Big Grove Tavern — Restaurant in Champaign

Big Grove Tavern - March 06, 2023. (UPDATE: The lower review is due to the service more than the food. The Big Grove Tavern seems like a decent place. You might consider giving it a try.)

I had the taco steak platter, and the food had GREAT flavor. SMALL portions yet well-made steak tacos with cilantro, cheese, and lightly spiced sour cream. It came with rice, guacamole, and mashed black beans. The beans serving was scarce; there should have been more. Compared to the rice and guac, the beans are the lowest cost for the restaurant.

The food was good, and the flavors saved it all in the end. If not, I'd say it's at that OVERPRICED range. Yes, I would order this meal again.

The place has a good but strange vibe. Other than the food portion to price. Where it all went downhill was my waitress. I HAD TO FLAG HER DOWN FOR EVERYTHING. After getting my water and free popcorn, that was it. I had to work on getting her attention. The free popcorn was wasted on me as I didn't eat any.

I flagged her as she blew by me, asking if I knew what I wanted to drink. I commented on trying to decide what to order. "Ok, let me know," as she kept going - zoom. She DIDN'T offer any suggestions; she never really stopped long enough to talk. She did talk a little bit when I ordered my food. By NOT taking a few minutes, she probably LOST a sale or two. I was considering the Pappy Van Winkle bourbon ('20 or '23).

It would not have taken much to push me into buying one, maybe two Pappy's. I've never had a Pappy's, and I want to try it. Both Pappy's (20 or 23) are $75 to $100 each per drink. Even so, had she stopped to talk, I would have gotten some type of bourbon.

I had to flag her down to order my food, and she still didn't ask what I'd like to drink. She seemed more distracted. Hmmm... Strange for a bar/pub!

My food came being brought by another person. Who, too, NEVER asked if I needed anything or if I'd like to order a drink. Every place I've been, the person who delivers the food always asks if there's anything that I need.

So, I politely sat there, hoping to order a drink (bourbon or beer) before I started eating. I had to wait, flagging her down to order a Blue Moon.

I understand her waiting on one person; me. You'd assume to keep your larger group at a table happier than one person. Regardless, even one person might pay/tip more than the larger table. She was busy, but not that busy that she could have treated me as a customer. Not to mention, the bar staff saw me looking at the bourbons. Not one of them asked if I wanted something.

Yes, though I don't live there, at this time, I'm not sure if...

I want to start out by saying the service is fantastic. Quick, attentive, and very nice. The place itself was beautiful as well. However… the food left everything to be desired. I wouldn’t say it was “bad”, but I would call it aggressively mid. My fiancé and I got the braided pretzel, the steak frites, and the osso bucco. The pretzel was soft and the cheese sauce was delicious, but there was not nearly enough for the size of the pretzel. If you dip sparingly, you have just about enough for half the pretzel. It also comes with a very high quality mustard… that doesn’t pair well with the pretzel at all. The flavor was too overpowering to go with the simple pretzel. It would be a fabulous mustard paired with something more flavorful, but as it was it did not work. The portions of the entrees were heaping and generous, but a lot of flavorless food isn’t good for much. In the case of the osso bucco, the pork shank was… fine. About par with Cracker Barrel pot roast. The mashed potatoes were watery and lacked seasoning. About par with boxed mashed potatoes. The vegetables were good, seasoned and not overcooked. But overall it was far too close to a frozen dinner for far too high of a price tag. The steak frites were well portioned, but again under whelming. While the steak was cooked perfectly to order (medium), it was tough and difficult to cut. There was practically no flavor to the steak medallions. I even loaded them with the herb butter and piled a bite with the red wine sauce and… nothing. Completely unseasoned. The supposed truffle fries were like hunks of cardboard. Not crispy, not fluffy, tasted like nothing. Reminiscent of Wendy’s fries that sat out for a little too long. Very disappointing. I hate to say anything negative, especially about a locally owned business, but when you are asking about $30+ per person, the food should taste like something. We spent about $100 on this dinner and came away feeling like we had eaten lean cuisines. I know this is a favorite of the CU community, so I know we are in a minority. Perhaps we caught the chef on a bad day, perhaps new kitchen staff were training and missed some steps. Every review is from a singular moment, but it was far too upsetting to walk away and...

This is a pretty lively place with a bright cheery atmosphere at a great central location in downtown.

Food was good, but nothing to write home about. We felt that about both the steak medallions and the burger we ordered. Another thing to keep in mind: their barbecue sauce is called coffee barbecue. It literally smells and tastes like coffee. I personally liked it, but my son did not at all and could not eat his Hickory burger because of it. It’s an acquired taste and something to keep in mind when ordering anything with barbecue sauce at this place.

Service was overall good… with one wrinkle that I describe below if you’re interested to read the details.

Overall, a decent place to try out.

Here’s the wrinkle I mentioned above: A couple of us had the steak medallions. It’s just three small, two-bite steak pieces with a bunch of fries on the plate for $29. That would’ve been fine for a good piece of steak, but the cut of steak we got was not good. Super hard to cut and chewy (it was requested to be prepared Medium).

When CJ, our waiter, asked about how things are going, I told him what I felt about it honestly. To his credit, CJ said he would get the manager so I can relay that feedback directly.

Then I saw him talking to the manager about 15 feet from me. Instead of the manager, CJ came back alone to say that the manager said they could have some new steak pieces prepared - which they eventually did and since those new pieces took about 25 minutes to arrive at our table, CJ graciously even comped the dish. Thank you CJ. I appreciate this service you provided.

Some feedback for the manager: Thank you for accommodating us as your customer and listening to the feedback. It would have been even nicer if you had just come over to the table yourself since it was not that busy at that time. That would’ve been a nice courteous gesture that I would’ve...