Aspen Grille — Restaurant in Myrtle Beach

Southern hospitality at its worst!!

On April 11, I hosted a business dinner in the private room. There is a corporate price allotment per guest, and thus a set menu is developed to include two choices for an appetizer, a salad, 3 main entree choices, dessert and drinks ( water, tea, soda, etc.) for preset price.

Upon arrival, there was an apparent miscommunication concerning the number of attendees I confirmed and the number of guest place settings in the private room. The room was arranged for 10 guests, however, I was expecting 15-20 guests. Although they promptly rearranged the room to accommodate all guests, Greg the bartender/ head waiter made it abundantly clear from his numerous mumbled utterances that he felt inconvenienced.

After the program, 2 of my guests were upset and shared with me the experience they had with their waitress. The menu offered two shellfish options for an appetizer. Two of my guests are Jewish and can not eat shellfish for religious reasons. Therefore, they kindly asked the waitress if the chef would mind substituting the medallion potatoes (that were being served as a side to the main entrées) for the shellfish as an appetizer. The waitress returns and blankly said,”No!” The guest asked the waitress if she had made the chef aware that the substitution was being requested for religious reasons. The waitress responded, “Would you like to go talk to the chef yourself?” Again, they were not asking for the chef to prepare anything additional, the medallion potatoes were being served with all of the entrées. I was highly embarrassed and extremely apologetic that my guests had been treated so rudely!! Not only is this a negative reflection on the restaurant and chef, but it also reflects negatively on me as their hostess.

Aspen Grille is typically known for their scrumptious desserts. Although the menu clearly stated the dessert would be “Chef’s Choice,” it was more than disappointing to find out the chef’s choice lacked all creativity and imagination….a scoop of vanilla ice cream. This was also disappointing in that the price charged per person was not reflective of the meal received including the use of the private room. Should we had been guests in the main restaurant and ordered the exact same appetizer, salad, entree and vanilla ice cream, the price per person would have been significantly less than what we were charged.

As we were leaving, I went to thank Greg for hosting our meeting. I kindly shared with him how disappointed we were in the chef’s choice for dessert given the delicious dessert options at Aspen Grille. Greg was extremely arrogant, just shook his shoulders, and said, “Ok.” I further shared my dismay that the chef was not willing to make a simple substitution for the shellfish appetizers, especially in light of the request being made was for religious reasons. Again, Greg shook his shoulders and said, “Ok.” Stunned, I asked Greg if he felt that was an unreasonable request and his only response was, “I’ll pass that along.”

This is the first negative Google review I have ever made. In all fairness, I called the restaurant the next day and left a message for the owner to please return my call. I was astounded at the level of arrogance, rudeness and poor customer service we received from Aspen Grille, Greg and the waitress. I was personally embarrassed and offended that my customers were treated so poorly. Over the past two decades, I have hosted many, many business dinners at fabulous restaurants along the Grand Strand including Aspen Grill. Not only will I never dine at this restaurant personally, but I will never recommend it to friends or out of town guests.

In the end, the vanilla dessert option seemed to encapsulate what was an underwhelming and uncomfortable dining experience marked by a total lack of engagement from the staff and chef.

Myrtle Beach and the Grand Strand area has numerous, fabulous, upscale restaurants with delicious menus, and outstanding customer service that will exceed your expectations. Unfortunately, Aspen Grill is not...

This was the most bizarre experience I ever had at a fine or polished casual restaurant I have ever had in my life, my wife’s life included.

