Tally's Silver Spoon — Restaurant in Rapid City

This used to be my absolute favorite restaurant in town, in fact I’ve easily told hundreds of people who were visiting my hometown to eat here.

While I’m back in town and tried to go in for breakfast today with my father, and things have changed for the worse.

The experience started off with the hostess stating both that the bar seats were open seating and that they were on the waitlist following it up with “it is hard to explain”. Without a clear understanding of the policy we were waiting inside for bar seats to finish closing out their checks, as it’s February and cold outside. We were waiting just inside the entryway/doors, along with another party of two, and after a couple minutes we were told we had to “wait across the street at Starbucks”. (Please note Tally’s is not associated with Starbucks, the Hotel Alex Johnson, nor Liv Hospitality.)

When we were told this both parties, along other restaurant customers, expressed confusion about by this. The other party then asked to speak to manager, in order to verify this policy and after a few minutes (in fact I had already sat at two bar seats that opened up) the manager Dee came over reiterated the policy and said we all “had to wait at Starbucks”. I proceeded to verify with Dee that Liv Hospitality, the owner of the Starbucks, was aware of and condoned this policy, and Dee proceed to explicitly state that they had permission to send customers there and that “nobody else had ever complained”. (Based on other recent negative reviews calling out this policy, Dee blatantly lied about this. I’ll also update this review after verifying with Liv Hospitality, if they are in fact aware of this policy.)

When one of the other gentlemen stated that if they were forced to wait at Starbucks they wouldn’t be back, Dee responded “that’s fine we don’t need your business!” (This was said in a spiteful and condescending tone.) She then proceed to demand that all 4 of us leave the restaurant and wait across the street, even though 6 bar seats (2-1-2) were available along with multiple other tables. Not to mention that we were already sitting at two of the seats next to friends I knew who were eating at the bar.

Based on this extremely negative experience and massive customer service failure, I can no longer recommend Tally’s to people. These policies and the attitude of the management is a great way to run off long term and very loyal customers. It will also do irreparable harm to Chef Klinkel’s reputation.

In order to help address these shortcoming. First, ensure your policies are clear and implemented with consistency with regard to bar seating (as my friends that were eating at the bar said it was open seating when they arrived 30 minutes prior.)

Second, if Dee’s statement about not needing loyal customers is the official position of Tally’s Silver Spoon and Delmonico Grill owner Chef Klinkel, I would be shocked based my prior conversations with him and his commitment to both his restaurants and reputation. If this is in fact not his position, this point of view/attitude of his staff needs to addressed; as a number of recent reviews have cited a similar position/attitude from various staff members.

Third, directing, in fact demanding, that your clientele essentially trespass and wait at a competitors business causing their seating to be occupied is improper. Especially when it is misrepresented by management that permission has been provided for this to occur.

Fourth, Dee is not equipped and should not be serving in the role of manager nor in any customer service capacity. Not to mention that she was willing to lie directly to customers about items which are easily proved false with a quick...

The food here is creative and awesome. I went twice recently after not being in the area for a while--initially for dinner and a few days later for breakfast--so I'll only cover those experiences and provide a few pictures that I managed to grab as well:

To start, breakfast isn't their strong suit and the fact that they didn't have fresh orange juice was honestly disappointing. The bar was open, but only for beer and wine [which I found to be weird first thing in the morning--would've like more brunch beverage options and feel that would make sense for the vibe they have going]. My good friend and I both had the special of shrimp and white cheddar grits with chorizo and swiss chard which was tasty but a bit lackluster; we did not detect the cheddar in texture or flavor and the grits were a bit undercooked so the mouth feel was not the best.

Now to dinner... If I had gone to breakfast first, I likely would have not been motivated to come back so I'm glad this was how I was reintroduced to Tally's. We decided on the indecision menu with two courses [that ended up being enough for us] and the chef's selections were pretty good. We started with a nice crusty, chewy bread that was served with a delicate but flavorful lavender oil for dipping and then we were given a complimentary soup or salad due to a miscommunication in the kitchen that caused a delay in our first course. I opted for soup, which ended up being Thai inspired with bok choy in a red curry and coconut milk broth that was very smooth and flavorful, and my companion chose the salad, which looked fresh and she confirmed it was also good.

Now, for the main courses, each being a small plate... We started with a delicate fish carpaccio that practically melted in our mouths and was topped with roasted artichoke, a gentle but perfectly potent dust of smoked paprika, pickled string beans, and a finishing sprinkle of togurashi (this is a Japanese spice blend that gave the dish a good kick). Next, we had ribeye that was cooked to a beautiful medium (though, honestly, the chosen cut was not ideal texture wise) and it was paired with a side of the sweetest heirloom carrot and a creamed swiss chard with caramelized onions: VERY tasty!!

Last, but DEFINITELY not least, dessert ...This was also provided to us free of charge and we had two separate options presented. Initially, we were served a whiskey-soaked chocolate cake paired with a whiskey flavored ice cream and a chocolate tuille. It was VERY spirited for our taste, but I did enjoy having the chocolate whiskey syrup in my decaf LOL! Next, we had the peach crumble which was paired with a vanilla bean ice cream that was topped with a perfect swirl of caramelized sugar. This was a bit sweet for us, but we found it to be a great balance of flavors and texture with the crisp cobbler, tart and juicy peaches, along with the silky ice cream.

Altogether, we really enjoyed our dinner and the breakfast had impressive flavors though definitely not developed to their full potential. Though the spacing was tight with barely any wiggle room between us and neighboring tables, at least it made make for good conversations. I would give Tally's a strong 8/10 and plan to come back when I visit...

Arrived and, when at last the hostess decided to help us (she was at her booth, we were right in front of her), WE greeted her (should be the opposite way) and her response was "there will be a wait of around 15 to 20 minutes". 😳 WOW! Decided to ignore the none welcoming greeting and accepted to wait. After a couple of minutes she ask us to get out to the street, to wait for a table cause we couldn't be standing inside 😳!? I asked why we couldn't if there were several tables unoccupied, so we were not breaking any maximum occupancy laws. She replied, "those tables are reserved, so you don't want to go outside?" I told her, not really (it was a very cold morning). She just turned around, went to the kitchen bar/window, waiters and cooks turn around to see us (my son and I felt like 🪳🪳) and when she came back I asked, do we still have to wait outside?, she just replied, "if you don't want to be taken off of the waiting list, then yes and by the way, the waiting time will be of at least 20 minutes". We walked outside and waited for about 10 minutes, my son wasn't comfortable with the idea of eating there anymore, I was freezing with my nose literally dripping (excuse my honesty), so we just decided to leave. It was a bad and denigrating experience, besides not feeling welcomed at all, or maybe they prefer only locals and not tourists, specially if Hispanics (attitude like that, makes anyone feel that way). I really wanted to eat there, but ended up eating at a Mexican place a block away, and the attention since we walked in, was so welcoming and even happy, that we really enjoyed our food there. Maybe I get to visit my son again at Ellsworth soon, and this time we'll make a reservation, cause I do believe in second chances. But please, TRY TO IMPROVE THE TRAINING ON THE HOSTESS, ON HOW TO MAKE FEEL "ALL" PATRONS WELCOMED and...