Grotto Pub — Restaurant in West Fairview

My wife and I were passing through town recently and decided to give the place a try after reading the online reviews.

At first glance the place is actually pretty neat. We both really liked the décor and it felt like a comfortable corner bar/restaurant to hang out in.

Unfortunately the smell of cigarette smoke was all but unbearable. This is supposedly a smoke free establishment… Not sure if they went smoke free 5 minutes before we got there or what. The food wasn’t any better. The wife had the crab cake sandwich special and she didn’t care for it. Stated it was very fishy tasting. I ordered the loaded fries and honestly I didn’t care for it either. The fries were OK, the bacon was old and dry, the ranch dressing is some bland store bought stuff. I watched many locals come in for a beer or two then leave. Very few people actually ordered food…

This could be an amazing place, it has all the inner workings for it. Great location, the waitress/bartender we had was awesome. The staff actually seemed to interact well with each other. But until they address the smoking and the chef I can’t...

We stopped in for a nice family dinner. I did like that we were able to get a table right away. We started with partyman fries which were excellent, especially the happy sauce that comes with it. For our meals we had a flatbread cheese pizza, Fat Daddy wrap, and buffalo style chicken fingers. The pizza was extra great, but we ordered the two topping and only got the cheese, but still paid a two topping price, I really wasn't upset at all since even the two topping price was on par with a lot of other places cheese pizza price. The Fat Daddy wrap was decent, but I think I'd try something else next time. The buffalo chicken tenders were good, we had medium which had a nice spice to them. I really liked that they had malt vinegar on the table, which I love with my fries. The service was a little slow, but I didn't mind since it looked like they were short staffed. Only 1 server and the bartender. It's a great place especially if you like the dive bar feel with good food. They even had some out side seating setup, but we opted for inside since there was rain in...

The Grotto is a hidden little gem that I recall from older days as a different place. We have been frequenting it more recently due to a lack of simple, casual places to go with good food and entertainment.

Parking can be a little tricky here, they have a very small parking lot area - so parking on the street is necessary sometimes when it is busy, and that can be a challenge.

We have been to the Grotto now a few times and I can say the food here is solid – very good. We usually get some type of seafood – they have a steamer right at the bar for the shellfish offerings – I can attest that people at the bar rave about everything. We have had the Oysters here many times too couldn’t get over just how good they actually were!

Happy hour is a good time to come here – they have a few specials, and a few nights there was live music as well. The Grotto isn’t a fancy place – but they do have very good food. I think perhaps it is a little overpriced for such a casual atmosphere, but we do like it there – we do feel it is friendly and welcoming from the staff to...