Hillside Fine Grill — Restaurant in Highland Village

Wife and I had our first visit to this place last night for our 19th anniversary. We were both greatly impressed! Despite already being crowded at 5:30, they got us to our (reserved) table immediately. The ambiance is great, and I especially appreciate that despite the crowd we could hear each other just fine in our booth. Our server Sean promptly greeted us, got us some waters, and gave us time to order our drinks. Speaking of drinks, my wife got the frozen spice mango Rita, and I must say, I'm usually unimpressed by drinks labeled "spicy" but their house made jalapeño-infused tequila sure packed a decent punch! I had the Old Fashioned and was pleasantly surprised by the generous pour.

Sean took our appetizer order -- we split the crab and shrimp dip which was fantastic. And with a real touch of class, he didn't rush us into an entree order, so we got to enjoy our drinks and dip for a little while before placing the main course. Good job there. Really made the evening more relaxing and enjoyable!

My wife went with the cedar plank salmon, and I got the T-bone pork chop. Look, both of them were delicious and I highly recommend them, but what I really want to talk about is the sides. First up, the green beans. I love green beans, but often they're either over or under cooked, or not seasoned well. These were clearly seared on high heat, with nice bits of char on them. Still perfectly crunchy. And what a flavor! And don't get me started on the mashed potatoes... okay, too late, I'm already started. Butter is amazing, amirite? Definitely a lot of butter, garlic, and other flavors -- my wife thinks she detected some sour cream. Anyway, the flavor was outstanding, and they were PERFECTLY creamy. So, so good.

We got the caramel bread pudding for dessert, because that's just what you do -- if there's ever bread pudding, you just get it. At this point I'm running out of adjectives to describe food, so I'll just say we weren't at all surprised how good it was. If I had to pick any nit with the meal, it's that they could have added more caramel to it since that gets top billing. Even so, it was marvelous. Make sure to get it with whipped cream.

Also, can I just comment on the price point? For the quality of food and overall dining experience, the prices were great! Especially with current inflationary trends, I was pleasantly surprised at that, especially in comparison with a lot of...

Let me genuinely honest with this review right now. I went with family and first of I wanted to state that they are extremely nice ,and please be surprised when you think “teenage” boy that is going to be serving you won’t have the deepest voice in human history ever. I’m talking it sounds like bro hits a pack of cigarettes everyday , and I’m saying this as like a “damn your voice is deep” way (deep voices are literally awesome) , like it scared us how deep that man’s voice was. Anyways we got there and he came up to us and asked what we wanted first which he was very kind about it , and had a smile that lit up the whole room , for real. We decided we wanted chips and queso which was really good btw (queso , salsa , and some random dip in the middle which was really really good) He kept coming back very patiently asking if we were ready yet and when we were we ordered : “I’ll have ribs” , “I’ll have catfish” , “I’ll have chicken strips” , “I’ll have a burger” , “I’ll have shrimp” , and I asked for mac and cheese. Sounded pretty good to me but when the food got here it looked delicious like I’m talking you’d want to have this for your last meal , THATS how scrumptious this Mac & Cheese looked. I dug In immediately but got greeted by a taste I don’t think I can not NOT taste.. when I’m telling you I tried liking it but the taste just got worse , bite after , bite. I decided to go under my chicken to see if it was better and when I tell you it tasted like you were trying to eat just straight banana or orange skin I literally froze in disgust. Finally my mom said “is it good” and I looked at my step-dad and told him it’s literally loaded with lemon zest.. He picks up a fork and digs it into my Mac & Cheese and he’s face goes still “your right , that is literally loaded with lemon zest” , he picks at another macaroni and requests for my mom to try it she opens her mouth while her face goes into a still face , almost the exact same expression my step dad made. She said to me “that isn’t very good…” , the whole ride back I was pretty upset about the straight zest I ate that night. Anyways hope you like my perspective of this restaurant , but in all seriousness their other food is really good just don’t recommend that...

Ate at Hillside a few nights ago with some friends. We started with the Triple Dip appetizer – all three dips were very good and the chips were warm and not greasy. For my entrée, I had the cedar-planked salmon. The salmon was cooked to perfection – it was moist and not over-cooked and had a great flavor. They bourbon glaze that came with the salmon really put it over the top – it turned a very good dish into a great dish. They brought out a small cup of the bourbon glaze, which was nice as I was able to put more of the glaze on than what it initially came with. For my sides I got buttery whipped potatoes and matchstick vegetables (which is mixed sautéed veggies) – both side were very good and had a great flavor. Normally I do not do desserts but we decided the try the Key Lime pie – it was excellent (at most restaurants I find the desserts mediocre – not so here – I would order the Key Lime pie again). The server was very knowledgeable, friendly and attentive. Portions sizes were good – not huge but I did not go away hungry nor did I go away over-stuffed. Prices were very reasonable. The atmosphere was also very nice – good place to go if you want to have a nice, quiet conversation with friends and you do not want to yell over background noise. I will most definitely be back. They also have an app you can download that gives you free perks which is nice – first time I used the app and we got the triple dip...