My husband & I, along with two other friends were very excited to try Woodfire Grille located inside the Diamond Jo Casino (Dubuque, IA) which I. highly recommend having a reservation! Immediately when we walked in, I absolutely loved the beautiful modern fireplaces glowing in a slightly dark but incredible ambience that was very cozy & elegant perfect for an amazing date! There is a beautiful bar near the entrance! I loved that they served a small plate of lemons & cucumbers for our waters at the table along with delicious fresh baked complimentary bread! Their menu mostly consists of high quality USDA prime steaks, prime rib, seafood including lobster, pastas, and a beautiful extensive wine lists along with a fun popular cocktail/beer menu. They have awesome steak enhancements & additions such as lump crab, sea scallops, truffle oil mushrooms, and Maytag bleu cheese! On their menu, they also have other entree items such as New Zealand Lamb, Tasmanian King Salmon, and pan roasted chicken! On their menu the steaks do not automatically come with a side dish or salad included with the price of a steak. Sides and salads are separate additional costs along with the steaks. I ordered the ribeye steak with asparagus & half BLT wedge salad. My friends & husband ordered ribeye steak, lobster tails, and Hungarian pan roasted chicken.
The service was pretty good but could be a-lot better. Our server wasn't the most attentive and not super personable. My friend had to wait an extra long time for their chicken because it got dropped by the food runner and the replacement chicken entree took a long time in general because it is roasted.
My steak was cooked to perfection, was melt in my mouth tender, & the fat marbling from the ribeye gave it so much flavor! However, I wish they would have seasoned the steak more as I still had to add more salt and pepper. They also didn't cook my asparagus right as it was like chewing hard bamboo and not tender as I had thicker stalks of asparagus. Everybody else said they really enjoyed their dinner! My friend really raved about the French Onion soup!! The server got a little side tracked I think but never asked us how our food was. I only had a couple pieces of asparagus so I didn't make a big deal.
We didn't have room for delicious dessert but they offered us small bite size delicious homemade chocolate truffles at the end.
My overall impression of Woodfire Grille is the ambiance is excellent with the beautiful, relaxing, exquisite lighting of the modern fireplaces/comfortable seating! The service was not as top notch as I was hoping for such an upscale restaurant. The food for the most part was amazing but a few things got messed up like the hard asparagus!
This is still a nice place to go for upscale dining in Dubuque especially when you are looking for steaks and seafood! read more