Rafters

Worst service Ive ever seen. Party of 20 people and our 1 waitress taking all our orders did not know how to split our checks per couple. Her defence was she was new and we were her biggest party in a week. Are orders were all messed up and food was brought to us that no one ordered. Then they tried billing us for it later. They were not busy when we ordered and our group was pretty much their only customers at that time. Waited for over a half hour for our bill. Was asked 3 times what we ordered and still no bill. I asked the waitress for our bill and she said the GM was working on it. She admitted she was to new and couldnt figure it out and gave up. 10 mins later the GM still hadnt started figuring out our bills. When I asked him for mine he too asked me twice about what I ordered and finally got my bill. Later in the evening 1 lady member of our party who had the courage to stay there longer than some went to the bathroom. She accidentally went to the mens room and turned around right away to be greeted by a bouncer who kicked her out for it. UNBELIEVABLE!! And no, she was not drunk the restrooms are poorly marked honest mistake.Food was average at best. Experience was worst ever. I dont do reviews, but this place left me no choice. It was that bad!Apparently they are changing their name soon, same GM and staff though I hear. Waste of time and money. Keep the name and change the staff.

Currently at this restaurant and felt the need to review. The food was good, but the service is just awful. We were the only ones inside at the bar and it took a very long time to have any of the employees help us. To be honest, it is just awkward! The bartenders disappear to God knows where because it is dead in here, or they are texting in plain sight. We have been done with our food for about 20 minutes now and no one has come to check on us although we are in plain sight. I feel very sorry for the owner because its a nice location with good food but the servers just dont care.

The food was horrible and the service was even worse. It took 20 minutes to just get greeted and to put our drink order in. The drinks took at least another 20 minutes to get to us, and they were awful. It then took 40 minutes to get our food, and it was delivered with no silverware and no one came back to check on us for another half an hour. We ended up going to the bar downstairs to pay for our food because we couldnt get anyone to come back to our table for service. Never going back. We were excited to enjoy the patio seating on a nice day and the experience ruined the rest of our night with the attitude and service of the staff.

Words of advice for anyone looking for a wedding reception venue: Look elsewhere.Very very disappointed trying to plan our wedding reception here. We finally decided to drop them and forfeit the deposit just to save ourselves the headache. We became so fed up that we couldnt trust them to get any of the details right for our reception. From the get go, I shouldve seen the red flags. It took several phone calls with messages just to get the deposit paid. Finally had to call the owner to ask what the problem was, before getting a response from the event manager. It didnt stop there. Took a month to get a response for a weekend we could meet (we hurried to pay the deposit to reserve our date, probably the most foolish thing Ive ever done), followed by 4 weeks for the actual preliminary budget to arrive. And another 7 weeks for the pictures of the decorated venue to finally get to us after we requesting them in our face to face meeting.Dont even get me started on the estimate. For starters, although I had declared our exact date when inquiring about the minimum revenue generation, suddenly the Sunday rate of $3000 we had been quoted was no longer the case, and now it was a full $6500 higher due to a holiday rate for Labor Day. Dont get me wrong, I understand the need to generate more revenue on holiday weekends, but why were we not told that up front before we had paid the deposit? What a joke, and a definite budget buster. The details of the estimate were about as accurate as I could expect when the face to face meeting details were recorded on a post-it note.Even though the quote was wrong, and the verbal assurances we were given were misleading, the deposit was still not refunded. When a customer feels misled and they let you know this is not what theyre looking for, the least you could do is refund the relatively small deposit for good measure. Not to mention it was 10 months ahead of the date, and apparently more than one person had been turned down because we reserved the date. It wouldve been a stand up move and good business to recognize their was a huge misunderstanding and refunding the deposit since were so far out. Instead I hope this google review will save someone else from the headache we experienced, and save you from the frustrating experience we had.

We were at Rafters for a wedding. The food was served over an hour late. A lot of guests left without eating. The tables were squeezed into the room without much space between them. Many of the bartenders were rude and slow and they were counting tips while people waited for drinks. We saw staff members eating the wedding cake, which was set up very late in the evening so a large number of guests didnt get any. Most of the food did taste good. I wouldnt recommend Rafters for a large party. They dont seem to be equipped to handle large events.

