Grant Grill

Came here with a restaurant coupon amd it wwas decent. The steak did not taste prime and it would not have been worth full price.

Ok place, but several other restaurants close by in our opinion better.

I love this place, beautiful building, staff is friendly and knowledgable about the food they serve and quality is present. I was ranting and raving to my friend about this place so we came for Christmas dinner. The tuna amuse bouche was tasteless and bulky, Christmas goose was dry and their dessert just tasted like sponge cake. Not sure what went wrong but the flavors and the food was just not cooked right. I’ve had their tasting menu a few times and it’s always been spot on. I’ll let this one slide because I just love this place but I was embarrassed that I hyped this place up to my friend and it ended up being disappointing. I tried to take a picture of the food but it was so dark in there it just looked like brown kibbles on the plate.
I hope my next trip back will be what the glorious days were like and not what happened on Christmas night.

If you enjoy things such as «quality» or dabble in such scarcities as «polished & professional service» and you have not been here… then you may want to rethink where you are going in life. Aside from their unwavering purpose of delivering a luxury experience in an otherwise very pseudo-​luxury market (San Diego, you classy beast you), what is great about the Grant Grill is its constant reinvention of itself. They continually recreate classics, bringing you back to a simpler (read:better) time while pushing the envelope to bring new flavors and ideas to the town. It is only fitting that the FIRST luxury hotel in San Diego with the city’s FIRST Comic Con would also be the FIRST to barrel age a Manhattan, the FIRST to make their own Vermouth, the FIRST to put a Cask Ale in a hotel… the list goes on. This is a place where things are happening, good things, all the time. Also, the manager Alberto kills a Prince impression.
In life you get what you pay for; it is worth it here.

We ate Sunday brunch (an a la carte menu, not a buffet). Food and service were both excellent — the crispy potatoes on both of our dishes were the best breakfast potatoes either of us had ever had.

The grande dame hotel in the gaslight district. Now owned by a luxury hotel group. We stopped in the lobby bar for drinks and a noshe. Nicely appointed bar, opulently furnished. We tried the signature drinks and the happy hour specials. Nice way to take a moment and watch life go by. I wouldn’t mind staying in the hotel during a future stay in San Diego.

The grill has outstanding food it’s 5 stars !! We eat 3 meals over 3 days here an each one was perfect. The staff was outstanding as you would expect and the dinning room was clean and beautiful.
You should eat here even if you don’t stay at the hotel the grill is great.

My family came here on a short weekend trip. The reason I gave them 5 instead of 4 is for their service.
So our dinner was 2.5 hours long because we were waiting for our food for somewhere between 45 min to an hour. We were planning our trip for the first 30+ min and sipping our cocktails so we didn’t notice anything wrong then our stomach started growling around the 45 min mark. Finally 2 waiters and the restaurant manager (I assume) arrived with our food. The restaurant manager apologized for the long wait time and said that there was some mix-​up in the kitchen with our order. He then offered to get us another complimentary cocktail or will provide us some complimentary desserts. We passed on the drinks and at the end of the meal, the waiter brought out 2 desserts for us to try without any prompting from us. Yes, we were annoyed that we had to wait so long for our food but the way that they dealt with the situation and were so generous without us asking for anything really made up for a lot of the wait time and added points to their service in our minds. Of course the very very good carrot cake that was free was awesome!
These were the dinner highlights in no particular order
1. roasted duck breast
2. sea scallops
3. 38 day dry aged ribeye — very flavorful and yummy. the grilled lettuce was little salty, but i just left that alone. the downside is that this dish was more pricey than the other dishes but its worth it
4. carrot cake — this was sooo good. It was not too sweet and super moist. if we weren’t so full i would have been tempted to order another piece. we gobbled down the whole piece.
5. smashing pumpkin martini
For us these items were just meh or similar to other places
1. mock turtle soup — it was too salty for our taste, but it tastes like a tomato-​y beef stew
2. warm Apple bread pudding — it was ok, but it was cold
3. roasted beet salad
We were staying at the hotel and did not dress up very fancy. We were in everyday clothes and it was obvious that we were tourists or hotel guests. We saw a lot of people who were dressed up for a night out and a couple of people in evening gowns.
This is definitely not a cheap place for dinner but it was a yummy dinner and I would definitely want to come back again.

5 stars alone for:
US GRANT Centennial Manhattan
High West Rye Whiskey, Dolin Vermouth Rouge, Fee Bros Bitters. Blended And Aged Harmoniously In Commemorative Oak For 100 Days.
$ 15
That’s all I had. That’s all I needed. It was the best Manhatten I’ve ever had.

