Grand Station

We choose one of the best or worst nights.
We went on one of the hottest summer nights, but we couldn’t cool off because the windows we all open. We didn’t exactly understand why the A/​C wasn’t on, until the music from a Beatles tribute band started blaring through the open windows. Luckily, they were decent or it would have been unbearable.
Because of the noise, we chose just to grab drinks and a appetizer. Then we headed to another bar in town, a little bit further from the open-​air concert.
The drinks were good and strong. The spinach-​artichoke dip was good. Nothing stuck out as unbelievable.
I would be willing to give this place another try!

Does anybody know why they all of a sudden went out of business? We were just there last week and nobody said anything. The food was always amazing and the servers were very nice. I hope the new restaurant brings back all the old employees, there were the main reason we always went there.

Worst dining experience of my life. Ordered a wedge salad that you can hammer the nails with, fried calamari that I would not feed to my dog. The «manager» aarin extremely rude and lacks basic human decency. We were seated in the speak easy section and it was hot to a point where my wife actually faited. When that happened, nobody from the staff even came over and offer a towel or water. Called paramedics and we moved to a cooler part of the restuarant. At that point the manager had the guts to come over and asked us to move because they were expecting a party. Rude, obnoxious, and disrespectful. I hope the real management of the restaurant take some serious action!

On Saturday night, my date & I stood at the host stand for several minutes. I don’t know why nobody was there because they were NOT busy.
Finally seated & it took a while for our waiter to get to us.
We ordered the Crème Brulee to split. SUCH a rip off! The dish makes it look like its a good amount of dessert, say 1.5−2 centimeter deep. I placed my spoon in & it was probably half a centimeter layer of Crème Brulee served in a really, really thick ceramic dish. I could have scooped the whole dessert into my spoon at once. It was $ 7.50. So with tax & tip, that was a $ 10, one spoonful dessert.
They have a really small menu in general. Their dessert «menu» is not a menu & just a tray of 4 desserts.
This place is a little over-​rated & too expensive for what it is.

Grand Station used to be the place in downtown Arlington Heights that I always saw but passed up for other things, like Tapas, or Peggy’s. I had a Valentine’s date go horribly wrong at Grand Station several years back, (have you ever been on a date with a guy/​girl who spends the entire conversation comparing different types of cheeses, yet he/​she has no ACTUAL knowledge of cheese? Yeah… I’m the lucky one) so I’d avoided going back.
Until last night. One of my girlfriends wanted to take me out for my birthday, and recommended Grand Station. We were seated right away at 6:30 with no reservation. The restaurant wasn’t very full, but there were a handful of tables in various stages of dinner. I like the décor, but the openness of the dining room makes for a big, loud, space. We had an ugly laugher a few tables over, and when she started up, I couldn’t hear my own conversations. Oh well.
The server was extremely friendly and helpful. We split the calamari appetizer, grilled instead of fried, and it was absolutely fantastic. Grilled calamari with tomatoes and banana peppers, definitely had a little bit of a kick. Very light, a great start to the meal.
We also each ordered a house salad and French onion soup as our entrée. Both of the portions were huge. I was worried ordering a house salad that it would not be enough with the soup, but if I would have ordered anything else, it would’ve been WAY too much food. I didn’t finish everything as it was.
The mustard vinaigrette they use for the house salad is very light, and the salad was not over-​dressed. The French onion soup was hot, and had two generous croutons and heaps of Gruyère cheese. Anyone who knows me knows I judge a restaurant by the quality of their French onion soup, and the type of cheese the use in it. Grand Station wins.
We decided to pass on dessert, but our server insisted on bringing us a tiramisu on the house. Holy cow, this tiramisu is the closest to my mom’s homemade I have ever had.
.tiramisu.ever. The 2.5 miles I plan to do on the elliptical later is dedicated to Grand Station tiramisu.
Grand Station has VERY quickly gone from the place I’d pass up to the place I’d recommend. Two thumbs up!

