Grindstone Charley’s

We hadn’t been to one of these in years, and went with a large group after a concert. We took over a whole room (about 30 of us), and the servers did a great job of handling our group.
The food is similar to Friday’s or Applebee’s — Nothing that really distinguishes it, but always a good value for a reasonable price. And they didn’t rush us out afterward, which is always a plus when we’re with a large group and just want to stay and talk.

Have you ever pondered to yourself «Can anything be worse than the situation I am in right now?» Our excruciating experience at Grindstone Charley’s had us asking that question repeatedly throughout the meal. While every seat in the restaurant was open, a young man, we’ll call him Ian, sat us in extremely close proximity to what we saw as the end to any possible conversation we would have at our dining locale. Next to us say what seemed to be a family of only women, aging from 2 – 3 years to 200 – 300 years. The copious amount of over exaggerated laughter and squealing forbid us from any enjoyment from the start. Once our waitress made her way to the table, we were greeted with «I’m new here, so please excuse every mistake you are about to witness», but in a failed cute demeanor. Once we placed a drink order and realized that almost all appetizers were out of stock, we ordered our meals. Unable to bear the screeching sounds coming from our neighboring table, we ordered a couple of tequila shots to keep us sane. When the shots arrived, the young waitress, we will call Janice, still quite uneducated with proper restaurant service, placed the shots on the drink menu, instead of the actual table resulting in a good quantity of the liquid to spill out of the 1.5oz glasses. After seeing our pure disappointment, a manager came to apologize for our seating and offered us some of the most hideous birthday cake as a peace offering. This came after watching the faces of the women trying to eat Grandma’s homemade cake that was most likely baked in 1963 in preparation for this very event. Our food has arrived! But again, to our dismay, everything surely had been microwaved with the utmost of care. The only thing that can help us get over the true brutality of this experience is another Tequila shot! Right? You can’t screw that up, can you? Here, you can! We were brought the wrong brand, that anyone could taste the difference. The best part of the experience was the fact that the managers must have finally recognized that they will never see the likes of our patronage again, so afforded us $ 50 off of our combined bill for time served. We could not make our way out of the restaurant fast enough, but do know in the future that Grindstone Charley’s will most likely be brought up in conversations with connotations similar to those of tragic motor vehicle accidents and horrific natural disasters.

I wasn’t happy with the low quality food for dinner, the side dishes for the entrée had been stewing since 8 am. The place isn’t clean and service was OK. Next time i’ll drive a little farther.

Went there last night for my birthday. Found hair in my appetizer, had to ask several times for a gluten free menu, main entrée (fried green tomatoe blt) was bland and mediocre. Service was slow and forgetful. Manager was friendly and tried to make things right. Was very misled from the Unilocal reviews. Will not be returning.

Their breaded tenderloins are the bomb! On Tuesdays they are only six bucks. Everyday after 8 appetizers are half off too. I’ll have to go for drinks sometime. They have different drink specials throughout the week. The best part… it is NOT a chain. Support local businesses!

The food was great! The service was a complete disaster. I went there for dinner with my mother on a slow Sunday night and our server messed up every part of our order except the salad. She forgot out jalapeños and ranch for our potato chips, brought a cup of soup instead of a bowl, and also gave us traditional wings instead of boneless. When I mentioned this she hesitated to take the food back until I specifically told her to fix the order. Then she carried on to ignore our table when we needed refills and gave us smart remarks when she returned with the correct food. Finally when it came time for us to order dessert she didn’t even offer it, she just handed us the bill and said,“here you go”. We will not be returning again.

Pros: we got the stuffed mushrooms, fried pickles, and bacon potato skins for the appetizers. They were all decent — nothing too spectacular but good. Most people at the table got prime rib and we all agreed it was good. Decent restaurant
Cons: Service was subpar. Our waiter had an attitude and kept forgetting to bring items we requested (i.e., ketchup, another drink). He asked someone at our table if she was done with her food WHILE she was eating. Was not satisfied with the service at all.

Probably a chain, but it is leaps and bounds better than your typical Chili’s, Applebees, etc. The fried mushroom appetizer is really good (according to my friends). I had the Chimichanga Bamba as suggested by our waiter and it was also very good. Then I had the turtle pie for dessert and was sold on this restaurant. I was in a food coma for about two hours, but it was so worth it.
Good food and good service. What more can you ask for?

Great lunch– amazing price. Stopping through here with my family on the way to Purdue, I had a salad and everyone else had lunch combos, they loved them! Fried tomatoes were good for an app.
Jill took care of us, super nice! Good server.