We arrived 7pm on a Friday and wanted to sit at the bar because we prefer a relaxed dining experience where we pick our own pace and ask for food once our first round of drinks are finished. While we are still waiting for our first round of drinks that we ordered from a woman, who was a very docile human whom we would have jived with very well, a man in a collared button up came over to, what I thought was small talk and being polite to us as newcomers, asks us what we were there for, dining or drinking, and then proceeded to interview us on dinner. So, before our first round of drinks arrived, we were asked by the man, of what felt like an interrogation, “what are we doing tonight, drinks or dining?… okay great, what do we like, steak or seafood?… okay, seafood, so we are doing the tile fish for sure. If we are getting a reward on a meal, it’s the tile fish (pointing to the trout meal) and if you like risotto, do you like risotto?.. great, then the scallops, yes. The trout and scallops, do we share?… okay, since you do separate meals, tile fish and scallops. What do we do for apps? Do we do apps? Would we do cold or hot? Salad or hot app?… okay great, no red meat (that was the only comment I could fit in) perfect, so the calamari. Great.” As he is flipping the menus and dropping them on the bar the whole time. Then, grabs our menus and walked to the computer. At this point, my wife looked at me and said, “did he just order for us and about to ring it in?.. if that’s the case, I’m totally upset.” My wife, while guy was ringing in his order for us, asked him to, “hold off on the order.” Guy says, “oh don’t worry; I’m not going to rush you. I put it in so the chef knows what to expect and then I fire it when you’re ready. It’s like I’m your auto mechanic, you don’t know what you need, I do; so let me do what I do well.” The way you will read this review, the questioning, is as fast as it happened for us too. So after feeling bamboozled, we got our drinks and my wife and I were really taken aback at the whole situation. We weren’t sure we were happy or offended or judged. Not even 5 minutes after our first round of drinks were dropped, calamari was placed in front of us. Again, we asked him to hold off, we naturally do not eat this soon in our dining experience, but we had no chance to control our dining experience. A lot of other comments and questions happened, but i had no clue that he was ordering for us based on the conversation. I typically like, my wife included, two cocktails, an app, then order a bottle of wine, order dinner, slow sip and eat, enjoy. But this was completely dictated and I never saw the menu once (despite my wife studying it for a month prior.) My wife and I were stunned. Not even sure what happened. As I mentioned, My wife was studying the menu for a month and we are between the two same owned restaurants, so she knew what she wanted. I also like to preplan my entire meal, however I’m indecisive and like to look ant actual menu, and we had been ready for their food prior to arriving. My wife and I moved to the grand strand from south central, Pennsylvania. I’ve been here for a month after visiting 9 times in the last two years due to my parents Heath who live here since 2021. My wife moved down 5 days ago to join me in our new experience. I am a branch manager for a bank and she is currently looking for a great restaurant to join as a server and she admired the high-end restaurant coming from a high-end bourbon and wine bar herself. She was mortified by the man who shuffled us. Again; this was the most bizarre experience. Not being able to pick several drinks, dinner wine, apps, and meals by ourselves was absolutely abrasive and a turn off. Needless to say, she won’t work there but most importantly, we will...

Although my wife and I prefer your smaller mom and pop diners, we decided to break the bank and eat at a fancier restaurant. This one was nice from the word go. Everything about it we spoke of a real class and quality that is not present in so many restaurants. Waiters were well dressed tables will spaced good music just enough lighting but not too much. Yes there were a couple TVs for games but only a few. I had a really nice menu. My wife and I split a ribeye steak that was done exactly the way we wanted and it was a succulent cut of meat I must say! The vegetables are excellent and the mushrooms were just outstanding. This is the first time I've ever had a waiter come with a small implement clean a few crumbs off the table. Done in a very nice, classy way I must add. The roles were fresh baked and the butter was at room temperature so it's spread very nicely. We like how they brought out three different kinds of salt with three different flavors and three different size grains. We tested all three on various pieces of the bread and like all of them frankly. That's the first restaurant I've ever been in where they've given you several salts to choose from. We were there for over an hour, and nobody tried to rush us out. Our waiter was was older and unfailingly polite and detentive. If you want to go somewhere and feel fairly pampered while you're eating great food, this is a good choice. Now it is going to cost you, but then this is a case of you're getting precisely what you're paying for which is quality and class. Definitely two thumbs up and...