Griffon Brewery and Gastropub — Restaurant in Town of Lewiston

I'm not trying to take food out of anyone's mouth, or get anyone in trouble, or start another blood feud (the gods know I've had my fill of those). So I leave a five star review, as proof that my comments are meant to educate, inform, and improve. This is not an attack. I wouldn't take the time to leave constructive criticism, unless I thought it was worth while. If Griffon was complete garbage, I wouldn't waste my time leaving a review. I think there could be a diamond amidst the rough. There are enough traces of gold in the stream, to keep working the claim. That said, the place is too big. Every restaurant is a potential incubator for every kind of grift and criminality. The more square footage you have, the more bars, the more kitchens, the more employees, the more blind spots, etc, the easier it is for various forms of rot to gain access and become entrenched. I came through circa 3pm. The two of us were sat next to a server station with a full garbage can and a lot of flies. Being annoyed by flies is admittedly a luxury problem, but we sat inside specifically because we didn't want to deal with bugs. And I can relate to the struggle to balance customer service with server sections. In the before time, when I was still a bright eyed foh employee, I learned pretty fast to not seat people in certain booths or tables. The roof leaks over 68, 10 is too close to the door, and sitting someone at a half table half booth, when there are open booths and tables, is worse than a waste of time. The customer is going to feel insulted, and you're just going to end up taking them to the better spot anyway, and they're going to start off their dining experience on the wrong note, and you're going to have to scramble a bit, when you could have just headed the whole thing off by telling them to sit wherever they like. And then if you know what you're doing, "wherever they like" is where you want them to go. A bad host or hostess thinks that their job is to seat the guests. No. Your job is to run interference for the rest of the restaurant. If you just seat tables willy nilly, all you're doing is kicking the can down the line. If you triple seat the whole restaurant at once, you just nuked the servers and the kitchen. It's not your problem anymore, and on a superficial level, you did your job. And it's understandable why novice host staff makes this mistake, and misinterprets what they're actually supposed to do. The hosts usually aren't paid enough, and it's treated like a farm team for the rest of foh. If you want to run an elite establishment, the reward for being good at your job isn't being promoted to a different job. It's like an orchestra. You find a top notch violinist, you don't have them switch to the oboe. No one component is more important than any other, because you need all of them. Good food with bad service or bad food with good service is like a car with no brakes. It doesn't matter how good everything else is, if the brakes don't work. Would you drive a vehicle that occasionally doesn't have functioning brakes? Anywho, tables should be prebussed, and then as soon as the guests debouch, the table needs to be reset. Leaving four plus dirty tables with dirty dishes on them, for almost an hour, is not ideal. I never saw a manager. If the Griffon was my baby, you better believe that there would be some kind of manager on the floor and on the prowl, at all times. One of the clean tables adjacent to us, had crumbs all over one of the chairs. Imagine waiting to be seated, and then when you get to your table, you pull the chair out and it's dirty. It's embarrassing on so many levels. For you, for the person seating you; it's just not ideal. I haven't even touched on the food. All I'll say, is that describing menu items as creative whatevers, is an interesting choice. If they're creative, shouldn't that be obvious, without you needing to let me know how creative they are? All I am saying, is that there's maybe some room for improvement. But what do I know? I'm sure that they are doing their best. I...

On June 25, 2023 me, my sister, brother-in-law, daughter and her husband and my granddaughter have picked the Griffin to go for an early birthday lunch. Keep in mind this was a milestone birthday I turned 60. My sister made reservations for all of us a couple weeks earlier. The reservation was supposed to be for a table to view the lake. We got to the Griffin to find out only to find that we could not have our reservation. Very disappointing and unwelcoming. My sister realized that more than likely the table we had had reserved was already taken by people that came in and they weren't going to leave. Obviously they gave our reservation to other people. The restaurant was pretty full. They decided to sit us towards the front entrance. Mind you there was a table of at least 10 younger women celebrating one of their birthdays. They were drunk and very loud. My sister and brother-in-law had this table right behind ears. Highly disturbing and very annoying. The view wasn't even near the lake like we reserved but never got. My sister ordered some sort of salad which she said was terrible and it was cold. I can't really remember what I ordered but basically it wasn't tasty at all. I asked for a daiquiri they didn't have any. My son-in-law ordered kangaroo and they didn't have that either. My brother-in-law and son-in-law both ordered special types of beer which they did not have. Honestly they didn't have many drinks that we would have had. From the waitress it was always oh I'm sorry I'm sorry. After a while hearing how sorry she was for everything kind of made you sick to hear it. I asked for a White Russian well she didn't know if they had any milk for the White Russian? However they did. "Oh! My!" We did see someone bringing our food off of a truck outside onto the landing into the apparently that's how everybody got their food that day through some outside food truck. I still wonder what that was all about so did my family? If I could have gave this restaurant a 0 I would have. Especially because it was my 60 birthday we were celebrating or supposed. The atmosphere was too loud with a bunch of drunk women sitting right behind us. Yelling, screaming, shouting whatever. Their food was either too bland too cold or just not our preferences of being anything but tasty. Having the reservations that were made weeks earlier not given to us was a definite blow to all of us. We made the reservations weeks prior and didn't get them because apparently our waitress obviously didn't care and let someone else take our reserved table by the lakes view. Keep in mind my son-in-law and daughter paid a hefty price for their meals and their drinks my son-in-law ordered some very high-quality special beers along with his meal that he couldn't have his kangaroo but had to order something else. My sister and her husband had treated me to my 60th birthday and I could tell you right now I know they spent over $200 between us 4 including my granddaughter. I know this is very lengthy and well overdue. I'm glad I wrote it and told you the truth of our horrible experience. I don't think we will ever be coming back again. We drove from Amherst and Clarence center, NY for this lunch at...

We went to this place on opening night, and My Sweet Lord this was a life changing experience!

The owners of the restaurant actually started in Lewiston running the Village Pub. They then closed it and opened the Griffon Gastropub in Niagara Falls to rave reviews. They expanded this concept to two other places in Western New York, but it is good to have them back home.

They refurbished the old Macri's location and brightened it with pot lighting and warmer colors for the walls. It made for an inviting ambience.

The food, wow what can I say. We stated with a grilled Caesar salad that was full of yummy ingredients such as real anchovies and crisp romaine lettuce, served in a bowl made our of baked parmesan that was scrumptious.

My companion had rabbit ragout with carrot gnocchi, the dish was slow cooked for six hours. It was an extremely unique, tasty dish.

I had the steak that was perfectly prepared with a potato garnish that was out of this world.

The restaurant was great for our child. They gave her coloring books and had a very affordable kids menu. Our daughter used to love the old Macri's and was bummed about going to the Griffon House when she first came in. Upon tasting her pasta, she said that it was the best pasta dish she ever had.

As for dessert, that was the star of the extravaganza. We shared the Half Baked Ice Cream Cake and we were simply over the moon. We all agreed that it was the best dessert that any of us ever had.

What impresses me most about the restaurant is its attention to details. The dessert was garnished with a strawberry on the side (probably just for decoration). Our child ate it and told the server "this is a perfect strawberry".

There are lots of good vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options. So you can bring almost everyone to savor the inventive and creative offerings.

I challenge any lover of fine cuisine to eat a meal at the Griffon House in Lewiston and not declare afterward that the quality of the food and overall dining experience is the equivalent to what may be found in the great restaurants of New York, San Francisco, London or Paris.

This is not hyperbole, it's...