The Grove — Restaurant in Florida

Part 1- Google only lets you post so many characters in a review Let me preface this review by stating that it is long and does contain many complaints against The Grove restaurant, and I do not like to complain when I go out to eat. However,  each one is fully warranted, and this is 100% worth your read.

My family and I ate at The Grove on 4/20/24 for my mother's birthday. Upon arrival, we asked if we could be seated outside for our reservation. Honestly, I immediately sensed something was and would be off with our experience based on the initial response to that request from our hostess. She seemed dissatisfied and thought our request was an inconvenience. The hostess didn’t even ask for our seating preference to begin with. This attitude and pushback confused me, as the inside of the restaurant was pretty empty, and there were two six-top tables outside and two or three four-top tables that were also empty outside. After about a 5-minute wait, they seated us outside.

Now let's get into the meal.

The music playing outside was very loud. The tables are seated directly under the speaker, and it was not easy to hear above them at all. I love some good music while enjoying my meal, but I also like to hear the person next to me when they speak. We kindly asked the owner , who we believed to be a friendly person based on his initial flirtatiousness with my mother, if he could turn it down a bit. which he obliged but did not follow through on. I went in to use the bathroom a bit later, and while inside, the owner asked how everything was and if we needed anything. I said things were going well, but the music didn’t seem to get any lower. The owner then stated he would go turn off the music. When I got back to my seat from the restroom, I was surprised to find that the owner had not turned the music off as stated but, in fact, had turned it up. I later asked our server if he could help with this issue, to which he told me that he doesn’t think the owner even knows how to work the audio system and that he would take care of it. He did.

Our server took our orders and upsold us on everything, which now makes sense because The Grove automatically adds a 20% gratuity to your bill. Not. 18%, but 20%. You’ve been forewarned.

We were a table of six, and our server took our order by memory. Sure, I have seen this done before successfully, but we had a few modifications, with mine being the most crucial. I am gluten-intolerant. Very gluten-intolerant. I ordered the Fettucine Alfredo, but with GF penne pasta, as stated on their menu. Our server took our orders and then circled back to go over them one more time. I told him both times that I would like “GF penne pasta.” When our food came out, we were short on one entree (my stepdad's dish, which was clearly forgotten about because it took 20 minutes for it to come out), and my meal was served with fettucine noodles, not GF penne. I brought it to the attention of the food runner, and she told me she would have it put in correctly. After waiting for about 25 minutes for my entree to come out,and the rest of my family finishing their meals, I requested that my food be packed up to go. Our server was apologetic about the mistakes, but not overly so. Understandable again because his gratuity was already guaranteed, regardless of the caliber of...

Part 2

We were brought dessert menus, and I saw that two items were marked as gluten-free. One being strawberry cheesecake. When our server came to take our dessert orders, after my experience with my entree, I asked if the cheesecake was in fact gluten-free, to which the server told me it was not. That the GF symbol was on the WRONG DESSERT ITEM. It should be next to the chocolate mousse. At this point, I was very upset and had had enough. Our server had entirely just informed us that The Grove is knowingly potentially poisoning people by not having their menus redone. The fact that the server was aware that the GF symbol was next to the wrong dessert item lets me know that he has been asked this question before. I wonder how many health violations that is, and how many gluten-intolerant customers have ordered that cheesecake dessert and gotten extremely sick after?

At this point, I confronted the owner, truly hoping that he would be horrified by the fact that the menu is incorrect and receptive to having it changed. I was met with an aloof, dismissive, grinning through gritted teeth attitude. There was not one iota of concern for the fact that I could have been made gravely ill by the restaurant's careless mistakes regarding food allergies. I confronted the owner about his attitude as well, to which he responded that they “had tried to accommodate us from the beginning by ‘changing’ our table.” Again, let me remind you that we were never asked our preference for seating in their empty restaurant, so if something was being ‘changed’ that was their own inconvenience by assuming and assigning us a table on their own.

A food runner brought out our dessert (my brother got the Tiramisu), and then other food runners came out and started CLEARING THE TABLE of water glasses and drinks while we were eating dessert. I have never had a restaurant clear away beverages while a table is eating. It was evident they were trying to get rid of us. A food runner then came out and tried to take away a half-eaten Tiramisu from under my brother's hand, who was still holding a spoon to eat it!

To top this all off, this bill was $500!!!!! $60 for 2 glasses of wine alone.

The moral of this story is that I’d absolutely pick a different place to eat. The plates were very small portions for the price and subpar at best. The overselling was also aggressive. Remember the 20% gratuity! Drive a little bit further south. It’s worth it.

If you are gluten intolerant, DO NOT EAT HERE PERIOD!!!! I can promise you there is probably SO much cross-contamination happening in the back, and who even knows if what they have listed as GF pasta even is? We know the cheesecake that they are serving as GF is not, so they clearly do not care! Last night we believed the owner to have only been a manager based off his responses. We learned this morning he is in fact the owner of the restaurant. Even more concerning. I will be following up this review with a complete report to the health board and the FDA. Let the restaurant try to respond to this review with whatever they want. There is absolutely no excuse for the above-listed complaints. Shame on The Grove for not caring about...

We chose to eat at The Grove last night for my birthday dinner. I was excited to try this restaurant with my family after reading so many wonderful reviews. We are foodies and love a good meal so we were very excited! My daughter is gluten intolerant so we always pay very close attention to the menu as well as when food comes. To start, we were a table of six and only five meals arrived. It was clear my husbands food was not put in because it took 20 minutes for it to come after we let the server know of the mistake. More upsetting was that my daughter ordered gluten free pasta and when it came it was regular pasta. She was the one who recognized that error. It took so long for them to remake it correctly that she had it packed up to go as everyone had finished. It was also very clear that staff was not pleased with the complaints from our table (which were all justified) because they were intentionally trying to clear our plates away as we were still eating. Then for dessert my daughter ordered the gluten free cheesecake on the menu but when she asked the server was it for sure gluten free she was told it was not. We made the suggestion that maybe they should change the menu so someone else doesn’t get sick by ordering it and we were met with more rudeness. The management was dismissive and condescending, and while we don’t like to complain at restaurants, this was very warranted because it was quite an upsetting experience. This was also not an inexpensive meal, it was almost $500 for six people and we didn’t even order six entrees and only got one dessert. It was $60 for two glasses of chianti. For the prices and the caliber of restaurant that The Grove claims to be they should do better. At minimum pay better attention to food allergies and intolerances as we could have had a very bad situation had my daughter not been...