The Owl Grill and Saloon

This place is just tired. It was probably good 30 years ago. My ribs had a delightful ketchup sauce and were seriously burned. My wife’s «ribeye» was about 4 millimeters thick and despite her request for medium rare came out well done. The crab cakes the people next to us ordered were beyond ripe. My daughter did like her French onion soup.

Clam chowder was great, food came out extremely fast, and customer service was excellent.

Wife and I had dinner last night at the Owl Grill and Saloon … great seating; nice big booth in the bar area. Great service and food … the ribs are awesome … full rack is a bit much but good to take home as leftovers.
This is the second time in the Owl… first time was during the Cornish Christmas Event and was packed. Did get drinks and the amazing Billy Blue Bread … wow totally amazing appetizer.
Would highly recommend the Owl … slightly pricy but really worth the experience in an old time Saloon in Grass Valley. Need to call and get a reservation for best seating and time to get a table.

The service was terrible! Not what I was expecting as I have eaten here a few times… obviously not in a while. The service sucked. The calamari was tough and flavorless, order wine and beer never asked if we wanted more when the glasses were empty. Ordered beef stroganoff absolutely hands down the worst I’ve had and I’ve had hamburger helper beef stroganoff… Hamburger helper was better. Husband ordered rib eye it was alright except he ordered it med rare and it came more well done… Even through dinner no drink refills and then she took forever to bring check 15 min. And she had a different waitress bring the check while she stood in the back but in sight chatting away with another employee. Never will I go back. Save your money and go anywhere but here!!!

My husband and I came in late on a Tuesday night after checking out some other spots in GV. We shared the Billy Blue Bread and a caprese salad. The bread was AMAZING! My husband doesn’t like bleu cheese at all but the way they baked it helped it to not be so overwhleming. Also asked about mixed drinks and the bartender happened to have gotten in blood oranges that day. She made an amazing blood orange martini (I think that was what it was). Super good! We will be back! The building is really cool too!

Best best best hamburger in the area. I didn’t give 5 stars because so far that’s all I’ve had (and the fabulous cheesy bread and salad). Can’t wait to go back.

This is a good location. They have managed to keep a lot of the old look but modernize it. The food is average at best. Our waitress was great.

This restaurant used to be one of my favorites. Unfortunately, the quality has really taken a nose dive over the last 4 – 5 years. We had a group of ten and out of those only four of us had an OK meal. Very disappointed to say the least.
I appreciate the rustic vibe, however it has gone from rustic to rundown. The furniture needs an update & a few of the light fixtures looked like they were coming apart and ready to fall from the ceiling. While I can look past those things if the food is fantastic, what we got was just OK.
The only reason I gave even 2 stars was because the waitress was very nice and the Billy Blue bread was delicious. Sadly, that will probably be my last meal there.

Went with wife for anniversary dinner. Had not eaten here in years because of bad service experiences in past. Not a problem this time our waitress Kayla was very nice and did a fine job. Had been told how good the calamari was but we were not impressed, it was very rubbery and didn’t have much flavor Cirinos up the street does a better calamari. The salad was excellent but the veggies not good. I Had the RIBEYE which was excellent and wife enjoyed her salmon. Overall a nice experience

We loved this place from the moment we walked in. The vibe and décor resemble a cool old school joint. And the food was really, really good and the service was even better. Definitely coming back and definitely trying their burger next time. Our server told us they grind their own beef and its fresh, never frozen… Can’t get much better than that. Cheers!

Had the pleasure of stopping in for dinner and a drink after a long hard days work and honestly had expectations that were status quo at best. However, I was very pleasantly surprised! The bar staff was friendly and inviting, the billy blue burger was extremely flavorful, and portioned just right. Stayed longer than anticipated because of the ambiance. I’ll definitely be back.

I’ve eaten here several times and always enjoyed good food and friendly service. Love their lamb chops.

Way overpriced fir the food quality. Lamb was tasteless with bitter charred bits. Vegetables underdone and bland. Roasted potatoes lacked any herbs. Stick to the raspberry infusion (delicious) and friendly bar service.

Brought friends from San Fran and Chicago. Both loved their meals… and were also sold on the Brussel sprouts. One had chicken marsala and the other salmon.
Appreciated that they let us try three different wines before making our decision… and decent size taste as well… enough for all 3 of us to try.
I come here a couple times a month and am always treated well.
People complain about prices, but they do food to order… nothing comes from a vendor ready for reheating. Food costs are expensive. …I find their prices within reason.

We had reservations at 7, left at 9:30. Had extreme problems with service… at one point the chef was bussing tables. They lost my brothers ribs then «refound» them. The only thing good is the billy blue bread
. we don’t come often, but now never will again. Boo. Bad service bad food. Two stars for the bread but that’s about it. Go somewhere else.

It’s Wednesday night quiet. We like that. We shared the mahimahi special. The fish had a crunchy crust with a delicious sauce. Excellent. Josh, our server, was attentive and helpful. He provided samples when we were not sure which wine we wanted. His suggestions were spot on. The only downside is the dark interior. Black is their favorite color. Makes one wonder what they are hiding. Darkness aside, we’ll return.

