in the women's room. She couldn't wash her hands after she went to the bathroom because the sink was broken and when she told someone about it it sure was laughed at and the person just brushed it off. Most the serving staff were probably high school early high School or maybe even managers or owner's kids who knows but they were pretty young and they had no clue what was going on. They were treating it like it was their first time. General management sucked. He came over and apologized to my girlfriend about the situation and then you know didn't really try to make anything better than what it was but just no social cues or they don't care. Aunt things just continued to worsen food not coming out food saying it got to order but then it didn't it. Who knows what so. If you have a lot of time to kill this might be a good place to go, but you might have to bring a shovel so you can. You know. Probably dig a hole out back if you got to go to the bathroom. It's pretty bad place. It's been open 3 years and they're running it like it's the first day. So it goes and says a lot about what kind of management it is. Aunt, if anybody in the management or ownership department want to take this pretty seriously, a Google review is nothing but if somebody from like the health department sees this, they might like this. So I would take your restaurant business...