Mezz Bistro Lounge

The bartender wasn’t very friendly to us, and we felt like we were bugging him every time we went up to the bar to order a drink. Meanwhile, there were people wasted and having some wild conversations and the bar… and the bartender seemed much more interested in participating in that than serving us. Didn’t feel welcome. Also, our «flatbread» was basically a microwaved frozen pizza that was way overpriced. I was kinda excited to try this little bar before our movie, but not impressed.

Selection is limited, drinks are not the greatest, and it took over ten minutes just to get a glass of water and another ten to get my bill. For a place that’s not tremendously busy, I shouldn’t have to waste my whole night waiting around. That said, it’s just a movie theater bar so my expectation to begin with was poor and overpriced. Still– as much as it totally kills me to say this– I had better service and drinks at the TGI Fridays next door.

I was referred to this place by a buddy of mine who has been a regular for a long while. I was stoked to find out about the hidden booze upstairs at my local theater. I took the wife upstairs at Paragon for the first time and was amazed at the décor and effort put into the ambiance up there. The bar area has a backsplash of windows and is quite unique. The seating in the bar area is nice with dim lights and plenty of room to move around.
We sat at the bar and ordered the recommended Mezz Mac pizza (which tastes like a Big Mac in pizza form. A must try). We also got into some artichoke dip. The pizza was magical as you just don’t expect that taste in that form. You can see and taste the effort that goes into its creation so you know they are serious about putting this iconic burger onto some flatbread.
The artichoke dip itself was good. What we were given to dip into the sauce was not our favorite. Tortilla chips. Bleh. Hey, they were multi-​colored though so it was fun to look at. I would really like to see them switch to a pita bread (toasted or warmed). We try artichoke dip everywhere and we just cannot choke (get it?) down this dip anywhere on tortilla chips.
The rest of the menu items ranged from basic to interesting. The food menu is quite small but there is definitely something for everyone.
There is a wide variety of specialty drinks, beers and wines to order and this is where Mezz shines. Although it may be hard to get a server/bartender’s attention at times and customer lines do build up, it is still worth it. We loved being able to sit around and have a drink before and after the movie. We also were ecstatic to bring our drinks into the theater with us. We will now not see any movies elsewhere or any other way. I need a snack and drink from Mezz and a cushy, oversized VIP leather seat in the theater.

Not bad for a movie theater restaurant, but nothing spectacular to write home about. The food is an ok bar food, and drinks are not bad either. However, the service is extremely slow. On the busy nights the place is really crowded and it’s almost impossible to get the staff’s attention. I hope they make some changes, because the concept is nice.

New menu rolled out, having the to die for Mac &cheese tonight.

This place follows the recent fad of bars in movie theaters.
I like this fad, and really like this theater.
The bar is upstairs and separated from the theater, so you can choose to just go get a drink and not feel obligated to see a movie.
However, given the prices and the atmosphere I don’t know why you would…
There are only about five seating areas separate from the bar. and the bartenders are wayyy over involved. I ordered a sangria and a «Jeffrey». The jeffrey was sapphire gin, coriander, thyme, lemon juice and soda water. In theory it sounded awesome, but for some reason it tasted like pickle juice. Each drink was over $ 9.00!
This was a fine place to maybe grab a beer before a movie, but I can’t imagine spending the amount of money you’d need to at this place. I’d rather go to a pub before hitting the movies, and get three drinks for the price of one at this place.

I would give this place 0 stars if I could… it is a complete and utter disaster! I went with 2 friends on opening weekend of a pretty big movie, but the restaurant area was not overly crowded and we got a table right away. First, the waiter was really obnoxious — trying to be funny and flirty, but none of us were the least bit amused. He even went so far as to throw a straw wrapper at my friend… it was very strange. We ordered drinks right away, I was told that I needed to chose a back up cocktail because they may not have the ingredients for the first one I chose… About 45 min later we finally received our drinks! 45 min for 3 drinks — one was a martini so I know those can take a bit longer, but the other two were a beer and a glass of wine! We then ordered 2 cheese quesedilla’s (which, their menu must be drastically reduced from what it used to be after reading some other reviews, very few selections. Its probably all frozen food they warm up…). We ordered the food an hour before our showtime, thinking we’d have PLENTY of time, but that was NOT the case. We finally said to our waiter who hadn’t apologized for the slow service, but instead said he usually bartends and hates working on the waiter side, so its not his fault it was slow. not a good answer. Long story short, we ended up having to go into the theater without our food and without our second round of drinks because ordering them an hour ahead of time is not enough.
They were courteous enough to deliver our food and drinks into the VIP theater where our seats were, but when we got our cheese quesedillas they were burnt to a crisp and came with none of the sides the menu listed! No silverware or napkins either.
I have never EVER had such horrible service. Its too bad that this theater cannot pull it together. Its a nice space and a great way to see a movie with the VIP perks, but there are not any real perks at the Paragon or Mezz ‘Bistro’. I highly recommend going to the Showplace Icon Theater at the West End in St. Louis Park, its like shopping at Neiman Marcus compared to this Walmart-​like service/​atmosphere at the Paragon.

The menu is excellent. Had nearly everything on the menu and 75% i would recommend. Mac and cheese, asian burger, charcuterie board, and pork sliders are some of my favorites. Portions are a bit small and a couple times havent had a perfect meal but nine times out of ten its a great time.

