5120 Restaurant & Onyx Bar

Good food and service but please don’t get the mushroom risotto. The cook put more grease and butter in it than the actual food. Other than that, the food is pretty good.

Located inside the Country Inn and Suites hotel. We only ordered appetizers (Jamaican Jerk wings and deep fried ravioli with Marinara sauce) to eat Captain and Cokes to drink. It was a pleasant experience but the tab was on the pricey side.

The 5120 Onyx Restaurant & Bar is a hidden gem inside of the Country Inn & Suites Hotel in Bloomington. We booked this venue for our wedding reception in September, and it couldn’t have been a more perfect location.
The event coordinator, Jennifer, is easy enough to work with. She is full of information, however on her busier days she can be tough to get in touch with. Not a huge deal, but being a bride I generally expected it to be all about me all the time. From the first time we looked at the venue to the very end of our reception the staff was very accommodating to our every request, and so reasonably priced as well! Of all the venues we toured for our small (70 Guest) wedding this one offered the most for the lowest food & beverage minimum around.
The bartender, Shawn, is always there. I mean — ALWAYS. We were at the location probably 4 – 5 times over the course of our wedding and planning and he was always there. Poor guy must never get a day off, but he takes it in stride and is all smiles and very helpful.
The food at the reception (and the tasting ahead of time) was delightful and the service was spot on. I don’t know why this location doesn’t have more reviews because I think it’s one of the best in the Twin Cities for a small reception.

My mom and I ordered for room service from this restaurant as we were staying in the hotel. Our first surprise was when they informed us it would be a $ 5 «delivery» fee to run it upstairs to our room. We could order pizza delivery miles away for half that price!
We attempted to order a turkey burger, and they were out. We ordered a regular burger, medium. We also ordered the beef nachos appetizer. About 30 mins later we ran downstairs to pick up the food right after their phone call. As we opened the cartons back in the room, we noticed that the $ 9 nachos was a tiny serving, and lacked more than a tablespoon of ground beef. The chips were also completely soggy; you would pick them up and they would bend right over and fall apart. Absolutely gross. The burger on the other hand was pretty decent. It was cooked well and the pretzel bread was really good. But not a save to the lack of customer service and crappy nachos.

I merely wanted a well done burger. It took 20 minutes for a medium well.
The waiter was nice enough. The look of the décor was o.k. The location given that I was staying in the hotel was good as well. However, I merely wanted food to take back to my room. Like another write I ended up throwing the food out and eating vending machine candy.

My work partner and I visited about a dozen venues in the Twin Cities and outer suburbs in search for someplace to fit 85 people for our annual office Holiday Party.
Every week we thought we found the perfect venue, whether it was in a hotel or elsewhere, until we discussed menu and our small budget. One venue literally scoffed at us when they heard what price range we had to stay within. It was rude and very discouraging.
We had found a downtown venue that we decided to settle with, though we would have had to skimp on the food a bit in order to stay within budget. My partner managed to come across the 5120 Restaurant & Onyx Bar website at the last minute– I’m not exactly sure how. The photos looked nice and it was right down the street from our office.
We set up a meeting with Jennifer, their events coordinator, to take a tour of the space available. We loved that there were four rooms, all with a subtly different theme: the living room-​esque restaurant area, the bar with a cigar lounge feel, a small café breakfast lounge and the GORGEOUS atrium. It was beautiful in the daylight, but looked like it was straight out of the Beauty & the Beast ballroom at night when lit up. The atrium looked and felt small when we initially saw it, but it comfortably held 85 people who sat, stood and roamed to mingle.
The menu had variety and was affordable. Jennifer was more than willing to work with us on whatever menu items we wanted featured — even if it wasn’t on their set menu. I was worried when I saw less-​than-​stellar reviews of the food online and we were not able to sample their menu items beforehand. There was no reason to be worried. My boyfriend who attended with me might be one of the pickiest eaters I’ve ever met, alongside my work partner’s husband. Both of them were very happy with the food. There was something to please everyone from the simplest eaters (i.e. — pizza flatbread, chips and dip, etc) to those with a more sophisticated pallet (HUGE, juicy bacon-​wrapped scallops, skewers, artisan cheese platters, etc). The food was plated well and looked appetizing. Jennifer also made sure my favorite dessert, chocolate mousse with whipped cream and strawberries, were available– something that wasn’t on the menu and wasn’t an issue to provide.
The bartender was a hit. He was stoic, but very professional and polite. It was obvious that his first priority was to get your drink from the bar to your mouth without wasting much (or booze!). The drinks were stiff but tasty, which is always appreciated when you’re paying for over 200 guest drinks that aren’t watered down. Our guests got more than what we paid for, in a positive manner. Also not on the menu was a specific local beer we wanted to have available at our party (Tonka IPA). With only a few days’ notice, Jennifer made sure the beer was stocked for our party.
The wait staff was much like the bartender– business first but polite. They kept a good eye on tables, making sure to quickly and quietly clear plates where needed, without interrupting conversation and generally going unnoticed. Jennifer herself was busy clearing plates as well. The food was consistently stocked.
Some of our guests were skeptical when they heard the event was «in the back of the Country Inn & Suites down the street from the office.» I didn’t blame them. But we knew when they walked in that they would be wowed, and we were right! We host 10 – 12 company-​wide events per year, and this was the only one where over ¾ of our guests stayed all the way through the end of the event simply because they loved the venue.
Jennifer did a fantastic job of keeping us within our event budget, without sacrificing quality of food, drink or service. I can’t imagine us having had this party anywhere else, and I hope to come back for another event in the near future.

