The Ground Round — Restaurant in Shrewsbury

A good mix of nostalgia and food

Like many people reviewing the newest Ground Round restaurant, I remember going there during my childhood. Though my memories are little more than the silent cartoons, popcorn, and baseball cap sundaes, I was still excited when I heard about the Shrewsbury location opening. At the time of this review, we have tried to go three times, but only succeeded twice due to excessive crowds. If you are planning on going I recommend making a reservation if you are a party of 6+, or showing up before opening and waiting by the door.

The seating on the restaurant side is a mix of rather large booths and free standing tables. Shortly after being seated we were given a basket of popcorn and had our drink orders taken. For soda they have coke products. They also have juice as an option for children. Service speed was a little on the slow side, unsurprisingly considering how busy they are, so I recommend looking at the menu before going and deciding what you want so you can order immediately after reviewing whatever the specials are.

The overall ambiance was good. Its a much brighter, well lit, and cleaner building than the ones I remember from my youth. Though the floorplan was fairly open, it was also crowded and loud. This is fairly normal for a popular restaurant and nothing to discourage you from attending.

For appetizers we tried the pretzels which came out very hot with your choice of two sauces. Both times we had them, our party very quickly devoured them. The one improvement for them would be if they came precut.

We ordered the kids popcorn chicken, kids mac and cheese, chicken parmigiana, and haddock both visits and the food quality was mostly consistent. The serving sizes were generous and with the exception of the popcorn chicken were enough for two meals if you paced yourself. The taste of the haddock varied slightly between visits. The first visit the fries were fairly normal flavored but the second they were obviously seasoned. As there is only one entry on the menu for fries, I expect they simply forgot to add seasoning the first time. I liked the seasoned fries a lot, it was a subtle hint of spice that lingered. We were a little surprised that all the dished come with pesto seasoning, but it didn't detract from the dish. If you don't like pesto though, tell your server when you order. The popcorn chicken was well received and the mac in cheese was real, not just an over priced box of kraft.

Our party also tried the salmon and sirloin on our second visit. The serving size of the salmon was much smaller, there wasn't enough for leftovers. The steak was a good size and could be stretched to two meals. There were no complaints about the food.

We also tried multiple desserts. The first time we ordered the apple crisp, sundae, and flower pot. The table crisp was good, though they use tart apples so it wasn't as sweet as I would like. The sundae comes in a Woo Sox baseball cap which you get to keep and while light on the fudge was what you would expect. The flower pot, which you also get to keep, was creative but nothing we felt the need to order a second time. Though they say they have homemade whip cream, and I personally found it tasty, it tastes like it is a modified or thickened cool whip.

Overall I am very glad I got to take my children to a restaurant I have fond memories of. The price was on the higher side for a family of four, over $30 per person when you consider appetizers, desert, and tip. I would certainly go again for a special occasion, but not for a normal...

Great experience at the Ground Round in Shrewsbury. Excellent food and service. From the moment we walked in the door, we were treated like family. The hostess was polite and friendly. The restaurant was clean and inviting. While we waited for our table, we sat at the bar and ordered appetizers and drinks. The bartenders were super friendly and attentive. We ordered the Pot of Gold, which had onion rings, chicken tenders, mozzarella moons, and cheese steak egg rolls. Everything was cooked to perfection. The chicken tenders were most and juicy, and the onion rings were crisp and not greasy. The cheese steak egg rolls were cheesy and full of steak. We also had the potato skins, which were topped with plenty of cheddar cheese, bacon, and green onions, and with the horseradish sour cream, it made them even better. To drink, I had a black and blue (blue moon and Guinness), which was delicious. After enjoying our drinks, appetizers, and, of course, fresh buttery popcorn, it was time to go to our table in the dining room, where they had old cartoons playing on flat screen tvs Our server, Sue, or as she says tsunami, was a former server at the original GR over 20 years ago. She was awesome, very knowledgeable, polite, professional, and funny. She was attentive but not intrusive. For dinner, we had BBQ Chicken and Baby Back Ribs, which, as you can see from the picture, fell off the bone, along with crispy fries and creamy coleslaw. For desert, we had the cinnamon dippers and classic slider sundaes. Everything was absolutely delicious. The owners were super friendly and gave us a couple of GR T-shirts to take home. It was great to see them there, making sure everyone was having a good time, interacting, and chatting with the guests. We even saw the Ground Round Hound, a great new addition to this family fun restaurant. The GR is the perfect place to watch the game at the bar with your friends or enjoy a family-friendly dinner in the main dining room. It's definitely...

We've been wanting to try the new Ground Round since they opened months ago but the wait has always been outrageous so we made plans to arrive early (4:15ish on a Thursday night). We were given our choice of booth or table and were seated at a spacious booth for 6- just the 2 of us! Given it's the week of Halloween , the servers were decked out in Halloween costumes which I found to be quite entertaining. Our server promptly took our drink order and another server brought over a bowl of fresh popcorn. (Just as we remembered from our years visiting the "original" Ground Round on route 9 back in the 80's and 90's!) We ordered the Ground Rounder burger and the Taco salad for our meals. Although some of the menu items have the same names, they aren't truly "the same" as we remembered. The burger, now served on a pretzel bun, does not come with lettuce, tomato, and onion, although you can request it for an additional charge. (+$1.50 🤔) Minimal amount- upcharge on something you'd normally expect would be included on an $18.00 burger/fries. The taco salad was enormous and the presentation was impressive. I knew I'd be bringing much of this home. Slightly disappointed in this choice- the meat was simply cooked ground beef with no seasoning. I guess because it was called "taco salad" I was expecting the meat would be seasoned like taco meat; I also expected the meat would be at the very least, warm, if not hot- but it was cold/chilled. The menu states "fire roasted corn" which ended up being just regular kernel corn, and the chipotle ranch dressing tasted more like thousand island or Russian dressing. All in all, the food was 'okay' (mediocre), but not necessarily as enjoyable as we nostalgically remembered. The service was top notch as our server was attentive, friendly, and checked in regularly for refills, taking our order, and processing our payment. We had higher hopes for the return of The...