Grand Central Hotel & Grill

We visited the Grand Central Hotel & Grill and were really impressed by the quality of the food — the steaks were absolutely amazing, cooked perfectly and full of flavor. The restaurant itself is beautifully decorated with a historic charm that fits the building perfectly, making it a great place to enjoy a nice evening out. Service was kind and friendly, but our waitress was the only one working the floor and was clearly overwhelmed. She did her best, but food and drinks took over an hour to arrive. Hopefully, management adds more staff soon because the food deserves better support. Pricing was fair for the quality, and reservations are a must. We didn’t stay at the hotel, only dined in the restaurant. I’d definitely return for the steaks once they’re properly staffed — the food alone makes it worth another visit.

A crucial restaurant in a historic building. Help keep this place roaring as there are many towns of this size which do not have one. Food is good fare and the service is great. Put some money into the local economy here.

Food was amazing Best margarita I've had in a while. Not sure if the older lady is the owner or the door greeter anyway she made my husband and I feel like we didn't belong there ! My husband asked a few questions and she was almost offended. She took our hard earned money though

This place is cool. Set in the historic district and has a late 1800's feel to it while sporting modern convinces. It has a nice restaurant with a well thought out menu. Friendly staff and great service. I'm looking forward to my next trip to Kansas just for the nostalgia.

What a sweet little hotel in the middle of Cottonwood Falls! It is just down the road from the Chase County courthouse. We had dinner in the restaurant and our only complaint was the air conditioning could not keep up but it was a very hot day in June.

We spent a week bicycle touring in SE Kansas and this was hands down the nicest place we stayed at. Everything, and everyone, was perfect. We started with meeting interesting locals at a posh hotel bar, had a hand cut steak for dinner at the hotel restaurant, went to a free concert across the street at the old Armory, did our laundry in a very nice laundromat a block away, and visited the great local coffee shop and historical museum. I'll be coming back to this great hotel and town in the near future. The room was also very nice, with secure bicycle parking.

What a pleasant getaway--everything we needed in one location. Charming room decorated to represent an area ranch, great food and service downstairs, and a clever bar tucked into a cozy corner in an old brick building in downtown Cottonwood Springs, KS. The current owner gutted the building down to the bricks and designed the combo hotel, restaurant, and bar to reflect its early beginnings. While the decor includes vintage western that includes local art, we were comfortable and well fed. A soft mattress and fluffy pillows welcomed our exhausted bodies at the end of the day. The bath linens were great as was the hot shower. Everything was so clean. If you like to walk, you can easily check out the river and its falls as well as the unique courthouse and other Victorian era buildings without driving. We lucked out and got to enjoy a fresh air performance of excellent local musicians and cowboy poets. Art and history are everywhere so we explored and then rested in peace and quiet in this quaint hotel.

Ate there twice in the last few months. There is no reason we will ever go back. The first time the waitress spilled a water all over the table and had to be summoned back to wipe it off the table. My Ruben only had thousand island on half of it. But to top it off, I went nearly the entire meal without getting a water refill. Our waitress was too busy cleaning other tables. The second time was no better. Over a five minute wait to be seated in a near empty dinning area. ( the older female hostess was again rude) the pork tenderloin sandwich was awful and again my water glass was empty most all the meal.

My wife and I have grown to love the Flint HIlls and decided to book a stay at Clover Cliff Ranch about 15 miles away for our anniversary. From earlier travels we knew a little about Grand Central, just enough to book a reservation and have a steak for supper. We've both spent plenty of time in small towns and on a Wednesday night to boot, our expectations going in were tempered. Our meal was absolutely fantastic and we were quickly ashamed of our low expectations. The service was great. The spinach artichoke dip had huge, freshly cooked chunks of artichoke. The salad was average but who cares. The steak came and blew us away. Each of our filets were a perfect medium rare with just the right level of salt. My wife chose to top hers with the shrimp and mushrooms and bragged how fresh and perfectly cooked the shrimp were. Her broccoli was steamed with great attention and cooked just enough but not too much. I chose the steak fries and anticipated the kind dumped frozen out of a bag. Nope - clearly a whole large baking potato cut into 6-8 pieces and fried perfectly. Crunchy, salty outside and soft inside. Wow. It was an amazing meal to add to a memorable trip.

