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address: 4300 E Lake St, Minneapolis, MN 55406
website: www.craftsmanrestaurant.com
I ate here in the summer of 2007, on the patio, on a beautiful, warm night. My experience then was wonderful - I even found the chipmunk that was running in-between people's feet charming. However, my return to this restaurant was not as stellar. It was a Saturday evening, there were 7 of us and we had not made a reservation. I had no idea what a mistake that would be. We were shamed by the wait staff about not making reservations and after that they grudgingly pushed 4 tables together. We were told over and over again about how on a Saturday night you must make a reservation. Odd though, several tables around us remained open and after some people in our party were no shows, they never reclaimed the extra table that we didn't need.
Another downside to not making reservations was that bartender had to serve us. She had to cover our table and serve drinks to the entire restaurant at the same time. I think that was making everyone crabby. I don't really enjoy eating and having this tension around me. And our experience did not grow brighter as the evening went on. Someone in our party ordered a hamburger - well done. GASP! I know. But you know what? This what not her first time eating out and that is how she preferred her burgers. Well, she had to argue with the server/bartender regarding that choice. I am sorry to say that I can't think of a reason to return to this restaurant.
Melting Pot
address: 80 S 9th St, Minneapolis, MN 55402
website: www.meltingpot.com
Not again! It was a Tuesday night, after happy hour had ended, my friends and I showed up for a little melty, ooey-gooey goodness. After standing at the entrance for 3 minutes without an acknowledgement, we were finally greeted by, "Do you have a reservation?". Um, no. No we didn't. Again I was shamed into not calling and setting up reservation. We told if we could wait for 5 minutes they could get a table set up for us in the bar - as long as we were ok only doing cheese fondue and small apps. Turns out that is all we were there for so that worked. Now, to be fair on the walk to the bar you don't go through the dining room, but as I craned my neck all I saw were open booths. Odd. We walked into the bar --- not a single person in there. The MO was the same at this restaurant, no reservation means the bartender serves you. Turns out this bartender was very attentive. He had nothing to do but serve our table. No drink orders were coming in either, which makes me wonder how full the dining room really was.
The hostess station and setup might need some work, but the food doesn't! There is just nothing better than covering a carrot in melted cheese or dipping a strawberry in melted chocolate. And the best part about eating fondue out? No clean up! If I remember right, the dining room has warming stations built into the table. In the bar they don't have that, but thankfully the pots of melted cheese and chocolate stayed warm enough to keep everything liquid. The other thing about eating in the dining room, if memory serves, the level of noise is overwhelming. Eating in an empty bar meant we could actually hear each other! So once seated and I got some food in me, this turned out to be a much better experience then how it started.
~posted by Ann
