The Spoon Trade

I felt like they were trying too hard to make traditionally delicious food better somehow and did not do so well. I had a grilled cheese that was not very good and the deviled eggs had a weird taste to them. I know the menu changes so maybe it will be better next time but I was disappointed in the food. The service was good though and people were friendly.

We have to say many of these reviews really undersold this place. It is a phenomenal establishment! Every single staff person we encountered was funny, upbeat, and genuinely nice; the décor was super comfortable and casual but in great taste; and the food was terrific. Thanks so much for a lovely night out on the town. (Oh, and call ahead to put your name on the walk-​in wait list.)

Came in for Valentines. Had the spaghetti, steak and sole. SO AWESOME! Great service, fair prices, wonderful staff. Highly recommend!!!

Everything was excellent. We had the center cut pork chop, the warm cauliflower salad, oysters on half shell and the brown sugar pudding thing. All of it exceeded our expectations. A must stop if in the area.

The food is unique and excellent. The service is amazing and they do their best to accommodate everyone. The children’s menu could be expanded, and the portions are sized for small children. The bread is excellent and so is the house rose.
We are regulars and it seems it will stay this way.

Don’t read my «check in»!
My cell went dead in the middle of my check in.
Spoon Trade is so rad! I can’t say enough, everything on the menu is awesome! Good job guys.
This is a MUST EAT at spot if you are on the CC!

Just enjoyed a terrific dining experience in Grover! Jason really nailed with the duck spaghetti carbonara. Went great with a glass of Center of Effort Pinot noir, the bread pudding with goat cheese was unique. The available beers and wines were all top notch. The fried chicken with waffles were perfectly seasoned and perfectly cooked. The Grover beach sourdough with a hint of salt
was delightful. It was nice to see such a nice mix of comfort food and innovation in this location! I plan to be back soon!

I had an amazing Friday evening adventure in Grover Beach at the spoon trade. This fantastic farm to table restaurant is only open from 5pm-​10, so plan accordingly. I ordered 4 tapas and a chicken and waffles entrée. All aspects of this meal was delicious. My favorite was the burrita mozzarella and apple pie! Give it a try. Cheers

This may be our new go-​to date place. Food is delicious, prices are decent, my only complaint is it can get pretty loud in there for conversation. The sound acoustics aren’t great in there, but that’s not enough to keep us away. We’ll be back!

This is a neat new place that we just tried out. The food was good, I had the chicken and waffles and my wife had the octopus. The chicken and waffles had a great complexity of flavors going on. It tended to be a little to sweet for me by the end but I really don’t like sweet things. The octopus was really good and I would order it again. Great little place we will be back to.

My wife and I have now eaten at The Spoon Trade twice. The first time we sat outside with our dog (Yeah! Dog Friendly) and the second time inside at at table of 10.
Atmosphere
Our first time at the restaurant we sat outside on a rather cool evening. However, with their heat lamps we were not cold. I can’t recall what we ordered (my wife could) but it was different and excellent. After that meal we found ourselves comparing the menu to Embers which is down the street in Arroyo Grande.
Our second visit was inside and a completely different feel. First I want to point out that this is becoming the norm, so I am not singling out this restaurant. But the noise level was high. We were going to sit man, woman, man woman, but based on the volume level, we grouped the men and one end and the woman at another. This really made talking and hearing what was said more realistic.
Staff
On both occasions, excellent. Professional, polite, funny, etc.
Prices
I compared this restaurant to Embers before and I will here again. I am not sure what $$ means above, but to me it felt more like $$$ or for the central coast $$$$. But remember, their menu is unique with a constant and varied assortment of seasonally available local fair. You should expect to pay more for that. For us it will be a treat, not a regular occurrence.
Food
We enjoyed our first visit the most. We shared everything and ordered one of each: appetizer, salad, soup and entrée. We were adventurous (which is not our norm) and were not disappointed. On our second trip, we each ordered our own meal but something cheaper to keep the cost down. We were not as «blown away». But based on my description you can see why. I think our second meal we each got hamburgers or something like that. First meal, went for their specialties = very pleased. Second meal tried to cheap out = luke warm.
Conclusion
We will go back. But as a special occasion with the expectation that our tab for the two of us (and our dog) will be north of $ 75 for food, alcohol, tip and tax.

