Protagonist Kitchen and Bar — Restaurant in Richfield

I am unsure how this establishment has a 4.5 rating currently, as its among one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had. The 1 star review is based on the fact that a) I couldnt go lower and b) the drinks were good.

Staring with the staff: Everyone was friendly and polite. Generally attentive at the bar, although the lack of check ins through the night really impacted the final tab, as had they checked in we would have easily added 3-4 more drinks to the tab.

Atmosphere: they do a good job with the space I felt, considering its in an office building with no real great external frontage

Food: Literally some of the worst I have ever had at a restaurant. I had a bunch of friends try this place when it first opened, and everyone said the same thing - great drinks, really bad food. Given the fact that was months ago, and the reviews were so positive, I decided it was probably time to see if they were over the growing pains or that was just the MO of the establishment. Unfortunately...it was bad. We started with ham and cheese fritters, which were lukewarm in the center and over salted (this will become a theme). I got the brisket lasagna, and when it was dropped in front of me I was already disappointed. They say we eat with our eyes, and in this case my eyes just vomited. A pale, greasy, runny sauce flooded the edges of the plate, and a thin flat semi-square of lasagna plopped directly in the center without much fanfare. I figured ya know, its lasagna, sauce, cheese, and now brisket! This will taste good no matter what. First bite..man thats salty. Maybe its the sauce... Nope second bite in same thing, and i am realizing there is no brisket in here so to speak. One more bite and my stomach started to turn, and I had to excuse myself to the restroom to actually expel what little i had eaten. That kind of killed the night for me, but I took home the leftovers just to satisfy my curiosity, and the only brisket i could find upon examination were what looked like the ends left over when slicing pieces for the brisket sandwiches. Tiny, dry, and honestly would have been better putting just ground beef and calling it a day.

Price: This is where you absolutely lose me. That no meat brisket lasagna was $24. Now i understand the economics of the restaurant biz. I went into it fully realizing I was buying something high in margin comparative to the food costs, but you can run into any local pizza joint and get a larger and better lasagna for 10-15 bucks. The prices just seem out of whack, with the exception of the burgers which were fair. This just drives that experience lower and lower on the scale for me as a consumer.

I do not write this type of review without a heavy heart. I would say I hope this was just me, but the actual feedback from the community versus the reviews here paint a drastically different picture. I would welcome chatting with the leadership if they have further questions around this feedback, because having a place succeed in this location and be a great local watering hole would be fantastic, but right...

My wife adores a great burger and our anniversary was coming up so I did some research, hoping to find a place we hadn't tried before. I was looking for a nice location with a comfortable atmosphere and great food and, at face value, it appeared this place would fit the bill. In fact, I heard of this place through an article mentioning the Smash Burger as one of the best burgers the twin cities had to offer. I made a reservation (assuming this place must be very busy) and believed our date night was set up for a huge win.

I will start off by saying this: This location is aesthetically lovely, warm, inviting and clean. It has plenty of parking and is nestled inside a larger building/complex which is also clean and comfortable to walk through (my one and only complaint here is that there is very little signage/direction regarding parking and entrance, but once you park and build up some walking momentum, you stumble into it rather easily).

Upon arrival, I was both excited and concerned... excited because it really is a beautiful restaurant... I mean that... its very nice and inviting... but I was concerned because it was pretty slow... and I am arriving during what should be peak dinner hours on a Saturday............but there aren't many diners and this concerned me and upon receiving our starters, a hypothesis began to develop as we began to sample the recommendations of our server. Where is the flavor? Why is there a reluctance to season anything? Why is everything so incredibly bland?

By the time we ordered our burgers, we had a pretty good idea what we were getting ourselves into.... which is this: great ingredients which are never seasoned, served bland and tasteless and if I am being honest... it almost seems like someone is going to great effort to HIDE the taste of these great ingredients.

For example... on the ingredients list of the Steakhouse Burger is blue cheese... and blue cheese is a powerful, bold, flavorful cheese that anyone who serves food knows is targeted directly at people who enjoy the flavor of blue cheese... but this burger had this strange HINT of blue cheese flavor. AND I WOULD LOVE to say it was buried in some other flavor... but nothing had any significant taste. You could taste the subtle delicious meat if you concentrated... but I cannot imagine one grain of salt or crack of pepper was used to season the meat. When there was a good sauce, they used it so sparingly you could barely taste it.

So here is the tragedy... someone has spent a lot of money. They sent a lot of money getting a nice location. They spent a lot of money building out the interior, purchasing dishes, setting up high quality vendors, buying great ingredients... but they see to lack the talent to exploit the ingredients and flavors to their fullest. It's actually one of the most tragic reviews I have ever written. Their menu is simple which probably helps control some of their food costs, but I cannot imagine this place can...

Decided to try this restaurant randomly. We got there around 8:30pm. As we enter there was two sign, one was seat yourself and the other one was a closed sign for the right section area of the restaurant. As we walked in, one of the waitresses saw us but proceeded on what she was doing. We walked left into the bar area and then walked right into the next area (which happened to be the closed area) but there was no sign where we walked pass this time. We sat on the booth closest to the bar and to the entrance and walkway that people go to the restroom and to the back kitchen. We waited 5 minutes seeing waiters and waitresses walking pass us without checking in on us. It wasnt busy. I gave up and had to go find someone to come help us. I already lost hope but figured I would give them a chance. When I went up the two staff was just standing by the register and talking. The waiter that answered me told us we were fine to sit where we were and will come help us. I explain the situation; obviously by now I was a bit annoyed (as a first impression). He brought us water and asked if we needed anything else and left. After about 1 min right away a waitress came by and asked us if we needed anything else besides water. By this time I assume the guy handed us off to her to take care of us, which I thought was weird. Obviously he probably couldn’t deal with the situation so he had to ask her to take over. Beth was our waitress for the night. She was good. Food was good. Vibe was ok. Would I come back? Probably not. Do I recommend it? Mmm only if you have never been there but honestly nothing was fancy about it all or anything, typical American restaurant. 1 star for bad service as first impression. First impression matters. I still tip but whatever. Never going back. Take this as however you want to. It’s a review lol it’s was my...