I've walked past Ode to Food and Drinks maybe a dozen times before I actually went in — it's tucked inside the Country Inn & Suites on 8th Street downtown, which made me assume it was just another hotel restaurant serving rubbery omelets to tired salespeople. I was spectacularly wrong.
The space has this low-lit, exposed-brick thing happening that feels more Brooklyn than South Dakota, but in a way that somehow works. I came in on a Thursday around seven, and the bar was packed — actual locals, not just hotel guests killing time before bed. That told me something.
The menu does New American with a looseness I appreciate. They're not trying to reinvent the wheel, just making solid food with ingredients that actually taste like something. I had the pork chop — thick cut, properly seared, sitting on this sweet potato hash that had enough funk to keep it interesting. My friend got the walleye and kept reaching across the table with her fork, which is always the tell.
What struck me most was the bar program. They're serious about cocktails in a way that doesn't feel performative. The bartender wasn't doing backflips or smoking rosemary — just making drinks that were balanced and strong and didn't come with an essay about the provenance of the bitters.
The one hiccup: service can be uneven when they're slammed. Our appetizers came out with the entrees, and I watched our server visibly stressed trying to manage too many tables. It happens — they're clearly popular — but the timing felt off.
Still, I've been back twice since. Once after a show at the Washington Pavilion, once just because I was craving that pork chop again. For a restaurant operating inside a hotel two blocks from Phillips Avenue, Ode has quietly become the kind of place that makes Sioux Falls feel less predictable than people think it is.
— Grace
I came in on a Thursday around seven, and the bar was packed — actual locals, not just hotel guests killing time before bed.