Was in the Harrisburg area over the weekend. After scouring the internet for a place to eat dinner, we settled on the Progress Grill, mainly because of the 4.1 star rating as well as the highly touted prime rib reviews.
Upon entering the restaurant, I immediately felt comfortable with our choice. It was very clean, elegant dinning area and waiters were dressed to the point that I felt slightly under dressed but this was a good thing. Unfortunately after being seated, like the name of the restaurant things got "Progress-ively" worse.
The first warning should have been our server who I must say was nice enough, but clearly had no experience at fine dining service. After taking our drink order, she immediately started going down the list of vegetables we could choose with our entrees. Keep in mind, we hadn't decided on appetizers yet. Needless to say, this left all five of us looking at each other like WTF is going on here. She also had an issue with serving each of us individually. Now keep in mind we are sitting at a round table, not a booth and every time she approached the table she would go to the same spot and hand everyone their food or drink across the table. We all, other then the person she was standing next too had to stand up and take our drinks and food from her hands. Now I'm not asking to be fed like some aristocrat but try reaching across the table to grab a Martini filled to the brim without spilling some of it.
Anyway onto the drinks. I went with a Grey Goose Martini and explicitly noted "on the dirty side". My friends ordered a Sam Adams bottle, a Blue Martini, fountain sodas and a coffee. The Grey Goose Martini came out, at sight I could tell it was not "dirty" as requested which was confirmed after the first sip. My friends Sam Adams was warm. You cant wreck soda, and the coffee which took a good 20 minutes to come out wasn't bad either. I certainly can't complain about a fresh pot of coffee being brewed, but this was after 9pm. Most restaurants have more then one coffee pot, no excuse for a 20 minute wait on a cup of coffee. I personally think the server forgot to put the pot on.
Lets move onto the appetizers: steamed clams, jumbo lump crab cake meat again all served from one spot requiring the folks on the opposite side of the table to stand and take the food directly from the serves out reached hands. The appetizers were ok, the clams on the small side but no complaints. The jumbo lump crab meat was ok although obviously just pulled from a can. The Calamari, I've had worse but this was nothing special.
Now onto the main course. I went into this place with one thing on my mind, prime rib!!! According to all of the reviews they had, they had the "best" in the Harrisburg area.
We had a party of five, three of which were leaning towards the prime rib until we were told there were only two left. Granted it was later in the evening so them being almost sold out didn't bother me but I decided against it because I didn't want to be left with a crappy cut. In the end only one of us ordered the rib. I went with the Chilean Sea Bass, the others in the party ordered Crab Imperial, King Crab Legs and a Tenderloin Sandwich.
Four of the five meals came out when about five of our appetizers were finished. Once again the server was back to handling dinners across the table to our out stretched hands, which made matters worse was the plates from the appetizers where never removed which made for quite an experience trying to find empty spots on the table for each of our entrees.
The report on the prime rib was decent. My sea bass was not bad but have bad way better at Bone Fish and that is a franchise joint. Also would have been a lot better if I could have eaten it as soon as it was served rather then then wait 10 minutes and have it cool off... ill get to that in a minute. The Crab Imperial and King Crab was reported as excellent but keep in mind that report was from a 20 year old & same with the tenderloin sandwich... once it finally made it to the table after being either forgotten by our wonderful inept server or the cook seemed to be pretty hungry too, but its tardy arrival is why the other four in our party got to eat tepid meals. Where I come from it's just rude to start eating while someone else is still waiting on their dinner.
Final assumption: All in all the food wasn't bad but in my opinion this place is just a diner dressed in a tuxedo which I could have dealt with as prices were moderate.But the lack of service killed the entire experience. read more