Anuj S.
Yelp
The theme of my review for Granite City is dry. First of all, we frequent a place right across the lot from this place and I've noticed it a few times. I've always been confused by the name, because you think of a stone slab / home goods type of a shop, rather than a restaurant. It does say Food & Brewery right in the name, but I'm just saying it threw me off every time I looked over. I was in the mood for a burger, so we decided to swing by one day and try something new.
Now, first of all I'll add a blurb that it's kind of sad that most of the burger places have stopped doing some kind of real veggie burger and they just do Impossible or Beyond meat patties. It's kind of an easy-way-out for them. Good that they offer a vegetarian option, but I just wish some of them put a little more effort into it.
So the place inside is really nice. Huge space with huge bar, huge kitchen, etc. It's definitely a great spot in terms of decor, ambiance, etc. We were there at like... 1pm on a Saturday and it was very very quiet. Maybe 4-5 tables occupied out of ~50.
So anyway, the server was friendly and helped the 2 of us keep our order in the limit. Apparently they have a massive nacho dish, which is appropriately called a tray, but it sounds like if we had order that to start, we never could have even dented that thing. So we ended up not doing it.
So the dryness. My impossible burger with pretzel bun was so so dry. First, they burned the bun. It was literally burnt on the bottom and I tasted the burnt char in every bite. Then the impossible pattie itself was very very dry. Almost as if it wasn't fresh, or something like that. Probably just over-cooked, the same as the bun.
Then the side of fries. Again... SO dry. In this case, I think fries are dry if they were fried probably a long time ago. I mean, we were there at a normal time. I don't think 1pm is too far off the standard lunch time, so I wouldn't say that was an issue. But it was kind of quiet in the place, so maybe that's why? I don't know why, but they were really dried out. The other person had this avocado grilled cheese, which was more avocado than cheese, but it seemed to be OK.
So in summary, good place, good enough service, but I wouldn't recommend the food - at least not the veggie food items we tried this time. I'm sure they have their specialties and do a better job at those. Thanks and you'll always be a stone's throw away from "my spot".