The Grounds Of Brooklyn — Restaurant in New York

I’m sad to write this review as this is a restaurant we frequently visit. My boyfriend and I have been coming here together for a year. Separately about 3 years or so. The food is amazing as always, the creamy tuscan gnocchi is perfection chef’s kiss. My boyfriend usually gets something different every time, each time turns out great. This time he got the pesto potato gnocchi that he says he would absolutely go back for! As for appetizers we loved the fried calamari, rosemary fries and the cauliflower steak w/ hummus-(that has sadly been discontinued 💔). As for drinks, we have tried the; Blue lagoon (tastes great but might be too sweet for some as it was for us), as well as the Rose Martini a few months back this drink was delicious and absolutely our go-to whenever we came here or ordered for pickup. The Rose Martini had crushed dried roses that gave it it’s signature flavor and mint leaves, as well as citrusy and sweet flavors, and whatever they used for carbonation (might be Sprite because of the sweetness and citrus flavor, whatever it was it was great) fast forward to now (05/25/2024) the Rose Martini is nothing but water and a whisper of rose essence…no dried rose petals, 2 mint leaves, no sweetness, barely any carbonation, no citrus, it was awful. This actually made me sad. Even the drinks that they added were not cutting it. The watermelon lime was just watermelon, barely any lime… and the lychee pineapple was just too sweet, tasted more like pineapple than lychee, and the crushed lychee didn’t look too appetizing in the glass since it looked like shredded calamari…idk what happened but ever since our good waiter left us (tall very light brown haired young man) the quality in both the service and now the drinks has dropped significantly. Every time he served us we left satisfied with the drinks, food and service. The new waitress that attended us could barely hear us, brought us cute glasses for water sans the water all the way up until we asked for it and our order was already brought out. The other waiter we had the time before last was also new, and he seemed high as a kite the whole time we were there. Very unprofessional. I wouldn’t recommend the pistachio gelato either, it tasted like slightly barely there nutty wet shaved ice. We left that day very unsatisfied and sad that many things have changed. The only thing I have left now is the gnocchi 🥲 I love this place so much, and it saddens me at how much is different. We even recommended this place to a bunch of our friends and now we’ll have to alert them to the changes. If the Gnocchi’s were to ever change, I would have absolutely zero...

By far the worst dining experience my husband and I have ever had both together and independently. Upon entry, we were the only diners in the restaurant. It was very cold and this did not prompt them to raise the heat. The single waitress even put her coat on while we were there. She knew it was cold and unprompted, seated us across the kitchen because she said it was warmer. When the bread was served, we were not given plates to use. We asked for recommendations and she tried her best but had not tasted most of the dishes. We had the Involtini appetizer which was okay. From our seat across the kitchen we were able to witness and hear their difficulty in making the pasta dishes. The pasta itself was so salty that it was inedible. Clearly someone had made an error while cooking but worse was that no one acknowledged the error, our long wait time or offered to comp the meal. The meat was good and we tried to eat the food but the pasta was genuinely disgusting and overdone. Per my husband, "It tasted like it was cooked in brine and from what I overheard from the kitchen, it was obvious that person had never made Italian food before." We sent it back and only after asking were we told it would take another 20 minutes to make so we said nevermind. They did not apologize and charged us for both dishes initially but removed them from the check after I refused to pay. We paid for the appetizer. They seemed unbothered by our complaint, lacked remorse and made no effort to improve our experience. As a frame of reference, this is the first time I've sent a dish back because of taste. Usually I will suffer thru it out of a feeling of obligation. The only other time I have returned a dish, it was full of insects. After paying, we went home and ordered pizza. If you are going to serve Italian food in Brooklyn, more effort is required. I was excited to find a halal Italian restaurant and was truly disappointed. By contrast, Milk and Honey next door was overflowing which should have served...

The setup of this restaurant is very nicely done and is Halal. They have a cute little heated Cinderella carriage outside the restaurant that’s def an eye catcher. However, I have to say I was extremely disappointed in everything they had to offer. The owner named either Matt or Max seemed very annoyed and had no clue on what was going on and apparently it’s the same owner as Milk & Honey. First off, we called and asked for reservations but the waitress named Stephanie said that there are no reservations due to covid. We get to the restaurant, requesting to be seated in the nice Cinderella carriage and she tells us that we need reservations. Then, we proceeded to be seated in a shed where “there was heat”. The room was ice cold and definitely could’ve used more heating because their “strongest” heater wasn’t bussin’. As the day went on, they brought out one dish of lamb chops that was ice cold @6:45pm. We didn’t get the other four dishes til @7:27pm. At this point we request to be seated inside due to the room freezing off which they did accommodate but were very upset doing it. It’s okay the servers had little to zero experience as Stephanie expressed she works on the cafe side so I started to expect the most inadequate customer service received. Taylor was the only one that was super friendly and efficient. Now, that we were seated inside and waiting on the rest of the food, there are no plates given or proper utensils. The rib-eye steak was a bit burnt that it tasted like charcoal. The spicy chicken jalapeño pizza wasn’t spicy and was burnt. The Gnocchi with pesto and Mac and Cheese were good but mediocre. The food was awfully cold for the most part. I will cut them some slack because they do look like they just opened. Proper staffing is ideal especially if you’re advertising halal Italian food. I do not recommend it with the current customer service they have. I will be back in 6 months to do...