I both stayed at the hotel and ate dinner at the restaurant. In my opinion, the hotel experience is two stars. The restaurant experience is four stars. Add them together and split the difference: three stars. The plusses about the hotel are that it looks cute and has themed rooms. The lobby is very cozy, with comfy couches and a little bar off to the side in a corner. (Fun fact: The bar at Grand Central Hotel was the first operating bar in this town!) It's a pet-friendly hotel. You also get warm muffins and coffee at breakfast time. The minuses about the hotel: Someone had used the restroom in the bathroom in my room and didn't flush. When I tried to flush, it wouldn't. So I asked for a new room, of course. In my new room, the TV didn't work (which was no big deal because I don't watch TV anyway) and the door wouldn't lock. So I went downstairs and talked to the person in charge, and she muttered something like, "Kids these days don't know how to get into a hotel room without a key card." I was like, um? I don't know how young or stupid you think I am, but I'm not too young or stupid to know how to operate a lock. (Also: Thanks for thinking I'm young!) It turns out that you need to jerry-rig the knob to lock it. If you need to finesse a lock in order for it to work, it sounds like you need to replace the lock, or come up with a different system. However, later that night, I had the pleasure of eating at the hotel restaurant. The Grand Central Grill is definitely the place to eat in the area. I got the chicken fried steak, which is a Kansas specialty and served here Friday and Saturday nights only. It came with mounds of mashed potatoes and gravy, and it was one of the best dishes I had in south central Kansas. The Caesar salad was just OK (the dressing came poured on the top and not mixed, which it should be), but the chicken fried steak made up for that. They have a decent wine list for a small town, which was appreciated by me. The service was great, and even though they were busy, our server was very attentive and we got everything we needed.

We were rather disappointed after all the hype we had read. The Ceasar salad was just a hunk of regular lettuce, not romaine as it should have been. Their menu even said it has romaine lettuce. The french onion soup is just beef broth with bouillon added to it. No real onions at all, just dried minced onions out of a seasoning jar. It was extremely salty. The cracked pepper and brandy sauce was extremely salty as well. There was no cracked pepper, only a hint of regular pepper. Couldn't finish either one. The dinner rolls were microwaved slider buns with old, runny margarine. The water boy walked by 3 times as our glasses set empty. You can tell he has no desire to be at his job. However, the steaks, I must say, were perfect.

Reading the other reviews and based on our experience, I think a better dinner is probably had when you make a reservation. Apparently they only schedule servers to work if people make reservations. We came with a party of 5 on a not busy Thursday night. Another table of 4 came in after us. It took 20 mins to get water, 45 mins to get other drinks, and a full hour for salads to arrive. We finally got entrees about 90 mins in. The food was good, but not worth waiting over and hour and a half, especially it was impossible to get drinks refills while we waited. The French onion soup was good and house salad fresh. I had what the menu said was pork tenderloin, but I was served a pork chop. I ordered medium well and it showed up with a raw center. I sent it back and the cooked pork was pretty good. The braised onions were weird and mashed potatoes dry. My kids had pasta and the portion size was small. One dining companion had a burger. He was the most pleased with his meal of anyone at the table. For a $100 dinner, I expect much better service and food.

I was at this restaurant last week. The food was excellent, the waitress was okay, but the owner was terrible! This is the second time I have encountered this woman at the restaurant. I thought maybe she was just having a bad day the first time I encountered her. Evidently, that's not the case! She acts like she is being put out to serve you. Frankly, with her lousy attitude, I don't know how she stays open!

We checked in at 3:00pm and were warmly greeted by the staff. We stayed overnight in the "Turkey Track" room which includes two queen beds. The room is located on the 1st floor and has a 12-foot ceiling. It was nice and warm and ready for us to use when we arrived. We had dinner reservations at 5:00pm, which gave us time to unpack and settle in the room. Dinner was a wonderful, we ordered KC strips and LOVED the steaks! The steak portion was more than generous. Also, the mixed green salad was perfect! The beds were comfortable. We enjoyed the gracious toiletries, they felt and smelled wonderful on the skin. The towels were fluffy and fresh, and the shower had plenty of water pressure as well as enough hot water on hand to last us both. In the morning we had a light continental breakfast which consisted of coffee, juice and bagels. It was enough for us to start the day with and prepare to visit the local sites. Our dogs Skippy & Trixie had this to say: The staff was happy to meet us and gave us plenty of compliments. We loved the room, especially the paver-bricked patio where we enjoyed sniffing all the new outdoor aromas. It kept us entertained. The room had plenty of space to roam and play with our toys. Mom and Dad had dinner reservations and we were able to come too! We had to be on our very best behavior and mindful of other diners. So they can continue allowing this privilege for future dog visits. We were secure in our dog carriage which gave us a great view of everything that was going on. Mom and Dad got to take a doggie bag back to the room. Were we dined on the best steak ever! Dad stored the remainder of the steak in the little fridge in the room and we also had it for breakfast (Yum Yum). We had a good night's rest and were ready to explore the new day. This place is a FIVE PAWS UP time for all our furry friends!

