Upstairs at the Grill — Restaurant in England

Such a shame. Visited today for lunch at 1pm, after being recommended for one of the best Sunday lunches in Chester. Unfortunately this was far from our experience. Very warm welcome and we were seated at a nice table on the terrace. We ordered 2 roast beef dinners and after 10-15 minutes our food arrived. Very nicely presented but looks can be deceiving. We both asked for our beef to be served pink and unfortunately mine was well done, I could tell they had over cooked mine as my Nans beef was beautifully pink. However the amount of fat for 2 slices of beef was not acceptable. The roast potatoes were dry and seemed like they’d been sitting for a while under lights however this wasn’t possible as it was only 1:20pm (ish) The Yorkshire pudding again were dry even with plenty of beef jus added. We both felt very disappointed especially as it had been recommended. When asked during our meal if everything was okay, I did mention about my disappointment and that the beef was served well done. The gentleman asked if I’d like a new meal but it was too far into our meal for this to be an option. We asked for the bill straight away after finishing and the lady brought us the bill and asked how everything was. I explained everything above and her response wasn’t as should be. She assured us the beef was the best quality and we should have mentioned our concerns during our meal. However I can assure you the beef was not the best quality and we did mention during our meal. Another gentleman then brought a second copy of our bill over and mentioned something had been taken off as an apology. We looked at the bill to find our 2 soft drinks that totalled £5 had been taken off. I’ll attach a photo and as you can see I hardly ate anything and I had to go Chester markets afterwards for more food! To top off the experience as we were leaving no members of staff apart from the younger lad from Wrexham said good-bye, thank you, sorry or anything similar. I work in hospitality and have done for many years so I know for £23 the quality of the food should be significantly better and the way we were dealt with should have been different. Top left was the amount of fat Bottom right was...

Went for sunday lunch for a relative's birthday, they had a set menu for two courses that was reasonable. Some options were quite small (6oz steak and fries was significantly smaller than other options like Roast Beef). The meat was very nice however the roast beef was very fatty, some people ended up dissecting theirs resulting in not very much in the way of meat. What meat there was it was very nice and the roast potatoes were among the best I've ever tasted, their cabbage and bacon dish was very nice too.

Service was a bit disjointed, a long wait for food and a bit of a delay gettting through our larger group. Some were halfway done before some even got their food. The staff may need a bit more coordination as we had 2/3 people ask if everything was OK within quick sucession, just the one would do as we were hesitant to carry on eating as someone else may come around. Otherwise the staff were friendly & helped explain dishes we weren't sure of (The cabbage and bacon part of the roast beef dinner).

The dessert I had was nice, others choices looked nice too. Not sure why there was cress on a chocolate brownie though. That seemed to confuse a few people but I'm guessing it was decorative?

Drinks were quite expensive and there were some beers not on their drinks menu and no mention of their price. I assumed it would be £4.50/5.00 like the others on their menu but that was for a small bottle.

All in all it's a nice spot but not necessarily my preference or somewhere I'd go regularly. The bar area upstairs is very dark and I struggled to read the drinks menu instead opting to just ask the server. The dining room downstairs is right on the street level of a busy corner so be prepared for passers by to look in at you! if you're a big steak fan then supposedly...

Overall we had a really nice evening here, but, considering the price point, I would expect perfection, and it was not perfect.

Positives: really interesting menu options. Although this is primarily a steak restaurant I was able to have something I'd never had before: a carrot tartare, and this was really interesting and tasty. The other starters of soup and the soufflé were also really good. The members of the party that did eat steak said overall it was great (partner said it was in his top 3 of all time). Mac and cheese and creamed spinach were delicious. Service was exceptional and really attentive, they talked through the whole menu with us and gave recommendations, and even brought out the cuts of meat we could have to assist in us choosing. Our water was kept topped up without asking. I liked the vibe of the venue with the little individual lamps on tables so you could control your own light levels. I also liked being taken to the separate bar area to have a drink while we ordered.

Negatives: two of our party ordered steaks medium, and one medium rare. One of the medium steaks was the rarest we had, even rarer than the medium rare steak and it put her off eating it. Sure we could have complained but I would expect somewhere like this to get the steak cookery right? My cauliflower main was cooked fine on the edges but inside was too hard, I'm used to al dente and happy with that but it was borderline raw. Dauphinois potatoes needed more salt. Salt and vinegar onion rings needed more salt and vinegar- they just tasted like plain onion rings. The desserts were definitely style over substance. Supposedly brownie was meant to be in the chocolate galaxy but it was just a few dry crumbs in the...