Bar Rufus

Great happy hour starting at 3 pm! Gorgeous interior in the historic Rand Tower! Delicious drinks, both nonalcoholic and (strong) alcoholic drinks. I had the Nymphea, yum! 😋 The oysters were good! Really good French fries too!! The beef tartar was ok, it’s worth trying. Overall this is a great place that more people should go to!

Went for happy hour, but nope, not happening. Ok, stayed to eat anyway. We ordered a ribeye and espresso martinis. Martinis came, were delicious. Ordered a side of fries, those came pretty quick. Ordered two cosmos, got one. Asked for the other one and got it. 50 mins in asked about the ribeye, it had never been ordered. Even though the server had asked how we wanted it cooked, etc. We had to get somewhere so asked for the bill. Asked to have a drink removed as we never got our food, service was poor. Server told us she "couldn't take one off, but could give us the employee discount" ended up taking a drink off. Drinks were $20+ each so still was $$. Server was apologetic but still wish we could have gotten food/ had a good experience or not had to ask to have a drink removed. Overall poor service and bad attitudes from the staff.

Went there for breakfast. Unfortunately the bar was open during my stay but breakfast was served there. Typical grab and go stuff but the hot breakfast item they did have was amazing and really good value. I was stuffed after eating that breakfast

Vibe is great, it’s adorable in there with the swanky velvet furniture with quirky additions like the feet on the couches. Feels upscale, but not stiff. They also had French music playing. Oh, and the wallpaper in the bathroom was a Loons print! Service was also great! I believe our servers name was Jamie(?) and she was friendly & attentive. Gave great recommendations. Drinks were a bit pricey ($15/each) however, that’s too be expected for downtown, except what’s different is they give you the extra pour. Dirty martini came with an extra carafe, and DIY olive brine; La Frenchie drink also came with extra carafe. Both very tasty! Old Fashion was also very good! Food: definitely more small plate/app forward with limited entree options. So keep that in mind, but everything was very flavorful! We started with oysters, which tasted fresh. French onion soup is a MUST. Comes with pork belly. Terrines are also a must: Lobster Salad had loads of flavor with the perfect touch of heat with the Serrano pepper; Tuna Tartine was less flavorful than Lobster one but it was still just as delicious. Both were so decedent and buttery. Excited to go back for happy hour!

I ordered a sprite and it was in a small little glass cup which wasn’t enough at all. We also ordered food and waited for an hour before it came to us a good whole hour the food wasn’t even that good for it to be taking an hour then when we got the bill it was around $400+???? are you kidding me? And we wanted to do separate bills but we were told they couldn’t do that and there was no where that said we couldn’t do separate bills beforehand everything was just so complicated and the birthday girl was so stressed because of it you guys need to make the “we don’t do split bills” known or somewhere in bright bolded red also make it known that there is fries with the burgers and chicken sandwiches I spent nine more dollars for fries just for the fried chicken sandwich to have fries. prices are also absolutely insane.

Started off waiting for the food for about 2 hours. The waitress was just passive aggressive and seemed she didn’t want to do her job. At last the food came after we lost our appetite, Food and drinks was not worth the wait and this restaurant just made my birthday dinner hell. My original plan was to have to dinner at blondette when I spoke on the phone with them they played along like the restaurant was open then they proceeded to tell me we are having the dinners at bar Rufus now cause blondette is closed???? So why didn’t you guys tell me before I booked or showed up if that was the case i would’ve booked somewhere else for my party.

This was one of the worst dining experiences I had very unprofessional. When we arrived the waitress seem to be extremely passive we spoke to a representative on the phone before reserving our spots but they were confused about our reservations and didn’t have us seated right away. We came here for a birthday dinner and we waited 2 hrs for our food. When it arrived none of us were hungry. They did not make things clear when it came to payments.

Absolutely fabulous! If you love a well prepared martini, order the Rufus. No expiation necessary. Best Oysters I’ve had in MN. It’s an unearthed Gem. Came for wedding Anniversary “stay-cation” and will be back!

