MacKenzie River Pizza, Grill & Pub — Restaurant in Sioux Falls Township

We last went to MacKenzie River close to two years ago and have sparsely visited over the years. The problems we see with this place seem to be the same everytime we go there. Slow service and a comfort with the mediocre. Where did this experience go wrong? Where do I begin? Let's start with the good. Our waitress was polite and busy. Not that the place was overrun with business for 6:30 on a Tuesday night but she had more tables than a normal section so she was a attentive as she could be. It took her 15 minutes to take our order. We ordered the Ol' Prospector and The Rise N' Shine.

The Rise N' Shine was ordered with an over medium egg. If you are going to put eggs on the menu, I suggest your cooks understand the various ways to prepare them because in their two attempts, they failed at making that part correctly. The egg was over hard the first time.

That in and of it self is no reason to send an order back. We sent it back because it took 21 minutes for it to arrive at our table and the fries were cold, the burger had a bun when we asked it come without and was missing the deep fried jalapeños. The cooks also need to know what the menu is offering so they can prepare correctly.

The Ol' Prospector was overdone and didn't have any cheese nuggets or bacon mixed in or if there was, it disappeared in the cooking process. This was nothing more than a piece of leather with some cheese slapped on top.

After waiting another 15 minutes for the order to be made again, it came out with an over easy egg and still no deep fried jalapeños. At least they got the no bun request correct.

At this point of being there over an hour, my wife still hadn't eaten her meal and we had to be on our way. After a frustrating conversation with the manager, one the surrounding staff unprofessionally found amusing with their smirks and side comments to one another, he comped our meal though I assure you this was not the intent of our visit as we would have happily paid for it.

Please keep in mind that though my wife was visibly annoyed and was maybe construed as a "Karen" in this case, she had a right to be annoyed because we chose your place to patronize and the basic expectations of a dining experience were not met. Also remember that your staffs' reactions to this are just as visible to the public and wether you or they feel these reactions are justified, they are never a good look from a professional or business standpoint.

In the end, we just expect to have a stress free dining experience when we choose to spend our money at an establishment. This failed to meet our expectations immensely. Tonight's experience was the last chance we are giving this place which is probably for the best. We will gladly go to one of the many establishments like Grille26 where we know what to expect and not be fooled by Makenzie...

Went to the Sioux Falls location with a group of 8 prior to an event at the Orpheum Theatre. We got there early to ensure we could get seating. When I told the individuals working the reception desk there was 8 in our party, I was immediately told it would be an hour wait.

There were no less than 5 unused 4-top tables in the seating area directly to the left of the entry, and many more empty tables I could see toward the back of the establishment. I asked why there would be a wait time when there were so many open tables, and they said it was because all of the tables designed to seat 8 or more people were already taken.

I asked if they could put two of the 4 person tables together, and they stated they would check with their manager. They came back a short time later and informed me the manger would not let them put two tables together, because it was a "show night" and they were expecting it to be busy. I stated I had tickets to go to the show they referenced, but that still didn't explain why they would refuse to put 2 tables together when they clearly had enough room and empty tables to do so. They said I could speak with their manager if I wanted, and I requested to do so.

When the manager arrived, I again asked why they were unwilling to put 2 tables together. He said he couldn't do that because they wanted to reserve the smaller tables for groups of 4 or less because they expected it to be busy. He further stated that by putting 8 people together and creating a "bigger group" that it would disrupt his kitchen staff because they would not be expecting another "big order" to come in all at once. He said the only way to seat us would be to wait for one of the bigger tables to clear out, but they would continue to seat smaller groups at the 4 place tables in the meantime.

I told him I didn't understand how seating 2 tables of 4 was any different than seating 1 table of 8, and requested to know how the kitchen getting 2 orders of 4 at the same time would be ok, but getting 1 order of 8 would somehow confuse them and make them too busy. He refused to answer the question and simply asked me if I wanted to put my name on the wait list.

Having to wait an hour would not leave us enough time to eat and get to the show, so I told him we would go elsewhere. As I walked out, I told the entire line of people behind me that if they had more than 4 people in their group, they may as well turn around and leave, because they were refusing to seat any group larger than that. Several groups did so.

They don't take reservations, so If you have a large group, plan to wait awhile. Better yet, just go elsewhere and save yourself the trouble. If I could give them a zero I would. ...

Just kind of a weird experience. The place was packed when we arrived on a post-holiday Friday night. As in, standing room only in the waiting area. The hostess told us 35 minutes for our party of five. We waited about 45 minutes, whatever. I thought this was a very good sign, that the food would have to be excellent.

Our booth was nice and spacious and seemed clean. We got our drinks right away. There was a bug frozen into an ice cube in my water glass, but I just fished it out. The sodas were good, nice and fizzy. My husband really enjoyed his hard cider. The lodgepoles were suggested as an appetizer. We ordered them, and they were pretty bland. Reminded me of the cheese sticks at Pizza Ranch.

I appreciated that the kids meals came with a side choice of veggie, salad, or fruit, though we were disappointed that they were "out" of the fruit option when we ordered. The kids' salads seemed fresh and tasted good. The pears were a nice addition, and weren't mushy or mealy. I ordered the beet salad as my entree and it tasted very good, though the added chicken was very cold and cartilage-y.

The kids' entrees were not good. One kid's pasta was dried out in appearance but absolutely mushy in texture. The other had little cheeseburgers that tasted slightly fishy and seemed a little too pink in the middle. The other adults' entrees were pizzas and they looked overdone, too brown, unappetizing. The crusts had a good chewy texture, but were also bland. My husband was told they were out of jalapeños when he ordered, but the pizza he received had jalapeños on it.

We got desserts. They took a while to arrive; our server forewarned us of this. The cheesecake and the baked cookies with ice cream were good, average. No complaints.

I must say that the women's bathroom was off-putting. Almost gross. Super dark! Like, why couldn't there be more lights in the toilet area? The floor of one stall was completely wet and the other had a malfunctioning lock. To secure the door, I had to jerry-rig a lock together with chopsticks I had in my purse. There were piles of paper towels all over the floor which isn't the staff's fault per se but again, just kinda gross. Sadly I didn't exactly feel confident of the quality or safety of the food we had just consumed after encountering the bathroom.

One of our party had some gastrointestinal upset soon after our visit and I can't say for sure it was the restaurant, but thought it would be worth...