Coldwater Grill House and Wine Bar — Restaurant in Severn

Food, good. Service...meh.

My boyfriend and I dined here last night, and while we had a nice enough experience, and the food was good, there were many disappointing moments.

For one thing, I made this reservation days prior, and even called to confirm, and I had mentioned twice that it was really important to me that my boyfriend get a surprise birthday desert at the end of our meal. The woman on the phone said they would accommodate, and confirmed. But it never came.

When we got there, I noticed none of the tables were adequately spaced out to ensure social distancing, and we ended up closely sandwiched between two other tables of diners. While I felt extremely uncomfortable given the pandemic, I decided not to make a fuss because we were there celebrating my boyfriend's birthday, so I wanted it to go smoothly.

We waited for some time to be served, but that wasn't a huge deal. When we got our appetizer of the various dips, it was amazing, but it didn't come with a portion of pita bread that made sense with that amount of dips, so we asked for more as we had a ton leftover. Our server said that our upcoming salads would come with pita bread, so she didn't bring us any. That gave us the impression our salads were coming right out, since we made it clear we wanted more pita bread to finish our appetizers. Well, we waited nearly...20 minutes I would say? All the while, staring at our mound of dips. That alone sort of took a star off for me.

My boyfriend ordered the shrimp, which he very much enjoyed, but it came with probably 6 pieces of tiny shrimp, and the dish cost over $35, so that also bothered me. The portion size was poor at best, and just didn't make sense for that amount of money.

We also noticed that the gentleman at the front (I'm assuming he's the owner) was walking around the entire night, going table to table and serving people, without wearing a mask. So that made me uneasy as well, and I just don't think during a time like this that that's appropriate or sends a good message to the diners.

I also noticed that our server's presence was pretty scarce for the majority of our meal, and we were often left waiting, even to pay. She had an entire dining room to serve all on her own, and obviously that compromises everyone's dining experience due to the totally unbalanced server to diner ratio. Perhaps a couple more servers during busy times would help this?

Overall, like I said, the food was quite good, but the whole experience is important when it's a special event, especially a birthday. So I was disappointed by those few things, particularly the fact that they had forgotten to bring out a birthday desert for us even after I had requested it multiple times beforehand. That was a...

Wow good job! This place is a diamond in the ruff!!! It is clearly obvious that the owner takes great pride in his establishment right from the quality of the food to the takeout containers. We consider ourselves foodies, and dine out frequently. My husband had the lamb shank which was absolutely outstanding and probably the best lamb he has ever had. I had the pork schnitzel and it was absolutely delicious. We started out with two Greek salads. We were also brought amazing warm pita bread with homemade tzatziki sauce with our salads, which we did not expect. We wanted to try the Caesar salad but decided to choose the Greek salad and our server, Samantha brought us the Caesar salad anyway to try free of charge.......so tasty!!! We ended with their Incredible cheesecake selections! Our server, Samantha was probably one of the best servers we have had. She went above and beyond and was just the right amount of everything! She did so many extra things for us to make our experience even better. We just loved her so much!! They have a beautiful outdoor patio, if you choose to eat outdoors and it is gorgeous inside the dining room. It has a lovely bar area and cozy fireplace. The music they played in the background was so sweet and fitting. Even their takeout containers were high quality. And above all else, what an amazing price point!!!! This is going to be one of our new favorite spots and we will tell everyone to go there without any hesitation. It was a Thursday night and by 5:30 p.m. the place was almost filled. They also have a back room that is glass so you can see out into the woods. It is a huge room where you could host larger functions. Thank you so much for an unforgettable dinner with the Cold water grill. WE WILL...

Unfortunately we left before having our meal served due to the incredibly long wait time. The indoor space is quite cozy and loud. I found there to be to many items on the menu. The theme of the menu appears to be greek. Many great options however I believe to many options can cause problems, which brings me to the reason for such a poor review.

It does seem they are one of the many restaurants struggling with being short staffed. I think the staff is overwhelmed with to many tables. I do like the wide variety of craft beer and we did have a salad that was very nice and light. We waited for 45 minutes for our appetizer to arrive. We decided to cancel our order due to us being there for over an hour and we don't have time to wait another hour for our main course.

I understand this is a newer restaurant and it takes a while to work out the kinks. My advice is to have some sort of management on the floor to assist where required. To close off part of the restaurant as they're obviously to short staffed at the moment to take on as many people as they are. Possibly shorten the menu as the food does look good, but the prep may be to long to serve in a timely Manor.

I also think whom ever the manager is should be on the floor checking with their guests and personally apologising for displeased guests. The server did her best to apologize however it is not her fault and I tipped her according to her time.

I do not see myself returning and it really is a shame as I prefer to support small businesses. I hope this review is helpful and some changes are made to support the serving staff as they are obviously overwhelmed and they unfortunately get the brunt of it if the kitchen is backed up...