An Evening in the Twin Cities: 04/01/2012

Sunday, April 01, 2012

The Mezz Bistro Lounge, Burnsville Paragon Theater, April 1, 2012

Her perspective: D+

We were given VIP tickets and a certificate for 2 drinks/2 appetizers as a gift. We were given only 2 drinks and 2 appetizers to choose from. None of which looked particularly appetizing: xrated mojito or blue sno cone for drinks and roasted red pepper humus or island turnovers for appetizers.

William didn't want either drink, so I got 2 of the xrated mojitos and he ordered a coke. He was served a Pepsi, and was not told or asked if that was ok.

We picked the lesser of two evils for appetizer-the turnovers. They were rather bland, just a bit of spice, and one of them was obviously overdone (there were 4 on each plate). We also said that we just wanted one in case we decided to try the other one, but she brought out 2, completely disregarding what we asked for.

My mojitos were ok, a little bit of an odd taste because they added Malibu passion fruit and X-Rated Fusion to a traditional mojito.

The bartender came out and asked how everything was tasting. I replied that it was just all right and he asked William (whose mouth was full), standing there like he wanted him to hurry up and swallow so he could answer.

Overall, service is terrible, food is mediocre at best and the VIP seating is just balcony seating that you can bring food and liquor into.

The only redeeming quality is the decor, which is very nice. It's basically trying to be something it is clearly not and charging exorbitant prices to make you feel like you're in an upscale place.

We would return in the normal theater here, but after this second try for VIP, we will stick to the Icon Theater in St Louis Park.

Background information on your reviewers:

Maryanne was in the restaurant industry for 14 years, including one year as a manager for Chili's Grill and Bar. She has experience in fast food, family chain restaurants (with and without alcohol) and fine dining. She has a Hospitality and Tourism Management degree which gives her an understanding of the service industry including travel, hotel, gaming, food and beverage, and entertainment. She is also an actress with some years experience doing short and feature films, online episodic shows, student films, film projects and contests which include both paid and voluntary roles.

William has none of that experience, but instead has experience eating with and entertaining groups of different sizes in a variety of venues in different areas of the Country. That and a knowledge of how things 'should' work in the entertainment and service worlds. He forms his own opinions from that mix of knowledge using a good dose of common sense and a perception of what he feels people expect from dining out at various venues, seeing movies and such.

Our rating system is just a guide, and no rating system is 100% perfect. We are just married couples, friends and relatives that enjoy movies, eating out and other entertainment in the Twin Cities area, and generally we find that people agree with our assessments of different venues, so we offer this bit of common-man insight to everyone. We feel that we're all pretty average people, and we expect what we think any average person would when we spend money to go places and do things, and we have the same reactions when things go right or wrong as most anyone else would. We offer this blog and our experiences to people so they can know or formulate a better opinion as to whether they might want to spend their money or not at these same places or for the same things.

We know that lots of people don't follow reviews and critics and such because they are paid to do what they do, and they generally spend a lot of time qualifying what they say so that you could make the review mean more than it really does. We are all straight-forward and upfront people, and we're not paid, reimbursed or in some other way compensated for these reviews. Maybe it's just us, but we think that lends us more credibility since we're just doing it because we can and we like to, not because we get paid for doing it.

That said, you have to keep in mind that we aren't pro's or anything, so you'll get a no-nonsense perspective from us. We may seem harsh at times, but you need to remember that in some cases we'd spend a lot of money just to come away with a poor review. It hurts having to spend money on something and have nothing good to show for it, and we feel that other people would have the same reaction we would in cases like that, and our reviews reflect that fact. Along that same line, we like spending a little money and getting more value from it. Our reviews and descriptions should also show that, and that's what we're trying to get across to other people as well.

Again, we aren't compensated for this in any fashion, we just do it because we can, we want to, and to maybe help some other people out in the process.

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Sunday, April 01, 2012

The Mezz Bistro Lounge, Burnsville Paragon Theater, April 1, 2012

Background information on your reviewers: