The Gin At Nolan Creek

Stopped here for a drink and an appetizer. Ambiance is casual with the building overlooking a small creek. We sat outside on the spacious deck. The crab cakes were good. I would certainly want to come back and have a meal here.

Me and my hubby went here on a Valentine’s date on Saturday, and it was so nice! We sat out on the balcony, we could see the lake and they had some nice jazzy music playing. Our server was Jillian and she was great! The food was great too! Our appetizer was shrimp wrapped in bacon served with I think a apricot dipping sauce… Sooooooo good! I forgot what my drink was called but it was basically a Long Island iced tea that they revamped a little… I felt that drink! Lol after one I was good. I kept asking to Jillian re take our picture and she was super nice although she was probably like jeez lady get a selfie stick! Lol perfect date location.

Well, I have been to The Gin a bunch of times (In hopes that it will get better)… This time, I’ve had it. It seems to really fluctuate in quality every single time I go. The wait staff are very friendly, attentive, and are indeed pretty good. This review is more aimed at the cooks, kitchen staff, and POOR management. THE FOOD CAN TAKE FOREVER TO RECEIVE, and seems to be pretty INCONSISTENT each time I order a dish, and then reorder it to see if it will be better the next time. The first few times I ordered the Texas-​Style Chicken Fried Steak (Full order) it wasn’t bad BUT as time went on… The appearance of the dish kept changing and sadly, FOR THE WORST.!! It was either soaked in more grease or less grease every time, it’s either crispy or soggy (same with the fries), it’s either a nice-​sized piece of steak or a SMALLER, PATHETIC portion, hot or LUKEWARM… Plus, sometimes the plates have been dirty and had water still dripping off them!!! NASTY, NASTY, NASTY. Also, sometimes the tables haven’t been wiped down properly (or at all.!!), cause you can still see the bottom-​of-​the-​glass watermark on the table as you are seated. Sometimes they seat you, sometimes you get to choose. Choose wisely my friends!!! NASTY.
If I were you and are looking for a place to eat right around there, I would just assume go to that Mexican restaurant or the Sports Bar/​Pizza place right next door. The Gin is a beautiful, beautiful-​looking establishment with a lot of potential but I have yet to see the consistent progress this hidden gem needs. OH WELL.

I had heard several good things about the Gin, so I thought I would give it a try.
Atmosphere: very nice. The building is large and spacious. It is comfortable, casual, and relaxing. The noise level was about average, but I could imagine that it could get loud if the place we full.
Food: Since this was my visit, I thought I would try some basic dishes. If they could handle basic dishes, then I’ll move on to something different on the next visit.
– The Sampler: this had a sampling of some of the appetizers they offer. The onion rings were light and fluffy, the potato chips were homemade with bacon and cheese. Both were delicious. My fried concentrated on the fried pickles, and she loved them. Overall: pretty good.
– Caesar Salad: meh. Very little dressing, no croutons, and lots of lettuce. I had a couple of bites before I decided to move on.
– Chicken Fried Steak: this was great! Fried to perfection with a creamy gravy. The potato chips were a nice touch.
– Overall — the food was great, except for the salad.
Service: Unfortunately, the service was awful. Our waitress didn’t get our drink order right. She took forever to come back and take our order. Moreover, she never refilled our drinks or checked on us. I just got a feeling that she didn’t want to be there. Or maybe she didn’t like us. Who knows???
M

GREAT stuffed Airline chicken and the sauce was to die for… The steak and avacodo salad was very good as well! We loved the server Anna she was great and had a great personality…

During tonight’s meal I enjoyed the best filet mignon I’ve had in a long time. I was pleased to see that the side salads are not just iceberg lettuce anymore… they contained a variety of colorful lettuces, croutons, and tomato. My friends enjoyed the asparagus-​stuffed chicken (called airline chicken on the menu). The mashed potatoes were just like mom used to make. The staff were wonderful, the fancy drinks looked beautiful, and the service was outstanding. I appreciate that the manager noticed my discomfort when there was a communication error about my order. She clarified what went wrong, fixed the problem, and offered a free dessert for the trouble! I was very satisfied with my experience and won’t hesitate to recommend this restaurant to friends.

We came here at 4 pm on a Wednesday and both the food and the service were great! My husband ordered the 12 oz ribeye which was $ 27.95 and said that he hadn’t paid that much for a steak since he lived in Chicago. We took a chance on it since most food reviews posted here are not positive. Surprisingly, the flavor of the steak exceeded our expectations! Perfectly grilled to Medium Rare and the marinade with the mesquite grilled flavor were superb! I had the chicken fried chicken with a loaded baked potato which were both great. Real bacon as a topping for the potato and the crispy fried chicken were stand-​outs! Next time, we’ll bring friends with us!

My wife and I ate at the Gin about 10 months ago, and we didn’t think it was all that great. But we just had lunch here — I got the steak salad w/​a bowl of broccoli cheddar and everything was excellent. The broc n’ chedd was the best I’ve ever had. The steak salad was excellent. My wife’s chicken salad was also great. Impressed. We’ll be back.

Location is great. Sat on the patio and watched the sunset. Food wasn’t spectacular but was decent. My only complaint would be the salad. For a place that is striving to be a little higher class, they should put together a mixed green salad and not just some iceberg.

Food was good. Nice small town atmosphere. Location is in an area with other venues, so there’s more to do nearby. Sometimes live music as well.
Worth a stop!

Always had a great experience here. Awesome place to have a drink or invite the whole family out.
The plates are classic and delicious!

Such a cute restaurant and a really pretty location. Sat on the patio and the weather was beautiful (although sunny). The food was really good. The prices were actually pretty good too considering that the food and everything else was really nice. I’ve heard before that it was expensive but the prices seemed reasonable for the quality that you are getting.

The food is continually awful and the fact that they dont have a corkage fee when they are directly across from a wine bar is just stupid. They have crap wine and would only benefit from hooking up with the wine bar.

My daughter is a freshman at UMHB, and the whole family (including grandparents) came up for the family weekend. We say this place, and thought the location was awesome, and it looked popular, so we decided to check it out. We got there at 5:30 Saturday to beat the lines, and to get a head start going home. We asked for the house bread, and got some rolls that were small and tasteless. Not a good start, but we figured they’re free, so what the heck? The salads came next. Mine was obviously from a bag, and full of the heart and there was no green lettuce in it at all. Just white, cheap salad bag. So I didn’t eat it, and the waitress (who was very pleasant) didn’t ask me why I didn’t eat it or even seem to notice it was untouched. An hour and a half goes by, we still don’t have our food, and haven’t seen the waitress in awhile. Around 7:15 the food finally arrives. My oldest daughter ordered a drink, which the waitress quoted was $ 5, and she paid for it directly, and was charged $ 8. Her meal was the sampler appetizer plate. It was a variety of fried things, which came greasy and cold. Clearly it had been sitting on the counter in the back for some time. My wife ordered the sirloin well done, it came out medium, and after some arguing with the manager they took it back and cooked it some more. I ordered the airline chicken which on the menu states is a boneless chicken breast stuffed with artichoke hearts, etc. What I got was a chicken leg and thigh and yes the bones were still attached. The dish was lukewarm at best.
My MIL ordered the sirloin with asparagus. The steak was tough, and the asparagus was so small and anemic looking that I would have been ashamed to have shown that to a paying customer. My youngest daughter and FIL ordered the burgers, which they said were fine, nothing great, and they would have preferred to have eaten a big mac, as it least it would have been served hot and tasty. The waitress asked if enjoyed our food, and we went through this list politely. All that happened was the manager offered to give us a free desert and comp my wife’s steak. The correct response should have been to comp the entire meal.
The desert by the way was the half baked brownie. a better title would be the uncooked brownie. it was raw dough with ice cream on top. My oldest like dough so she enjoyed it, the rest of us thought it was nasty. I was also informed that the managers and wait staff were in the back cooking because they were short handed, which explained the cold food. All in all, it took us over 2 hours to complete the meal and pay, the food was poor quality and lukewarm. The finally insult — the house bread isn’t complimentary! They charged us $ 2 for the rolls, and never mentioned there would be a charge in person or on the menu! I will be anxious to try the next restaurant that leases this space when this one folds, as it is a lovely location.

