Used to live in the neighborhood and frequent our favorite Zoyo which is next door to Modern Grove. Temperatures were warming and on our last trip to the Z we discovered the Grove. Wife and I are amateur foodies"and won't hesitate to drive 50 miles to try something new so we put MG on our calendar. We took the 6 mile drive last night and were really looking forward to it just from what we had seen from the outside. We arrived and it was a lovely evening with all of the outdoor tables occupied by couples and families. Ok must be good. Love the decor and the "vibe" of this place which this old neighborhood could really use. Upon ordering the staff was courteous.
So we settle on the pretzels for an app and Cubano panini, my wife orders the strawberry chicken salad. Checked out the wines and beers but decided we'd focus on the food since the price points are a little high basically a sandwich shop so we settle on a water and soda. Given our number card and found a lovely table by the front window.
Pretzels arrived quickly with a honey mayo sauce and a good spicy mustard. Pretzels were good and for $7 they better be. No sooner than getting halfway through the first, our main courses arrive.
Mine- Cubano is layered with cheese, ham and turkey, but you wouldn't know that unless you opened it up since it was missing half of the meat a panini should have. What it should have been called is the Slice Dill Pickle panini. On first bite that is all you taste, pickle. I quickly removed it to salvage my sandwich but too late. It was soaked in it's juices. I got through the first half and I was done. Finished my pretzels.
Wife-Strawberry chicken salad you can't go wrong with but this place did. First the chicken breast chunks were large and plenty of them but look like they were boiled! This bland white look with no seasoning whatsoever. Good mix of other greens but she had to physically dig to see if any dressing had been added because she couldn't taste any. After a couple bites she was done and finished her pretzel. So we got containers to go and she would doctor it up when we got home. 2 stars are for ambiance only. $35 tab for this was absurd. Not all was lost though. Walked into Zoyo and had one good thing to eat that evening. Being the only game in the hood won't guarantee you'll survive in this business. Better get it together.