The Gruene Door — Restaurant in New Braunfels

I have to start by saying what a wonderful trip to New Braunfels this has been. My partner Amy, is from here originally and she brought me to visit and meet her family and friends. I figured if this town is as sweet as she is, I couldn't wait to visit! On Saturday night, around 7:00pm, we came in to dine at The Gruene Door. The evening started off wonderfully. We were greeted and sat by a sweet woman and had excellent service by a young man named Devin. Everyone was attentive and kind, with the exception of one. Now we are not the type to complain, but we were appalled by the kind of service that was being delivered by a certain older gentleman that evening who claimed to be the owner, when he was in actuality, the host.

My partner ordered a steak, a $38 dollar steak to be exact, medium rare. When the steak arrived, it was nearly well done. She didn't want to send it back but I figured at that price and with the wonderful service we'd been receiving, I would assume the chef would like to know. After nearly 30 minutes of waiting for a new steak, we cancelled the order, since the rest of the 3 of us dining had finished our meal. Then this man, the host, dressed in an orange/salmon colored shirt and tie brought out the steak anyway, slammed it down and said, in a very agitated manner, "Can you cut into it so you can see if it's to your liking?" She did, and to our shock, was still cooked almost to well. We said we didn't want it and had already cancelled it, to which he replied, "Well, I'll just wrap it up for you to go because you WILL be paying for it." and scurried off.

At that table, my friends and I have combined restaurant experience of both servers and managers for over 10 years. I have never in my life seen treatment like this. Amy and I got up from our seats to talk to the man in private, as to not continue on the ridiculous scene he had created in the main dining room in front of several other patrons. Amy extended her hand to talk to the man and he raised his arms. He couldn't even shake her hand, let alone talk to us like civilized human beings. Maybe it's because Amy has short hair and was wearing a button up flannel shirt, or maybe he didn't approve of our relationship. He was yelling at us and visibly shaking with anger, all because our steak was not prepared correctly, and after not eating a single piece, refused to take it off the bill. Then he decided to throw us out of the restaurant and proceeded to tell us to never return.

I don't know of this is the kind of treatment the owner Debbie or the executive chef Collin approve of, but you can be sure we won't ever be back. And neither will our family and locals in town that we know. Good thing the other lovely folks of Greune and New Braunfels were able to make sure we had a good night after this nightmare of an experience at your...

I haven’t eaten here in like ten years. We saw the ratings were good and brought our friends who were visiting from Austin. We picked the Gruene Door over several other restaurants they wanted to try. They listened to me because I’ve lived in the area over 25 years.

We were the first table seated on a Saturday at 4 PM, the day before Father’s Day. Our waitress was friendly and fantastic and super helpful. She genuinely gave us great service.

They put us at a table next to POS terminal, for printing receipts etc. This table had its own carpet. My one year old and our friends 8 year old never once stepped foot off our carpet. After we paid, they were rudely scolded by some waitress for no reason. The kids were not misbehaving and they were literally touching my legs. Almost underneath the table. So I was shocked when my wife and her friend said something about this.

These children weren’t in anybody’s way but this waitress told the 8 year old, twice, to stay out of her way? We reminded the Gruene Door staff that they had seated us here and we didn’t like the table to begin with. It was shocking because we had already paid and had a wonderful meal and we were getting ready to leave. The waitress complaining obviously wasn’t there at 4 PM when they seated us. It was very bizarre that she spoke to our children and not us directly about her problems or issues. Who talks to an 8 year old like that?

Our friends were shocked and disappointed by this staff member. It kind of made the meal disappointing even though our food was all excellent.

I don’t think we will be back because I don’t think my one year old daughter deserved to be yelled at by this waitress.

Also, my chicken piccata was also very small. Like appetizer size small. I can’t say it was the best for $26. I subbed shrimp and paid more for it. It was like four bites of pasta and 6 little shrimp. I think that was the weakest dish we ordered. The filet special with Oscar crawfish was incredible. The duck was incredible. Tuna, incredible. But unfortunately our friends did not like the service we received after they paid. Yes, they paid for dinner, and complained about the waitress here. I felt terrible.

I hope they can fix this problem. I am not sure we would return or recommend to our other friends or family. My family used to come here often for brunch, for years and years. We left quickly after this random waitress was rude to our kids. Not cool Gruene...

The hostess was so unkind to my mother in law for her birthday. We had more people show up than expected, so different groups ended up reserving separate tables. The hostess was visibly annoyed about this and upset that we came in all as one in a big group. We didn't even ask if we could sit close to each other, yet the hostess rudely pointed out that we absolutely couldn't be seated near each other and our tables would be on opposite sides of the restaurant. We were fine with being separated as we understand the position they were in, since they don't seat parties bigger than 8. However, the reason they wouldn't sit us near each other was because she claimed people would complain and that we would be too loud since we all know each other? We were all seated separately no problem. I observed as they sat another giant group next to us which turned out to be much louder than us, in fact, the whole room in general was extremely loud. If they were so concerned with the noise level, I'm not sure why they sat two big groups next to each other. Also, that's what happens when you have a restaurant filled with groups of people, they converse with each other.... so we were all kind of confused why they couldn't just us sit near each other, one of the tables was all pre teens it really wouldn't have been a big deal to accommodate us to make a large group happy, we are all excellent tippers with good restaurant etiquette. I do also want to add to that she told us they wouldn't not be splitting bills for us, but the server had no issue doing this so she was obvious just being nasty. Anyways, half our group ended up leaving and going somewhere else because the hostess left a bad taste in our mouths. The whole thing was ridiculous and the hostess was SO RUDE about it. This isn't the Ritz, it's not like Gordon Ramsey is in the back whipping up the meals. My mother in law really wanted to come here, if it was up to me I would've just went to McAdoos where they've accommodated a group of 18 for my birthday. I do want to emphasize that our server was absolutely amazing and took such great care of those of us that did stay! The food was really good, but the issue with the hostess was enough to turn the whole experience for me and others...