The Grove Wine Bar & Kitchen - Lakeway — Restaurant in Lakeway

Update 02-11-2024

Our last stop at The Grove - Lakeway was not very pleasant. We were in Lakeway again this week, and decided to give them another shot... A marked improvement from our last visit.

Elliott waited on us at the bar and did a fantastic job. Thank you, sir! The drinks were very good, Bombay martini ... made just right. On the food side of things, we started with a new menu item: Tempura Japanese Eggplant. Very tasty, very good, delivered piping hot! The batter on the eggplant was thin and crispy, the eggplant itself delicious. Served on a bed of miso vinegarette and sweet chili Thai sauce, garnished with a little green onion and togarashi spice.

Our only issue with the dish is that the fried eggplant was placed on top of the two sauces. So, for the first two or three pieces of eggplant, you cannot reach the sauces. And, by the time we got to the bottom of the plate, the pieces of eggplant were soggy on the bottom. Suggestion: Put the sauces in a small dish on the side for dipping. That would work wonderfully!

Next up... the beet salad. We have had that before, and its simply a delicious salad. Red, gold and candy-stripe beets, mixed greens, green apple, mandarin orange slices, spiced candied pecans, goat cheese with a citrus vinegarette balsamic dressing. Super fresh ingredients, served in an ice-cold plate ... fun to eat too, as you "unpack" the salad as you eat. Very good!

We went in a totally different direction for us on the next dish... oven roasted meat balls. The meatballs were full of flavor, well cooked. The san marzano marinara had a little heat in it, with a generous bit of parmesan cheese sprinkled across the top... toasted focaccia present to soak up the sauce was a great touch.

Much better visit this time, reflected in the higher star rating. Recommend The Grove - Lakeway when you are in the area.

August 2023

We stopped by The Grove - Lakeway with friends on a recent Saturday evening. The evening started off a bit rocky, as the hostess and several waiters could not figure out how to sit us down. We were a party of five, which I concede is an odd number, but it took almost 15 minutes for them to figure out where to put us. With that ordeal out of the way, we settled in and ordered drinks and appetizers.

The fried oysters were very good, could have been served hotter (temperature). Many pieces of our order of fried okra (fried whole okra, not the chopped-up pieces you're used to) were inedible. We asked our waitress about that, and her reply was "Okra is really not in season right now, so it can be tough." Our thought was ... then why have it on the menu. The okra also was not served very hot.

We shared a wedge salad that was very good, right amount of dressing, plenty of blue cheese crumbles, served quite chilled. For entrees we ordered the redfish entree and redfish tacos. Both were very good, could have been served a little bit hotter. The black beans served with the fish tacos were a bit salty. Seems like an issue at this location may be not enough staff to get the food out when it's ready, so food orders sit a bit in the kitchen.

Kudos to the restaurant for bringing out a couple of complimentary desserts, one member of our party was celebrating an anniversary! The chocolate brownie with ice cream and the upside down pineapple cake, also served with ice cream, were both delicious.

So, all in all, a good experience, but it could have been...

My wife and I ate there January 19, 2019, and we enjoyed it. Our waiter brought the perfect glass of wine after my wife described what she likes in a wine. I had a margarita. Our meals (Linguini with prosciutto and mushrooms and shrimp and Italian sausage linguini) were very good and we left very happy.

Fast forward to this afternoon. We got there around 4pm. Inside, there were only 4 occupied tables, of which 2 were done with their meals. The hostess put us at a table next to family with kids, though there were tables galore away from any occupied tables. Since this restaurant has such nice views of the hills, we asked for a table at the window. The hostess said she would have to ask someone first. When we got a table window, the 2 upper large windows had at least 10 flys each buzzing on the window (yes, inside). And the 2 lower windows and floor had about the same amount. Back to the other table we went. Our waiter, Jeremey, was fantastic. One couldn’t expect more from a server. Genuinely pleasant, helpful, and he knew his menu. Attentive and efficient, without being pushy. My wife ordered the steak (medium) salad, and I ordered the steakhouse burger (medium). Our meals didn’t take long and looked good. However, my wife’s steak salad ($16) came with 3 pieces of steak, and I swear, each piece was 2 inches by 1 inch. And it was red from the middle to the edge, the majority of each was quite cool. And the $14 burger was maybe 3 ½ inches in diameter. My burger was done correctly, however, it tasted as if it had been grilled on the same grill that had recently been used to grill fish. Also, Jeremey brought 3 different mustards, which was very much appreciated. We spent ⅔ - ¾ of the time with our meals fighting to keep flys away from our food. For me, the icing on the cake was watching a waitress working tables outside walk away from a table. She had 2 fingers in her mouth, and it looked as if she was biting her nails. We watched her. She did not go wash her hands. She just went back out to wait on her customers.

Am I your average restaurant customer? Probably not. I’ve had 2 of my own very successful restaurants, and I have worked in the food and beverage industry on and off since the 1970’s. It’s doubtful I’ll go back to the Grove. We hope Jeremey will work somewhere we like to dine. The Grove is lucky...

Quite frankly I can’t stand leaving bad reviews. It honestly upsets me especially considering we’ve had such great experiences at The Grove. We typically go to Grove in West Lake but since we moved, this location is closer. We were actually here a few days ago prior to this visit and everything was great; food, drinks and the service. However, today was rough to say the least. Everything started off just fine. We ordered some wine, bruschetta and brussel sprouts. Bruschetta and wine came out, both were great. However, some time passed by and we had no brussels on the table. I asked about them and the waiter said she forgot to put them in. Cool - no worries. We don’t really need them. All four of our entrees came and one was incorrect. The waiter heard “bolognese” instead of “filet medium”. I’m not sure how those words sound the same but no problem; we’ll wait for the new dish. Manager comes out and apologies and says he’ll comp the dish; as he should. A solid 20-25 minutes later, a flattened pancake came out with burnt asparagus. Cold veggies, cold potatoes and a non-medium steak. At this point, my pregnant cousin is extremely upset. Starving, crying and upset. The waiter asks if she wants anything else which at this point she doesn’t want to wait for another dish to be made. Manager does not come back out. Waiter instantly brings the check. You could tell she was in a rush and overwhelmed. Despite three of our dishes being tasty, the service and resolution of what happened was horrible. Read the guests order back. Stop rushing. Fill up empty glasses of water. Clean the table of dirty dishes. At this point the list goes on. I’m very disappointed ESPECIALLY with management. Leaving the restaurant, we saw the manager and my cousin asked what happened with the steak - to which he said, I really don’t know I think they butterflied it to get it out faster. She didn’t order it butterflied! How do you not know what’s happening in your kitchen? Why are you not asking exactly how she wants it cooked? Why are you not asking questions to help fix issues and create a better experience for your guests? I’m disgusted. This service was atrocious. Do...