My husband lives here at the US Grant and always raves about Jose the server. Always has his food and coffee ready, always warm and welcoming, and it’s a great experience to start his day there. I’m happy that he is happy, so we both than Jose and his team.

We all have that one armchair Sommelier friend who drinks a ton and therefor feels they are an expert on the terroir of any given region from Napa to Paso Robles, more specifically vineyards they visited on a wine tour.
Well I brought that friend here for a dose of reality to watch them fail miserably in carrying conversation with their master mixologist/​resident master sommelier. Oh and it helps to have 2 attractive girlfriends who are level 2 somm’s also make him stick his foot in his mouth. Everyone was in on it as at some points we were just using made up words he slyly tried to google. We all had a good laugh at it as we eventually drank our way to a good time. I’m no wino, don’t pretend to be, but appreciate beverages of the alcoholic kind in general.
Located inside the iconic Grant Hotel it piggy backs a lot of the architectural experience people get from the hotel itself. I find the décor inside more West Coast steakhouse than grill. I guess the name Grill really does lower your expectations here, but you do get white table clothes and ample wood for warmth.
Service is excellent both here at the lounge which is more relaxed in that you actually want to socialize with the bar staff. Excellent drinks selection from traditional cocktails to more celebratory drinks. Great beer selection, but they still carry Budweiser which threw me off, love the commissioned partnership with Mission for smoked and aged imperial red. Seasonal cocktail menu with tradition at every turn. I myself spent a good portion of the night discussing the state of cocktails with the bartender.
Don’t be fooled by the $$$ rating, it’s $$$$ easily. You can’t even keep it $$$ without drinks. Good plating, decent menu, excellent ingredients and variety, but the dishes were not polished and that was without the sommelier’s advice. Half their menu could go up a notch with some simple upgrades or refinements.
Mock turtle soup, which they are known for, does a poor job introducing people to the southern delicacy. Traditional soups, mock or otherwise use veal and not beef tongue and the roux should be the color of chocolate/​vietnamese blood cubes. The dry sherry is supposed to counter the richness which I found it lacked. Not enough herbal notes or balance of stock to protein, etc. Pork Belly was very good, but the accompanying parts muddled the dish with sweetness. Individually great, but together confusing. Yellowfin crudo is the perfect appetizer. Uni, salmon roe, avo, finger lime which is a totally underused ingredient. It’s profile is something I wish more places used.
Duck is amazing with the poached egg and risotto I thought the egg plant was not necessary. I think they were going for a bordelaise flavor, but decided on something that just look the same color. Kurobuta chops have a perfect combination of umami and the starch and honey onions. 38 day dry aged steak was not confirmed to be prime and as such I got everything on the side to not confuse my opinion. I fully expected a more seafood presence seeing as we are in San Diego. A few years earlier I had the crab risotto and my request for the crab fat was denied. Still no oysters.
If you’ve got the budget to stay here AND eat here while on say «vacation» then I would do it. I found the value and menu slightly lacking in the overall experience and despite a solid tradition not impressed enough to give the 5^th star. There are other places with just as much class and elegance with more refined menu’s and value not anchored to a hotel, but not many have their level of lounge/​bar AND restaurant experience.

My mom and I came here for a quick cocktail and bite to eat before watching Phantom of the Opera at the Theatre across the street. I was VERY impressed with the cocktail selection, my favorite drink by far! The Market Gamlet. The cucumber flavored vodka with juices and muddled cucumber hit the spot on a hot day in San Diego. We ordered the shrimp appetizer along with sliders and their flat bread of the day.
Everything tasted just amazing. We even got a 5% off coupon when checking in with Unilocal.The service was mediocre for such a fancy joint. Took nearly 20 minutes to get our drinks and another 40 minutes for our food. We mentioned we were watching the show and had to be in and out within an hour.
The cocktails and food were 5 star, however if the service was a bit more friendly and prompt.

Love this hotel and restaurant. The hotel’s architecture and décor is amazing to behold. The restaurant is classy and a bit pricey but that is to be expected because of its opulence.
I had the Smoked Salmon Bagel and at $ 17 it is more than what I normally paid but I’m not in the bloody IE anymore.
Service was a tad slow for some reason but our server was pleasant & said why she was held up. She was apologetic about it so all is fine. After all, we were on holiday thus no losing our knickers over little things.

