1933 Grill — Restaurant in North Belle Vernon

From Merriam-Webster: abysmal adjective abys·​mal ə-ˈbiz-məl

a: immeasurably low or wretched : extremely poor or bad abysmal ignorance/poverty abysmal living conditions an abysmal performance

This word falls short of being able to describe my experience at this establishment. I had a reservation for a group of 13. Appetizers were great, but when it came to dinner, it took a total of one hour and fifteen minutes between the time the first meal came out, and our last two meals came out to our tables. This was after, mind you, I had gone up to check on the status of our meals a few times due to the fact that everyone was done eating except for the people who didn't recieve their food yet. We chose to just have the last few meals wrapped to go immediately out of the kitchen.

The check split 3 ways, one of which was paid in cash. Once the change was received, we realized we've been shorted just shy of $50. After disputing the discrepancy, I was actually pleasantly surprised to receive the correct amount.

At this point, our experience had been horrid. We left the building to be chased down outside by a manager and asked why we wouldn't leave a tip for the waitress. I expressed our reasoning and sympathized with the waitress, having to put up with such a lack of skill in the kitchen, but i could not bring myself to spend anymore of my money here. I said that if they comped a meal or two, I would gladly give that difference as our tip. They refused and left her high and dry.

I would only recommend this place to the most extreme...

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what to make of 1933 Grill. When you read the reviews, the quality of the food comes up a lot.

We stopped by for lunch, and most of the entrees are only available after 4:00 PM. So, possibly, those are a different grade of food.

That being said, we had the Honey Sriracha Chicken wrap, an order of chicken tenders and fries and a Caesar salad.

The fries were good enough, homemade. The chicken fingers were just frozen food service... Probably Sysco... Kinda disappointing. The salad was good. But, really just greens, croutons and some cheese.

Looking at the wrap, it was the same frozen chicken tenders in flatbread with some greens and dressing.

Not bad, but nothing even remotely special.

Finally, as we get the bill I see we paid $3 for soda fountain lemonade and $1 for a cup of bbq sauce. All told, with tip, this was a $60 meal. Just nowhere near worth that.

Again, maybe the dinners are have a little more craft to them. It's not like they're advertising it as a 'scratch' kitchen, and costs of everything is up.... But you can do a lot better for those...

Overall, great find and great place. Has a very cool interior and vibe. I had tuna to start (and yes, I realize I'm not in Hawaii). While it was a previously frozen piece, it was thick and perfectly seared rare. Very nice, light sauce.

Then, the Cajun shrimp pasta. Wow was it spicy! Probably right on the edge of too spicy but the layers of flavor were so good that I couldn't stop! I did have to tap out a little more than halfway through but I'm not deducting any stars because it was a pretty mammoth portion.

Then, out came Chef Lamont. He made the rounds to each table asking for feedback. He also did something quite classy... He thanked everyone for being there. Seriously.

One tiny tiny tiny knock. I'm a marga guy (check my other reviews). Not every place is going to squeeze limes, I get it. But, getting a better class of mix that doesn't use high fructose corn syrup (but uses lime juice and cane sugar) would kick their margaritas up about ten notches. Oh, and maybe add one or two more tequila choices. Just a couple ideas that don't change the overall...