Dorset General Store — Restaurant in Park Rapids

I feel a need to be honest with this one. The pasta was good, I had the pasta genovese, but truthfully, it needed a little more pasta and much more pesto. What I had was some dry ground chicken on a small bed of noodles that I kept stirring around on the plate to scoop up the tiny but of sauce. The sundried tomatoes saved it (sort of).

Ambiance was challenged. There was an elderly couple behind us, apparently on a tinder date from a nearby trailer park because both were very hard of hearing and everyone heard the entire first date conversation- including the rodent problems under the trailers and the struggles of cooking with propane and the loneliness of sleeping alone.

Not to be outdone, the 4 ferral-raised kids aged 5 to about 12 at the other table in the small room were climbing on the chairs, shouting over the deaf older couple, screaming at each other, and the parents did zero about it.

So I was here with the motorhome from the west coast to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and elderly mother - and that was the dinner evening out. We should have spoken up and asked to sit out in the rain, but who wants to be that person? When it gets out of hand though, sometimes the restaurant needs to offer it up. The others were there before us and were already at full speed. It was hard to believe they would stick the adults aged 50+ next to romper room, but it happens very often. We went from seen but not heard in my generation to now everyone is expected to want kids around after raising ours 30 years ago.

My 2 cents, get rid of the tables and orient the seating to face each other to minimize the need to shout over each other like a stuffed tavern... or charge $10 and serve burgers like a...

I like this little restaurant (the restaurant is actually called La Pasta, but is connected to the Dorset General Store). We go here once a year on an annual vacation in the Park Rapids area. And we always stop here for breakfast.

Their menu isn’t large, but it’s for breakfast. I don’t expect anything major. The staff are friendly, and the service is prompt. (They do have a lunch/dinner menu, but I’ve only been there for lunch.)

The restaurant is deceptively larger than it looks from the outside, although none of the four dining areas is exceptionally big. If you have a larger party, I’d highly recommend making a reservation. In fact, if it’s a weekend, you might want to call about a reservation for even a small party if they’ll accept one.

As for the food, it is always well prepared. The eggs are done well, and while I often get French toast for breakfast, this time I opted for an omelette. It was excellent, with lots of cheese and ham to make it especially filling.

When you’re done, you pay next door in the general store. They have some basic food items standard Minnesota gifts.

I’d recommend this restaurant among the many options that exist in the...

With having a place close by Dorset, we have tried out this restaurant a handful of times as a family. We have always been very friendly, patient, & respectful. Unfortunately all of our experiences have been pretty poor & we have left feeling very disappointed. From the moment we walked in the door we felt less than welcomed. We were never greeted with a cheerful face, no smile, and the hostess was not very inviting. It felt more like we were a burden or they were annoyed with us being there. That experience also trickled into our service each time as well which was slow, inattentive, and a major lack of friendliness on their part in our interactions with our servers. The poor quality of service combined with the lack of friendliness from the staff truly made for an unpleasant experience each time we have been to the point of us not wanting to even try it again. I like to give people the benefit of the doubt which is why we visited more than once, but after numerous negative experiences as a small family I don’t have a lot of hope in anything changing on their part. I would...