The Grill

We had a wonderful dinner here! I love the decor and the feeling of olde this hotel restaurant has. The kindness of the bartenders and waitstaff make you want to come back again and again.

We ate here for brunch the first time on our latest trip to Chico and had a mixed experience, although one which shows promise and it seems possible that the defects we encountered were due to a bad day.

The place is nice and attractive inside, on the ground floor of the lovely Hotel Diamond in the heart of downtown. There is a nice bar area and a separate dining area. So far, we only had brunch this one time.

One of us got the french toast, which had nice flavour and good bread with a nice chewy crust but softer interior. However, it was a little undercooked. 3.5 stars. Had it been prepared just a little better, probably 4 stars easily.

The rest of us got the prime rib eggs benedict, again a dish which was fundamentally good but a bit sloppy in the execution. The Hollandaise sauce was good, the eggs nicely cooked, and the prime rib nicely shredded and cooked well, with some slight touches of crispy edges but otherwise nice and pink and not overcooked. The potatoes which accompanied were also good with nice flavour and crispy but not overcooked for two of us. However, the English muffins seemed like they were not toasted at all, being soft, blond, and chewy. Also, one of us had potatoes which were badly overcooked and hard, while for all three of us the dish came out barely lukewarm, as if it had been sitting, and the surface of the Hollandaise was dryish and dull, also indicating that it had been sitting. 3.5 stars, but could easily have been 4.5 had they been prepared properly and came out hot.

Related to this, it took a very , very long time for our food to get there after we ordered it and then only two of us were served at first. The other two dishes came out long after,by which time the first two of us were halfway through our meal. We noticed several other tables suffering the same problem, or worse. One table of 4 which we saw had only one person served for some time and by the time the rest got their food, she was already finished with hers. From where we sat, we noticed that there appeared to be confusion or discussion among the servers and cooks at the kitchen area, which seemed related.

Coffee was good and strong but came out unreliably also.

Service was friendly.

We would be willing to go back and there is definitely promise in the food quality, while at this time we feel that it is very possible that this was simply a bad day. However, as things stand, we could not give it more than 3 stars and if this proves to be normal after future visits, we probably would not go back due to the issues noted.