We hosted our grooms dinner and wedding after party at Rafters and they went above and beyond with every detail. The staff ensured that all of our guests were taken care of immediately. The food was wonderful. We had a burger/chicken sandwich bar, mini cheese cakes, fries and salad. All the food was hot and fresh. We had ordered a keg for the grooms dinner and Rafters kept it for us to host our after party the next night. They allowed us to use the private room at no charge , so our guests could chat or dance the night away. I would highly recommend this beautiful venue!! It was an amazing experience and we couldnt be happier!!

Our waitress, Autumn, disappeared after we ordered food for 40 minutes. Instead, someone else brought us our food, later followed by the hour delayed appetizer. Later, we overheard Autumn complaining about her job as we never received our check. We had to walk to her for the check since it took so long. The food is great, but the service ishorrible. No tips were left and no more money of ours will be going to this place.

I was planning a birthday party for this past weekend and called to inquire about the space approximately one month prior to the expected party date. I didn’t want to reserve the space for a private party but simply wanted to let the staff know a party of 25-35 would be coming in at 9:00 pm or so. I was directed to the events coordinator. I was informed there was a wedding the evening I wanted to come in but that the wedding would be done around 10:00 or 10:30 and Rafters would open up to the public then. I was also informed that when the plans for the wedding were finalized (i.e. the times), I would get a call back. About 5 days prior (a Monday) to the event date (that Friday), I called to confirm when Rafters would be opening up again for the evening after the wedding and spoke to a gentleman behind the bar. He confirmed they had a birthday party scheduled to come in after Rafters opened to the public for the evening but could not confirm what time Rafters would reopen. I asked if Rafters would have music and was told yes, they would have a DJ. I received a call on Wednesday of that week (2 days prior to the date of the event) and was told I was no longer able to come in on Friday evening because the wedding party was staying longer. I expressed my concern that I altered my evening accordingly already and asked to talk to a manager. I was told the manager was fixing a credit card machine and would need to give me a call back. I received a voicemail shortly thereafter from the same employee that just said there was nothing Rafters could do. I called back and requested to speak to a manager. The woman I spoke with stated she understood - but clearly was not sympathetic to - my frustrations of the short notice but asserted there was nothing she could do because the bride wanted to stay until midnight. However, the manager said she could keep me updated because the bride was aware - according to the manager, the fine print - if there were not enough people at the wedding, the space would reopen to the public. I asked if the wedding was getting done at midnight, why Rafters wouldn’t open up then, as I had already sent out messages confirming the plans for the evening. The manager confirmed she was opening back up at midnight but stated she didnt realize I would be interested in coming in that late. I reiterated it was not ideal to get there so late but I would make it work because the birthday girl wanted to dance/have a DJ. She apologized for the inconvenience and offered to buy my party a round of drinks, gave me her cell phone number and said I could call to check and/or they would call if the wedding get done earlier than midnight. The night of the party (Friday night), I called at 11:30 pm after not having received a call AT ALL updating me and was told they would no longer be opening up to the public at midnight and that the wedding was staying until 2:00 am. The manager was beyond rude to me. When I got mad - and I did - about the fact she told me they would open up at midnight and offered to buy my party a round of drinks, she made comments such as “I’m sorry your birthday girl wants to dance, or whatever, but what do you want me to do” and failed to acknowledge the fact she had lied to/misinformed me. Additionally, as I was trying to direct 30 people to an unplanned new bar, when people started talking to me she started laughing and said “oh do you have people telling you what to say.” My response, while admittedly rude, asked if she was aware she was in the customer service industry and informed her I couldnt believe she was speaking to me this way. Her response was the same there is nothing I can do. When I went to send a follow up email on Monday regarding the situation, the website was unreachable and the domain is pending renewal or deletion. The food is mediocre at best, the drinks and service have always been hit or miss, but this experience was icing on the cake and I will not be returning, regardless of that ideal patio view.

I ordered the burger and they did not tell me about the pretzel bun so I had to eat it on a regular bun. I did not know I had to ask for it. The burger was pretty good and they had $2.00 bottles of Bud on happy hour 2pm to 7pm. I just wish they would have told me about the pretzel bun.

Google says this is a bar, but its perfect for families too. We enjoyed the upstairs patio, kids meals, and fresh salads today. A pleasant experience all around! Lots of stairs, so leave the stroller in the car.

