My mother and I decided to try Grill 29 after our neighbors recommended that we try the locals' night on Tuesdays which offers us a 50% discount.
When we arrived at the restaurant, we saw a sign stating for patrons to seat themselves. We both sat down and waited patiently but unfortunately received no attention from any of the staff that were cruising by. After ten minutes of being ignored, we agreed that we would walk out after ten more. Five minutes later, a waitress came and asked if we had been helped. I replied that we hadn't. She asked if we had just gotten here, and I replied that we had been waiting over ten minutes. She shrugged her shoulders and begrudgingly asked what we wanted to order, this would set the tone for the meal.
I ordered the Mac and Cheese along with the Steak Frites and my mother had the Butternut Squash Soup along with the Roasted "Drenched" Chicken. When the appetizers arrived, we both immediately noticed that they had the characteristics of something I feel some expensive fine-dining restaurants in the Wine Country region suffer from which I like to call SPS, or Small Portion Syndrome. While the mac and cheese was sufficiently tasty with a decent white cheddar sauce and bacon, there's no way on the face of the earth that I would pay $12 for it. My mother commented that her squash soup was good, but nothing to write home about. However, the most egregious thing about our appetizers was that it was served with two slices of bread that were so hard that they could have broken my teeth!
Finally, the entrees arrived, and when we saw them, we were extremely disappointed. The barely 3-4 ounces of steak I received looked decent along with the 4 or so pieces of waffle fries, a small baked onion and arugula. My mother's chicken arrived nestled in a pool of fat in which the potatoes were barely staying afloat. They were so greasy, it looked like they had been covered in an oil slick! GROSS! My steak was cooked properly at medium rare and the fries were OK, but the arugula had absolutely no flavor and seemed like an afterthought.
As far as the service for the rest of the meal, the server was kind enough to bring us complimentary bread. Otherwise, she was grumpy and unfriendly to us throughout the entire meal and delivered water to us twice. The first time, she spilled water on the table and the second, she slammed the bottle on the table so that she wouldn't have to keep bringing it to us. The only time she smiled was at the end of the meal when she asked us how the food was, if we wanted dessert, and clearly sensed it was time for her to try and get a big tip. Yeah right!
Overall, this is arguably the worst restaurant experience I've had in the Napa County since moving here 7 years ago. There are quite a few other restaurants in the area that serve good food and decent portions for a comparable or cheaper price and actually make you feel like a welcome customer. It takes a lot for anyone in my family not to leave a tip, but in this case, we definitely do not regret leaving our waitress nothing.
I find Grille 29 to be an absolute disgrace and is a restaurant I'd strongly recommend to avoid like the plague. There's a reason why they are giving half-off their dinners on Tuesday nights, the establishment is 100% half-baked! read more