In a town of 900 people you don't have a lot of dining options. This was a nice surprise for lunch. The interior was like a step back into the old west. And there were a couple of old-timers playing Cribbage in the corner. I thought that was quaint. The Reuben sandwich that I had was spot on. The service was a little slow but that's OK. next time I am Cottonwood Falls I wouldn't mind stopping here for dinner. It looks like they have a full dinner menu too.

Always be here with the family while visiting. Love fillet muffin extra rup, medium that perfect cook with loaded baked potato. Always hungry!!! Tastes!!!!

Good steaks, good price, good service: but I can't recommend anyone visit this restaurant. The hostess does NOT wear a mask and we were told by a staff member that the management didn't let them unless it was requested by a customer. So you have to get by a maskless hostess/manager/owner--- that is breaking the governor's mandate--- to walk through a place where NO staff is wearing a mask. This is unbelievable. Risk one's life for a meal?

The service as slow as could be, took 30+ minutes from the time we ordered to the time our food was brought out. Two burgers and a grilled cheese and one other table who had already been served should not have slowed down the service that much. We were ignored by our waitress throughout the entire visit and was thankfully helped by another waitress. The only keeping me from only giving one star was that the food was actually pretty good once it finally arrived.

I don't usually do this- but I've given this place several chances and It doesn't seem to get any better. It seems like every time we go the staff is so rude. Starting with being asked rudely "do you have reservations" before they even greet you. We take many drives through the Flint Hills and always just "end up" somewhere so we never have reservations. They NEVER have very many people seated in the front dining area and it seems to us they would be happy to have customers. We are from about 50 miles from here and know our beef. We don't expect the best in Kansas when we come here, but no matter what we order it is never up to par. We were here tonight to decide if we wanted to reserve the back room for a wedding dinner but after giving this restaurant/grill many chances over the past several visits we've determined we probably won't even return for dinner let alone for something as important as a large wedding party.

The Grand Central Hotel is a destination restaurant determined to provide the best beef they can find on the prairie. Approximately half way between Hutchinson and Lawrence, or a stake truck's ride from Clements or Elmdale; just west and south of Strong City. The cowboy pioneer is a surreptitious flavor imparted by the hotel's decor, history, and focus. Honestly Kansas with fair prices and savory fare this is a must see of the state any time you are going to be passing by or if you need a fissure escape from any grind. Come for the view of Cottonwood Falls Courthouse and enjoy real onion rings, a delightful chicken salad for lunch, beef sliders, surf and turf, or the specialty Creekstone filet of beef tenderloin. Give respects to Pee Wee, the ballroom bison, and if you're in for a lifetime experience, double meals and lodging at Grand Central with a horseback ride into unadulterated tall grass at the Flying Y Ranch in Clements.

The hotel is a nice throwback to the western heritage of Kansas. Great potential for a fun country evening. However, the service detracts from the experience. The waitstaff was friendly enough, but the speed of service is awful. While we did have a party of 6, there was only us and one other couple in the restaurant at the time. Not what I would call an overwhelming crowd. Menu selection is good, with several interesting items to choose. Quality of the food seems adequate. Due to the service speed though, my food was barely warm upon arrival. Given the above average prices, which I don't mind paying for quality/good service, this wasn't worth the money. Had it not taken so long to arrive in the first place, I probably would've sent it back. There was also some question about the freshness of our condiments, as they had an "off" taste to them, as if they'd been stored too warm or past their "use by" date. If the condiments are questionable, I hate to imagine what's behind the kitchen door. Had high hopes for this place, as it is something different and unique. Based on this experience though, I don't see myself going back soon.

It was an experience for staying in a century+ old hotel. It has been upgraded with air conditioning through the wall. It helps with the temperature, but not the humidity. The humidity in the part of the hotel where our room is seems to be an ongoing issue, as it has contributed to rust on the bathroom hardware. It's a quaint, quiet little town. Supper was delicious. My husband had steak and salad, and mashed potatoes with gravy. I had the chicken fried steak with steamed broccoli and side salad. We had the artichoke and spinach dip. The dip was much more vegetable and much less cheese than we've had in the past at other restaurants...it was really good! Later, we came back for drinks on the patio. My mixed drinks were "made with love." The local crowd also partaking on the patio were incredibly friendly. The continental breakfast is as advertised.

