Last week, while in North Conway for a small road getaway, a few of us decided to stop at 110 Grill…read morefor dinner. Unfortunately, the experience was disappointing from the moment we walked through the door.
When we approached the host stand, the first thing the hostess said was, "Hold on, give me a moment," before walking away and saying that she needed to "recoup." She appeared extremely overwhelmed and stressed, which was surprising considering the restaurant was nowhere near busy. From what we could see, there were only about five parties in the entire restaurant, including those seated outside.
Several other customers were also standing near the entrance waiting to be seated. While we were waiting, a party of about 10 people came in looking to have dinner. The hostess returned, still visibly flustered, told them it would be a moment, and then went over to speak with the manager. After waiting more than 10 minutes without being seated, that entire party eventually gave up and left.
Once we were finally seated, things unfortunately did not improve.
I've been to other 110 Grill locations before, and I've never seen anything like a sign at the bar stating that there was no bartender and customers should not sit at the bar. At that point, it became pretty clear that this location was either severely understaffed, poorly managed, or both.
After ordering, our drinks took an extremely long time to arrive. Eventually, I had to get the attention of another waitress because our server was nowhere to be found. Meanwhile, some employees appeared to be standing around talking or looking at their phones.
While waiting for our food, I could see the kitchen area and watched three employees preparing meals. At one point, the manager had to step in and direct them on when to start cooking certain meals so everything would come out together. Some finished plates also appeared to sit waiting longer than they should have.
By the time our food arrived, we had been waiting close to an hour and were starving.
Some of the meals were cooked properly, but others were not. The biggest disappointment was the two steaks we ordered medium-well. Both came out far beyond well-done. Parts of the steaks were so overcooked and hard that we couldn't even finish half of them.
We brought the issue to our server's attention. Considering how badly the steaks were overcooked, especially after such a long wait, I expected some type of adjustment to the bill. Instead, we were still charged the full $45 for the steak.
I understand that restaurants can have bad nights and that staffing shortages happen. But when a restaurant is nearly empty and customers are still waiting excessive amounts of time to be seated, served drinks, and receive properly cooked food, there is clearly a larger problem.
Based on our experience, if you're in North Conway and see 110 Grill, I'd keep driving. There are plenty of other places in the area to spend your money and enjoy a good meal.