The food was good for bar food but the service was absolutely horrendous. We could hear staff being rude to other tables and it took 2 1/2 hours from start to finish for our dinner. We had to ask for our check at least three times and then had to go stand down by the bar before the server bothered to give us our check.

We FINALLY have our food, after approaching a group of servers counting their tips a little over two hours ago. The service is slow, food is alright (not great), and prices are typical for the area. I wouldnt recommend this place to friends or family, and wont return myself.

The location is beautiful, but the service was very slow, and the food wasnt very good. Shrimp on a skewer was supposed to come with the bread bowl soup, but they forgot the skewer. It took 5+ minutes before we could get the waitresses attention and then another 10+ minutes before the shrimp was brought out. Overall, it was very disappointing.

DO NOT BOOK ANY KIND OF EVENT HERE. Everything about our experience with Rafters was bad. EVERYTHING except the ribs. Their chef makes tasty ribs.We booked Rafters for our wedding reception in Stillwater. The first employee we spoke with was unsure of the food&drink minimums for different days, but indicated that the Rafters staff does all of the set-up and tear-down as long as you provide any additional materials and that security, DJ, tables, chairs, linens, dishes, etc. were all included. When we contacted the GM, Larry, he indicated in writing that we would have a $3000 food & drink mimimum on our date (the Sunday before Labor Day). Then asked that we coordinate with the event manager, Dawn. Dawn would not return calls or emails unless we also copied Larry on the email and even then it was Larry responding half the time. When we finally met with her to go over the details of our event (menu, drinks, decor, set-up, etc.) she took notes on a post-it note and had all kinds of excuses for why she wasnt very good at responding to simple emails. She seemed frazzled and unsure of what actually happens at a reception or of how to plan for it. After a few weeks of nagging to get our quote/contract on the details we discussed Larry finally sent us one. And no surprise, literally every detail was wrong. The plates we wanted, the type and amount of bear we wanted to host, the number of drink tickets, the menu selections, all of it was not what we had expressed to Dawn. (Except the ribs. The ribs made it on the list.) On top of that, all the things that we were told were included were not. Every little thing was itemized out including the included linens and security. I mean just nickel and diming us.So, that all was awful, but the REAL problem is that Larry more than tripled the minimum he quoted to us. When my fiance tried to address it to him he was a real asshat about it. His primary reasoning was that since it was a holiday weekend he needed to make up any lost revenue from the event. This is logic I could respect except me and my fiance were actually there on the Sunday before Labor Day this past year and we were one of less than 10 people in the bar. There isnt any business to make up. However, even if there were, he had already promised us one price upon receiving our deposit.Obviously, we arent having our reception there any longer. We may be pursuing legal action since he has still refused to return our deposit.TL;DR The service was SO bad that I have to think they do it on purpose to trick people into putting down a non-refundable deposit so they can then keep it.

Was there on a Saturday night. The bar with the most space my far in Stillwater. However, it was apparent that it is a bar for people far younger then I; just 21 and inexperienced. The DJ was not engage with the people on the dance floor. Choosing songs seemingly for his own entertainment. Consequently not many people were dancing but standing on the dance floor. Perhaps a different time or day of the week might have a completely different people/vibe. All things considered this would not be my go to place; however I would not object to going.

Terrible service, new to the area, wanted to try this place sitting on the rooftop, waitress never even acknowledged us after sitting there for 10 mins, she looked at us several times. Will not be returning anytime soon, not a good way to gain business!

Great happy hour for Vikings games! Their nacho platter is really great and easily enough to fill 3 people. Beautiful building with nice views.

Husband and I enjoyed side salads, beer, and pretzels on the patio. Service was very good in our experience. And the side salad was best side salad weve had.

Currant food items are absolutely terrible! I tried recently a new sample item, flat bread. That was equally very bad! I hope with the new menu and ownership once the switch over to Dock Side is complete that there will be a vast improvement. Not going to happen if the currant chefs are staying on!!

