Turtle River Chophouse — Restaurant in Turtle River

I have not been here for a couple of years. We decided to stop in recently after a wedding, and I would probably give the overall experience a 7/10. But I will round it up to 4/5 stars.

The food was extremely affordable, considering how talented the chef is. I was expecting nothing on the menu to be less than $25. I was able to get their bar burger with fries for $9 and a Coke for extra. The burger was actually very refreshing, savory, bright, and crispy. Everyone else’s food was also above average, and everyone was pleasantly surprised.

My one complaint though was our waitress Gabby. I have no idea if I am spelling that right since they do not wear name tags here. But she had a very bad case of RBF. She also seemed irritated when we were asking about dietary restrictions. She also seemed irritated when we were asking to make substitutions with the menu, that were very minor, but she made it seem like no substitutions were even up to negotiation. The hostess even had to come over and tell us that she would go grab our waitress since we were waiting for so long to place our order. She also did not remember who ordered what food, and was very lacking on refills, and never put ice in the cup after she refilled it the first time. She almost ruined the entire dinner if it weren’t for the food being so affordable and such high-quality. Unfortunately, I can’t even cut her any slack because the place was completely dead, and they were multiple employees working. She basically just stayed behind the bar and didn’t check on us until the end of the meal.

I will definitely be stopping here again in the future, it isn’t quite so upscale that there is a dress code, but you definitely want to be dressed nice. But it would be a phenomenal place to take someone for an anniversary or a special night out as it’s not incredibly expensive. The atmosphere was incredible, and the location is a little bit out of the way for most people, but it is worth the drive. I just hope we won’t get that...

My 21 year old son Jake and I lived in Bemidji for 17 years and then relocated after his high school graduation in 2020. We decided to start our week “camping trip” back to the North with a stop at the TRC. As it had been 3 years since we had driven up the old highway to this place, we remembered it as the Chophouse. Oh my my, no disappointment whatsoever with the freshening up of the joint. We shared the walleye fish and chips plate, and, a Kentucky (I think my son said?) strip steak plate with all of the options: onions, mushrooms, and blue cheese, perfect medium rare, which came with yummy mashed potatoes. This, after 2 rounds of bloodies rimmed in Tajin (love that), great Bemidji Brewing choices on tap, and vodka sodas served with a lime and a lemon already without having to ask. We had squeezed in for seats near the kitchen at the bar on a Wednesday night when they were slammed and were happy to enjoy cocktails while they ate through a 40-top special event plus normal traffic like a well-oiled machine in front of our eyes. We were well accommodated at the bar from a service perspective and the food was great. My son commented that the walleye reminded him of home fish fries after ice fishing. Oh! At one point they came out with a free spinach and artichoke dip with toast points to thank us for being patient which was realllly good, but unnecessary as we were having a mother/son blast. Congratulations on the rebranding and thanks for a great place to watch the thunderstorms on our first...

We are only in the Bemidji area once a year. Last year this restaurant was phenomenal. So we decided to come back a year later since we were still thinking about it. Well we will NOT be going back or recommending it anyone. It took an hour to get our food. The kids meals took the longest and those should be things that take 15 minutes max. The steak was undercooked then came out way over cooked the second time. The chicken stir fry had way to much sauce on it that you can’t finish it. The drink was one of the worst parts, the raspberry daiquiri was NOT what it was suppose to be. Very strong had went down like you were drinking straight rum. Came in a small glass and had an old lime in it. Not the right type of environment for a “fancy” out of the box drink. The server was sweet and was hounding the kitchen for our food but she shouldn’t have to do that. She said the manger mentioned the patio had a large table that was holding up our food. But then why didn’t the manager come speak to us! When a table is having a bad experience the manager goes over and tries to save the experience. Just very disappointing and was not...