Sat outside for brunch today. My first visit and I thoroughly enjoyed the salmon and asparagus on the brunch menu. The bloody mary’s rank up in my top three favorite list. Would be number one if the drink was larger. Service was excellent and the view lovely. I can’t wait to go back

We ordered the New York Strip. The server waited as we cut into it to see if it was to our liking. The meat was so tough the steak knife couldn’t cut through. So, we we sent it back. We received another tough piece of meat but didn’t send it back and just ate because we were hungry… I know, our fault. The bread roll wasn’t good either. Side salad and baked potato were delicious (we were starving).
The manager offered a free dessert, but we are on our way back to Dallas, so we got free tea to go.
The waitress was great, friendly and attentive. The view over the river on the patio is awesome. Too bad not everything could be perfect :(

Went here for dinner cause we wanted to be there after dark when all the lights are on! The atmosphere is 5 star while the food is about 3.5 star. While good, it didn’t knock my lights out. I had the airline chicken stuffed with spinach and artichoke hearts and covered in a Parmesan cheese sauce. Glenda did the chicken fry. Once the sun goes down, the lights come on and the outdoor patio overlooking Nolan creek is the place to be. Call it fun, cool, romantic, whatever you want. It’s great. We will be back.

For Belton, this is the quintessential place — even more so than the Dead Fish grill. In a revived old cotton gin building, this high-​ceiling, multi-​level old brick restaurant brings a bit of class into small town dining. The service and food are pretty good for the price, and they feature the Southern-​style American fare you would expect. If you’re in town, grab a table — especially when the patio is open on the river in summertime. The tucked-​away bar is very clean and polished, as well. Great option.

We had an issue with flies around our food the entire time we were seated. It was obnoxious.
We had a difficult time getting attention to order and never had our water glasses filled until we were done.
We had the garlic potatoes and while cold they were ok. The asparagus serving was very small and cold as well.
The salad had ONE spinach leaf on it and one portion of tomato and one cucumber.
It usually is better than this.

My fiancé and I have been to the Gin before and we absolutely loved it. He found it while wine tasting with his mother and said it was pretty good so we went a few days before Valentine’s Day. We both ordered the rib eye and it was AMAZING. The marbling on the steak was perfect and the knife slid through like it was cutting through butter. Perfectly cooked and seasoned. We also had the Baja shrimp appetizer which came with a great sauce. We were extremely happy with our food and our server, I think his name was Adam. He was attentive without being overbearing and one of the managers, Cori, was super personable and completely sold us on having our wedding there. The food, the atmosphere, awesome. She even followed up with me about two weeks later with the event manager to help make arrangements.
BUT…we went back last night to celebrate our anniversary and it was a vastly different experience. Our server, Felicia, was extremely mediocre. We saw her three times during our meal: putting our drink order in, putting our meal order in, and getting our food. Each time she barely said anything to us. The food was sadly completely disappointing. We ordered the Cotton Balls for an appetizer. They were extremely small and over cooked so they were dry. Our salad was a salad. But the real offense was our steak. We had been looking forward to that delicious steak we had on our previous date night and what we got was over cooked, over seasoned, and loaded with gristle. My fiancé had his food sent back because it wasn’t cooked the way he ordered and the manager on duty, Shannon, came out and told him that his steak was cooked correctly and then asked him if he wanted it back or if he really wanted them to make a new one. Seriously? You messed up a medium rare and brought out one that was almost well done. It makes a difference. They came out with one that was supposed to be rare, but it was actually medium rare. My steak had three different temps. I had well done, medium, and medium rare in different sections. But I wasn’t going to have them take it back and argue with me. So instead of comping the messed up steak, they took half off of mine since it was also messed up. The manager came over and we commented on her arguing with us over our food and she said she wasn’t debating. She just wanted to let us know that they check the temps on their food before they send it out, which was not the way she had put it and honestly, it shouldn’t have even been said. We’re paying for this food, we should at least be happy with it and it should be cooked how it was ordered or we could have just gone to McDonald’s or some other establishment.
I would have originally given them 5 stars for our amazing time there, but after last night, I wish Unilocal would allow no stars because it was downright offensive and disappointing. Not a way we wanted to spend our anniversary.