The Grocery — Restaurant in Charleston

TLDR: rude management, slow/overworked service (bartender was our waiter), decent food, smoke filled restaurants. If we didn’t have such a horrible experience waiting for our food and talking to management, I’d give it a 3.

Visiting as a group of 10, I obviously understand service is going to be slower and more annoying for everyone involved but I didn’t force them to accept the reservation.

We arrived a few minutes early to our 8pm reservation and ordered a few drinks at the bar while they set our table. After we were seated, we didn’t get water or menus for at least 15 minutes. We were very understanding at this point when the bartender came over and apologized. Maybe 10 more minutes went by and we ordered all of our food. Now, again, I understand ordering as a group of 10 was complicated but it all seemed fine when she read it back to us. One of us is GF and another is vegan so there were some changes but mostly “cheese on the side,” nothing major. We ordered bread and when that still hadn’t come by 845/9, I inquired about the status. It came right away and we ordered another round immediately because we were so hungry. At 930, I asked where the rest of the food was and some of the apps/smaller plates arrived. By 10, the rest of the food had arrived (somethings were duplicated, some missing) and we were missing a MR steak. We had ordered two at two different temperatures then switched the temperature of one so I totally understand how this happened. However, when they were notified it was missing at 10 (PM!!!) it took them almost 20 minutes to bring another one. I am not a chef but 20 mins for a MR steak was a little crazy to us. Oh and then the second order of bread came with that lol.

One of my friends when to speak to the manager because of the issued we’d experienced (delays, duplicates, missing items) and was essentially told that she was a classless moron with no experience in the restaurant industry and the restaurant took no blame in anything that happened. Some of the exact words she spoke were, “this isn’t a fast casual restaurant,” “have you ever eaten at a nice restaurant before?,” and “we will not be comping anything since you ate the food.” I don’t know about you but if someone spoke to me that way, I’d have a hard time hearing them out.

After that, I made it very clear to the waitress that we in no way blamed her and would not be giving her a bad tip and she looked at me with tears in her eyes and told me she had just quit. Okay so clearly something was going on this whole time so we got the bill, left our waitress a cash tip (didn’t trust the management after that) and went on our way.

Like I said in the beginning, if we weren’t spoken to like that maybe it would have been 3-stars for the food and vibes but I can’t support a place that speaks to...

A small group of my friends came to town to celebrate one of their birthdays. Two of the 5 of us live here in Charleston. One is a restaurant owner of three concepts in another state. 4 of us have been servers in restaurants in college and grad school. This is my review with some of their experiences as well.

Starting with the positive: Our server, Rachel. She was a fantastic server, had a positive attitude, and really seemed to care about her work. The cocktails were reportedly great (I did not have one). The appetizers/shareables were great. We loved the Green Tomato Carpaccio, the Roasted Summer Squash, and Wood Roasted Peaches. One friend had the Eggplant Puttanesca and enjoyed it (flavorful and properly portioned).

Areas of improvement: Having properly trained and appropriate staff. We heard one of the servers (Nick, I believe his name was but could be wrong.) speaking ill about the group of us. He proceeded to talk about us to 4 other servers. It was around 5:30pm and there were no other diners around us.

Apparently, we were laughing and enjoying each others company at The Grocery that must have bothered him. It ruined the experience for all of us. We felt very uncomfortable for the remainder of the dinner (this was after drinks were ordered but before the apps/shareables came out). A friend that owns three restaurants motioned to a gentleman that appeared to be the front of house manager. She asked that he "reel the server in" because his behavior was unacceptable. The manager never came back to our table to apologize or say anything at all.

The main courses were overall, a disappointment. The gnocchi were square and looked like pillows. There was no real flavor to them. They were accompanied by peas, onions, and some rubbery ham-like meat in a watery substance. The grouper was smaller than the size of a small appetizer, totally 3 small bites and maybe two cherry tomatoes cut in half. My spouse had the Keegan-Filion Pork ‘Milanese’ and stated “It was decent. Nothing to write home about.” I don’t remember what my last friend had or if she enjoyed it.

Having spent more than $350 before tip, we expected better. This restaurant has great ratings, but I am not sure why. The décor is lacking and there is an odor in the restaurant. They have jars filled with vegetables as part of the décor but more than half of them were missing and looked odd.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend. There are far better restaurants downtown that are equal in price but far superior in...

Tried this restaurant on a whim. We loved the decor and ambiance that welcomed us. However, that felt like the only thing that welcomed us. Host and manager were kind and seated us quickly- in a mostly empty restaurant. Seemed like an more upscale restaurant with a unique food and drink menu. Food ranging from $15-60 per piece. The menu was slightly difficult to understand, not clear on serving size was it an appetizer or a full entree? We quickly decided something to drink and eat after or waiter hovering. Food came quickly and was pretty good. The fresh bread and butter was delicious. My sister ordered the Lamb Sugo . Her pasta was quite delicious. I had ordered the Baked Oysters- for $20 I received 5 oysters. They had an entirely too odd texture, felt like I was chewing sand, and it was slightly too salty for me. I was disappointed especially given the price. On top of the less than ideal meal, we begun to notice that the service we were receiving was significantly lower than the new patrons that were sat next to us. The server would look them in the eye- refused to make eye contact with me. The server provided a full run down of the menu, explaining how the menu worked along with recommendations- we receive none of this, merely was rushed to sit down order and get out. I asked for the brewery of the beer that I had ordered it- we waited for a response, received none. I can understand my sister and I are younger, however the price of the food is supposed to come with the experience as well. I felt as though we were profiled and were treated poorly ( in comparison). I would not come back to this restaurant and I would hope that if you chose to go you...