I hate having to write bad reviews, but after my 2nd very negative experience Grindhouse Burger Bar left me with no choice. To justify this rating let me explain what happened on my visits there:
1st visit I went as part of a large group for a Tweetup hosted by Grindhouse themselves. I had very minimal expectations because I knew nothing about the place other than another food blogger telling me they didn't really like the place. Regardless, I think burgers are a personal thing so I decided to give it a try. I ended up having "The Wild Boar" ($12) which sounded really good on paper "House Minced with Hazelnuts and Sage, Apple and Onion Chutney, Roasted Garlic Goat Cheese and Baby Arugula." Unfortunately what I received was an extremely charred patty (apparently this is Grindhouse "thing") which was overcooked, dry and unappetizing. When I asked other people who attended the event how their burgers were they all seemed to echo the same thing, burned, dry and overcooked. The best thing I had that night was probably the onion rings which were quite tasty. Regardless I probably would have given them a 3-star rating but then it came time to pay the bill. Apparently someone had sat at our table before we got there and ordered some things and the waitress did not keep track of them so we were about $20 short on our bill because we could not track down who had ordered 2 beers (note I had been ordering all my beers at the bar and the bartender was aware of this). I told the waitress we had no idea who ordered them and she said something along the lines of 'well they were at your table at some point so you need to pay for them". At this point I was already contributing $25 for my $12 burger because some others hadn't left much and I wanted to make sure she got a tip. Instead of just wiping this small amount off of our $200+ tab, she continued to argue with me and pointed me out to the bartender/owner like I was a bad guy or something. After a lot of hassle they eventually took these drinks off the bill but it didn't go without plenty of rude glares from this server for the rest of the night. I decided I would not post anything about this incident though out of respect for the person who had organized the dinner doing their social media.
2nd visit. Last night I returned to Grindhouse for another event to raise awareness for a gift box type company after being invited by the owner of the company. I skipped food this time (for reasons stated on my first visit) and was just having drinks. I did happen to try one of my friend's onion rings though and unlike last time these were WAY overcooked and rock hard. As it was Thursday night there was a big NFL game on TV to decide the fate of the Philidelphia Eagles season which they were showing on one of the TVs. Suddenly during the 3rd quarter the owner of the bar decides to change the channel to the same thing on the TV right beside it as they are going to be doing some Karaoke event. My girlfriend very politely asks the owner if he could put the one TV back on for the last part of the football game. His response to her is "Tonight is Karaoke night. If you want to watch football you should go to another bar". Dumbfounded she returns to the table and everyone is in shock that someone could be so rude. There was still another perfectly good TV beside that could be used for Karaoke so I don't think the request was out of line. Also the front row of their bar was filled with guys all there watching the same game (how oblivious can you be!). He agrees to put the game back on for a bit until the MC returns which is met with a round of applause by the guys at the bar. At this point though we had no interest in giving them anymore of our business and left.
I will not be returning to Grindhouse anymore as they have no sense of customer service and can't even make a half decent burger!