Handsome Hog — Restaurant in Saint Paul

Overall - this was quite a disappointing experience. Our family celebrates everyone's birthday with one dinner out, so this was kind of a special and fun evening for us. Based on this experience, I will neither come back nor recommend others come here for dinner.

We had a group of 7. We called ahead to make a reservation. One nice thing was the restaurant called ahead the day of the reservation to verify we were still coming in. When we got to the restaurant, we were promptly seated at a table accommodating our group size. That was nice! Initial service was good. The waitress (I forget her name - sorry) was attentive and engaging. She took our orders for starters and main courses at the same time, which I thought was nice.

Starters - we ordered the bone marrow and poutine. The bone marrow plate was OK - no one thought much of it, to be honest. A little underwhelming. The poutine was good, but nothing to rave about.

Problems started with service and the food for the main courses. After a rather long wait, 3 of us were served our main courses. After about 10 minutes, 2 others were served their food. The last 2 people had to wait another 8-10 minutes to get their food. The group who initially got their food tried waiting to eat so we could all eat together, but ended up starting before everyone got their food. The result was a disjointed and fragmented eating experience for a group celebrating together. Very disappointing - especially since the restaurant was not particularly busy at the time.

The quality of the food for the main courses needs to be addressed. I ordered the brisket. For $30, I got two (admittedly large) pieces of extremely fatty brisket, a piece of white bread, and a shriveled half-ear of corn. Portion sizes were all over the place - even had my brisket been edible it would have felt underwhelming, while others who ordered different options had way too much food to finish.

Service was also pretty poor as we shifted to the main courses. Our waitress disappeared for a long stretch, which I can understand. However, the other waitstaff were rushed and underprepared to answer questions. Food came out without explanation for what it was, and simple questions of what elements were on the plates were responded to by the waitstaff not knowing what was on each dish. (!!!)

I had high hopes for this dinner. I'm guessing that we, like many others, were drawn to choose this place because of watching Top Chef. I was really disappointed and underwhelmed by the food and the service. I vehemently dislike giving poor reviews since I know the people working yesterday were trying their hardest. No one sets out to do a poor job. I appreciate maybe last night was just a bad night, and that happens. Even so, restaurants need to be consistent. Based on our experience, I would not recommend people dining here. There are far better...

I have been meaning to try the Handsome Hog for a while and finally got my chance last saturday night for their late night happy hour menu which starts at 10 pm. The food did not disappoint, the service however was very lacking.

Food: We ordered several apps to share amongst the four of us - Sausage Gravy Poutine, Bourbon & Smoke Dry Rub Wings, Chicken Fried Ribs, Hush Puppies, and the Brisket and Pork Belly Sliders. I wasn't able to handle most of the heat on these dishes (I have no spice tolerance) but I sure tried because it was all pretty good. The Brisket and Pork Belly sliders were amazing - we liked them so much we ordered a second round. In terms of portion sizes I would say that ordering 6 apps for four people was just enough. There are only two sliders for example.

Service: Ok, so this is where Handsome Hog lost some serious points. I try to be as understanding as possible when it comes to this but when you walk into a nearly empty restaurant you expect at least a little attention. What follows is a bit of whining so here is the short version: we got there at 10pm and finally got to pay around 12:30 am. The bartender/manager gave us a 10% discount on our meal without us saying one word about it all, so it was clear they recognized there was an issue. The discount given to us at the end of the night makes me think that this is not their typical service so I will be going back expecting that this was a fluke. Until then though I'm keeping it at 3 stars.

The details: We walked in and were told to sit wherever we liked by a server, we picked one of the booths he had pointed at and got comfortable. About 10 minutes later (he had warned us it would take him a few minutes to get back to us) he came back and asked us to move to a different booth. Not a big deal but strange considering he had told us to sit in any of them. He moved us to the booth closest to the bar but still in the dining area and then disappeared for 20 minutes. Someone else came to serve us water and then another person, who appeared to be the bartender or manager came by and took our drink and food orders. He was great, but his attention was clearly on the increasing amount of bar customers. We finally got our food but several attempts at flagging down our original server for drinks or additional food failed. We did get service from a guy that came by to refill our water and the previously mentioned bartender/manager. I mention this because they were very attentive and great even though we were clearly not in the area (they were handling the bar). At one point I was successful in flagging our original server down and asked him for a drink and an additional order of food, about 15 minutes later I still hadn't received the drink or the food and we saw our server leaving...

Update 11/14: I immediately responded to the owners in email with this posted...radio silence. I have yet to hear a response. However, Red Cow which is next to Handsome Hog has now put up a sign warning patrons of the "parking lot" management.

Oct 19 2023, my friend and I went to the Handsome Hog for dinner. We parked in the lot where we noticed the arm for the parking lot was up. This is not a usual occurrence as I frequent this establishment often and had been there within the last 30 days or so. This was my friend’s first and she asked did we need to pay to park, I said, “no” when the arm is up it is not required. We saw the pay box, but it had no instructions on it, so we went inside.

We parked at Handsome Hog from approx. 545p and left at about 9pm. During our stay no one within the restaurant made us aware of the new parking lot rules or that it was under new management. To our shock and great disappointment our cars were gone. This is when we discovered the tow sign on the old parking arm and on a faded sheet of paper with the $5 parking taped. The distance between the signs is far enough to miss it, which appears to be intentional. There are no instructions: like put your car info, place money envelope in black box, etc. and there are no instructions on the pay box itself.

Furthermore, when we went to pick up our cars, we paid $345 (tow was 340+5 for the parking) there were 3 people ahead of us and apparently Red Rabbit has hired this towing company as well Rapid Recovery. They only take cash and are conveniently open 24/7. This was a 90-minute hassle and almost $1000 night for $10 parking!

When I went into the Handsome Hog to speak with the manager and explain the situation. I parked on the street (which there is a ton of construction on Selby Ave in St. Paul) and good ole Rapid Recovery was already towing yet another car. The manager took our information and claimed she would come out to see what was going on but never did. I have not received a call from anyone regarding this situation. When I left 15 minutes later, good ole Rapid Recovery had 2 more tow trucks out there circling the block, one guy in the lot calling out cars, and more cars being towed..they never even looked in the pay box! They were just rounded up cars! Outrageous! In these economic times people can't afford to be targeted in this way and especially in black community. Absolutely...