Made a dinner reservation for a party of 6. Showed up and even though the restaurant was half empty inside (and stayed half empty), we were placed in the very back, behind the kitchen, no ambiance isolated part of the restaurant where there was no air circulation and it was uncomfortably stuffy hot with stale air. Had to ask if they could open a door so we didn’t sweat profusely, they obliged thankfully.
We ordered 3 aperol spritzs and a lillet blanc spritz that barely had any alcohol. The color of the aperol spritz was so faint, it was visibly pathetic and our friends who are French said, “I don’t think there’s much aperol in here at all.” We basically paid cocktail drink prices for soda waters.
Service was spotty at first, ignored in the back where we couldn’t see anyone, and they couldn’t see us, thought maybe they forgot they seated us behind the kitchen? The pork and the duck were decent but the steaks (2 orders) were less than desirable.
Any one of the negative experiences could’ve been overlooked but the combination of being seated behind the kitchen in a stuffy hot room, highway robbery on cocktails that were basically non alcoholic, and bad steaks, made it a very negative dining experience. We opted to leave to have dessert somewhere else for better food, ambiance and drinks.
I had higher hopes for La Grille, having been selected best bistro, but sadly it was not our experience.
