Grotto: A Hit and a Miss
I hope you’ve arrived here after reading my harrowing story about securing our reservation at Grotto for our party of 25. If not, click here to read it and then come back! Also, if you’re looking to try Grotto on a Tuesday during the summer, call! Chances are they are open and the website just hasn’t been updated.
If you’re looking for a nice night out, a friendly staff and great food, visit Grotto Ristorante in Galveston! Before you head out, read this slightly funny and irritating story about our family of 25 having a night out at Grotto. Photos of our family’s night out below!
Grotto: Great Food, Mixed Service
Now I would be remise in my duties as a travel blogger, and my promise to disclose the good and the bad, if I didn’t mention our service at Grotto. When we arrived, we were seated promptly and it took about 15 minutes for our entire party to arrive. We were given bread, as is expected at any Italian restaurant and with it came tiny slices of pizza (I feel like this is not normal, but it was awesome – pictures below).
We were split between two large tables and two staff members walked up to the table I was not seated at, but where there were two teenagers, a 20-year-old and seven in the 40+ crowd. The age range at our table went from three to 30 and we had six under 10. I feel like this is important, so just remember these demographics and our distribution. They introduced themselves, a woman and a man, the woman was going to be mainly taking care of that table and the man, mine. As the woman started taking drink orders, I assumed the man would come to our table and take ours.
Was it the Kids or the Young Adults?
We had been brought water at some point, but I eventually flagged down the woman and asked if we could order drinks. She acted surprised and immediately took our (bar) drink orders. After this, the man came and asked for the whole tables drink order and we ordered appetizers. We waited and waited. At some point, my dad and his brother (seated at the other table) pointed out to their server (the woman) that we were clearly having issues with the service. After a short exchange between the servers and manager, the manager told my dad and uncle that we had not ordered an appetizer, or so our server had said.
Missing Items
At this point, the manager came to me and my sister to clarify. He had our appetizers prepared and brought out right away. Unfortunately, this was not the end of our problems. My cousin tried multiple times to get the man’s attention to get his children’s drink refilled and finally, I had to ask the manager. At one point, the server walked straight by our table obviously avoiding my cousin who was waving at him. Then when our food came, my sister’s pizza was missing. Our server came and apologized to me, saying that the kitchen had forgotten it and would remove it from our bill and sent out as soon as possible. While it could have been the kitchen’s fault, after our appetizer debacle, it made me wonder.
Our drink issues persisted, but the woman server tried her best to keep an eye on both of our tables along with the help of the manager. I have such a hard time reasoning out what our server’s issue was. When it came to dessert he shined like he had been up-selling that his whole life. Which made me think maybe he was new? But why would they put such a new person on such a large party? And then I thought maybe it was the slew of kids we had at our table, maybe he thought he wouldn’t get a good tip so he just didn’t want to put in the effort? The world may never know…
Travel Tip #18: Try Grotto in Galveston
I hope I didn’t scare you off of trying Grotto when visiting Galveston or staying at the San Luis Resort (you lucky dog, you). Our family overall had a great time and the food was wonderful and I couldn’t say enough about how kind the manager was. Also, if you go, you should try the Shrimp & Crab Capellini, as it was amazing!
Hi friends! This is one post of my blog series for Surfside Beach! Be sure to checkout all the great blogs I will be posting for this multi-family vacation here. Also, don’t be shy! Let me know if you’ve been to Surfside Beach and what you loved and *gasp* hated!