We decided to come in and check the dinner menu, and let the staff know that we had a service dog and immediately offered to show our tags. Some guy in white rudely questioned us with something like «A service dog? I don’t know. I don’t know about that. I’ll ask.»
Professional.
I understand dogs aren’t allowed inside restaurants for health reasons, but they could have nicely let us know. Especially because we would’ve been happy to discuss sitting outside, but we decided it didn’t even look worth it.

Amazing little gem in Grass Valley. City caliber food in the country! It’s pricey but worth it. My folks are regulars and it’s nice to see them treated that way. They have the same waiter every week and I see why. Taylor is attentive, friendly and accommodating. My moms pretty picky about good service and good food and it’s nice to see her treated well. The billy bread is no joke! Garlic and cheese and warm and gooey. The salads are fresh and not over dressed. I got the teriyaki steak medium and it was a little too pink for me. Like mother like daughter, I guess. Taylor was nice enough to throw it back on the fire. Wonderful spot! The serve diet coke too. We had wine but it was nice to see coke products. I can see why my folks don’t mind paying that much for dinner once a week. Besides, they deserve it!

My boyfriend and I had dinner there last night under a friend’s recommendation and it was wonderful! Our server was Jessica and she was attentive, but not so much to where I had to stop and talk with my mouth full of food.
We started off with the billy blue bread because of my friend’s recommendation, and it is fantastic! I can see why she emphasized ordering that.
I ordered the Teriyaki Shrimp and my boyfriend ordered the Filet Mignon. The filet was amazing and perfect. I liked the Shrimp, but I didn’t know exactly what I was ordering, so when it arrived I was a little disappointed, but it still was quite good. (My fault on not asking further questions on the order).
We will be back again for future date nights!

I came here tonight with my husband for our anniversary dinner. We had several friends recommend it to us. I really wanted it to be good. We made our reservation via the website for 7:15. It asked if we were celebrating anything and we indicated that we were celebrating our anniversary.
We arrived just before our reservation time and checked in with the hostess. The main dining area was not full or busy. The hostess indicated that we were being seated in a booth. We followed her out of the main dining area and into the bar. Then we were seated with a lovely view of the restroom and the waitress station. All of the tables had a lighted candle on them with the exception of the 3 booths.
We were then greeted by April who announced she would be our server. April was so loud! She told us about the specials. We placed our order at this time. We ordered the Billy Blue Bread appetizer, my hubby had the ribeye steak with a baked potato, I had the new York with garlic mashed potatoes. We both had salad. I informed April of my shellfish allergy and also told her that we did not want any onions or chives on anything.
The appetizer comes out. Looks delicious, but is covered with green onion. We don’t say anything, instead we just remove the onions. The bread was good. I could only eat a little because it is super rich, but it is good.
A few minutes later, our salads came out. The salad was a bed of mixed greens with room temperature salad dressing. They attempted to make a good salad. The fork was refrigerated but not the plate. Right after April dropped off the salad to us, we heard her tell the cook that we had just gotten our salad so she couldn’t give us our steaks yet. We made sure to eat the salad quickly so that our food wasn’t going to sit in the kitchen for too long.
The steaks were delivered by April. She also brought us steak sauce and then disappeared. My New York strip was super tough. I had a difficult time cutting through it with a steak knife. I literally had to saw a piece off to eat it. My garlic mashed potatoes were not good. They tasted artificial. My husband said that his ribeye was seasoned and cooked well for the most part. He enjoyed his baked potato. They used real butter in top of the potato. The steaks were served with a seasonal vegetable medley with carrots, squash, broccoli, and zucchini. We didn’t try the veggies. April never checked in on us to see how our meal was. Actually, no one did. That is a pet peeve of mine. Especially when a restaurant is not busy.
So, once my hubby finished his steak, April came over and asked if I wanted a box for the remaining 98% of my meal. I asked for her to just pack up the steak for me. She started to ask if we wanted desert and then remembered that our reservation said we were here for our anniversary. She said that they offer a complimentary chocolate and almond torte desert for birthdays and anniversaries, and asked if we wanted to try it. We said sure. The chocolate torte was brought out on a plain white bread plate. The torte itself had chocolate drizzled with chocolate and was outlined with whipped cream. Presentation could have been so much better. We both tried it. It was awful! It was so heavy and thick. Not at all creamy or enjoyable. It was really dense and hard.
April returned with our check and I inquired as to if the cheesecake they offer is actually made on site from scratch. April assured me that it is really delicious, creamy, and made from scratch on site. She then mentioned that ALL of their desert items are made from scratch on site. If the chocolate torte was made on site, it was probably made several weeks ago. I ordered the cheesecake to go. I tried some of the cheesecake and it is creamy and seems to be ok so far.
Overall, I think the Owl has some really great potential. One thing that bugged me was that our visit start to finish was less than 55 minutes. When we are going out for a nice dinner, We do not want to be rushed. I don’t expect a ¹¹⁄₂ to 2 hour Morton’s experience, but I do want to enjoy my time away from the kids. Our meal came out to right around $ 75 for a small order of Billy bread, 2 steak dinners, a cheesecake, and a beer on tap. I still have not decided if we will give The Owl a second chance.
With a few minor tweaks and training, they could make this restaurant one that people would go out of their way for. The Owl is much better than Kane’s for sure!