My recommendation is have more than one person working during the day and be able to mix the most basic of drinks. Serving a martini without chilling (room temperature) with NO ice is just not acceptable

So Google reviews... Let me weave you a tale of the greatest fu***** sandwich known to man. In this monumental moment of 2016. I, Arik Nichols, now believe that there is a God, and have seen the light. In this quaint town of Stillwater MN, there is a restaurant known as Rafter. And on its patio style roof is where I experienced this heaven on earth. The legendary NY Steak Strip Sandwich. Learn it, live it, love it. If you ever get the chance to experience this orgasmic piece of food engineering, it will change your life. I know it changed mine

I dont think they know they have awful service. Place is dead on a super busy Saturday, now I know why! Took about 40 minutes to get our first drink and put in a food order. Wish I could have convinced our group to leave!

Just rude! RUDE! I will never come back. The bar tenders are wonderful, but the want to be security is just horrible. Please get people with a background in the field or military background.

I really dont understand the bad reviews. I went for lunch with my wife and baby. Food was awesome and wait staff was great. I would go again anytime.

We had lunch here today. Terrific server and fantastic food. We had the BBQ cheeseburger & chicken sandwich with pineapple & swiss. Delicious!

Thursday night Jams are great for us local musicians, but its also a great opportunity to come down, eat and drink! Theres plenty of room!

A place you can go to poison yourself. Dominantly a caucasian crowd sprinkled with a scintilla of diversity. Perfect for if you happened to dissappear into the dungeons and bottom-dwellers of society and then want to see a bunch of people you used to know in highschool and greet them enthusiastically whilst covering up the fact that mostly everyone is suffering but they hide it.

Portside has pretty slow service for a new restaurant. Sat there for ten minutes and still didnt even take my order. This is the first and last time I visit Portside😂😂😂😂

Great place for the College age crowd, best nights are Friday and Saturday. Relatively affordable drinks, they have pool and friendly staff.

Worst place ever. Brought my gf out for her birthday and sat at bar for at least 7 minutes, and no service. WILL NEVER RETURN!!!

Rafters has to die for Lobster Bisque! The rooftop patio is a must to check out when the weather is nice.

Great place for awesome drinks and good times. Down town Stillwater is a great place to meet people and try some amazing food!

Another place to go bar hopping in Stillwater. Yet another place to see patrons get drunk and booted out, if you like people watching, youll have a fun time!

Bartenders are terrible. Extremely rude and dont know how to mix even a basic drink. I will never go back. The place is a joke

The price was right, but the service was wrong! Cool place with good food but we had extremely poor service.

Lol believe the reviews this place was a joke the bartenders take shots with their friends while ignoring customers, bad service and a sketchy vibe.. Dont go here lol total joke

Enjoyed their new patio overlooking the St. Croix River. The club caters to a younger crowd.

My wife and I had a GREAT lunch there on the rooftop, great staff and burgers. Will be back!!!

Good food, decent service, and beautiful rooftop view of the river. Perfect in the summertime.

Terrible service! Walked in there with my wife and kid for lunch. After sitting down and waiting 10 minutes no body even looked at us. The place was empty and now I know why

Man..too bad I didnt read these reviews before we wasted our time! TERRIBLE service..RUDE staff. Dont waste your time.

Came for lunch at 1pm. It is now 2:02 and still waiting for food... food finally came and was superb.

Good food in sevce was good in lots update in the bar come bring your family

First bar of the night and havent had any drinks yet for the night and got kicked out of the bar for laying your head down. DO NOT GO HERE!!!!!

Nice Place, only had 1 drink, but will go back.

Second floor dining in Stillwater overlooking the lift bridge was great!

Great atmosphere. Great views of the downtown Stillwater area and the St. Croix.

Good place for a bridal party. But not for a beer.

Staff is rudeThey do not have enough bartenders to help screw this place

Terrible restaurant. Worst Ive been to in a long time.

Portside suck, bartenders and even the bouncers have the worse attitude and actions!

Really nice layout with a roof access. I will be back!

The roof patio is has an amazing view.

Not bad. Great views. Okay food.

DO LET THE ROOFTOP VIEW BRING YOU TO THIS RESTAURANT.

Staff was horrible. Food was decent.

Great bar, good ambiance!

Like this place,for a few cold ones, pool and a burger.

Excellent service and magnificent Bar!!!

Love this place! Awesome service..

Service was awful, rude employees.

Great chicken wrap.

Fun place to dance

Nice place, fun, nice people

Nice place downtown Stillwater

Skip it. go elsewhere.

Rude staff

The place is truly beautiful, a unique experience.