Twin City Grill — Restaurant in Bloomington

I've been to this restaurant many times for over 20 years, and I have usually had a good experience. However, when we went in July of 2025, we were disappointed because things did not go well.

On their lunch menu, this restaurant offers classic macaroni and cheese as well as loaded macaroni and cheese. We went for dinner, and the dinner menu only has the option for loaded macaroni and cheese which includes tomatoes, bacon, and toasted bread crumbs.

We explained to our server that one of our family members is vegetarian but they were hoping to get the macaroni and cheese. The only option on the dinner menu was the loaded macaroni and cheese which included bacon. Our server assured us that the kitchen staff would have no problem removing the bacon from the menu item to accommodate the vegetarian in our dinner party. So we proceeded to order in the loaded macaroni and cheese without bacon.

However, when the food was delivered we quickly discovered that the loaded macaroni and cheese did in fact still have bacon inside of it. It looked very appetizing because it had a layer of melted cheese and toasted bread crumbs on top with tomatoes mixed inside of it. Unfortunately, it also had bacon inside of it, so that was a major problem.

We trusted that the dish would have no meat, but our family member ended up accidentally eating meat which was very upsetting.

When we informed our server that there was bacon in our vegetarian meal item, the server downplayed the problem and assured us that the kitchen staff could give us the same high quality dish without the bacon. We were skeptical because this was the same promise the server made prior to delivering us the original dish (which ended up having bacon in it). But we agreed, and the server took the loaded mac and cheese away and we waited for the revised menu item to be delivered.

However, when the server brought the food back to the table, it was definitely not the same quality. The top did not have a melted layer of cheese with toasted bread crumbs, and there were no tomatoes mixed into the mac and cheese. It had a few loose chopped tomatoes sprinkled on top of poorly cooked macaroni. The cheese was not even well melted and there was a large amount of water content in the dish as well. Perhaps they were in a hurry and did not drain the noodles properly, I'm not sure what happened. I'm also not too sure how visible that is in my picture but the Mac and cheese was very soupy and runny, rather than cheesy.

We were charged for the full amount of the loaded mac and cheese with no offer to reduce the bill for the inconveniences or the reduction in food quality.

I apologize for not providing the same quality of pictures I normally include. But when our meal arrived, my focus shifted from taking photographs to dealing with the problem to try to get it resolved. I did include pictures of my remaining clam chowder which was very good, as well as what was left of my roast turkey plate which was very good as well.

Although our non-vegetarian options that we ordered that night tasted good, it was not enough to offset the bad experience we had with bacon being included in a vegetarian dish. They over promised but under delivered on being able to provide us with a vegetarian dish.

Like many people, I don't like to complain too much when I'm in a restaurant because I don't want to seem rude. So my only way to try to hold a restaurant accountable and to warn other consumers is to write a detailed review.

If you are not a vegetarian it is probably fine to go to this restaurant. But when a customer encounters a problem like this, they hope that the staff will take them seriously and try to resolve the problem. It would have also been nice to at least have been offered to reduce the bill, or at least to have been offered an apology. But the server downplayed this whole situation as being no big deal, which was...

I like telling these stories. We had what could have been a rough experience at TCG but this is an example of good management.

We have eaten there since it opened at the MOA. The food is always on point and the service good. This time was a bit of an off night. My husband and I sit down, order our food and drinks, and settle in to wait. No food. No order. Our drinks are empty. Our ice melted in the water. New tables filled and we watched them order AND GET their meals. 45 minutes pass and I track down our server whom I hadn’t seen who was entering things into the computer. I asked him what the status of our meal was and told him of the new tables getting fed. He responded that it should be a couple of minutes and it was busy and apologies Etc.

15 minutes later my husband spots the manager and has it out with him and gets a promise to look into it. I saw my server again and said to him “can I ask you an honest question... did you forget to submit our meal?? “. He lowered his head and admitted that that is what he did. I thanked him for his honesty and at that moment the. manager came to our table, apologized profusely, and comped our entire meal. Now THAT is class. We will return. Mistakes happen. But the classiest places apologize and make it right. In this case, this was more than we were hoping for and we offered to pay for our drinks but he would hear nothing of it. Our meal was comped and we were even offered free dessert and another round of drinks!

Because of the server’s honestly, we tipped him 20% of what the meal would have cost. The food was delicious and worth the wait!

That was classy and we...

Edit: @Sarah Rubio: Responding to my review by asking me to contact a manager at the restaurant is not very helpful. I already wrote everything down about our experience in my review - going over it again will not change anything. If you want a manager to be aware of our experience, please copy and paste this review into an email and send it to them. Often I see responses that come with an email address to follow up with, but you did not provide one. Eaten here several times over the past year so returned today, expecting the experience to be as good as before - but we were very disappointed. We arrived at late lunch time and although the main part of the restaurant had plenty of seating available, we were walked all the way to the very back of the restaurant, to sit in a room with just two other tables occupied - no atmosphere at all. Unfortunately the table right next to ours had people who were speaking very loudly so it was almost impossible to hear our own conversation. Our server started out fine, checking in with us to see if we were ready to order, however, once the food arrived, he kept on coming back, way more frequently than necessary. He took my partner's plate while I was still eating, and kept saying 'no rush' but then asked us about dessert when it was clear I wasn't close to being finished. Then he brought the check, again saying 'no rush' - it felt like he was about to go off shift and wanted us to hurry up and finish. The food itself was fine, but due to the service and being stuck in the back of the restaurant, it was a very disappointing meal so we will be...