I
love trying new restaurants and we have been driving past the New River
Grill for a few years now. I use to go there in the 80s when it was 2
Guys Pizza and a fun, neighborhood restaurant.
Having eaten at the
Café Vico every Thursday for lunch the past 3 months and going back to
one of my favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant Big Louie’s just last
week I know it will be hard to judge a new place by their standards. We
decided to ho there this afternoon.
The New River Grill with black
tables, silver rolled in black napkins and blackboards on two walls
certainly didn’t offer a warm, neighborhood feeling. There was no one to
greet us when we walked in so we took menus and sat ourselves. (It
seems at least 2 of 4 people sitting in a corner booth worked
there---owned the place?--but they ignored us.)
Victor, our server,
approached and immediately took and served our drink order. Allen had
iced tea ($2.25) and I had coffee ($2). We asked the server for a
recommendation, as I usually do when I eat in a place the first time,
and Victor suggested the grilled cheese sandwich ($9.95) and asked if we
wanted tomato and bacon ($1 each) and we said, “Yes”.  I had been
talking about having a grilled cheese sandwich for a couple of weeks so,
unknowingly, Victor had made the right suggestion.
The presentation
of the entrée was excellent. The sandwich was cut in half with one half
on top of the other and a large twig of rosemary sticking out of the
center. Beside it was a cup of what turned out to be tomato rosemary
bisque.
Both the soup and sandwich was a disaster. The bisque had too much rosemary and tasted like an ‘off’ pizza sauce.
Regarding
the sandwich itself, even with the tomato and bacon, it was very thin.
For a dollar I expected a good slice of tomato only to have to check
with Allen if he had a slice on his sandwich. Supposedly there were
suppose to be 3-4 different cheeses in the sandwich and if they were
they equaled, maybe, an ounce total. There wasn’t even enough cheese to
‘drip’ out of the sandwich! For $11.95 I expected a substantial sandwich
but didn’t get one.
Sandwiches  plus drinks plus tax came to $29.84 so with the tip it cost us $18 each for a very unsatisfactory lunch.
Back to Café Vico and/or Big Louie’s!