I enjoy eating. Going out for dinner with friends on a Saturday night be that for a casual dinner or to celebrate an event is meant to be an enjoyable experience.
Last night, however, was far from enjoyable.
The Grill and Grape restaurant in Carlow is one of the latest additions to the town’s list of eateries. Several of our staff had eaten there over the last couple of months and had mixed experiences.
On a Saturday night you need to book to get into most good restaurants in Carlow, or any other town for that matter. It’s probably one of their busiest nights of the week.
So we booked a table for about 6 of us for 8. I was late arriving, as I’m usually the first to arrive and end up waiting around by myself. I was expecting to find the rest of my party happily drinking an aperitif of some kind, but discovered that although they had been sitting there for about 15 minutes nobody had bothered to take their drinks order.
Another ten minutes or more passed before a waitress appeared and took our order. I tried to order the beef carpaccio, but was told that it was no longer on the menu (odd that considering it was printed on it and nobody bothered to tell us that it was no longer available).
Between us we ordered 4 starters, a couple of beers, water and a bottle of Rioja.
The Rioja was bland. How you can even find a bland Rioja is a bit of a mystery to me, as I’d never actually had a bland Rioja before, but I was planning on trying a different wine for our second bottle. Of course that never happened for one simple reason – the waiting staff never bothered coming back to take any other drink orders!
So what about the food? The starters weren’t exactly memorable and they completely forgot to serve one, which meant that Niall was left sitting there while the rest of us munched away at our bruschetta (not exactly the best rendering of that dish).
I had ordered a steak with pepper sauce, but got some other sauce instead. We’d been waiting so long for each course to be served that I just ate it anyway. For a steakhouse the meat wasn’t exactly amazing.
The dessert menu is uninspiring and is dominated by ice cream, though they also had a chocolate cake available, which a couple of us opted for topped with a hot chocolate sauce.
I ordered a post dinner Calypso coffee, but of course this never materialised and was completely forgotten by the waiting staff. One of the others ordered a tea but had to change the order as they didn’t have that particular tea in stock!
The service in the Grill and Grape was truly dire. Although they seem to have plenty of staff floating around the place they seem incapable of providing a reasonable level of service.
How any restaurant can possibly survive when a party of 6 only runs up a bill of about 40 euro / head but takes up a table for 3 hours is beyond me.
If you’re heading to Carlow and want a good meal there are plenty of places you can go – The Grill and Grape isn’t one of them.
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I really think this restaurant has a lot going for it. Its location and interior design sets it apart from other restaurants in the town.
However the service is a common fault found by (and Im not making this up) everyone I have heard has gone there.
Totally agree with the meat comment. If a steak is your primary product / a key factor in your branding it needs to be memorable, which it is not in this case.
Regarding the sides and desserts, they are fine as they are…. if your steak is good. A steakhouse will typically offer sides almost as a garnish to the big show. They should pale in significance to the steak.
Has anyone tried their non steak dishes?
Gary
I won’t disagree with you about the location, but if the service is substandard I can’t see it surviving.
In a group of 6 we’d easily have run up a hefty bill last night if the service had been anyway efficient. 1 bottle of wine is not normal – we’d normally have 2 or 3 and several rounds of beer etc.,
I think a couple of people tried the non-steak offerings, but I’m not sure what they had
Michele
Jesus I just spit coffee all over my keyboard laughing at niall not getting his starter…. 😀
I keep meaning to post a comment for this – better late than never.
I was there on the same evening – I left about 10 minutes before you arrived. On the evening in question I had great service and a very attentive staff but I have previously had problems there. When things get busy then any organisation that was there starts to fall apart.
Unfortunately I’m often surprised at how often a restaurant screws up by not following up on the drinks orders. It’s such easy money and yet it gets thrown away. If they concentrated a little more on that – then they’d have the funds to train the employees properly.
Hopefully they get it sorted out soon. I do actually like the food and would hate to see them have to close.
Keith
I used to work in MUCH busier restaurants (300+ seaters) so I honestly cannot understand how their service can be that bad without them noticing.
I’ve eaten in most of the other restaurants in Carlow, plenty of places in Dublin, Paris, Milan, Venice, Madrid, Los Angeles, London etc., etc., and while the service in some instances wasn’t exemplary it is rare that I have had such a bad experience that I would remember it.
Apart from anything else I don’t see how they can make money if they don’t upsell, which would require a basic level of attentiveness
Thanks for your comment
Michele