First time leaving a restaurant that I have gone home to have peanut butter toast.
We had a Groupon for 60% off dinner for 2, a $ 72 value. There were about 9 tables in our area, only 3 of them were being used, all by people using Groupon.
Per the waiter/​bartender (probably cook too, who knows), we got a 4 ounce steak and a small (also probably 4 ounce) chicken breast. Steak was cooked properly, chicken breast was charred and dry (see my attached picture of the chicken and not the size vs. the fork). The restaurant didn’t even provide the meals listed in the Groupon, and no way was that a $ 72 meal, it really wasn’t even worth the $ 29 paid for the Groupon. This was a special «Groupon only» menu that was half size entrée.
To get the salad, tiny entrees and small shared desert, it was an hour and 20 minutes. If that was a $ 72 meal for the two of us, I would guess everything is extremely over priced.
If this is the restaurant discounting their food to to get new and repeat customers, this had the opposite effect on my. No way will I return to the slow service, poor food and high prices. Stay away.

Hard to give this bar even one star! Bad tasting food and even the happy hour pricing could not help the apps out. Quote my wife’s review as «the food sucked»

What an unexpected find in a southwest Bloomington 2 ½ star hotel — Country Inn & Suites.
I went here the other day w/​my friend Katie that beat me to reviewing this restaurant, and as she stated we do have a knack for getting those 1,000 point OpenTable restaurants that tend to be nestled in hotels.
When we got there at 530pm, we had our pick of any table at the place. The space is separated into 3 areas: the Onyx Bar is right when you walk in, there’s a small restaurant space to the left, and then the largest space is the bright atrium ahead. On a cold winter evening, we chose for the warmer small restaurant space right next to a fireplace that our server set ablaze (remotely) and we basked in warmth the whole meal.
If you’re deciding what to do get from the menu (and trust me, I picked a better one than Katie), flip the menu over and check out the Prix-​Fixe menu. A starter and an entrée for $ 20 looked good for me. I had the Baby Green Salad and then the Chicken Mozzarella. Very pleased to see the portion size of the Chicken was manageable — it’s the turn of the new year and you know I have to watch my consumption ;) Mashed Yukon gold potatoes, grilled asparagus, and the basil oil was a delicious combination and the presentation was truly top notch.
Dessert is not included in the prix-​fixe menu, but Katie wanted to end on a good note, so we chose the bread pudding with vanilla bean ice cream. A good standby, and it didn’t let us down.

My friend and I have a knack for going to hotel restaurants, and tonight was no exception.
We found ourselves nestled in, quite cozily actually, at the 5120 Restaurant & Bar. The place was dead, as it’s very hidden inside of the Country Inn in Bloomington, so we had our choice of seating. The fireplace was calling our name.
Our server, who was a jack of all trades, and had I not been directly facing the kitchen, could have sworn she cooked our food as well!
The service was impeccable. She was very nice and accommodating, as we requested the fireplace be turned on, as opposed to just a conversation piece.
The food on the other hand…
Let’s just say the chicken flatbread appeared as though it had been run over by a semi, and there was absolutely no crunch to it. I NEED a crunchy crust. The mushroom soup that I had first, was actually very good, but I wanted it to be thicker, so I requested crackers.
They. Don’t. Have. Crackers.
WHAT?!?
I’m glad I ordered dessert (bread pudding) because this place was going downhill fast.
The only other qualm I had tonight, was that upon returning to my car, I noticed that someone had kicked the great big ice/​snow chunks from behind my tires… that’s my FAVORITE thing to do in the winter… jerks.

Wow! For a Country Inn’s restaurant, 5120 Restaurant has it going on! Located almost invisible inside of the Country Inn & Suites this restaurant definitely was better than expected. I must commend our server who was playing hostess, bartender and server on this blizzard-​y December evening (as her colleagues were stuck in the snow). The food was well presented, came at appropriate times. I would definitely suggest the chicken skewers for your first course. The chicken and sauce are both scrumptious… but the bed of greens and onions they are served on are to.die.for. Period. Their filet was definitely the winning entrée. Perfectly cooked and served with amazing sides.
With the glass walls and ceiling, the restaurant gives off a green room feel. Make sure you have reservations, they seemed to become full quickly with hotel guests.