Grille on Main — Restaurant in Huntsville

3.5-ish/5 but I can't round up. :/

Had some extra time this week on Wednesday to try out a new spot and this wound up being the selection. I'd heard fairly mixed things about this place so I was glad I was able to come for lunch, as dinner is a bit too pricy for me to risk spending that much money on a so-so meal and I'll never get up early enough to head out to Providence for brunch, lol.

GoM is in the old Grille 29 spot, a somewhat nostalgic restaurant for me. It's a Boyce restaurant (think Cotton Row, Commerce Kitchen) so it serves comparably ritzy American seafood, steaks, and other dishes.

They weren't too busy around 11:45 on Wednesday, so the polite hostess offered me my choice of booth, table, or patio seating. Despite the rather warm weather, I selected the patio. It's a nice patio, comfy and inviting with decent views of the rest of Providence. The only detractor from the atmosphere was someone seated at a table near mine ordered some sort of fish dish and it came out smelling...not awesome, and strongly enough I could smell it at my table. This might bother people who like fish less than it bothered me.

My waiter was Seth, or at least it was per the check he gave me -- names are hard to remember sometimes, lol. He was prompt and polite, if maybe a tiny bit awkward. No worries, he did a fine job.

I ordered the fried green tomato BLT for my lunch. I had my choice of Parmesan fries or a side salad, and I chose the fries. It came out in a reasonable amount of time.

Ultimately, I feel conflicted about the dish. I think it was really pretty good, flavor wise, but the portion and ratio was just kind of...off. There was a TON of lettuce (enough I removed a few leaves), and not a ton of bacon. At this price point, I was expecting some kind of impressive, smoky, thick cut applewood type of deal, but this was ordinary, kinda wimpy strips -- to the point where on a couple bites, I was left wondering where the bacon even was. It was cooked well at least. The fried green tomatoes had good flavor but were cut way too thick, imo, and wound up dominating the sandwich more than they should have. On the bright side, the bread stood up well to all the toppings, and the pimento cheese was delicious. Less lettuce, thicker/more bacon, thinner FGT, and you'll have yourself a winner here.

Lastly, the fries...just kind of annoyed me. Fries are my favorite food and I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, the fries I was served were frozen fries, maybe Ore-Ida. They were cooked well, and the Parmesan jazzed them up, but they were ABSOLUTELY not fresh. Had that vague mealy texture and bland taste I associate with freezer fries. No potato skin to be found anywhere, extremely uniform, etc. As far as freezer fries go, they weren't bad, but...come on, at this price point?? This is what I'd expect of a small mom and pop meat and 3 with 30 other side selections to worry about, not one of the fancier restaurants in town. When comparing my fries to pictures other reviewers posted, they don't look quite the same. Maybe I came on an off day, but regardless, it wasn't cool.

Idk. I feel like I'm coming across pretty harsh. Service and atmosphere was solid. The sandwich was just a few small adjustments away from being really good, so there's hope here, but I'm not sure I'd be willing to risk $18 at...

I do not recommend this place unless you are willing to put up with disrespect by a manager, delay in food, and a delay in service. I booked a reservation for 1 pm on a Sunday for 10 people for my mom's birthday, which was a disaster. The birthday girl didn’t even get to eat! We all got there on time, but the first surprise was that they charge a $2.00 cake fee per person if you bring your own cake. I was not notified of this cake fee when I made the reservation and specifically asked/informed them I would be bringing a cake. Once we were seated, our waitress was trying to get things done but it looked like she was very overwhelmed and could not handle all the tables, which in her defense were large parties, at one time. Both my parents ordered the same thing. The kitchen/waitress got the steak temps mixed up and gave my dad's order to my mom and my mom's order to my dad, which was not a problem but my mom's steak was not the way she ordered it which was medium. We asked for it to be remade correctly. The entire party was done eating and my mom still didn’t get her food. I wanted to speak to the manager about this and asked him to come discuss it with me and that is when things went left. Mitchell, a manager, was disrespectful and had the worst attitude. I came to him patient and kind. At this point I wasn’t even asking for the meal to be comped, I was just asking for the status of her food! He proceeded to talk to me like I was stupid and when I asked him why he had such a nasty attitude he got worse. He was very unprofessional and did not care about customer service. His demeanor and temperament set the tone for that restaurant and I can see why everyone there seemed frazzled and disconnected. Also, the food was not that great and overpriced. An order of biscuits is $8 and comes with three. I had a burger and it was dry and had no flavor. The steak is tough and could use some seasoning as well. We kept hearing they are under new ownership, which is why the name changed, but if this is the kind of people you are hiring, maybe there needs to be additional changes. I do NOT...

Update: I now think that the high rating for this restaurant is from all the carry over reviews from when this was Grille 29. My review was 5 stars back then too. Grille 29 was is my family's favorite place to go to eat a nice, upscale meal in Madison/Huntsville. But my recent trip to Grille on Main for my wife's birthday was a huge disappointment. The atmosphere was great, but the service was pretty average for a restaurant of this caliber, mostly because it was so slow (this was a Monday night so the restaurant was not busy either).

But the real problem was the food. I enjoyed the fried green tomato appetizer but sadly this was the best part of the meal. I ordered the crab stuffed flounder. I've eaten a lot of crab stuff white fish in my life but this was the worst I've ever tasted. The fish itself was ok, but the crab stuffing was almost non-existent and the bit that I did get tasted terrible. The rice was not bad, just bland. Green beans were good.

My wife ordered the surf and turf (6 oz. filet Medium Rare with a crab cake). She let me sample her food. Again, I've had a lot of crab cakes in my life, some excellent, many good, few mediocre, but never a bad one until now. It was just a pile of bad tasting overly salted mush. No discernable crab inside. I'm assuming the same was stuffed into my fish. I don't know how they've managed a "crab cake" this bad, but somehow they have. Her filet was an oddly shaped cut that was thin on the outside and thick in the middle. I'm being gracious calling the middle (fattest and least done part) of the steak cooked medium which made the thinner, remaining 80% of the steak mid well and well done. For a $45 meal, this is not acceptable. My wife asked to have another steak cooked. The next one was a better cut but came out rare (better than overcooked) but tasted completely unseasoned. She ate a few bites and was going to leave it, but I had it boxed so I could season and properly cook it for lunch.

We normally get some dessert, but decided to cut our losses and go somewhere else.

Sadly, this restaurant has moved from the top of our list...