Jellico's is located inside the brand new Westin Hotel, Southlake, Texas. The property and restaurant/bar areas are beautiful but the food served at Jellico's, absolutely blows. The menu is so "overthought" that it completely misses the mark by fifty miles. Here is the problem, young and promising chefs are given an opportunity at a new hotel restaurant and they feel the need to design to impress.......themselves and no one else. Take a look at the lunch and dinner menu, it is so unbelievably lacking. This is Texas, not some hippie hotel in San Francisco. If I were a guest at the Westin and saw this menu, I would laugh and walk out the door and travel less that ten minutes in any direction to Grapevine, Southlake, Keller or Roanoke and have 75 delicious restaurants at my fingertips ranging from upscale steakhouses, seafood, Mexican, Italian, Asian and BBQ, just to name a few. And the Jellico's menu is absolutely NOT going to attract locals (which the restaurant should strive for as they will fill the funding void on low occupancy days.) now to our dining experience. We went as a party of three adults to give it a shot, we are locals. As we entered the beautiful property on a Wednesday night, the restaurant, fully staffed at 7pm was absolutely dead. That should have been the first warning. So we sat in the beautiful bar, dead. Outstanding service all around, I will not take that away. I ordered the hamburger (ground beef AND ground pork patty) and it was good, but just a burger. I can get that anywhere. The wife, a true Southern girl, had the Shrimp and Grits, she said they blew. The grits tasted like someone opened a can of cream corn and folded it in, shrimp were cooked but very unseasoned. She did not finish her dish. Our guest had the Butternut Squash Ravioli. Absolutely flavorless and undercooked. I objectively tasted both dishes and absolutely concurred. So two of the signature dishes were left with only a couple of bites taken. A manager came over and offered hollow excuses, did not Comp the dishes but did provide a free dessert, a very poor decision. Any other "fine" restaurant would have comped those two dishes, no questions asked. The Lunch and Dinner menu itself is EXTREMELY limited, take a look and judge for yourself. Would you bring your family to dinner there if that is all you had to choose from? Would you take a business client there for lunch if that is all that was offered (unless you wanted a burger)? I think not. There is a reason why that beautiful restaurant was dead, the food and menus killed it. You will NEVER get locals to dine and spend money there in any kind of volume you need to support that establishment. It will be "first time" and most likely, last time locals.
So my recommendation to the Chef, for gosh sake, reinvent those menus and offer competitive food options that will draw people to eat, not go elsewhere. You lunch menu should have several sandwich, pasta and Texas specialty options. Your dinner menu should offer delicious steak (not just one for goodness sake), pasta, chops, seafood and creative specialty items. Friday and Saturday should have the best "Prime Beef" Prime Rib dinner in the area..you have the kitchen to do it, so DO IT! That bar should be packed, but as long as you continue to "short pour" your martini's with cheesy "measured 2oz pours," folks are simply going to go elsewhere. Trust me on that. Okay, I gave y'all an honest and very objective review. I am a foodie of the highest order and I do many social media reviews. This one pained me to write, but it is an honest review. Chef, you have an opportunity to reinvent Jellico's and make it into a guest/local favorite, or, Marriott Corporate (and I am a Lifetime Platinum Elite member AND a stockholder, is going to start asking questions. I wish you good luck and will keep an eye on things. read more