We just moved to town a few months ago. This is the nicest restaurant in town and for miles around. I had read a lot of poor reviews but they were old, from 2010, 2011. We decided to take my mother here for her birthday. There were 6 of us total. We did make a reservation on a Friday night but didn't have long to wait. We had been in a few times before for light snacks, dessert, that type of thing. This was a great place to celebrate a special day or event. The food was delicious, the service great. The atmosphere was nice, quiet and family friendly. We couldn't be happier with having this gem in our new home town. We hope they stay open for a long time to come.

If you are looking for a steak house, look no further. As far as I am concerned, this place has the best steaks in the entire country. The service was good, along with the atmosphere, all made for a perfect dinner. Unless you happen to live in Cottonwood Falls, you will probably have a serious drive to get there, but it's worth it. The only reason I haven't returned here on my last trip to Kansas was because my cousin is having serious gall bladder problems and didn't want to watch me eat steak while she ate a bowl of jello. I can't wait to get back.

Food was excellent, service was friendly, history of the building incredible, owner was rude and in a bad mood! (We drove 80 miles just to eat there)

Great steak! The rest of the menu is full of winners too: chicken fried steak, burgers, fried chicken, wedge salad, fabulous onion rings, and the list goes on. I'd consider this a very conservatively priced restaurant. A burger with delicious steak fries is $11 on the dinner menu. We make the drive to Cottonwood often just to enjoy Grand Central. We also stay in the hotel at least once a year and have enjoyed it easy time.

Here is a place with great opportunity, great atmosphere, farm-to-table ingredients, and a gorgeous facility, that's where it stops. We went there to try the burgers and steaks and it just took so long we lost interest. We did stay, but the food was over cooked and not all of it made it out to the table. I actually felt bad for these people, I wanted to help but you know how that will look when a customer tries to step in to help. In summary, if I were on vacation and I had time to spare then I would stop in, but if you're there on business forget about it.

Great meal. Started with the brats wrapped in bacon - very good. The salad was fresh with homemade cranberry vinaigrette dressing. Had the filet - it was cooked perfectly and very tasty. Took a piece of chocolate flourless cake to go and the night was complete. Service was good throughout.

Very slow service with a casual approach from the waitress out of sinc with the atmosphere of this lovely place. Must be a rookie working a weekday. Two other tables and took over 30 minutes to get salad. They have a wine list which is out of date. Why bother? Waitress burned her finger and carried an ice cube around in one hand. No attention to water refill. Will we ever get our steak? Thank God they were Creekstone steaks, couldn't ask for better. Mashed potato looked like the inside of a baked potato -prefer mine more creamy.

If I was rating purely on the steak, then the Grand Central would get about a 4.5. Otherwise, I found it lacking in quite a few areas. First, my experience with the wait staff was terrible. Even though there were less than 10 people in the whole restaurant, it took 15 minutes just to get our drinks (4 glasses of wine and a scotch). Other details seemed to be poorly thought out. The appetizers came out in plastic baskets - which seemed poor form for a place marketing itself as a high end steak place. The third issue was the poor kitchen staff. It was nearly an hour after ordering that we got our entrees. Again, it was a bit shocking considering there was hardly anyone there. Overall, the place is cute but not worth the drive. There are some major kinks to me ironed out before I would recommend it as a destination. Otherwise, stay in Wichita or check out some better places in Emporia.

After visiting Tall Grass Prairie, my family (from a distant state) thought this would be a good place to eat lunch - we were wrong. Have never been treated so rudely, made to wait almost half an hour for them to put a few tables together, then found out the tables were already together in a back room and they had just spent half an hour putting out the tableware and water glasses. There were only a few other customers, so it wasn't due to too busy. We were finally seated and then began another long wait for someone to take our orders - finally got up and walked out. They didn't seem to care. Guess they don't need the money! Not a good impression for Cottonwood Falls or Kansas.

We came for lunch and had burgers, meatloaf, salads, and dessert. The burgers were amazing -- the prairie burger was truly one of the best I've ever had. The owner waited on us. She was extremely friendly and helpful. It was a terrific lunch and we will come back the next time we visit town.

Not up to expectations. Very slow service. As a gripping of four none of our steals were done to order certainly this restaurant has potential so don't skip it just because we had a so-so dinner

A nice setting, the food is always prepared well and service is top notch. I don't eat meat, but friends/family who have eaten here say it's the best steak they've ever had. There are several vegetarian items on the menu as well. It's a relaxing drive (especially in spring/summer/fall) to Cottonwood Falls, you can't beat the Flint Hills setting and the town is unique.