went tonight for the first time… seriously so good. I had the chicken n waffles, sooo tasty and filling. my mom got the artichoke soup which was amazing. everyone was so kind, really great and pleasant service. two of the owners stopped by to check in on us and were really friendly. 100% going back and would recommend to friends, excited to try more items on the menu. also, I recommend going at 5pm ’cause you can’t make reservations and it’s really busy. also, Monday’s there are no corkage fee if you want to bring your own bottle, but keep in mind it will be busier. regardless, if you have to wait, it’s completely worth it!

Friendly staff –5 stars
Fried chicken n waffles-​4 ½ stars
Pumpkin pasta-​3 stars
Asparagus soup-​4 stars
Pork chop-​4 ½ stars
Monday night-​bring your own wine.
Great experience. We will be back!

Do not understand the flood of 5 star ratings this place gets. The food was decidedly average across the board.
Free popcorn was a fun touch when you don’t get one that is like chewing on rock salt. Speaking of rock salt, I’m pretty sure they sprinkled in on top of my wife’s salad. So overpowering.
The grilled octopus was cooked perfectly, but nothing special as far as flavor or presentation.
The mushroom pot pie was good, but the portion was a little on the small side, like an 8oz cup of soup.
My burger, asked for medium, came out bleeding and again, average. I have had much better $ 15 burgers.
As far as the theme is concerned: farm to table, Ember does it better with listing the farms they work with; quirky dishes, Ember and Mason Pub do it better; atmosphere, it’s loud, thanks mostly to the all tile floor; wait staff, friendly.
As I said, an average experience.

This was my first experience at The Spoon Trade, and it exceeded my expectations in every way. It’s only been open for three months as I write this review, but the place is totally squared away.
I ordered the winter squash soup, scallops with grits and broccoli, a glass of Westerly Merlot-​Cab Franc. Then I finished off the meal meal with a brown sugar crème fraiche dessert and a small pot of French press coffee. Everything was absolutely superb.
The service was impeccable. Not only was my waitress skilled and attentive, but in the course of my meal two of the three owners came over to my table to inquire whether I was satisfied with my meal.
This restaurant is fairly pricey for Grove or Beach – $ 65 for my meal including like, dessert, and coffee – but absolutely worth it IMHO.
I arrived right at opening time (5 PM) on Friday, and it was a lucky thing I did; by 5:45 PM, the place was packed and there was a significant wait.
I dined alone tonight, but I can’t wait to come back and bring my girlfriend. She’s going to love it!

More of a 3.5~ This hipster new-​American restaurant serves local alcohol and food in an open-​kitchen ambiance a few blocks away from the beach. While the alcohol is reasonably priced, the food attempted to be creative but unfortunately for me was just average.
The menu is very simple, 3 – 4 sides of a carb or veggie, 3 – 4 starters (ranging from sweetbreads to octopus), a few classics — burger, chicken and waffles, and other entrees (pasta dishes and meat). I sampled the tagliatelle, chicken and waffles, and fazzoletti.
The Tagliatelle was like fall on a plate– pumpkin, pasta, and pecans. The pasta was very well done, perfect texture. The plate however was very acidic with lemon sauce and too sweet. It was like eating a pasta pumpkin pie. This was still the best dish because it was lighter and matched with the season.
The chicken was cooked well, crispy, but not seasoned so much, making it taste pretty plain. The waffle was also sourdough, which was pretty weird for me. It was soft but I just wasn’t a fan of the sourdough waffle.
The fazzoletti featured a thick ‘handkerchief’ pasta, breadcumbs, white beans, a bit of green olives, and braised duck. The pasta was the highlight, nice texture. However nothing else on the plate was very good. The plate overall was very heavy but lacking any harmony of flavors– the duck was somehow dry and not seasoned, breadcumbs added texture and oil but not much else, and the sauce just didn’t shine but dulled a rather dreary plate.
Interesting combinations, but they didn’t really work to create well-​balanced dishes. I’d come back for drinks but the food doesn’t live up to the rave reviews.

