Grove Wine Bar & Kitchen - Northwest Hills — Restaurant in Austin

We were happy to find The Grove has set up in Northwest Hills! Our first visit is perhaps a mixed review though. Some of the food didn't measure up.

They've done an excellent job with the build-out of the restaurant. The patios under the trees look awesome though we did sit indoors on this first visit. Indoors is spacious though get there early. Even though the bar area is pretty large it was already at capacity in the 5-6pm timeframe - on a Tuesday night.

The food and wine menu is the same as other locations as far we could tell so no real surprise there. We selected a Roero Arneis for wine. Always nice to find this Italian white on any menu. I do, though, remain perplexed as to why a wine bar would have absolutely no wine of any kind on the happy hour menu. Surely there are a few pedestrian selections you could put on a happy hour menu. It's only from 4 to 6pm.

We chose some bruschetta to start. All very tasty. We followed with a couple of salads. The Blackened Chicken was a winner. The large Wedge salad though was a real loser. First, there were many brown lettuce leaves that I pulled off and put to the side. This head of lettuce should never have been served. Second, there were zero "applewood smoked blue cheese crumbles".

We like the Grove but hope they step up the attention to the food - and offer a couple...

We were excited to dine at The Grove in Northwest Hills, having had wonderful experiences at the Lakeway and Westlake locations with both the food and waitstaff. As expected, the food was delicious, but unfortunately, our experience with payment left us with a negative impression.

We were overcharged for two extra wine flights, totaling $42, when we had only ordered one each. My husband paid the bill but later felt the total seemed high. When we double-checked, we realized the mistake and brought it to our waiter’s attention. He spoke with the manager, who dismissed it as a simple misunderstanding and assured us that the charge “wouldn’t go through until 3 a.m.” He then provided a new receipt, claiming everything was corrected.

However, when I asked about the tip adjustment, the manager initially brushed it off, saying it “stayed the same.” Since we had tipped based on the inflated total, I pressed further. He hesitated, then manually reduced the tip slightly and issued another revised receipt.

The entire interaction felt underhanded and dishonest. Mistakes happen, but the way this was handled (minimizing the issue, failing to properly adjust the tip, and requiring multiple requests for correction) left us questioning whether it was truly an accident. Unfortunately, this experience has made us hesitant to return to...

So this is a medium to high end eating establishment, so why did the meal get the lowest rating. Simply because it was a true disappointment. We ordered the tuna poke and it was very good, not close to the best I ever had. My salmon salad was a huge letdown. I requested the salmon to be medium or less. What arrived was a charred 2 ounce piece of a clearly “leftover” edge from a full fillet, cooked clearly well done. When a kitchen serves an edge of salmon like that, it tells you a lot. That is a piece, Mr. Restaurant Manager, for the staff or for your cat, but never (except at Denny’s) for your customer. The salmon arrived with crisped edges so I immediately knew that it was overcooked. So the chef didn’t care (possibly) or worse, doesn’t know (probably). No way it should have been plated and both the chef and my server should have seen that. The greens were ok, but a truly skimpy portion. Field greens that you grab from a vacuum sealed plastic bag? What else was in the salad? No tomatoes, no cucumber, sweet pepper? No, no and now I know! Service was great, atmosphere is wonderful. Guys-this isn’t an airport location. You need your customers to come back and tell their friends, right? Isn’t that...