Grindstone Public House — Restaurant in Noblesville

I am so torn on 3 or 4 stars. I really with there was a way to give half stars.

I had a small surprise this morning that left me with $60 I wasn't expecting to have today. So I decided to go to lunch. As I drove to Noblesville, I thought why try somewhere new.

Today I tried the Grindstone Public House. It is relatively new to the area. My first impression was wonderful. The decor is classic pub house / steak house. There was no hostess at the podium when I entered. As I waited, a woman at the entrance of the kitchen made eye contact with me and then either went back to her conversation or started a conversation with a Male employee near her.

When the hostess finally came to the podium, she welcomed me and said, "I hope you weren't waiting too long." I told her that it had been about 5 minutes. She apologized and I explained about the woman I had made eye contact with. She apologized again saying that woman was the manager and was supposed to be watching the hostess stand while she was busy with other tasks.

The server, Max, arrived shortly after I was seated and apologized for the wait. He took my drink order and went off to get it while I looked over the menu.

Two items stood out for me. The pickle brined chicken sandwich and the soy glazed pork belly appetizer. I ordered both and explained that they could come out together as I felt the pork belly could be a side dish.

When the food arrived, I was shocked. It all looked very good.

The first thing I tried was the soy glazed pork belly. There were only 3 small pieces of pork belly in the appetizer ($12) and that seemed very expensive for what I got. The pork belly had obviously been deep fried as the outside was very crispy. There was very little glaze on the belly. The belly was mediocre. The belly was served on a bed of cabbage, carrots and pickled jalapenos. The "salad" portion was very bland and oily. It lacked salt and was over dressed in some sort of oil. Please consider switching to either roasted jalapenos or fresh jalapenos.

The pickle brined chicken sandwich was very interesting. It is served with cheddar cheese, bacon & ranch, but no lettuce, tomato, pickle, etc... I asked for a side of bbq sauce as I am not a huge fan of ranch on its own. I asked Max if the sandwich normally comes plain or if it was supposed to come with a "garden"? He said it is served with just the ranch and asked if I wanted the lettuce, tomato and pickle I had inquired about. I told him I would try it as they serve it and then decide.

The chicken is wonderfully lightly breaded and has just a hint of the pickle marinade. The bbq, was needed to add some acid to the sandwich and then I decided to ask for the lettuce, tomato and pickle. That really seemed to make this a much more balanced dish. I really enjoyed the sandwich once it was dressed properly. It had good crunch from the breading, the bacon was thick and not too crispy and the cheese was melted properly. Max the server suggested that next time to try the chipotle ranch for some extra flavor.

I then decided to try the bread pudding. It was a big disappointment. It had obviously been microwaved to heat it up. There was no texture to this dish. It desperately needed, nuts, raisins or crunchiness on the top from baking. The ice cream on top had been melted and then refrozen. There were very large ice crystals in it. This dessert desperately needs an overhaul. It simply tastes like custard with bread and cinnamon. It was mushy on mushy. I only ate a couple of bites before giving up on it.

My summary is simple. This place has a lot of great potential! With a willingness to listen to constructive criticism, it could be a 4 to 5 star...

Love this place!! My boyfriend and I found it by accident one day and have been going back ever since. We have had the whiskey chicken, signature Hamburger (can't remember the name), ribs, glazed salmon, and meatloaf (we tend to stick to at least one favorite each visit 😂). All of them are amazing! My current favorite is the salmon, but that probably because that was my most recent order. You can't go wrong with the Crab dip or the bread board (although we have only ordered it when it came with hot honey, and it looked like that recently changed to a tomato oil on the menu). The brussel sprouts side is amazing, would recommend trying it. The mashed potatoes are better than the French fries imo. We have always had good service (Joey and others), and great drinks (try the banana foster daiquiri before it is gone!!)

Sept 2023 Update: We got the new bread basket, my boyfriend loved the sun dried tomato oil (there were tomatoes in the oil), but I was not a fan. Still loved the bread with the butter though. They updated the bananas foster daiquiri to a pineapple Fig daiquiri 🥲 I was leary but my boyfriend got it and it was really good!! I will probably default to any daiquiri when ordering here in the future! Although I also got the gin gimlet and it was superb so you can't go wrong there either. We got the creamy jambalaya pasta and the bourbon glazed salmon (of course!) With the Brussel sprouts and mashed potatoes. The pasta and salmon were both amazing (as expected) but the Brussel sprouts were lack luster. TBD on whether or not they were just having a bad night with those or if the recipe changed but I would no longer say they are worth the extra dollar.

March 2024 update: Had to update this to say a few things. 1) we ordered the bread basket and asked for hot honey (because it is better than the tomato oil) and they gave it to us! Also, I tried their Blackberry vanilla smash non-alcoholic refresher and it was great! We just got some old favorites for Entrées and tried the lemon Blueberry cake for dessert (pictured). It was not my favorite, I could taste a bitter/metallic undertone that reminds me of biscuits that have too much baking powder. But it was only my taste buds that picked it up, my boyfriend...

Summary first.

If you want nice dining above a/or not a chain, go about a few blocks West on Logan Street across the bridge and head North on 19 to Cicero and hit 10 West. Pretty much the same price point just another level above Grindstones.

Details.

Beer was fine. Margarita's were not offered on the drink menu, but surely they could make one having a bar. My wife ordered it, could not finish , did not taste right.

Appetizer of Mushrooms were good with the horseradish sauce. Ordered salads. Our dinner came before them, so we had to remind her that we ordered those and she brought them out a few minutes later.

My wife got the Salmon and brussel sprouts. She said the fish was good the sprouts were as well.

I got the ribeye. When I go out to get a steak, I expect it to be as good or should be better than what I make at home. What they did was nothing I couldn't do at my place . Especially for paying 35.00 for 14oz. . It was luke warn , and under cooked a little. I would say way more than half of it was fat and gristle. I get you have some of that with meat, no worries, it gives flavor. A couple pieces I had to spit out, could not chew through the gristle. The flavor was decent like any steak, and that was the only thing that saved it. Steamed broccoli was ....steamed broccoli..solid.

It was extremely loud. I could not sit across from my wife and have a normal speaking volume conversation. We had to sit forward,lean in a bit and raise our voices to hear each other. We just prefer a little more quiet dining . To each there own on that. No big deal.

Overall , it was solid to good, not bad or terrible. Nothing memorable to make me crave it again.I guess for just south of 120.00 for a dinner of two I would expect more than "good". Maybe if I had something else on the menu. Like like I said, pretty much for the same price point, 10 West is another level above this and worth the...