Summit Grill Kitchen & Cocktails — Restaurant in Fort Wayne

Disappointed doesn't begin to describe our one and only experience today. We arrived on a Sunday afternoon a little after 2pm. There were cars in the front half of the lot and just a few in the back, so we assumed they weren't too busy. When we went in, the hostess was not at the station for seating. Which isn't too bad, because she could've been seating someone else. When she did return, we were not given any type of greeting, instead she just looked at me. I said "two please". She seemed a little confused, but then started typing on the iPad. She looked around and asked if we had a seating preference; we said "no" and she punched something else into the iPad. She told us to told on and left, she looked like she was walking around to find a table. From what I could tell, there were only about 10 tables occupied. She grabbed some menus and took us to the bar area. The facility is beautiful, great woodwork and pleasing modern decor. After some time, our waiter showed up at our table with a couple of waters and asked to take our drink orders. The waiter, by the way, did not give a great first impression. His shirt was slightly untuckedor unbuttoned and showing his belly button. I ordered a lemon drop and a pretzel appetizer. The lemon drop came (quite some time later) and I took a sip. I nearly spit it out. Prior to this, I'd never had a bad lemon drop before.... anywhere. I guess there's a first time for everything. It was disgusting. If I had to describe it, it tasted like I was drinking gasoline. Messing up a lemon drop is pretty hard, so I decided not to order the $30 filet mignon as I'd originally decided. I ordered their signature burger with NO EGG. Our pretzel was delivered. My husband didn't care for the beer cheese, but I thought it was pretty decent, even though it was a bit runny. We weren't given any appetizer plates, but it wasn't a big deal since it was just my husband and I. When the waiter brought my husband's soup, he asked if we wanted bread for the table. I said "sure". He said he would bring some bread a plates back. The bread rolls arrived (without plates). I tried a roll. The butter provided was nice, a standard whipped butter. The rolls were cold, and odd. I want to say they had good flavor but they were really odd. I couldn't tell if they were supposed to be sweet or savory. At one point I felt like I was eating a buttered donut with seasoning. So strange. Our food came. Staring back at me was an egg, right on top of the cheese on my burger. I was disappointed but didn't say anything, just shrugged and started to peel the egg off of the burger, taking most of the cheese with it. The server saw me do this and apologized for the egg. He offered to have another burger made for me, but I told him no thanks because I didn't want to wait. He offered to get another slice of cheese for my burger. So I took him up on that. I asked that he bring some ketchup for my fries upon his return. He took my plate back to the kitchen and several minutes later brought back what looked to be a new burger, or at least re-plated. No ketchup. The southwest (or whatever) sauce on the burger was disgusting, so I scraped it off with the bacon jam; since there was no way to separate the two. The fries were now lukewarm. The burger was ok, extremely greasy and nothing to write home about. Against my better judgment, I ordered the chocolate cake to go. I tried a little bit as soon as we got home. The fudge frosting is delicious. The cake is off. Too much cocoa? Not enough sugar? I'm not quite sure, but it's not delectable as I'd hoped. Overall it was a pretty poor experience. We waited what seemed to be forever for each step of the process. We were at the restaurant for nearly and hour and a half from start to finish. For a late lunch. On a Sunday. When they weren't busy. That's pretty terrible. I'd hate to see what the service is like on a busy weekend. We paid $70 (including a 15% tip) for a meal I would have been upset paying $20 for. We will not...

TLDR: Moderately priced, good beer selection, nice decor, average service and disappointing food.

Final Word: Mediocre.

Who dined: My wife and I.

Timing: Dinner, approx. 6pm.

Ordered: An appetizer and two dinners.

Date: Feb 2021

My wife and I found ourselves with some additional time between errands so we decided to try Summit Grill. Let's start with the transformation from Flannigan's to Summit. The only things that have not changed from the customer's perspective is the front door, the exterior shape of the building and inside the Kitchen and Bathroom locations; everything else has been updated. They have done a great job refreshing the dining environment and updating it with modern furniture and dinner ware. The owners created smaller dining spaces within the building updating the décor and including TVs on most walls. I was impressed with the amount of thought and work that went into the transformation. We were promptly greeted as we entered and were sat within minutes. The menus are reflective of the modernization as well, single sheet double sided which is the exact opposite of the original Flannigan’s menus. It took a while for our server to greet us but we used that time to review the food and beer menus. When greeted we were ready with our appetizer and dinner orders. We ordered the Duo Dips as our appetizer, the inside out Grilled Cheese and 4pc Fried Chicken with sides of Mac-n-cheese and bacon crusted brussel sprouts as our meals. The appetizer arrived quickly and after our first sampling it became clear why they were so fast, the dips were, what I would characterize as Crock Pot dips. The dips were a cheesy queso style dip with chorizo and then a typical spinach dip. Let me be clear I like Crock Pot dips! But when you go out to a nice restaurant and it is clear that the dips have been sitting in a warming pan, recently stirred and served just above room temperature, it is a bit disappointing. Once the meals arrived the disappointment continued. The inside out grilled cheese was a great concept but a failure at execution. The flavor was bland and it was difficult to enjoy as you had to navigate all the cheese getting everywhere but your mouth. The fried chicken was also a disappointment. When it arrived, it was, like the dips, just above room temperature and then it finally clicked, the appetizer and the dinner dishes must have sat in the warming window for a while as the top of the food was warmer than the bottom of the food. I informed my server and she promptly replaced the chicken dinner with something that was “fresh out of the fryer”. Good news, it was finally hot as you would expect fried chicken to be, you know what I am talking about, pull it apart and the steam rises and that juicy hot chicken melts in your mouth. The new chicken was juicy and hot but the breading lacked any real taste, again disappointing. The Mac-n-Cheese was above average but nothing to brag about. The real outstanding part of the meal was the bacon crusted brussel sprouts; that was the only part of the meal I finished. Overall I was disappointed with our appetizers and meals; in all fairness this is a sample size of 1 so we will try the place again to sample other dishes, time of day and staff and update our review if...

Don't think we will be back for quite a while, if ever. We've been here several times since they opened. Food has been very good, that's why we've been back. Saturday night we were there about 5:00 and people were lined up inside the door waiting for the staff to figure out where to seat them. Each time we have been here the hosting staff appears stumped by the procedure. They have to study the iPad for minutes on end to see where to seat people. We've seldom been greeted when we do get to the counter with a "hello" or "how many will there be?" We get looked at, and we have to speak first. The couple ahead of us asked to sit on the patio and the older lady took a minute or two to look for a table and they went outside. We asked for a table outside and also waited for her to look for one. We passed several waitresses standing by. There were two families (already eating) on the patio and the other couple. She picked a table and it seemed the waitress (with sunglasses on) may not have been happy with where we were seated. We sat looking at menus while the couple that was seated just before us got drinks and had their order taken. We didn't even get an "I'll be with you in a minute." Everyone was very friendly on our way out to return the menus, wishing us a good evening. We don't complain and try to be patient, but we appreciate being acknowledge that we are there. We are tired of the non-friendly and seemingly "confused" atmosphere by the hosting staff. We have had decent service inside and one other time when we could sit on the patio so I'll...