Tupelo Grille — Restaurant in Montana

7pm reservation for 2

6:55 arrival and seating Greeted by friendly server immediately, takes cocktail order shortly after

7:15ish cocktails arrive

7:30 we order food for the first time (biscuits, 2 salads, pimento cheese appetizer and 2 entrees)

Biscuits come out very quickly, are delicious

Second cocktail ordered (comes 30 minutes later, was “made incorrectly” by the bar)

Pimento cheese comes out after biscuits, salads arrive by 8pm or so and we finish them around 8:15pm… plates are cleared

8:20 the table of 2 that entered directly before us leaves having completed their meal

8:30 is approaching no entrees, waitress says 3 minutes

8:40 I ask to speak to manager, who as soon as I say “I’m sorry we’ve been here for almost an hour and forty five minutes…” defensively tells me “But you ordered 4 courses! They coursed it out for you! What if it’s almost done?”

Sorry, I’m happy to spend 2 hours on a meal but not 2 hours waiting on an entree. Something went wrong tonight, which is fine, mistakes happen. The lack of accountability and defensiveness is why I’m writing this review. I’m shocked. We paid for everything but our entrees (with a 30 min drive we weren’t wanting them to go, or to risk an even longer wait for them to come).

An acknowledgment and apology would’ve gone a long way here. Instead we were treated like we were being unreasonable by the manager.

Our server apologized profusely for things throughout the meal and after. Many other tables around us were also expressing annoyance with a very long wait for food. The place was busy, and I’m guessing either over-seating or someone in the kitchen calling out was to blame. Either way, the total lack of curiosity about the guest experience was also disappointing. Let my problem pass my lips before you tell me it’s my own fault for ordering food.

I’ve eaten at plenty of fine dining restaurants and “coursing out” doesn’t include a 30 minute wait to order food after being seated or a 25 minute wait between salads and entrees.

Maybe it does here. But now you’ve all been warned. Actually just so disappointed because we really wanted to enjoy ourselves and spent an hour of our day driving to and from this restaurant specifically.

I guess the takeaway is… If you go here, don’t order anything other...

I’m from Southern Ontario Canada and was in Kalispell to visit my son. He tells me we’re headed to Whitefish to his favorite restaurant. Off we go and get there and park. Deer were feeding on the grass in the nearby park. Not something you’d see where I live normally. Get to the restaurant and he’s been telling me the dishes he’s tried before and how good the food is. We enter the restaurant and I immediately see the decor.. loved the look and initial feel of the restaurant. We get seated pretty quick and our server takes our drink order and I start browsing the menu. He tells me the Elk Meatloaf is excellent and Elk isn’t exactly something you’d see here in Southern Ontario either so I ordered it and when it came I was amazed by the portion size. I doubted I could eat it all as it was a robust size portion. Gotta say.. it was delicious, very flavorful and the mashed potatoes and veggies were good as well. Ya.. I couldn’t finish it.. that was a lot of food to eat. My son orders the bread pudding for dessert and I tell our server I’m full and couldn’t eat anything else. She leaves and says we’ll see about that with a smile on her face. She brings him the desert and a spoon , then pulls out another one and gives it to me 😳. Oh heck.. gotta try it since she brought the spoon. It was excellent.. very tasty and she laughed when she caught me eating some. Overall an excellent restaurant with a welcoming friendly atmosphere and staff. Great tasting food to boot. Only negative is I live about a 35 hour drive away so returning won’t be for awhile. Was only there a week but gotta say Montana is a beautiful state. Absolutely loved it there but Thank you Tupelo Grille in Whitefish for a very good...

My husband and I had dinner here our first night in town. We were looking fo a "date night" type of spot and this looked like the place.

When first seated, in the main dining area, there were about 4 large parties and it was so loud we could barely hear anything the other was saying. We asked to move to the quieter bar area which has a different menu.

I was bummed bc I couldn't get the trout there from the main menu - but we decided to split the Buffalo meatloaf and found it to be absolutely delicious. We also split a small salad because we planned to order coffee and dessert.

Service was spotty - our waitress was friendly but didn't come around often. She didn't bring us bread with our meal despite the order of a salad, drinks and entree, and when I asked for it bc I saw two other tables with it - she said they had to bake it and - 20 minutes later I asked again and we finally got it.

It took a very long time for our entree to arrive, probably at least 40 minutes. When it did it was very good. But the pace of the meal was so slow that we decided to leave and not get coffee/dessert like originally planned.

Beautiful interior and good food - just what felt like mediocre...