MacKenzie River Pizza Co. — Restaurant in Montana

This is a review of service during a visit on Friday, Oct 27th, 2023.

First I'll say that the food, once we received it, was good so compliments to the cooks. Now for all of the bad:

1. We showed up just before 6PM as we were having a family reunion as my wife and I were visiting, so we had a group of 14. We tried to make reservations the day before but they do not take reservations. We had decided on this location as it is closer to the majority of those attending and they have a parking lot compared to their downtown location in Bozeman, Mt. The hostess did not seem "happy" that we had such a "large" group and we were more of an inconvenience than paying customers. She even asked if we could be split up. If we wanted to be split up we would have come as two separate groups.

2. Once we were seated the service even became worse. Our waitress, who was not very busy, again, seemed like we were an inconvenience. Very slow at coming over to take our initial drink order and never asked if we were interested in appetizers.

3. Even once everyone in our group was present, it took quite some time before she came around to get our orders and not once between the time of our first drinks and taking our food orders did she ever check if anyone needed a refill.

4. And once we did finally get our food, which again, was great, she never came back around to check on us. But she was quick to bring us the bill.

5. And for the bill, they automatically charged about an 18% gratuity, which we were never informed that they would charge. No wonder the service was pathetic as they didn't feel they needed to provided even adequate service to "earn" a gratuity. This needs to stop at all restaurants as a "gratuity" needs to be earned by providing good if not great service.

6. And what is up with not turning on the heat? The Belgrade area had been in a winter storm for several days with temperatures not getting above 30 degrees Fahrenheit. The restaurant opens at 11AM for lunch, so it wasn't like they had just opened and it would take time to get the "atmosphere" to a decent temperature.

We did this same get together about 6 years ago at the Bozeman location and it was such a blast with great service that we thought we would do it again but made the great mistake of selecting this location. Who knows, maybe the Bozeman location has become just as bad, but we will be sure to never find out as we will definitely chose a different restaurant for...

Hostess asked how many when we arrived then said nothing as she walked away so we followed, she sat the menus down then walked away. No words just a glare then walked away.

Looking around I see maybe 6-7 tables with people and possibly 3-4 servers. After sitting for 10 minutes the hostess came over and quietly asked what drinks we wanted, brought them to our table and said the server would be right with us. Another 5-10 minutes passed before a server showed up - even though she was standing 10' away seeming to ignore us the whole time. She was very quiet so hard to hear.

There is no sound deadening in this building so the screaming children, the pointless music playing over the speakers and the workers sliding chairs around makes it impossible to hear the person you are here with.

Our table and seats had a lot of crumbs and was still a little dirty and apparently the server can't clean so she had the hostess do it, after we had to point it out to the server because she ignored it.

I ordered a thin Rancher minus onions and green peppers, easy on the sauce and cheese. It arrived with regular amounts of cheese and sauce. Can nobody do easy on the cheese at least? Easy means LESS not the same. It was a still good pizza.

My wife ordered the Pear and Bleu flatbread starter/appetizer. She also had the chicken quesadilla appetizer. Food was excellent except they used to thinly slice the pears, now they are cubed.

One time the server returned and got a refill for my wife's water but I never saw her again so my drink remained empty when I really wanted more.

Overall the food was good. Ambiance, cleanliness and service was terrible.

Speak to your guests so they can hear you, this is not a library. Return to the table more than twice after the main course is served. Stop ignoring people, serve them with a smile, excitement and you might get a tip you actually worked for.

There were two good parts of this dinner: the company I was with and leaving the building.

This was the third time we visited this establishment since they moved from Main St. and the third, and last, time we were...

We visited on a Saturday afternoon. There were a decent number of customers but not too crowded or too busy. We were seated right away and the service started great. Ordered our food, the apps came out timely. I asked for silverware and was told "hold on". About 5 minutes later the server returned to tell us it will be a few more minutes because they ran out of silverware and were waiting for it to be cleaned. So i waited about another 5-10 minutes when another server brought my entree. I told her id take plastic wear if they have that and she replied "oh the silverware is clean and ready let me grab you some". (Then why didnt they bring that to me sooner so I could eat the apps?) After she brought clean silverware I started to notice other tables of people who had their food but couldnt eat because they didn't have forks. Meanwhile, several other employees were walking around and clearing tables, but no one acknowledged the people still waiting for utensils to eat their food. After I almost finished my meal my server came out with forks, not realizing I already had one and finished most of my meal. I was blown away at how inattentive the staff was. How do you run out of silverware? How do you not have a back up plan? Knowing people cant eat pasta and salads without forks, why are you serving them? When the silverware is clean why arent there multiple servers bringing utensils out to customers immediately? Especially the ones with food sitting in front of them getting cold? Doesn't seem like management cares too much on training and taking care of the customer. The food was just mediocre. The...