Our party of three arrived around 6pm on a Friday night and we were promptly seated... when the greeter managed to look up and actually greet us.
However, our waitress was wonderful; engaging and knowledgeable. She was able to talk about the wine we selected in a way that was helpful and pretty accurate. She shared with us that she had lived in Spain (we ordered a Spanish wine) and her recommendations were appreciated. It was nice rapport without feeling forced.
We ordered the cheese curds in the vodka batter and they were pretty good; light and crispy and greasy. We also ordered the soft pretzel with three different kinds of mustard and Widmer's cheese spread. The cheese was to die for, the mustards were great.
I ordered the Pork3: chili braised pork shoulder, pickled vegetables, rice, and leaf lettuce; Udon noodle bowl with glazed pork belly and sugar snap peas; smoked pork spare ribs with Korean mustard sauce, cucumber salad. Pretty good. The spare ribs were... well, spare. Very small meat cuts on the ribs, very hard to bite into. The pork belly was good. The small ramen bowl was gone much too quickly and there were no promised peas in my bowl. The braised pork shoulder tasted delicious but I think some sort of sauce could have helped texturally; it was too much like eating a Big League Chew wad of shredded pork. The pickled veggies were great.
My dining partners ordered the gnocchi and the Graze burger.
Side note: It would be nice if there was a way to tell by looking at the menu exactly where the food is coming from. Are the mussels actually local?
The reviews about the noise level in this restaurant are accurate. We had to leave eventually in order to hear each other talk. I do not think the Graze/L'etoile comparison is necessarily a fair one. I had one of the most amazing meals of my life at L'etoile and Graze has a totally different menu and technique.
Lastly, I wish there was an easy way to let Graze know that their domain name is missing the letter "E" when you search for them on Google. Drives me nuts. ;-)