I have thought long and hard about submitting this poor review for The Grapevine Restaurant. We have dined at this Rt. 9 culinary landmark for over 15 years. While there may have been some misses with waitstaff over the years, the food was always delicious and plentiful, in an atmosphere that always made you feel welcome. We did our best to support them during the most challenging moments of the pandemic and have been dining there bi-monthly for many years.
From the moment we were seated, I/we should have realized that some significant changes had occurred in the two weeks since we last dined there. We never look at the menu, no need to, when you have gone somewhere for over 15 years, and their menu has had only a few minor tweaks during this period of time. As I looked around, I recognized the bartender, and only 2 of the waitstaff, knowing how challenging it is to retain staff in any business these days, the absence of familiar faces didn't concern me.
What did concern us from the moment we sat down, was the presence of flies, not 1 or 2, but, well let us just say, that members of our party began rotating the swooshing with hands to keep the flies off the delicious bread and glass rims initially, then as the meal progressed continuously.
The next red flag that should have prompted us to abort the meal, was the overall change in the menu, it has been downsized and missing are some of their best entrees. We discovered this change, when we started to order and the waiter announced that the first two items we attempted to order were no longer offered. As disappointing as this news was, we were not to be deterred, opened our menu(s) and selected entrees from the list of those that had survived yet another Pandemic Menu Purge at one of our beloved restaurants. We did question the justification for some of the changes, asking if suppliers had been changed as a cost savings measure ,but our waiter deftly dodged our line of questioning.
I feel the need to mention that as all this ordering was occurring, a member of our party was still making obvious hand gestures to limit the landing attempts of the small black flies, never once did the waiter who could not have missed these movements jump in with an explanation for the flies, or offer to move our party, nothing.
Then the entrees came out, the prime rib was a very poor cheap cut and not what we have come to enjoy as a standard Grapevine offering, the baked potato was not close to being cooked, the seafood combo was again not what we have historically ingested, and our two Italian entrees were smaller than before and tough. Not once as the waiter was removing all of our barely touched entree dishes, did he question why 95% of our food was going back, uneaten. Any waiter with even a modicum of experience knows to ask why platters are going back in that state.
At this point, I took the lead and asked for our check, it was time to cut our losses. We were all wondering if the Grapevine had been sold? The gentleman sitting on the red booth seat with several other employees, was no one any of us remembered as a manager/co-owner, and honestly, any long term diner of the Grapevine can tell you the staff from the bus staff, through to the chef and owner, never stopped, or they were told about it.
We paid our bill, as well as a very generous tip, but we don't know if we will ever return, between the removal of some of our most favorite entrees, the flies(clearly the kitchen back door was ajar, and they were entering there and popping out every time someone pressed the button to open the interior access door to their kitchen, poor quality of the prime rib(never has it ever been like this), tough veal dishes, we will need to think long and hard. read more