Grossman’s Noshery & Bar — Restaurant in Santa Rosa

Two recent visits combined in one review:

First visit, was dining with a companion and my entree was never fired. Service was slow, so enough time passed that I bid my friend to enjoy their meal vs wait. My dish never came. I asked after it but by the time our waiter returned it didn't make sense to have my friend wait while their meal was completed. Received the bill with my dish still on it, had to re-explain to a new waiter that it was never fired/brought to the table, the vibe was that they couldn't have cared less. I went home hungry and frustrated. We still tipped as normal, thought it might be a fluke.

Second visit was sadly worse. Israeli salad with labneh topping was delivered to the table, all seemed fine until we tasted it. The labneh had clearly spoiled that caused a sharp, "carbonated" sizzling burn in my mouth.

Asked for a second opinion from my dining companion who agreed it was spoiled and pretty far gone at that. We stopped at two small bites and immediately returned it to the kitchen.

Later, in the middle of our meal our waitress returned to inform us that the labneh was "made fresh" (which is impossible, as labneh takes 24+ hrs to make, and is, by nature a fermented dish, not something that can be freshly made), and had been tested and was to their standards. Labneh can be stored safely for 2-3 weeks at a time and often is, but there's a surefire and easy way to tell when it has gone off, and guess what? It's when it becomes fizzy, which is the stage right before it goes fully sour.

Being argued with over spoiled food was beyond the pale for me, and as someone who has ordered this exact salad many times on past visits, and has eaten labneh in its regions of origin as well as made it at home, this stuff had no business being served. Had we received a basic, "It's been taken off your bill," we wouldn't have given it a 2nd thought but the insistence and repeated (rude) arguing over the dish blew us away.

Beyond that, the window seating area is infested with ants. Go see for yourself, look in the corners. We were flicking them off the counter and doing our best to keep them off our plates/bodies. Hopefully the cold weather will take this problem off their hands, but it was still unexpected for a restaurant in downtown SR. After the spoiled food skirmish, I didn't think it worth mentioning the ants to them -- why would they care? You might, so I mention it here.

We ended up leaving early and not finishing all that we had ordered, the ants were the clincher. Still tipped as normal so as not to be "those people" but JFC, don't argue with a patron over serving a spoiled $12 salad.

Won't be visiting again, which I suspect is a mutual feeling based on the way we...

My fiancé and I came here for breakfast as it’s connected to the hotel we were staying at which is super convenient! It’s located right at the heart of downtown and close to train station area and the visitors center! There’s plenty of parking around the area but none associated to the restaurant so be prepared to look around for parking! The server was spectacular and super nice! Everyone in this place was very friendly! They have plenty of options for food that’s for sure! I got Terri’s favorite which came with two poached eggs, two slices of avocado toast, the bread was delicious! The potato’s that were perfectly seasoned and came with pastrami which was perfectly made! I was definitely full by the end of the meal and didn’t get to my and toast so you could share portions! he got the chocolate GB cinnamon babka toast breakfast option that came with eggs and chicken apple sausages. The highlight of this meal was the orange ginger butter! It’s a must try for sure! It was flavors we have never tried together and the pairing with the toast was amazing. We recommend if you’re in town or want to pop in for some food! The place is decorated nicely as well and has coat hangers on the seat booths for jackets and purses. The only thing we noticed was that the booth we had, had some ripped up spots on the seats and I was wearing a dress and have texture issues so it was a bit bothersome, so beware if you have little ones or wear shorts! They provide you with a big cloth napkin that I sat on top of so no biggie! We constantly got our water refilled which was awesome and we enjoyed the atmosphere of the restaurant. Definitely will be coming...

We ate here for dinner last night and the food was so good we opted to go back this morning where there was a big to-do about our lack of a reservation. (Imagine being promptly seated on a Saturday night, but no seats at 10:15 for breakfast. And by no seats, I mean 1/3 of the place was empty but being held for later reservations. The breakfast menu was small anyway, but did have a couple of things I'd have been interested in having. They said we could wait "about 30 minute" which didn't work for us.) The lunch/dinner menu is fairly large and somewhat unusual in it's variety of offerings. I had chicken kebabs (dark meat, skin on = divinity), husband had a footlong hot dog fully loaded (dare I say gourmet?), and the kids opted for matzoh ball & chicken noodle soup. (I tasted it and it was phenomenal.) I had also been eyeing chickem schnitzel. Not knowing how big the portions were, we had also ordered a smoked meat platter, that was literally large enough for a meal in and of itself as it comes with a variety of bread, crackets, pickle and spicy mustard. The corned beef and pastrami were amazing, and the smoked turkey was delicious.... and the liver too! We ended up taking part of that back to our hotel to snack on later. My cocktail "Kind of a Big Dill" may be a new favorite. My son said this was the best food we've had since being in California, and I agree it was among the best. They have a really cute interior but we sat outside on the grass patio since the weather was fair. Highly recommend, but make a...