City Grille

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CLOSED NOW - Opens at 11:00am

My wife and I have eaten at this restaurant three times since the recent opening. The first time I had the "Blue Plate Special". It was good, but very small portions. To me, not worth the $10.00 as there are many other places that have the "Meat & 3" at better quality and price. My wife had a Ahi Tuna salad that was very good. Our next trip to the restaurant, my wife had the Ahi Tuna salad again. It was a totaly different salad ..... not the same ingredients ....just not as good as the first time by far! I had the Shrimp PoBoy and it was very good. The third time at the restaurant was our first evening "Dinner" menu experience. I had the K.C. Steak. The steak was cook to my request (med rare) but the quality of the steak was very poor. It was full of ligaments and/or dental floss like stringy stuff. Very disappointing. My wife had the Mahi Mahi which was a very dainty portion and had an overly sweet cream sauce that completely trumped the fish flavor. Both of our dishes were not very good. Wine is just plain overpriced per glass! The waiter knows nothing about the menue....nothing! My overall impression is this restaurant is an OK place for sandwiches at lunch, but for $75.00 - $100.00 for an evening dinner, our evenings will be else ware.

Me and my wife had heard city grille was supposed to be a great new restaurant coming to Madison and finally something on this side of Madison we went last night and boy was it fantastic we had the crab cake, tuna, duck chips, all were amazing then the salad with praline bacon and pears it was awesome my wife said she could eat that bacon and never get full then I had the pork chop it was huge bone in cooked perfect she had the sea bass with risotto she loved it and I took a bite of it it might be the best I have had all in all we are very excited to have a restaurant like this in Madison we will be going back often the owner was a very nice guy talked to and said if we ever need anything or have any problems let him know I don't see this place going anywhere the people there actually cared make sure we had a good time.

Went today for the Sunday brunch...had the special eggs benidect with beef tenderloin and crab and roasted garlic! All I can say is YUMMY!!!! Beautiful place great service. We WILL be going back! OFTEN

Was taking the wife out to eat for some hibachi and saw a few people inside a new restaurant in the same shopping center called City Grille; so we decided to give it a try instead due to the way the chandelier softly gleamed through the entrance window. As we walked inside, we could not believe this place had once been a blockbuster video. Due to how nice it looked and the white table clothes, was a little apprehensive about the menu prices, thinking it might be more than we were looking to spend. But after reading over the menu, we discovered that it was moderately priced (20 dollar range for most items) and my mouth had already begun to water, so the choice was clear, we were staying. Not long after we were seated, two servers greeted us. One server was training the other. I asked him how long they had been open and the training server told us that they had just begun seating tables two days ago and they were doing a silent opening and that everything was still a work in progress. Which was obvious due to the fact of no candle on the table with white table clothes and the training servers lack of knowledge on some of the food items. But he did talk about a few of the food items he had tried and we ended up going with the bone in pork chop and the new orleans shrimp and grits. Both entrees came with a small salad. We ordered the house salad, which came with the house vinaigrette. We asked for bread and received a plate of large toasted croutons, which to my surprise went perfect with the salad and the dressing. Our entrees arrived shortly thereafter and both were eagerly enjoyed. My wife had the new orleans bbq shrimp and grits, which was a little different than what i was used to being its normally too spicy and very buttery. But this one was more creamy with just the right amount of spice. It was very, very... very good. Generous portions of large shrimp (with the tails cut off which is a huge plus!) on a bed of grits with corn and tomatoes. The only thing I didn't like about it was my wife wouldn't share more of it. The menu said that it was to be served with Gambinos french bread. We asked our server about this and he quickly ran back into the kitchen and returned with it and apologized explaining this was an example of all the little things they were trying to iron out before they did their grand opening and started advertising. It was understandable. I had the bone-in pork chop, which I tend to stray away from in most restaurants because it usually always comes out too dry. My server recommended it cooked medium, so that's what i did and it was about the best pork chop i've ever had. It was topped with fried squash sat on a bed of homemade mashed potatoes with a delicious yellow sweet corn sauce. I was a little embarrassed to pick up the bone and eat off it when that was all that was left but i did it anyway. Being stuffed, we passed on dessert. We each had a glass of house wine, which is all they had at the time, with the server explaining that they were still working on putting a wine list together with cocktail and martini list to go with it. The bottom line is I can't wait for the next date night with the wife to dine at city grille again. We already have our minds made up on trying the duck and the seabass. I am definitely going to recommend this place to all my friends, especially when everything is stocked, the service staff is trained and everything is ready to go.

This was a big disappointment for all 3 of us today at lunch. The attmosphere was simple, classic , very inviting. You'd never know it had been a Blockbuster Video. The menu looked fabulous but looks are deceiving. We ordered 3 salads: the lobster salad ($12) & 2 with pears, praline bacon & gorgonzola cheese ($10). The standard large white rimmed bowls arrived . . . but with only a tiny amount of salad. The lobster was completely inedible it was so overheated it was like rubber so had to be left on the plate. The pear salads had 2 slivers of what appeared to be canned pear, 2 small crumbles of bacon and not a single what I would consider "crumble" of gorgonzola - more like what you couldn't rake out of the container. The salads were bland, the "homemade" dressings were bland, and the only crackers they had, Saltines, were bland. After asking for and talking to the owner he had every excuse in the world including after having pointing out to him that the side salads on the next table were the same size as our $10 & $12 salads - whereas he pointed out those were "free" and shouldn't be that big. Excuse me? No, sir, those are not "free" they are being paid for with that lunch, right? Uh, yes. And being served on a small salad plate limits them from being too large. Just as insulting were the "blue plate specials" (a meat, 3 veggies, bread & tea for $10). EVERYTHING, except the tea, was served on a regular-size salad plate. The hamburger steak was literally the size of a sausage patty. The manager presented us with coupons for a "free" dessert or appetizer with the purchase of an entree but all 3 of us agreed - a free $7 dessert was not worth spending another $10-plus on and from what we saw, $7 would only get you a sliver anyway!



Our server had 3 tables. We had to ask for crackers. We had to ask for refills. We had to ask for our check. We had to ask where our change & cards were & what was taking so long. After asking her to send the manager we had to get him ourselves.



The sign outside reads "City Grill, est. 2012" - Sorry, City Grill, but I don't foresee you still being around in Madison by the end of 2013 unless you make some drastic changes . . . and soon!