Gray's Tavern — Restaurant in Turlock

I am disappointed because Turlock needs more great restaurants and small businesses, leaving this review in hopes that its early enough for them to fix some of the deficiencies we experienced.

We went for dinner last night with a large party, table for ten. We entered and there is no hostess desk or sign to seat yourself so we just stood there without anyone greeting. Finally we went to the bar and said we have a reservation and they said the table is in the back. The table was ready on the plus side, although had no silverware.

The waitress was pretty uninspiring and clearly not excited to be there. The initial drink order was good came relatively quick. I got an Old Fashioned and others got some beers that were all very good, the drinks were good!

Then the adventure began. The waitress didn’t come back to order food for another 20minutes, and after ordering our food it took OVER AN HOUR to get basic bar food they offer (not an exaggeration). First came two appetizers, the first deviled eggs that were very good and the second wings that were extremely dry and tasteless. After an hour the main dishes came. The burgers were by far the best the thousand island on them was good, bread toasted and the meat was juicy/fatty! The salads were awful, bottom of the bag chunks of white romaine, the fish and chips was inedible and the tri tip sandwich was so dry. The fries on all dishes were ok, beer battered not crispy or hot though when they came out. Our waters weren’t even offered to be filled once in the two hours we were there.

Things to improve: Service, service, service. The waitress barely stopped by the table and was not helpful or apologetic about the long wait. The kitchen is either very understaffed or not efficient. No silverware on the table, no water refills, no welcome or goodbye, no explanation of the menu or what they serve. Quality of the food, appears to be a bar menu which is fine but seems to not be fresh except for the burgers, everything else tastes like it’s out of a microwave

Things done well: Burgers were delicious! The Old Fashioned and all drinks were good At least the table was ready and reservation honored Beautiful looking bar Prices very reasonable

The place just needs to make up its mind if it wants to be a sit down restaurant it’s needs to staff accordingly and bring the quality food to hit the mark. If it wants to be a cheap sports bar then it needs to improve speed and quality of the food, add tvs and table tops.

For a drink and burger I would go, to sit down for nice dinner I would not in its current state. I hope they can improve to...

We celebrated my sister in laws Birthday with a party of 12 today. I called before going in and the person who answered was super polite and helpful. They let us brink in a cake and offered to put it the refrigerator (very accommodating.) Our server was super nice, easy going, welcoming and made sure we had everything we needed with a smile. The Birthday girl recieved a complimentary Birthday dessert which was really cool as well. Everyone enjoyed the food and drinks. The Titos Espresso Martini was yummy and we definitely recommend the Smash Burger (all other plates were good too but my kids rave about the Smash Burger.) One of the ladys from back of house was walking by and engaged in conversation and wished my sister in a law a "Happy Birthday and many years to come" in spanish. She was super genuine and sweet. It's things like these that make a place seem super inviting and just extra special. The establishment checked all of my boxes for return visits. I can cook at home so it's the extras that make it worth it to go out. Friendly ✔️ Good Food ✔️ Clean ✔️ Made us feel welcome ✔️ Good times and we will be returning. Worth the drive to Turlock, we came...

Great new addition to Turlock's Downtown. We made a reservation for a group of 8 and it was ready when we got there. We ordered an array of appetizers and food and for the most part it was all delicious! For appetizers we got buffalo wings and fries, jalapeno poppers and mozzarella sticks. All were solid but the wings and fries and jalapeno poppers were my favorite. It seemed like each jalapeno popper had a full piece of bacon wrapped around. The burgers and patty melt that were ordered were all delicious! Only constructive criticism we had was the spicy chicken sandwich wasn't your typical spicy chicken (we expected a fried chicken sandwich) so it was a bit underwhelming. The other was the nachos. nachos for the kids menu was as expected, chips and cheese, but the adult nachos were nachos fries, not chips. If it would have said nacho fries, it would be a perfect description. Both menu items say nachos, but one chips the other fries. that being said the "nacho fries" we got with the grilled chicken and they were super good! The Salad was good too. All in all we will definitely be back!!! Happy to have another spot to...