Several years ago I gave a pretty decent review to the Roasted Pear in Burnsville. While the food we had there was in no way mind-blowing, it was decent; however, we never went back because it wasn’t really a place we ever gave much thought to. Tonight, after a nearby stop at the doctor for The Koala (no worries, just teething), we swung over to The Roasted Pear to cash in on their fairly extensive and reasonably priced happy hour specials.
We arrived at around 5:15 and found most of the restaurant empty. There were a few people at the bar drinking the boring domestics they had on tap and a few scattered tables, mostly around the outside of the restaurant, populated with people eating early. We ordered several items off the happy hour menu: the wings (buffalo comes on the side), the three sliders (pulled pork, cheeseburger, and chicken sandwich), a spicy giardiniera pizza with sausage, and an order of sweet potato fries. Their happy hour specials range between $4 and $7 and we ordered items from each level. FYI, their online menu seems a little out of date to what we were provided last evening and some of those options were either not available or were slightly modified from what you will see on their website.
The food was out in a reasonable amount of time and came to the table looking like what I would expect from a Sysco-truck-to-table restaurant. The sweet potato fries were abundant but obviously came from a bag. They were accompanied by ketchup and their ‘signature’ root beer ketchup. Now, I want you to stop for a moment and take some time to think about what just went through your mind when you heard “root beer ketchup”. Whatever shock or horror came to mind would never, ever, ever even come close to preparing you for the horrendous flavor which would erupt in your mouth when you dipped one of those previously frozen sweet potato fries in this disgusting concoction and then decided it would be safe to eat. I really have to wonder who thought that up and whether they actually ate the stuff afterward because, if they had, they would NEVER have served it to anyone. SO. UNBELIEVABLY. GROSS.
The Slider Trio were nothing special at all. I have seen previously frozen White Castle hamburgers which looked to be more appetizing than these three. While I didn’t bother to taste any of them, the overdone cheeseburger looked grey and droopy with a tiny bit of cheese; the chicken sandwich looked like a dried frozen patty; and while the pulled pork was said to be the best of the three, it looked like it came straight from a microwaved Lloyd’s bucket instead of from the corner of the wood-fired oven.
The wings were meaty but tasted off and had the texture of frozen wings defrosted and cooked in an oven instead of the crisp and flavorful wings they should have been either from the wood-fired oven or a grill. While the wings were edible, their version of Buffalo sauce was not. I don’t know how anyone could screw up Buffalo like they did but even though it looked like buffalo, it tasted like spicy tea and the weak bleu cheese dressing did absolutely nothing to save this eye-watering disappointment. It was right about this time that I realized why the restaurant and bar were empty…it’s because the place is horrendous. However, the pizza was the only decent item we had last night. While it was doughy, undercooked, and looked like a frozen Target-brand pizza, the giardiniera was not oily, the truly spicy pieces were large and could have been confused with being homemade, and the sausage was abundant. I enjoyed the pizza for $5 but they need to utilize that wood-fired oven to make the crust crisp and charred, not bring it down to its other miserable happy hour counterparts by appearing as a pale and sick previously-frozen pizza.
Overall Roasted Pear has really gone down hill in the last few years and we wouldn’t be surprised if they close their doors soon. The most surprising part of the entire evening was that not one single employee asked us what we thought of the food. While the service was fine, they spent most of their time huddled in the kitchen and service area chatting instead of trying to make the experience better. Great service when the place is empty is one thing but when the food is borderline inedible, it doesn’t make for a pleasant experience and more should be done to remedy that situation. Honestly, I’d rather have eaten at Ernie’s Pub. Yeah, it was really that bad.
Address:
Roasted Pear
14200 Nicollet Ave
Burnsville, MN 55337
Phone:
952-898-2800
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April 16th, 2013 at 8:59 am
That is too bad. I have never seen a pizza with giardiniera on it, and that sounded really good to have with sausage, assuming it was made correctly. Sucks that it sounds like it was not.
Giardiniera needs to move out of the Italian Beef sandwich realm and be used on more things. It’s one of my favorite toppings to put on a lot of things.
April 16th, 2013 at 9:21 am
I have been watching Restaurant Impossible lately. The most common theme with these formerly successful restaurants is that the owners stop doing their jobs. They don’t clean, they don’t taste food, the don’t hold staff accountable etc. Hopefully the owners will see this and get a wake up call and not end up closing.
April 16th, 2013 at 9:53 am
For the past several years my friend and I have met up once a year at the Roasted Pear. While I’ve never been overwhelmed by the quality of the food it was good enough that we kept meeting there. In December however we decided we needed to find a new spot for next year.
I also tried the giardiniera pizza. Mine was slightly less soggy it was nothing to write home and my friend did not care for the commercial taste of the pulled pork sandwich. Adding to our evening was the fact that our waitress clearly had no idea that she was in the hospitality business as there was nothing helpful, kind or efficient in her service.
I am a little disappointed we didn’t know about the root beer ketchup, It would be an amusing touchstone for rating future meals.
April 16th, 2013 at 12:55 pm
The last time I ate there was several months ago. I was taking my mother around on doctor appointments and errands, and realized she again hadn’t eaten. So we did an emergency stop at the Pear. We had salads and she wanted cheesy garlic bread, also. The salads were passable in a bland American chain restaurant way, complete with bottled dressing. The cheesy bread was pumped up with all sorts of sodium/glutamate stuff. I could have drained a couple of water towers over the next few hours it made me so thirsty.
April 16th, 2013 at 1:26 pm
“Sysco-truck-to-table restaurant”
Bwa-hahahahaha!
April 16th, 2013 at 4:38 pm
I heard an add on the radio recently or maybe it was on tv that Kitchen Nightmares is casting again. Perhaps some of these people allow their restaurants to suffer in hopes that their problems will git them a t.v. gig?
April 16th, 2013 at 7:51 pm
There is one in Brooklyn Park. I agree the food wasn’t memorable but I did like the strawberry cheesecake martini. :)
April 16th, 2013 at 8:12 pm
Strawberry cheesecake martini????????????????????
April 16th, 2013 at 8:46 pm
Sorry, Ronalee, I envisioned someone putting a strawberry cheesecake in a blender!!!
On second thought, I’m sure that was wrong…;-)
April 17th, 2013 at 1:00 am
Well if you want fast restaurant seating on a Friday or Saturday night, then the Pear is for you!
Yeah I can’t say if I’m a huge fan of their food. It’s just comfort food with ridiculous sounding names. I usually get the (sorta)Buffalo Chicken Wrap. The Pepperoni pizza ain’t too bad if the right “chef” is working while your’e there.
Despite that, I still like it, as it is a somewhat “mellow” place to kick back and relax.
April 17th, 2013 at 7:31 pm
Sandy, It’s very sweet and not very alcoholic – just the way I like my drinks :)
April 18th, 2013 at 1:23 pm
That’s very disappointing. I very much enjoyed their food, until last year, when I think it started sliding a bit. Brooklyn Park, huh? Unfortunately this seems to happen with quite a few independently owned restaurants that want to grow – Once the focus is on the new place, the original joint’s quality takes a nosedive.