I was interested in having my palate challenged and The Spoon Trade certainly obliged.
They have an upscale shabby-​chic thing going on and that’s always fun. Most of the experience was terrific and they actually get an extra star from me for effort and creativity, but…
I probably would have given them only 3 stars but I didn’t want to be a buzzkill. Everyone else has given them 5 stars except for one lady who sounded like an idiot anyway («There’s no kid’s menu! They didn’t have maple syrup for the waffles!» LOL, go to Denny’s!).
All of the food we tried was good but not great.
We started with the goat cheese and carrot cake. And while the flavors were completely incongruous to each other, it wasn’t in the, «but it really worked!» kind of way. I ate it all and enjoyed it but I didn’t receive any culinary enlightenment.
The sweetbreads were fried past flavor recognition. You know how fried calamari is all about the texture and the seasoning of the batter and dip? It was like that but w/​a softer texture. The dijon sauce was interesting but the total experience just didn’t come together in any big taste revelation. However, it was all perfectly cooked and beautifully presented.
The pork chop lacked pizzaz. We watched it being cooked and it appeared to us (correct me if I’m wrong) that the chops had been sous vide’d to precise internal temperature and then briefly grilled just for the marks. It tasted like… a pork chop. The sauce was good but again, our eyes didn’t shine w/​tears of joy. I guess this is why I prefer chops marinated, glazed, etc.
Even their bread was a little more dense than I would normally have been willing to pay extra for.
All in all, we liked the place a lot and we’ll definitely be back, hoping that the next dishes we try will be more focused on the «yum» factor and less on the «interesting» factor.
Oh, and the service was FANtastic! The lady w/​the black hair, eyelashes, and makeup? She was stellar!

GO HERE! I was so impressed with every aspect of my dinner last night. The restaurant has a lovely open floor plan. Cool décor and nice small bar that serves beer and wine. Wine selection was limited but VERY good. We split a bottle of the grenache and also tried the pinot noir on tap. Both delicious.
We ordered up some appetizers. We had the sweet breads, the Humboldt goat cheese with carrot cake, and the octopus. Everything was so yummy. Cooked to perfection and flavor all over the place. I highly recommend the sweet breads, which aren’t sweet by the way.
For our entrees we had the fish and grits, tagliatelle with mussels, and the grilled cheese with tomato soup. Once again nothing disappointed. Pasta made fresh in house every morning, creamy a and flavorful grits which I always manage to royally fudge over when I make them at home.
Don’t even get me started on dessert…
The pudding was amazing with adorable presentation.
A totally epic spot.

The quality of the offering was on the upper end of the spectrum. The beer, quality, the wine quality, the appetizer quality, the soup quality.
This eatery rivals all-​comers within the Five-​Cities. Are there higher quality restaurants? Not that I have found. Are there restaurants which are more unique in their dishes? Different but this is a rival. The service here is neighborhood feel which is striving to know your name and takes interest in the customer.
The risk here is Grover Beach is not accustomed to the price point. Grand Ave is the leader in upper end establishments in the area but Spoon Trade is many blocks from Arroyo Grande’s Ember, Mason Bar and Comfort Market but their food rivals all of them. It’s worth the look.

Very pleased with our dinner tonight! Complimentary seasoned popcorn was a tasty surprise. We then started with the Grover Beach sourdough bread ($ 3) and Marinated Olives ($ 5) Olives served warm. sooooo so good! Prickly in Pink pear drink was refreshing and certainly pretty to look at but probably would try the lemonade next time. We split an order of Fried chicken and waffles ($ 20 for four generous pieces) Forgot to get a picture because we ate it too quickly. Loved the crunch with every bite. The waffles were light, crispy, and drizzled with warm honey. Kimchi was a fun unexpected pairing.
Even though we were full and had leftovers to take home, we had to try the Tart and Tangy Lemon Meringue pie ($ 8)… BEST EVER!!! I think I will be dreaming of it.
Good service and a nice comfortable atmosphere. We will definitely come back.