Parlour St. Paul — Restaurant in Saint Paul

There’s a lot to like at Parlour, and several things that could be improved.

Improvements needed first: this was my second or third visit here, and it was a Friday night and I did not have a reservation, but it was only 5:50 PM and it was a party of two! When we walked in -as soon as they found out, we didn’t have a reservation, —and there were LOTS of tables open- the mood turned icy quickly.

The two hostess people said we could sit at a shared community high top as long as we were gone by 7:00 for an incoming reservation. I asked if they had any low tables because I prefer a low table to high tops and they said no they were all reserved. The overall attitude was that they were doing us a favor by seeing us without a reservation rather than being pleased to see us or friendly, or even apologetic. That needs improvement. We got to our shared community hightop, which was a six person table with two people at one end and us 2 on the other end. It was fine, but it set the mood a tiny bit badly from the hostesses attitudes. The great: Our waiter was super friendly, helpful and easy-going. He reminded us that there was still 10 minutes of happy hour if we wanted to order off the happy hour menu and he had good suggestions and the right amount of attentiveness.

We ordered drinks and the deviled eggs and brussels sprouts. Deviled “eggs” is bit of a misnomer as it is only one egg split in half as deviled eggs are served. My husband (who loves deviled eggs,) said it was probably the best one he’s ever had and the only downside was he wished there was more. :)

The brussels sprouts come with a Kung Pao chili sauce, which was heavily soy sauce-y and a bit spicier than I like (even with a good spice tolerance for a very pale Minnesotan, lol.) They had a delicious smokiness, but the micro greens on top were unnecessary. The peanuts are a lovely touch. I’d get them again for sure.

We shared an order of fries- very good fries -nice amount of saltiness, but the fries were really clumped together in big chunks, they could improve them by breaking the fries up before dropping them in the fryer.

We also shared their Parlour Burger- which for $18 was well worth it and not much more than a typical burger cost. The burger has a mix of ground chuck, ribeye, and brisket with white American cheese, and two dollars extra for a fried egg on top. Highly recommend!

A friendlier more welcoming attitude upon arrival would go a very long way, but overall...

This was our 2nd time to this Parlour and our experience this time left much to be desired vs our first experience. We had a group of 8 adults and came in around 10 on a Saturday. We placed our cocktail and wine orders and immediately the server told our entire group that he needs to see ID's. We don't mind getting carded, however, to be pretentious is unnecessary, starts the experience off on a sour note. Next up, server brings the drinks. Because there was very little walk space between the bar and where we were sitting, one of the men in our group attempted to hand off his wife's glass of wine to her trying to save the waiter some hassle of trying to wade through people to deliver one glass. The waiter recoiled and said something along the lines of 'No, I need to give it to her.' We were utterly confused...Say he was going to take this other glass and drink it himself. Is there a 1 drink/person limit at Parlour? When we all put in our last round of drinks and were told that it was last call. No sooner did we receive our drinks, the lights came up an the music went off. Someone that I'm assuming manager was that night was just simply said with attitude "It's last call, Sorry" when we asked what was going on. We felt rushed with our last round, which if you drink cocktails to the Parlour caliber, you don't want to chug. We felt that the staff was just watching while we tried to finish them. If this had been our first experience to Parlour, I would not want to go back. I don't know if the staff wanted to get to their own Halloween parties or what, but their desire to be serving that evening was very apparent. One positive note that I do want to point out is that one of the guys in our group pulled our server aside and asked him if he could check with the kitchen to see if they could do a birthday dessert and he pulled through. Which was Much appreciated! Ultimately, after tip our group walked out of there spending over $300 on amazing drinks, great popcorn, but lackluster service from all that we encountered. I'm hoping that this experience was...

This is a really neat new place on 7th. The decor is my kinda thing, brick and creative compliments, and the building has an interesting layout where you have four unique dining areas.

The staff have the energy you really only get from a new business, and who doesn't love that.

I grade on a scale, and if this place was anywhere but West 7th, it would be 6 out of five stars.

Seriously folks, get up to this part of St Paul, especially on Sundays when you don't have to pay to park, and see what well run restaurants are like.

I had the Parlor Burger. One of those exotic grind burgers, the patty had ribeye in it. If I've had a better burger, I can't remember when.

My wife had the Chicken Dumplings. She declared that it was 'everything she likes about chicken and dumplings all rolled into one.'

I had only two complaints, neither serious.

The Parlor signage is too complicated. We parked and were looking around and I thought the sign might say Parlor, or maybe Parkor. It was really hot, and I didn't want to walk a block on a hunch.

Secondly, our server, who was great, didn't explain to me that getting fries with my burger would be a six dollar upcharge (they were a side of fries) and the special aoli that came with the fries was another three bucks. First time in my life I've paid three dollars for anything in a ramekin.

To be fair, the side of fries was huge. Thick cut fries, well prepared, and the aoli was pretty damn tasty. That may be the first time I've seen an aoli served with fries. . .

Bottom line, this is a neat new restaurant that is firing on all twelve cylinders. Everything I observed was a well run team that will only improve. I'll be there for happy hour...