I would got to battle against anyone who said anything against this place, but after our experience last night I wouldn't wish a meal here on a mortal enemy.
We were just left heartbroken, empty, and disappointed.
We arrived ~20 minutes early for our 7:15 reservation. No big deal, we're told the table wouldn't be ready until 7:15, so we opted for beers at the bar. Also informed the rest of our 4 top not to show up until 7:15. By 7:45 multiple other parties had been seated, the place is half empty, and I was wondering if we got passed up. Checked back in with the host and then told our table has been ready, but they needed to seat multiple larger parties first. Ok, weird and slightly unprofessional response, but whatever we still have our table.
8pm rolls around and we're finally seated. But just seated, no menus or anything. Just us hanging at our empty table. Server then swings by and asks if we're ready to order. What? Maybe some menus first?
After getting menus and making decisions, server comes back and we order apps. But he takes off before half of us could order drinks. Finally flag him down and get the rest of the table taken care of.
Apps come and we're missing drinks. Another team effort to get our server's attention to ask if drinks were still en route. They had been sitting on the bar the whole time.
When he finally makes an unflagged lap to our table, we order entrees while still mid apps.
1 hour later....
We finally get our entrees. We had all eaten light to prepare for this meal. I mean, dinners at Grale are always amazing and worth this method of preparation. We also split 2 appetizers among 4 people because we were so looking forward to our mains.
I think you can guess where this is going?
My silverware was cleared with the appetizers, ya know, an hour ago? No one hung around long enough to be able to ask for another set, even when they dropped off steak knives at our table. Same when entrees dropped. So I'm finally sitting in front of my entree with no silverware. By this time, our server is gone. Like, I'm 99% sure he's left the building. Ended up going to the bar and waiting on a set of silverware there.
I was probably better off without the silverware. Everyone's entree was terrible. When you've waited an hour for a meal you've been thinking about all day, hunger forces you to tolerate awful things.
The sliced steaks were cold. Not cool, not warm, not room temp....cold. The medium rare they both ordered somehow translated to VERY rare. The steak slices were so cold, the compound butter didn't even soften. Yes, cold butter smeared on cold, undercooked steak slices.
Our other 2 entrees were on par with the steaks. 2 salmon dishes whose bowls were warmer than anything actually inside the bowl. No seasoning, tepid heat lamp fish, and unevenly cooked fingerling potatoes. Bone apple teeth.
Everyone was ravenous and started digging in, but faces were obvious to read and we were soon comparing notes to see if it was worth sending back. 3 out of 4 of us are former food services workers, so we can tolerate a lot, but 2 cold $40 steak dishes is a little too much for even us.
Nope. Not sending anything back. Why? At this point our server was actually drinking at the bar with a date/partner. When another bartender came around, I thought she was going to inquire how everything was and we'd share our issues. Nope. Nope. Nope. We were notified ~10 minutes into getting our entrees that the kitchen was closing down and if we wanted anything else we needed to order it now.
What is going on? At this point, we're wondering if we're in an alternate dimension or on some recorded prank show.
While everyone else was too hungry to pass up a meal, the idea of room temp fish and unevenly cooked potatoes stopped me in my tracks. All we could do was wait for someone to come by and get the check. The poor girl who had to take over our table could tell something was very not good and comped a round of beers. The funny thing was, the beers were the only good part when we actually received them.
Very disappointing and deflating experience. This place was always a go to recommendation and solid spot for food and beer. I don't think I can ever bring myself to step foot back in there, I'm just too disappointed. read more