REDwater Kitchen — Restaurant in Spearfish

EAT HERE OFTEN! We're just passing through, this restaurant was reccomend by the hotel desk manager. WOW! Full disclosure: I'm a finicky foodie, so eating out can be a challenge. Our sever, Keeley was professional, patient & personable. The other staff we interacted with were also pleasant. Its NOT fast food; however for the quality it's worth a very brief wait. There were 2 parties of 10, with no slowdown from the kitchen. Impressive! I also like to shop the other tables, see what looks good-everything! Even the kids at the next table were happily eating; always a good sign!! Another diner had the steak sandwich & it looked fabulous! The menu was interesting; serving classic dishes in wonderfully new ways. I wanted the charred beets w/goat cheese croutons w/o all the other salad ingredients; no problem! They were delish!!! We shared the crab & lobster dip-served with potato chips made in house; also delish! Then came the steaks. My husband had the 14oz rib eye ($34!) & I had the 8oz Bavette (Flank steak $21!). Both were lean, juicy & perfectly cooked. I was given a steak knife I absolutely didn't need! I also wanted different sides than the menu recomend, again-no problem! The heritage potatoes were perfectly cooked & seasoned. The only problem with the asparagus was I could have eaten more! They're located next door to a local brewery, the assortment of beers is impressive. There was no room for dessert... We enjoyed it so much we had dinner there the next night! Our second meal started w/soup-du jour, a very light meat based broth w/veggies. Then the beer clams w/ chorizo, jalapenos, cilantro & diced tomatoes. Both were delish! For dinner my husband had the pork tenderloin w/apples & fresh veggies. I had the brick chicken w/mashed potatoes & carrots-all perfectly prepared. Both dishes were so good, half way through the meal we switched plates! The manager sent us dessert, a very kind gesture. We finally settled on chocolate brownie cakes w/mint chocolate chip ice cream! They were as good as they sounded!! My only disappointment is that this restaurant is in Spearfish SD & we live in NJ!!! The food is fresh, expertly crafted & reasonably priced. If you live anywhere near Spearfish, eat...

We ate at this restaurant tonight. We both ordered the Mac and Cheese; I ordered mine with the shrimp option, and my partner had the chicken option (both options had an 'up' charge).

The mac and cheese wasn't bad, but nothing to brag about, a step above basic in my opinion. I was only served 3 shrimp, and my partner was given significantly more chicken. I ate one of the shrimp, which tasted off to me, so I didn't eat the other two.

The waitress came back but initially didn't ask how we liked our meal. She then dropped off the bill, but still hadn't asked us about our meal. Then, when she came by to pick up the credit card, she looked at my plate and asked if my meal was okay. I told Alexa (our waitress) that the shrimp tasted "off" and didn't want to risk eating any more of it. Alexa's immediate response was: "Ohh it's very fresh shrimp, we just got it yesterday from xyz next door ... you probably do not know what fresh shrimp tastes like because you eat frozen shrimp out of a bag." I then said to Alexa: "I do know what fresh shrimp tastes like, and no, I do NOT eat frozen shrimp out of a bag". To which she replied: "Ohh I didn't mean to offend you, but the shrimp is fresh ..." Seriously?!?!? I'm supposed to 'trust' that the shrimp is 'fresh' because Alexa said so because she believes it was bought yesterday from the market next door. I then said to her: "And how do you know how long the market had it before they sold it to you ..." Alexa's reply was a vacant stare.

We are NOT local to Spearfish, rather, we are passing through on our vacation. I'm old enough to be Alexa's mom, and I certainly know bad seafood whenI taste it. Also, our water glasses were completely empty when we left, and Alexa didn't bother to offer refills.

The up-charge for the shrimp was not removed from our bill. Alexa did not offer to substitute chicken in place of the shrimp. We were billed for bad seafood.

This restaurant appears to be 'new'. Obviously, we won't...

My husband and I ate here several times a few years ago. The food was generally okay, but every time we had to wait very long times to get our food, even though the restaurant was only half full. The waitress would say how busy or tired the cook was and that the cook wasn’t getting any days off, or some other excuse that we really didn’t want to know. Any restaurant may have days when they’re short staffed, but the last time we waited almost an hour for our food, though we saw other tables that came in after us getting theirs. When we finally got out of there, we vowed never to return. Also, if the food is taking longer than expected, the waitress can still come and refill your water or at least let you know you’re not forgotten. We were never made to feel that our business was appreciated, we were just more work for the poor cook. After two years, I finally went there again today for lunch with a friend. We got seated and our order taken in a reasonable amount of time. After waiting more than twenty minutes for our order, the waitress came and told us it would be out soon and that the owner had been helping the cook, but then left so now the cook was trying to get caught up. Again, the restaurant was only about half full. It took us well over an hour just to have lunch. My sandwich was okay, but the fries were cold and stiff. The food was definitely not spectacular enough to wait that long for. We had to flag the waitress down to get our water refilled and then had to flag her down again to get the check. She finally brought the check, but didn’t even bother to pick up the dirty plates. It’s too bad that in the last couple years they haven’t managed to improve the service and staffing issues. It’s also very unfortunate that the owner was there and left while people were still having to wait thirty minutes for a lunch order. I won’t be going back...