I just stopped in at the restaurant, so I can't comment on the hotel part. Very kind and courteous people. Lovely place. Pricey for me, but it's nice to have something like this in Cottonwood Falls. This is probably where I would take a dinner date.

What a great stay and awesome food! I stayed here for 2 nights and enjoyed lunch a couple times and dinner for one night. The steak was amazing! I asked for it medium rare and was not disappointed. I also had the Beef and Bleu salad and the Reuben sandwich for lunch. The stand out besides the steak was the onion rings. They are probably the best I've ever had! Wow! I chose the homemade ranch instead of the dressing it was served with. Their dressings are made in house. They also have a simple but nice complimentary breakfast. The bar is small but well stoked. It is a wonderful and charming establishment. The only thing I had that was a miss was the steak stew. But everything else was fabulous! Both servers we had were attentive and curteous. This isnt a Chili's so dont expect to be in and our in 20 minutes. Enjoy the ambience and wonderful history this building holds. We stayed in one of their upstairs rooms. The AC worked great. The beds were comfy and I loved the plush robes. I couldn't believe I was in a cow town. Thank you Grand Central for memorable hospitality. I will surely be back!

The steaks at this restaurant are some of the best I've ever had and the atmosphere is wonderful. You can even reserve a private room for celebrations. The hotel accommodations are truly amazing. Each room is unique in layout and decoration. My only complaint is the hit or miss service. Sometimes it is great and sometimes it is extremely slow. With that said, I believe this is one of the highlights of Kansas eating and would not miss a chance to go.

I don't like to pan restaurants, particularly since I've eaten at this one at least two times before and had very good experiences. Today, two friends and I arrived there for lunch at a little after 3 pm. Their lunch hours are posted as 11 to 4. The owner greeted us at the front and first looked at her watch, then realized she could seat us. There were only two other people in the restaurant then. One of the others in the party joked that yes, it looked like there were plenty of tables available. The owner immediately snapped that it was only 3, and they were expecting 80 people that night. I thought, great, I'm glad they're doing so well, and was looking forward to another great meal there. Things went down hill from there. I had french onion soup for openers, as did one of my friends, and it was just so-so, and way too salty. For the entree, I had a filet of tenderloin, cooked medium rare. The steak was cooked a little strangely. The first half was cooked medium, then the last half was done as I had ordered, medium rare. My friend had a steak cooked medium, so it was easy to compare what medium looked like with each of our steaks. The meat was tender, but with a slight taste of salt on it (no steak should really come out with any spices unless the menu specifies otherwise). It also had a bit of an unusual texture, like it had been overly tenderized in the kitchen. This is not what one expects with a $17 filet of tenderloin. The side of red beans and rice was unusual, but otherwise lackluster. They actually needed a little salt, which I usually don't add to any dish. Two of us ordered dessert with coffee, each getting bread pudding. The coffee came out quickly, but it had been sitting on the burner a little too long. It seemed to take forever for the bread pudding to come out. When it arrived, the pudding was cold as was a side of white sauce. The sauce is listed (I see after the fact) as New Orleans Bourbon Sauce. It was a thin, white sauce that tasted like thinned half & half with sugar added. I thought the waitress said it was caramel sauce, but maybe I misheard. The bread pudding was barely ordinary. The service was good throughout until the end. The wine served was good and the young waitress was attentive to keeping our water and soda glasses filled. We finished our coffee before the bread pudding arrived, and the waitress offered to refill our cups from a new pot. After a while, she came back and said they were having problems making the coffee, then finally acknowledged that there were not going to be able to make more coffee. We wondered what the 80 people coming that night would think about that, but let it go. The food the other two had looked good and they acknowledged that it was. The pork tenderloin sandwich one had looked particularly good and he said it was. We got our checks and made ready to leave. My friend's bill was $24 and he paid by credit card. When the credit card statement came to the table, it read $42. When he realized this, he told the waitress this was wrong. She looked at it and acknowledged that she must have switched the numbers. I guess this can happen, especially if one tends toward dislexia (which I don't know is true with our waitress), but mistakes like this should not happen. She quickly corrected the problem and we were on our way. We had been taking photographs in an adjoining county most of the day and had driven several miles out of our way to eat there, at my recommendation. The staff may have in fact been making ready the preparations for the crowd of 80 expected that night. But that is no excuse to slack off on people already seated in the restaurant. I'm not sure I can any longer recommend this restaurant.