The Grubb at 34th and Asbury — Restaurant in Ocean City

Went there last month for dinner after reading about The Grubb in the June issue of Ocean City magazine. Was extremely disappointed. First, they need to figure out what kind of restaurant they want to be. The menu has WAY too many items for a small place. From appetizers and sandwiches to steaks and pasta dishes. Our visit: Got there around 4:30pm and were the only customers. Mom chose the prime rib and I chose the rib eye steak. After a few minutes server came back to say they were out of rib eyes. Seriously? Was there a lunchtime rush on rib eye steaks that day?! I chose the pork chops as a replacement (big mistake). After about 10 minutes of watching the 3 floor staff talking to each other at the register (God forbid they checked all the tables to fill items needing it) we called our server over to ask about our salads and why she didn't ask us what kind of dressing we wanted. She said she was waiting for the rolls to be done. She could have told us that when we placed our order. After about another 10 minutes she came out with the salads and rolls.

Salads were fresh and very good. Rolls were warm. All went downhill from there.

After about 40 minutes since arriving the entrees came. The prime rib looked like it was boiled. Server said it was grilled. Who the heck grills a prime rid (apparently The Grubb does)?! It did not come from a prime rib roast. Instead, a piece was cut from the raw, then grilled. Disgusting. And not worth the price. She should have sent it back, but tried to salvage what she could. The asparagus was very flavorful. My 2 pork chops were dry with little flavor. Could only eat one. They were not thick and juicy as I was expecting. Sides of green beans and mashed potatoes were large but needed flavor. Mashed were not creamy and I had to ask for butter to fix them up.

FINAL THOUGHTS: Kevin Grubb needs to decide what kind of foodery he wants. Scale down the menu and get rid of the overpriced fancy foods that are out of place here. They don't need all those fancy dinner entrees. Stay with the staples - apps, wings, burgers, steak sandwiches, fries, wraps, etc. I don't think his chef/cooks know what they're doing. A real chef would never grill a piece of prime rib. With well over 100 items + salads, +kids menu, including breakfast, he's trying to please everyone. It's better to do one thing well than ten things poorly.

We want to come back to try the burgers and the smash burgers and are hoping that will want us coming back for more. Fingers crossed.

Would really love to see a restaurant succeed in this location, where many before...

Do NOT — and I repeat, do NOT — eat at The Grubb. My family and I walked in around lunchtime and instantly found it weird that there was nobody in there (should’ve seen the writing on the wall). We sat down and were served by a kind but slightly off-putting waitress who didn’t seem very confident in herself. We ordered our drinks, and they came out right away. Some of us ordered breakfast and some ordered lunch. The waitress then proceeded to come back after taking our order to inform us that they had run out of breakfast potatoes (???). Instead of offering a suitable replacement, she simply stared into our souls and said nothing. My mom finally spoke up and just said she didn’t need them, and we moved on from there. After this incident, we waited an agonizing 40 minutes for our food — which was absolutely not worth that wait. I got a smash burger, which was fine, but it came with a side of classic Lay’s chips (still in the bag, mind you). The food overall was marginal at best and didn’t do much to separate itself from other places in OCNJ. The place was actually decorated very nicely with a cool beach theme, but the lack of people in the restaurant killed the atmosphere in a way. Then, as the cherry on top, when we were on our way out, another family was walking in. This family was turned away at the door and told they were closing for some reason until later in the day. Just before this, we saw a staff member (assuming a chef) walk right out of the kitchen. Still not entirely sure what went on there, but it’s safe to say that my family’s experience at The Grubb was a mix of confusion, disappointment, and...

Food was wildly inconsistent. My partner ordered the Philly Cheese steak eggrolls- delicious but a skimpy portion with no dips, The Chicken cheesesteak was good and was an enormous portion. The Bruschetta was decent and a large portion but had no cheese or balsamic??, It's all down hill from there. The side salad is served with bottled ranch and the greens were for some reason super bitter. The mashed potatoes were instant mashed potatoes microwaved with water and served in a mug- I'm sorry but if you're running a restaurant you should be COOKING FOOD not heating up instant potatoes. And the French onion soup was ATROCIOUS. I even told the server that something wasn't right, it tasted like they added a cup of white wine at the end and didn't give it any time for the alcohol to cook out. Despite my informing her they still left...