Super amazing ribs! Stopped in at noon and was greeted by the owner/​GM. Staff recommendations were spot on. Definitely a stop if you want a good sit down meal

This would be our second visit in as many weeks. The first visit was about four stars. This second visit, however, is likely the last. I had a decent beef manhattan. My boyfriend had the chicken tender dinner. It was lacking 1) bread that supposed to come with it. 2) the bed of rice under the chicken. 3) baked potato was never baked, undercooked, then reheated in the microwave 4) lacking «hand cut» french fries, now going back to children’s crinkle cut fries.
Did we speak to anyone before leaving? Barely. Only saw the server when she brought a drink refill and the check. The gentleman whom apparently is the manager blew me off when I mentioned the baked potato and had some excuse about the fries. Mentioned that they need to change the menu description and again was some excuse. Might I also mention that twice the server forgot a bottle of ketchup. However, I think the food needed a little more than just ketchup, perhaps having a few drinks like we did the first time can make it better.
No link on the website to contact corporate so here I am. Oh well. Too many choices plus the slow economy mean for us to just go elsewhere.

This is one of our ‘must go to’ locations when we are in town. We like the Fried Green Tomatoes, and I always order the Tenderloin Sandwich, an Item that’s not known in WV, where I hail from. It’s awesomely sized, with enough pork tenderloin to make two sandwiches! Their service can be spotty at times, though.

I’ve eaten at Grindstone Charley’s a handful of times over the past few years and have yet to be impressed. This time out I ordered a cheeseburger and fries. The burger looked great, but was without any real flavor. The fries (small crinkle cut) were tasty enough but not worth going out of your way for. The waitress was friendly and did her best to stay on top of the large group I was a member of.
Based on the folks I passed on my way out, many local senior citizens love the place (I mean, there were A LOT of senior citizens there that day… like a whole sea… seriously…).

Grindstone Charley’s was the called audible after our primary choice turned out to be closed. At 5:30 p.m. I’d love to rail about that for a while, but I’ll save that for another day. From the road, GS did everything right to appeal to the simian dolt that resides within each of us. It was bright, flashy, lotsa neon. More than sufficient to set the hook and reel us in.
The restaurant wasn’t very full. The waiting area was empty except for a party of 4 that walked in immediately before us. To our left was a room with 11 booths, 3 of which were occupied. The hostess took the party of 4 to their seat and then promptly vanished. The only thing missing was a *poof* to complete the effect. We stood there in a state of mild confusion for about 10 minutes, unsure if we should just pick one of the myriad available booths or simply leave. Unfortunately, we were both starving at this point, so hunger trumped reason. We decided to stay in voluntary detention for a while longer.
When the hostess returned from vacation, she brought us to one of the empty booths. I was planning to be annoyed, but GS was too smart for me. They anticipated my blossoming annoyance and distracted me with GREEN. Booths, walls, floor, drapes, even the air itself seemed to have a slight greenish tint. Ok, maybe the drapes weren’t green, I can’t recall at this point. All I do remember is being punched right in the face by far more green than I needed. In their defense, I think they’re trying to be some sort of an Irish pub. There was a sign inside about ‘yay Irish’ or something. While on the subject of interior décor, however, let me say that GS didn’t seem to have a good understanding of what type of place they want to be. They definitely had the green angle covered if they wanted to run with the Irish theme. But they also had a ton of fishing paraphernalia on the walls … as well as a bunch of space/​astronaut stuff. I’m not entirely clear on the Irish/​fishing/​astronaut nexus. It struck me as mildly odd.
I ordered the club panini w/​fries and my wife ordered a half slab of ribs w/mac&cheese. My panini lacked several key panini qualities. First, the bread was obviously toasted and completely devoid of grill marks. I assumed the grill marks my Foreman Grill leaves on my panini masterpieces were an industry standard, but my wife was quick to point out that to be considered part of Phylum Panini, all you need to do is butter bread and toast it. Ok fine. Whatever. Perhaps GS could technically market this fraud as a panini and not risk a lawsuit, but the meat was cold and the cheese was unmelted as well. I was unimpressed. Taste-​wise the sandwich was serviceable. That’s the best description I can give. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t particularly good. It was just ok. Not memorable in any respect (except for the lack of grill marks, which I still say are mandatory). Same goes for the fries. Serviceable. The type of meal that fills you up, but you are likely to forget it as soon as the final bite is finished. My wife’s ribs were obviously baked in the oven and finished on the grill … which can still be good, but these ribs had been thru a couple heating/​cooling cycles. Once again, serviceable at best.
One final item I feel compelled to note: the music playing was a bit slow for a sports-​bar-​ish place. It was low enough to be largely ignored, however. UNLESS you went to the bathroom. Good God. They must have maxed out their sound budget for the restaurant on the restrooms. I stopped in before we left and discovered that Mariah Carey screeching a Journey song at 513 decibels is enough to induce partial blindness and facial ticks.
Overall, Grindstone Charley’s was a forgettable experience. If you’re in the area and your primary choice for dinner is closed for some ridiculous reason, you could probably do better than this place. If not, you can at least take solace in the fact that the food won’t kill you.

The food was great and the service was awesome.