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| - Big Grove used to be a pretty reliable 4 star meal, not outstanding, but never disappointing either. Last couple of times my girlfriend and I have been though we've been very underwhelmed. Last night was probably our final meal there.
We ordered a round of appetizers, all good and the only high point of the night. When our entrees came our table was full of empty plates to the point that there was nowhere to put the food, but the server just kind of looked at us expectedly and then said "this plate is really hot" (more on this in a second), so the three of us each took a plate in our hand to clear the table while she set our entrees down, and then she took our plates without another word.
The kicker though is that the plate she indicated was hot was in no way warm, and the steak that was on it was somewhere between lukewarm and cold. I always hate the concept of sending a steak back to the kitchen to be cooked more or reheated but I was going to do so, that's how cool the steak was. But sadly no one ever came by again to check on us, so I ate the half of my steak that was warm enough to cut with my butter knife and called it a night. My girlfriend's entree, the ricotta gnocchi with duck confit, was equally disappointing, but moreso because it was just not a good dish than anything having to do with preparation. It was super bland with no real dominant flavor, there was no evidence of ricotta anywhere inside the gnocchi or anywhere else in the dish, and the duck confit tasted and looked literally nothing like duck, to the point that even after the manager assured me it was I still don't believe him.
To be fair, it was a busy Saturday night, and they ended up comping 50% of the bill after we complained. But all in all there are countless places in Champaign serving better food and trying much harder to deliver good experiences, so I don't see much of a reason to give them a third chance.
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