Donivan's — Restaurant in Montana

Very disappointed to write this review as we ate here a year ago and couldn't wait to have dinner here again. Even had a local tell us "Oof don't eat at Donivan's, it's terrible." but said "Oh no! We love eating there, it's great!" We came here with a party of 9, 4 adults and 5 children ranging from 4 to 16. We got there about 4:45 to beat the dinner rush, ordered some drinks, one appetizer and about 30 minutes later ordered our food. Our appetizer and salads came out just fine so I know it wasn't an issue of the server not putting our order in, but then we didn't get our food until 6:30 (mind you, when I say that I mean the first plate, it all came out staggered in a 10 minute period). On top of it taking so long, multiple things were wrong with our food but at that point we just wanted to be done. The server said that the cooks were backed up but in that amount of time we saw at least 5 tables around us (who came in after we did) order, receive their food, and cash out before our food came out. The server offered us free dessert but at that point we had been there for 2 hours, had other plans for the night and didn't want to wait around for who knows how long for that. We asked if they could just comp our drinks, she asked the manager who said they can't comp alcohol. Ok fine, asked if we could have some of our food comped or a discount. Server asks manager again who asks the owner, who was walking around in the restaurant, and comes back with a "I'm being told the owner says no". The manager had reached out to the "other owner" and was waiting for a response but at that point we just wanted to get out of there. We told her to bring our bill and we will not be back even though we had planned on coming for breakfast the next morning. A couple of questions I would like answered after paying altogether $300 for garbage customer service: Why do you hire a shift manager but give them zero authority to resolve discrepancies with customers? Why at no point did the owner, who was there, come to our table to try and remedy the problem rather than forcing your young waitresses to engage in a situation they have no authority to resolve? Why do you not value your customers? Is your bottom line more important than getting repeat business and referrals?

After raving this last year about how much we love this restaurant to anyone coming to visit Anaconda and recommending you we are thoroughly disgusted and disappointed and guarantee we will not be back and won't recommend...

We went as a group of 12+ people and had called ahead to make sure it was okay to be able to do it. As a huge group, we would expect things to take longer, staff to be slightly more attentive since there were a lot of us, and the food to be great. None of these things happened while we were there.

We waited over 1 hr. 30 minutes for all of our orders. We were served COLD tacos, since most of us ordered the same thing because apparently that is their 'specialty'. Having been served COLD fish tacos is a huge faux pas. I don't care who you are or what kind of food you eat on the day to day, but having to wait 1 hr.+ to only be served cold food is just not okay. As a food establishment, you need to have higher standards for when you are serving the public and their various needs. Our needs were not met and the service was sub-par.

The waitress we had did try her very best to be able to be accommodating, but that only went so far. She barely checked on us, never really filled the waters, and fumbled delivering our orders. I can understand the possibility for mix-ups...but the fact we were the only ones there was a glaring red flag on both her and the establishment. They had one cook on hand and had to recruit the bartender to help out to even STILL fumble the orders and serve them COLD, yet another red flag. You knew we were coming in and you still didn't have enough manpower to be capable to serve us. That's just bad practice. The only good thing about my personal experience was that my beer was at least cold.

Generally, I am not a negative person. I am not a needy person when it comes to being served in restaurants/bars/etc. However, what I witnessed here while we had dinner was both atrocious and extremely disappointing. History or not, Donivan's is, without a doubt in my mind, NOT the place to go. You cannot convince me the food was great because we ALL got served cold food after such a long wait. It certainly was an unbelievable experience for all and not in the good way.

I would avoid this place. Go elsewhere in Anaconda where they actually care about...

I am in town for work and got off my job site late and was hungry and excited to try this place. They close at 8pm and I walked in at 7:35 hoping to get seated - I understand that is close, but I was prepared to order right away and not linger. I stood at the host stand for a long time, poked my head around, and finally when the server came up she was genuinely surprised to see me... I said hi and she said "oh" and didn't look me in the eyes. She reeked of weed - nothing against weed, but I find this unprofessional. I asked if I was too late for food and that it was just me, and she said that she was about to close the kitchen but that she'd sneak me in. Throughout my experience, she was moving around rather quickly (normal for a server), not making eye contact, and just overall curt, I could tell that she has had a long day and was just ready to close. However, I've worked in the service industry, and I know to never let your guests know this, even when it's close to closing and you just want to go home. The very worst part about this experience was that about 5 mins after I got seated and was looking at a menu, a cook walked out of the kitchen into the seating area RIGHT in my direct line of sight, took one look at me, rolled his eyes and frowned and walked back to the kitchen. I was in the process of smiling at him and saying hi while this happened. I ordered the fettuccine Alfredo ($24!) and a glass of red wine. I'm pretty sure the wine was bad (like when you open a bottle and don't finish it and leave it on the counter for too long) and the fettuccine was mediocre at best, and barely served warm. I boxed it because it was a huge portion. I did NOT feel welcome here and felt like a problem for coming in near to closing, but in the restaurant biz this is not how guests should feel. I've heard mixed reviews but wanted to try for myself, I won't be coming back. Amazing ambiance in a cool historic building, but...