Torey's Restaurant & Bar — Restaurant in Owatonna

This review is for the new Torey's in downtown. My mom and I went at 6:30 pm on a Friday night. We had reservations. My mom has a knee issue so she asked for a booth, which was accommodated even though they had to clean off the table, so that was good. The decor was not very appealing. It's more upscale then most of what you're going to find in Owatonna, but there is nothing really alluring about the space. The tables, chairs and booths are clearly on the cheap side. I saw some pictures of the other location and that looked better. It just has that new, trying to be trendy, but ultimately cheap feel to it.

The first thing we noticed was that it was extremely noisy. We were seated next to the window in an alcove facing the street. This might have made an echo chamber effect. The place was packed, and the people near us were pretty loud. As the evening wore on and people left, it got better, but understand, this place has a huge bar as it's centerpiece and the space itself it pretty small. If you're looking for quiet, make sure you make that very clear and choose your seat wisely. Else, Perkins might be your speed.

I was surprised that the prices seemed reasonable. Pretty much in line with an Applebys in town. Apps for 9-13. Several entres under 20 on the dinner specials. I tried to figure out what makes this place different from Applebys. Probably the biggest thing is the drink selection, mainly the wine list. The menu seemed like pretty standard fare.

Our waitress was friendly, competent and professional. That was good. My mom wanted raspberry iced tea, which they didn't have, but she offered to put some flavoring in a regular iced tea. Fair enough.

We both started with French Onion soup. The soup was executed perfectly, both in terms of taste and presentation. So that started off very nice. The soup made me happy and forget about the noise for a bit.

I had the lamb chops. I was asked how I would like them cooked and I said however the cook thinks they should be done. They came out a little inconsistent. Some were on the verge of medium, some were closing in on rare. But I didn't ask for something specific, so I didn't worry too much about it. They were very good and I enjoyed them. The rice pilaf was good, and there was a bed of greens that was OK. My mom had the jumbo shrimp, battered. They were huge. Her baked potato was lovely. She liked the shrimp a lot. We ended with a Italian lemon cake thing. It was a bit plain, but the whipped cream and drizzle made it pretty enjoyable.

So in short. The decor is so-so, the noise was incredible and the food was pretty good and reasonably priced. The downtown location is a great asset, but it's disappointing that they didn't select a decor that more accentuates the history and feel of the vibe there. It might very well be the best option in Owatonna for a finer dining experience, but it doesn't quite set itself far enough away from an Appleby's experience as it could have, and that is a bit...

My wife and I wanted to have a nice dinner without the responsibility of cooking for ourselves and having to clean up. We decided to try Torey’s as we were there recently for a work related dinner and had a pleasant experience. For starters, we were seated at a table in the bar area (which we requested), but waited at least 5 minutes before our server was able to make it to our table. There were no issues in ordering our drinks and having them delivered in a timely manner. My wife was not very hungry so she simply ordered a salad and the French onion soup. I ordered the 14oz bone in Tomahawk pork chop, which was to be served with garlic mashed potatoes and a “crispy” stack of onion hay. We received our food and it was disappointing to say the least. My wife’s soup was a mess, it was overly salty and very carelessy ladled into the crock as the soup had spilled over the edges and was basically burnt onto the sides. Concerning the pork chop, I had ordered it to be cooked medium but it came out to be medium well to well done overall. The flavor was good but I couldn’t get over how the middle of the chop had become dry due to being overcooked. As for the “crispy” stack of onion hay, they placed it directly underneath the pork chop. It became a chewy, and oily, inedible mess. The garlic mashed potatoes, however, were quite good. But at this point I was done with the experience and had lost my appetite. When we brought our complaints to the server she spoke to the chef and came back to offer us a replacement meal. We told her that we needed a little time to decide. So at this point the chef came by. He asked if we wanted anything else. I responded that I was unsure at the time. He then said well since you’re not eating this can I take it away? I said yes, and he very hastily grabbed my plates from in front of me and took them into the kitchen. So now at this point I am ready to leave. I told the server we didn’t want to order anything else, but we were just going to settle up and go. So she brought the bill and said she was taking $5 off for the overcooked pork chop. $5 off of a $19 meal that I ate 2 bites of...? My wife complained about that and they took that meal off the bill completely. All in all, we will never be back to Torey’s. The chef told me that the stack of “crispy” onion hay was placed under the pork to soak up all the juice from the meat. So... at this point it’s no longer crispy, it’s mushy. So why write it on the menu that way? Put it on top of the chop or on the side.

PS - even after the chef was made aware that we had issues with our dining experience he seemed more interested in sitting at the bar and chatting with a friend than he did with trying to find a resolution to the issues we had...

So I’ve been here 2 times. First time was for the Knights of Columbus Christmas party. That time it was great, absolutely no complaints. Tonight however was completely different. A good friend took me out for dinner. He ordered stir fry. I had fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp. When our waitress, Laurie (who was very nice) asked us how our meals were, we simply said “okay”. We did not say good or great or delicious. We just said “okay”. Then when she came back later my friend told her how he disliked his meal. She brought a menu and offered for him to get something else. He decided he didn’t want to. Then I finally got a chance to speak up about mine. Once I did, she went and got the owner, Torey. He came and towered over us. Mind you, I not only have anxiety but social anxiety. So I was extremely intimidated and could barely speak. My friend tried to tell him how he felt about his meal and he got argumentative. I could barely explain about mine. My friend , he said the sauce was terrible and ruined the stir fry. Mine, I have never had “Alfredo “ sauce like that in my life. I know how to make Alfredo sauce and that is not Alfredo sauce. That is thin and nearly flavorless. Torey told us he’d pay for the meals and then we got up to leave . As we were leaving he started yelling at my friend. Admittedly my friend did lose his cool and yelled back. As we stepped out the door , Torey said “Don’t come back you loser!” To my friend. Don’t worry, my friend won’t be coming back and...