The Grill at the Pines

My wife and I used to stop in to grab a quick glass or two of wine 2 – 3 times a week. Occasionally we’d grab dinner as well. Let me get this part out of the way– the food is ok, nothing to rave about, but not bad, and the décor is generic Holiday Inn. At least the bartenders are cool. But… they recently changed their wine list from «not a bad selection» to «completely generic and not that good». As this was our primary motivation for stopping in my wife asked to speak to the manager (tall dude with a goatee) to provide some feedback. After offering some constructive comments about her disappointment with the recent changes, I honestly couldn’t believe his response… He started by referring to my wife as «sweetie» (in a completely condescending tone) and continued to explain the exorbitant prices for crap wine as «restaurant mark-​up». From there he told her the wine change was due to «people with lots of money living around here, but being to cheap to spend it». Normally, I would have reached across the bar and kicked the crap out of him for being condescending, insulting and, quite frankly, an ass, but I was honestly enjoying the awkwardness of his stupidity. We’ll never go back again.
Subsequent to this, in talking with some neighbors who have also had bad experiences, the rumor is they are in financial trouble and about to go under (makes perfect sense as they are charging $ 8/​glass for a $ 6 bottle of wine). Looking forward to a new place rolling in…

I ordered the fried poached egg with green chili and my wife ordered the garden Benedict. The waitress highly recommended the fried poached egg. It was very spicy and the poached egg was a little hard as was the poached egg on the garden Benedict. Service was good as they are trying to build the business after the prior one failed at this location. Supposedly, they now have a chef (can you imagine a restaurant without one). Still have serious reservations (no pun intended) as to whether this new management will make it either.

I was hoping this spot would be a gem in the neighborhood but no such luck. We dined here the other night with a party of five. Frankly, It appeared the restaurant was trying to operate with a skeleton crew. One waitress, with occasional help from one manager, was trying to accommodate the entire restaurant. The obvious result was extremely slow service, a flustered server, clientele looking around constantly for a drink order/​refill, appetizers, dinner, their check… etc.
Our food was spotty. First, the calamari appetizer was pretty great (thus the 2 star rating) with a wonderful dipping sauce. I took us several tries to order a bottle of wine as the restaurant was out of two different bottles that we tried to order. Not a huge deal. Our salads ranged from lackluster (house salad) to pathetic (Caesar) and dinner was less than wonderful. My husband’s walleye looked like it was going to be pretty tasty but after one taste and he said it was bland, overcooked and disappointing. My lamb ragu was equally disappointing with overcooked fettuccine and a dry, pithy and underwhelming ragu. The bison burger was fine, cooked pretty close to ordered and nicely presented. The fish & chips were blah as was the Alfredo. The check was over $ 200 dollars.
In the end, I would say The Grill at the Pines would be fine for cocktails and appetizers or possibly lunch, if you can afford the wait. Otherwise, I would say the inadequate wait staff resulting in slow and harried service is unacceptable, the menu is overpriced for the quality delivered and the whole dinner experience leaves you feeling sorry for the restaurant, sorry for the friendly manager, but mostly sorry that you just spent that much time and money on a less than great dinner out.
***Note: the location is attractive and the patio really quite inviting. It’s a shame about the rest.

We definitely liked the food better than the old Rodney’s (especially the bar menu) but we are very disappointed that they couldn’t keep the old spaghetti which we loved. Also, since there isn’t a separate kids menu, it doesn’t seem as family friendly. However, our waiter immediately produced some paper and pens for the kids which was very much appreciated.
That being said, we are still in search of a local go-​to restaurant.