Tinner's Public House — Restaurant in Springdale Township

With there being so many bar/grill restaurants in Sioux Falls, I feel like you really need to bring something extra to the table to attract customers. The only extras you’ll find at Tinners, are the additional charges for food. Each item was about two to three dollars more than other similar restaurants.

We decided to try Tinners out because someone had recommended their wings as being some of the best in Sioux Falls. Being a big wing fan, I had to give them a shot! That evening we also ordered one of their “House Specialties,” the Chicken stir-fry and a typical bar food competitor, chislic. The wings were quite good, I’ll admit that. We got the traditional buffalo sauce. They had nice crisp skin and were tender inside. The wings were a little different since they had a dry rub that’s on the skin with the buffalo sauce poured over the top. The two go well together, so it wasn’t a big deal, but I’d be curious how it would taste with the Honey BBQ. The only thing I’d note is that they claim to be “jumbo wings,” but they are standard size. Possibly a little smaller than Buffalo Wild Wings, meat wise. As for our actual meals, the Chicken Stir-Fry was ok. The veggies were cooked nicely, slight crunch but tender. The chicken was kind of weird though. It reminded me of the chicken you can buy pre-cooked in the refrigerated aisle for salads or whatever. Then to heat it up, they tossed it on grill where it picked up a huge amount of char flavor. In other words, I was not a fan of the chicken. The sauce on the meal wasn’t very flavorful either.

It also came with a side of garlic bread that had no garlic flavor to it. I wasn’t much impressed with my meal, especially if this is what they considered one of their “House Specialties.” The Chislic was equally unimpressive. They were done to the correct request, but were a bit chewy. It had a little salt seasoning but needed a sauce for dipping. Unfortunately, about half of the chislic were pretty grisly and not very good. The other half were pretty good though. The odd thing with this meal was that it only came with garlic bread as the side as well. For being a standard bar food, one would have expected it to come with fries. Due to that, it ended up not being a very filling meal. We also had the little girl along, so we got her some children’s spaghetti. Oddly many of the children’s meals don’t come with a side, but they include a piece of garlic bread. The children’s meal price also doesn’t include a drink which again seems weird.

Having a young child along, I really appreciate it when the server is on top of their game and tries to get things to us a tad faster. Since at that age, the kid is basically a ticking time bomb. Our server was very friendly, but for whatever reason service was really slow. It wasn’t very busy, so there wasn’t any clear answer as to why it took so long. Just to order and get our drinks seemed to take much longer than normal. We also had to wait awhile to get our check, which is always a bit frustrating.

The atmosphere was really dark when we first entered, but after a while you get used to it and it seemed fine. Being a bar grill there of course were a ton of TVs around. You can easily see one from wherever you are sitting. The noise level wasn’t bad, but again it really wasn’t that busy. I could see it getting loud with more people though, because the tables are pretty close together.

My take away, it seems expensive for the quality. We spoke with some family and friends and they had similar experiences. They used to be regulars, but the price kept creeping up so they eventually stopped going. Personally, we won’t be back. The food just was not...

I recently attended a private retirement party with a group of co-workers in the Tinner's Event room in Sioux Falls. We all split the cost (about $7 a person split amongst 40 people, or so) and settled for the basics with appetizers and an open bar. Although the environment was acceptable (although a bit cold with minimal decor) and the servers performed their duties well (they asked if I needed anything twice in the two hours I was there and cleared plates once), the overall execution and planning was far from professional. One appetizer served was chips and salsa, each in a large serving bowl with only little saucer plates, tongs and a serving spoon. You could successfully fill up your plate with about 5 chips while drizzling the salsa on top. Seriously? When your entire business is restaurant service, do you not think about cups and bowls and that you are supposed to dip chips into salsa? Next were chicken nuggets. Although they tasted good, once again you had little room to place them on your saucer with dipping sauces – you guessed it – in bowls with serving spoons (drizzle, once again). Although water pitchers were provided (and they did think about drinking glasses – so that’s good), all drinks (including sodas) had to be purchased separately at the cash bar. No credit cards (yes, this is the year 2013 and, yes, this is attached to the Tinner’s restaurant that accepts credit/debit cards). ATM machine required. The cost of a soda: $2.75! Really? And for the amount of soda you receive, it’s cheaper to purchase soda drinks at a movie theater! I’ve only lived in Sioux Falls a little under two years and I have come to expect less-than-admirable results in the service industry of this “small-town” city. Many restaurants are filled with inexperienced employees providing poor customer service skills ran by non-business savvy managers that do not understand that the “customer is always right” motto. But perhaps these comments can be constructive for Tinner’s to make them think twice about providing an event center with just minimal attention to detail. It doesn't take much to make your customers happy to return again. Would the service have been improved if we ordered a main meal? Not sure I would pay...

Went to Tinners Saturday night and took 15 minutes to be waited on so placed order for food with our drinks. First set of drinks and food came out in a good timely fashion and food was good love the sweet potato fries place a oder for another round of drinks and while waiting for the drinks there was a argurment bewteen to guys and one guy was intoxicated and wanted to fight with a guy that just came in. This happen next to us and the manager tried to stop it saying they had been drinking all day which as a manager you should not let your patrons get that drunk and cut them off. Another thing since this happen to the booth behind us and then right front of my table later as a manger you should of asked if we were ok. This should of never been draged out like this and they should of been cut off and asked to leave before this happen . And also when we placed the order for the last drink it took over 20 minutes to get by that time we just wantedtge bill. The manager never is seen asking people if everything is ok and it was not busy but could not even get waited on for a while looks like noone cared if they waited on u or not will not go here again . Need more manager skills and have staff who cares about their customers more needs lots...