This place is legit.
I was in the mood for a non alcoholic drink after a conference, and the bartender made me two of the most outstanding drinks ever: a virgin last cocktail and a gg mule lite. They both were incredibly complex and delicious. The mule was of course ginger beer based wih lime and bitters. The secret was the outstanding ginger beer they used and the cinnamon infused bitters. The last cocktail was pear based with rosemary sugar, club soda, and ground cloves on the top. It is very unusual for virgin drinks to have complexity, and this place had several.
My partner got a regular (non virgin) kentucky mule (with bourbon) and a boulevardier (a negroni with bourbon — a campari based tour). They were both amazing. The bartender, Bruce, also gave us samples of the house barrel aged manhattan and campaign fermented mule. Both were fantastic. My partner said he felt like he had a personally guilded tour through the world of exquitely mixed cocktails. The bartender responded that «we are here to educate and inebriate at the same time.»
I can’t rave enough about this place, and the bartender Bruce is amazing. … Now thinking about coming back for dinner.

This hotel is absolutely stunning! My husband and I were lucky enough to attend a meet and greet here recently and they took phenomenal care of us.
I’m so glad I hired a stylist to pick my outfit that day or else I would have felt horribly underdressed. As we were sitting in the lobby outside the grill waiting for the event to start, we saw countless celebrities walk by who were staying there during Comic Con. We were too shocked and awed to say anything which is a good thing as I believe they have security here who look after their guests for that exact reason.
You don’t have to be dressed to the nines but I would do at least business casual. We weren’t terribly hungry so we shared the seasonal fruit plate and the pastry basket while we had a few drinks.
The fruit plate was light and refreshing. They serve it with a side of Greek yogurt, fresh mint, and biscotti. The pastry basket had an assortment of mini delights including a flaky cinnamon bun, pecan puff, custard and raspberry tarts, an apple turnover, and a croissant. It paired beautifully with the first drink I ordered, the classic mimosa.
My husband stuck with beer and felt very spoiled when they served it in a chilled glass for him and poured it table side. The second drink I ordered was a bit different for me as I’m not a gin lover, but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit! It was called The Last Cocktail and made with gin, rosemary sugar, pear purée, and prosecco. They dusted it with something before serving that I couldn’t put my finger on. Clove? Nutmeg? Either way, it was fabulous.
We decided to valet our car knowing that finding parking would be near impossible and it was $ 17 for the day. Totally worth it as my heels, although sexy, were not exactly the most comfortable to walk in. We loved this hotel so much we are thinking of saving up and coming back to stay sometime for our anniversary.
I mean if it’s good enough for the whole cast of Archer, a few SNL regulars, and Conan’s crew then it’s good enough for us right? Yes I’m name dropping, it’s not everyday I get to be in the presence of the rich and famous! It was like every cliché California trip come true when people tell you to let them know who you run into. We can hardly wait to go back, especially to see how incredibly gorgeous the rooms must be. I can’t think of a more romantic place.

I eat here every time I stay at The US Grant hotel, which is not often enough!
This is a classy and romantic place with a wonderful bar, great wine list, and food that is the best in San Diego, without question.
Live jazz music on the weekends, too.
I’ve gone for girls’ night, and I’ve gone for date night. I’ve gone alone and ate dinner at the bar. I’ve gone for brunch, lunch, happy hour, and dinner. It never disappoints.

Just wrapped up a four night stay at the Grant and had a wonderful breakfast every morning with my wife in the grill. It’s a beautiful room with soaring ceilings, wood floors and paneling, a nice bar and well appointed furnishings with fine silver, comfy leather seats and an anthurium flower at every table. Old school music from the 40s was playing softly in the background most mornings transporting us to a bygone era in which the Grant Hotel was king. Still is IMHO.
Service here is impeccable right from the start at the hostess station. Each morning we were warmly greeted, asked how are morning was going and promptly shown to our table. En route we would pass a table with a selection of morning papers to choose from. Once seated our wonderful and attentive server Chelsea appeared to take our order. After the first morning, everyone knew us by name when they greeted us and Chelsea brought our preferred beverages when we were seated.
There is quite a selection of breakfast treats on their menu and lucky for us we had the chance to try several of them. Our first day, we went easy with their continental breakfast that included a great selection of fresh fruit and berries, wide selection of toast, coffee and juice. Everything was fresh and it came on a long dish in a beautiful presentation.
Day two I went big with their cinnamon French toast platter and a side of bacon. The toast was perfectly prepared with a carmelized sauce and bananas. The bacon was thick and cooked how I like with some floppiness to it. Day three I decided to go old school with scrambled eggs, bacon and toast. The eggs were creamy with a perfect yellow hue served piping hot. The bacon was as yummy as the day before and the toast delightful when slathered with the raspberry jam from a mini jar on the table.
Our last morning, I picked something I normally wouldn’t, chicken migas which is scrambled eggs, shredded chicken with a verde salsa. It was a delicious, hardy meal and I was pleased with my selection.
Hope it’s not another three years before we are back in San Diego. I can’t wait to visit the Grant Grill again.