What a disaster!
We had a living social voucher for dinner and a movie. We arrived at the theater to find all the ticket stands were closed. We wandered around not knowing where to go, and eventually headed upstairs to the bar area. There was no hostess or waiter, just a guy working the bar.
The bartender explained we had a limited selection of appetizers to choose from, so we picked the Bruschetta. It was… interesting. Not traditional Bruschetta at all. The bread seemed like it was a day old. Not crisp and toasted anymore — although it might have been at one point. Just sort of firm and soggy at the same time. It wasn’t bad. It definitely was very gorgonzola infused. Very sauce heavy. I thought it was ok though. We also got two glasses of wine — the house chardonnay. It was not a very good wine, it was headache inducingly sharp. Definitely the cheap stuff. The better half gave me her glass and ordered a drink from the bar instead — a Victoria’s Secret. The bartender had to make it by looking at the recipe on the drink card. It didn’t turn out very well. It hard a sharp sour raspberry taste — like raspberry pucker with sort of a nutty taste as well.
The voucher included 2 medium sodas and 2 popcorns. They sent a kid to go fetch the popcorn and he only returned with one. We had to send him back for the second one. The sodas also didn’t come in the big movie cups (you know how big a «medium» is at the theatres right???). Instead the bartender just poured them in regular glass tumblers. He said he’d check on us later to see if we needed refills (which we most certainly would — they are like 8oz glasses with half of it being ice). He never did come back in to the theater to check on us though, and we really didn’t want to have to leave the theater and walk back to the bar for a refill, missing parts of the movie.
(I’ll review the movie theater and seating on the actual theater page — this is just for the restaurant)
We returned to have our entrees after the film. We sat down at 6:52. I know this precisely, because I returned a call I had received while in the movie and I have the timestamp on my phone. Let me also point out that there were never more than 5 tables of people at any given time, and there was 1 waitress working along with a couple errand boys and the bartender. The waitress never came and greeted us, and I had to go fetch menus myself from the empty hostess stand. She took forever to come take our order. When she arrived, she apologized for the wait and took our order. I had the tenderloin and the better half had the walleye. We also decided to try two more drinks off their specialty menu. I had an «O-​Poppy» and she had a «Love Pink».
The drinks took 20 minutes to arrive (we were timing by this point — as the better half moonlights as a server occasionally). The O-​Poppy was terrible, and the ice had already mostly melted in it. It was supposed to be absinthe mixed with orange. It was colored orange alright, but all you could taste was black licorice. There were no other flavors present. She sort of liked her Love Pink, but said it wasn’t very good. We resorted to going back to our sodas.
The food took ONE HOUR. I repeat ONE HOUR to come out. With only 4 other tables present. We had our food arrive at 7:55. Her walleye was cold, and she had asked for tartar sauce but was told the restaurant doesn’t offer tartar sauce. My tenderloin was actually quite good. It was cooked perfectly and the rub they used was very flavorful. It didn’t have any sides though. Just like 2 spoonfuls of burned carrot slices and some weird purple potato thing (like half the size of a cigar). I don’t know what kind of vegetable that was.
We asked our server to bring out our desert right away as well. We ordered «monkey bread». The menu was not descriptive at all as to what it was. They really should just have called it cini-mini’s. It’s exactly the same thing as the cinamon roll bites at McDonalds. After waiting 20 minutes for our desert, and being unable to flag down the waitress (she was chatting with a bus boy), I left the table and walked up to her to remind her to go fetch our desert. She apologized again for forgetting and went and immediately returned with it. We asked for our check at the same time.
She came back another 10 minutes later (we were now right around TWO HOURS since the movie ended and we sat down in the restaurant) and said she would comp the whole thing because of the slow service. That was nice of her to do, and we appreciated that they acknowledged that they screwed up, but man what a terrible dining experience!!! Two hours of sitting around for 1 drink each, 1 entrée each, and a cinnamon roll. Incredible! Just incredible.
Since they let us keep the living social voucher and asked us to try them again and give them a second chance, I guess we will. I mean it’s free after all so why not. I’ll post an updated review after that, but things are not looking good for The Mezz so far!!!

Ate at «The Mezz» in Burnsville tonight. (Top level of Paragon 15 Theater near Burnsville Centerel) I Had the asian burger. The chips that came with the burger were delicious, some of the best I’d ever had. But beyond that, The burger at first was well done when I had ordered it medium. The 2^nd one was cooked properly, but the bun was slightly burned and the flavor overall just wasn’t that great. The size of the burger was also pretty small as well. So I’d skip the Asian burger, if you ever go there. Also had one of their specialty drinks. I think it was the Twisted Sister. I wasn’t really a fan of the drink, but the cinnamon on the lip was a nice touch. It almost made you think the drink was better than it was. (Almost) But the glass had so much ice in it, that I literally had about 4 sips on the drink and it was gone. Way too little to drink for what you pay. Also had a Mich Golden light, it was $ 4. So I guess reasonably? priced if you needed a beer before the movie. I did like the décor of the back room, where they had a shuffleboard game, and some comfortable couches. But overall, I’m not dying to go back to order food or any specialty drinks. You’d get much more for your money, as well as a more tasty burger, next door at TGI Fridays.

An interesting, up scale bar & restaurant with an interesting extra. You can have drinks with dinner our snacks AND watch a movie at the same time.
The food is great, the drinks are wine, beer and chicktales (they have some good ones.)