OVERALL: A swanky spot located in Rand Hotel to bring people to go to when you want to impress! ATMOSPHERE: It's upscale and modern while located in a historic style building. They have lots of velvet furniture, marble, and greenery. It's gorgeous and perfect for photos. FOOD & DRINKS: I went for happy hour so it really was just lite bites for me. I ordered the French 75 (which I've been loving lately) and it was perfectly made. Nice to sip on during happy hour! I also ordered their "one-sip-martini" that's exactly what you think it is - pretty much just a vodka shot. I am obsessing over these tartines though. We asked our server for her recommendations and went with them! While tempted to order the lobster salad tartine (because duh, lobster) we were told that if you're not crazy about mayo that isn't the tartine for you. We chose the smoked salmon tartine. The smoked salmon was so fresh and the dill was fantastic to add to the flavor. This was a perfectly matched tartine in terms of the flavor. Our other choice was peaches tartine and this was the winner! You wouldn't expect peaches and tomatoes to be so tasty together but it was fantastic. The French fries are pretty classic but what makes it really standout was the curry aioli. I could eat that on EVERYTHING. PRICE: There weren't that many drinks on happy hour, the "one sip martini" was $5 and the regular price (no discount) for the French 75 was $15. The tartines were $9 an order (2 in each order). The fries were $5. This is definitely not the cheapest happy hour but if you come here I feel like you already know that. I will definitely come back for the $10 burger though. SERVICE: Our server was so attentive and so sweet. She made sure our glasses were full and that the food we got was up to our standards!

Hey Bar Rufus mgmt, please check your "contact us" email inbox and your IG messages. Your server made a dangerous mistake serving alcohol to someone who ordered an NA drink and no one has responded for weeks to our reporting of this to you. Definitely a fail on multiple levels.

Came here with a group of 11 for a happy hour - we have been seated for an hour and 20 mins and have only been served 1 round of drinks despite asking and going up to the bar multiple times. Unsure what the hold up was but definitely DO NOT COME

I was very excited to try this restaurant and see if it matched expectations of a fine dining establishment. Sadly I left very disappointed and still hungry. I hate leaving negative reviews and most of the time give the benefit of the doubt. However when you are paying for high quality food and service you should be able to expect that. The la frenchie drink was the only positive I came away with. Sure the oysters were not bad and had good flavor, but they were not even shucked being still attached to the membrane. the 30 dollar salad was about the size of a side salad if that. The egg was nearly the same size as the foie gras. The foie gras was not typical of a cold foie gras and instead seared. It tasted more like pork belly than actual foie gras that you could get at Other French restaurants I have been to here and abroad. The burger my wife had was nothing special and can honestly say we have had better at five guys for less the price. The restaurant I will say was pleasantly decorated and the layout was nice. The staff was friendly although slightly discombobulated and resulted in taken 30 minutes for a salad. All the food arrived except for the salad and I waited well my oysters and my wife's burger came out. Now they did give it discounted, however I'm not sure if the waiter forgot to put the order in or the chief just forgot. Ether way it was kind of a downer on the evening. I could not help but think that if someone went here for an anniversary how disappointing this part of the evening would have been. I'm never one to complain about prices ether, but when I have been to many of the great eateries around the twin cities I have rarely left disappointed or hungry. Here I left both. Not to mention the bathroom that you need a code from staff for had overflowing baskets, smelled very bad, and looked like it had not been cleaned in days. Not sure if the hotel or the restaurant is responsible, but it was disgusting in both the women and mens restrooms. The decor of the bathroom was very modern in pleasant looking, just not clean at all.

Beautiful food presentation. The space is fancy and sophisticated. Excellent and attentive service

We went prior to a show in downtown to have drinks and appetizers. Its got great decor and vibes, cute little place. The cocktails we ordered were tasty but it was a small menu. However the tartine (just things on toasts) we ordered hadnt come after 30 minutes. We asked our waiter and he assured us they would be out soon. When it had nearly been an hour since we ordered them, we had to leave for our show so had to cancel them. He apologized but really gave us no reason why toasts wouldn't come out in an hour. It was not very busy but they must be very understaffed or had some problem. It was really disappointing since I was looking forward to trying it. Might not go back because of the service we had sadly.