You know, one great challenge for foodies in Gaslamp San Diego is good food without falling into a tourist trap. We were in the Gaslamp for the weekend, and fell into that trap more than once.
Not so for the Grant Grill.
The food and drink was uniformly A+.
I had the mock turtle soup, which was actually made with beef tongue. I’ve never had real turtle soup, but the mock soup was excellent.
I also had the burger, which was the best burger I’ve had in a while. IMHO, better than anything else Ive had in the gaslamp including better than Hodad’s.
My wife had the strip steak salad which was fantastic also.
We also had drinks for a few hours because they were so good. Fresh grapefruit juice for mixing with Vodka.
Prices were expensive, but no more than any other place in the gaslamp.
Service was also quite excellent after we got seated. I was a little surprised by how amateur the seating staff was, considering how great everything else was, but you have to overlook the small things.
All in all, a great experience

Dined here for dinner awhile ago with my boyfriend on a gift certificate I received for a hotel stay and dinner credit. Lovely restaurant — I even dressed up just for the hell of it. I really wish I reviewed Grant Grill earlier! I’ve been putting it off but here I am now. First off, our waitress was very attentive and friendly!
The drinks are delicious and heavy. Boyfriend got the Manhattan, I got a colorful one (I forget the name) and it was super strong. The dinner menu changes often, so I no longer remember the exact items we had — but trust me, it was all good. Starters/​sides included pork belly and truffle fries. We were also served fresh, steaming bread — so much yum. The pork belly was the best part of our meal haha. It was kinda crispy and yet it melted in my mouth — ugh, I’m drooling. I still think about it from time to time… it will be awhile until I can come back… and afford it. :P
My tummy was filling up quick and I’m glad I got a veggie main course — asparagus stalks and I believe it was a big block of goat cheese. After that I was so. Full. I still had my intense drink to finish too, but I did it.
One strange part of our evening though is when the manager, I assume, came up to our table a couple of times. The first time he asked if we were carded, we said yes but he checked again because we looked young to him (especially my boyfriend haha). That’s all dandy as we both look and are younger than the usual crowd they probably get here. It’s great that they want to take extra precautions too. But, he came back a little later and commented again on how young my boyfriend was and that he’s «a man now who can drink.» Okay… a bit strange and quirky but it kinda ticked me off. Most likely he had good intentions and I just have too many run-​ins with ageism that I get suspicious when people repeatedly mention someone else’s age. Who knows, that’s just me. I AM glad that he came over to check up on us though.
Also, we charged our bill to our room because I was told at front desk that was how we redeem our dining certificate. However it ended up showing up on my card statement. I didn’t realized until later but I got it resolved quickly through email and received friendly service!
Still a very great dining experience at the Grant Grill and I hope to be back someday.

On my «to do» list for years, I last ate here in 1990 or so. A perfect low key supper spot on a slow as molasses Sunday evening. Walk through the lobby and swing a right past the reception desk.
Service is a throwback from another time and as impeccable as it comes. Pressed white shirts and jet black slacks, lots of sirs, misters, and ma’am’s.
Started off the meal with both the mock turtle soup and the lobster risotto. The soup was overly salty for my taste even after being cut into by the sherry finish, but still had a good flavor in it’s depths. The risotto had large chunks of both tail and claw meat in a white wine and butter sauce.
Next came an Amuse Bouche. Medium rare lamb loin, dried apricot, and mint.
For my main I had the Sea Scallops. Fork tender scallops, capers, wilted kale, and lemon-​mayonnaise smear.
The finish was the Vanilla Basque Cake. A lightly sweet vanilla devils food cake, banana chantilly cream, spiced apples, caramel sauce, and pistachio gelato. Sort of all over the place but came together as a decent tasting dessert.
A nice «evening out» restaurant with entrees in the $ 25-​$ 40 range.