Herbie's On The Park — Restaurant in Saint Paul

We had a very disappointing and expensive dinner here before a show at the Ordway (Six!). Really nice location with that classic St Paul charm - beautiful woodwork and comfortable seating. The service was friendly but overall inattentive, even though it wasn't very busy. This I can overlook if the food would have met expectations for the pricing on the menu. However, the menu needs some serious reconsideration - do they want to be a fine dining establishment or an overpriced pub?

We had seven diners who had a couple appetizers and drinks. No one had more than an "ok" experience. The Brussels sprouts appetizer was actually pretty good, but it was all down hill from there. Even the drinks (@$16+ apiece) tasted watered down. I will highlight some of the most egregious parts of the menu:

Beer cheese mac - $25 - be prepared for a boat of pasta that could serve at least 2 or 3 people. The flavors were ok, but it wasn't anything spectacular and certainly nothing more than boxed pasta with some basic cheese sauce. It definitely did not live up to the price tag which means that you are paying for the EXCESSIVE portion. It's pub Mac and cheese not fine Italian so it should be priced accordingly, or noted as a shareable entre.

Salmon burger - $20 - The "burger" was mealy, dry and lacked flavor. It claimed to have caper aioli but came without any sauce at all. This could have been rectified if the server came back to check on us.

The walleye cakes, single - $21 - this was also a dry and mealy creation covered in way too much dill sauce that overpowered any flavor of the cake. Sadly, this disappointing crab cake wannabe, was only walleye priced as if it were actually crab.

Bacon bleu burger - $20 - This may have been the most disappointing burger I've had in St Paul, despite the description of the hand-patty meat blend. Sadly, there was no flavor on the burger at all, as though it wasn't even threatened with seasoning, and the gochujang sauce didn't make up for the lack of flavor. The bun was soggy at the base and dry and crumbly on top, while the blue cheese was a square slice rather than quality crumbles. It was supposed to be cooked medium, but half was cooked well-done and the other half near rare, demonstrating an extreme lack of consistency.

I could continue with the other items we ordered, but I think this highlights the sad state of food at this restaurant. For those of you who made it this far, I might sound like a complainer (I wish I would have taken photos to add for proof), but we had a show to attend. We didn't have time to go back and forth with the server, who besides being absent, isn't in charge of the menu or food quality. I'm sure many readers can agree how quickly time seems to fly by before you have to get to showtime, and that you don't want to ruin your evening by having uncomfortable moments with underpaid wait staff. My intention with this is to alert future diners to save their money (we had an over $300 bill) and go somewhere else. I wish I had read the reviews beforehand because other diners have had similar complaints. Restaurants have bad evenings and I understand that, but based on there being an issue with nearly everything we ordered, I will not...

We took our mom for a late Mother’s Day brunch. Once again we tried a new restaurant. This time we went to Herbie’s On the Park. Warning- long post

We ordered our meals with a few substitutions because some of us do not eat meat. When the food came out we were missing several items. They finally arrived a few minutes later. The French toast was a great tasting item. The other food was bland, but most things can be fixed with salt and pepper. What could not be fixed was the burnt toast, soggy sausage and the extremely old fruit that was given. My daughter decided to pick around her toast and eat it anyways. The entire time we ate and talked we were not checked on. We eventually waived the server over and we asked for an order of bacon to go to replace the sausage. She brought the bill and said she would get a new order in. The bacon came out in just a few minutes. When we opened the box we realized it came out so fast because it was barely cooked. At this point when Sarah came back several minutes later I asked her to adjust the bill for the meat and the fruit which was a substitute for another person’s meat. Sarah said she would let the manager know and took the bill. The manager came over a few minutes later and asked what was going on. He said he didn’t get the details from Sarah. We then had to tell him all the issues we had. He said he would come back. He came back and said he would take one meal off (the one with 2 orders of bad meat and burnt toast) and half off the other that had the bad fruit. We thanked him and then Sarah slid the bill on the table and walked away. My money to pay had been sitting out on the table since the first time Sarah brought the first bill and at this point we just wanted to pay and leave. She eventually came back and took the money and bill. For 20 minutes we sat and waited and watched her serve other table, but never come back with our change. After a full 25 minutes Tom brought the change to us and said “Here you go.” We immediately left and for the first time in years I didn’t leave a tip. While the server is never responsible for bad food how a situation is handled after than fact and the level of customer service received is definitely a reflection of the restaurant. Although Sarah could not find the time to come back and bring us our change she was able to come OUTSIDE of the restaurant with plates in her hand and ask why she was not left a tip. That was completely inappropriate and can definitely be seen as hostile. Once our bill was paid we should not have been “confronted” outside of their establishment. That same level of interest in us should have been given while we were trying to enjoy brunch. After getting home I called to speak to the manager and this time I got Bill. He said that the server doing that is not customary and told me to have a good day. Thanks Bill. I’ll have a good day as soon as I find...

We have wanted to try this place out for a while, and tonight seemed like a good time. I admit we were boring and had burgers, so this is not a review of the scallop dish or anything expensive. We split a house salad, which was delicious. I had a blue & bacon burger and my wife had a Herbie burger. Both were done perfectly and moist, not overcooked. The fries were excellent as well. One thing I really appreciated was the burger was normal sized, none of this half pound monster. I could eat the whole burger and not feel guilty or overly full. I would rate this place a 5 for food. And the only things stopping me from giving it a 5 overall is they had no pie available for dessert, and the place was freakishly loud. I understand that you look for a hip, active place which is why so many restaurants have very lively acoustics, but the room we were in, although very lovely with wood and such, had nothing to absorb sound beyond the carpet. Not even anything lije a drape type thing by the windoes. The result was the need to almost shout to be heard across the table. Maybe we can blame this on the pre Pink concert crowd (I was the only male in our part of the restaurant) but it is clear lively acoustics are what they wanted, and, at least tonight, that is what they got, in spades. We will have to try again when there is a Minnesota Orchestra concert next time, and see if it is better. The food was good enough that we have...