This was my first time and I won’t be going back again. Service was horrible!!! Food is just average.
My family had sunday brunch. Took forever to get our food. I think we waited about 30 minutes if not longer. Took forever for everything seems like.
One of us had rosemary honey roasted pork loin. Pork was good. But it was suppose to come with asparagus as a side. But the waitress said no. Checked the menu after we ate. Sure enough it was suppose to come with. Asked for the manager but he never showed. We got 50% off on the pork loin dish instead. I had to go up to the front to ask to see a manager before leaving. Also mix up on one of my kid’s meal. My shrimp far diavolo pasta was just OK.
Just really bad service and food is just OK. I won’t recommend you to go at all!!!

My lunch experience at Grand Station was fantastic. The service was both attentive and prompt, and the food was certainly worth recommending to my friends and family. I had the Salmon, with an olive oil broth and veggies: everything was cooked perfectly. The Salmon was very juicy, and the olive oil broth contributed to the well balanced dish.
I can’t wait to return for dinner!

Every single time I go here it is a terrible experience and today was no exception.
There is always a different reason, bad food, bad wine, bad pricing, bad service, bad management response.
Been here several times since they opened and I have finally written this place off for good. Will go back once a new restaurant goes in that space.

My husband and I stopped here the other night. We just wanted a simple dinner before heading to the movies. What a disappointment. The former menu, that used to have lots of great sandwich and salad options, had been replaced by a far more limited, and far more pricey, menu. My husband had a very mediocre piece of chicken that was $ 23! Tried to stop him from ordering that… really? $ 23 for a piece of chicken in Arlington Heights? I had a salmon sandwich for around $ 14…fish was
tasty but roll was hard as a rock. Needless to say, we will not be coming back. Sad, because we do like to support our local restaurants, and this place used to be a nice option.

Dinner for 4 on a Wednesday night.
Pros:
+ Our waiter was very knowledgeable about the food & beer/​wine pairings
+ Service was great! Refills given right away, plates cleared right away, waiter & bus boy always approached us with a smile.
+ Lots of alcohol choices (see their menu online)
+ Clean place
+ Sports on tv all over the place (the guys in our group liked this a lot)
+ There’s a quiet spot in the restaurant if you prefer (no tv; I saw a family with kids in that area)
Cons:
— Over priced
$ 14 for grilled calamari I ordered. I think it only contained 3 squids.
$ 8 for the «make your own» flatbread. It was just 1 flatbread w/​marinara sauce and cheese? C’mon.
$ 9 All American burger — That was worth the $ 9 coz of portion size and taste
$ 14 for fish & chips (Ergh! Across the street, at Peggy Kinanes, it’s only $ 9)
I would go back if someone paid for me. Otherwise, this will probably be a special celebration restaurant.
Now accepting applications for sugar daddy.

I have no idea what happened to this place, but it has gone seriously downhill. A few years ago I was going here on a regular basis. They had the most amazing drink menu– vintage cocktails and a great speakeasy feel. In fact, I used to go there specifically for the strawberry basil martini. I loved those martinis. I dreamt about those martinis. They weren’t cheap, but they were oh so worth it. Their menu was huge and everything I ate I loved. Fast forward: A couple weeks ago I got a strawberry basil craving and decided it had been way too long since I’d experienced martini euphoria. I dragged my boyfriend there on a Sunday so I wouldn’t have to drink alone, and I’m glad he was there– mostly because it gave me someone to start complaining to immediately. The place is completely different. The drink menu is totally stripped down and pathetic; needless to say, no more strawberry basil martini (rest in peace, my love!) The food menu is blah. No more build your own mac & cheese. The whole place just seemed sad. And the death of the strawberry basil martini made me sad. I won’t be back. Wah wah.

Worst overpriced crap I’ve ever had… Save your money go anywhere else.
We went there for lunch and were presented with their tiny lunch menu while we watched other tables receive the big menu, but at that point we had already ordered (as the waiter watched me struggle to find something off the menu and never offered the option of a larger menu) I wound up ordering a Ruben as did my boyfriend who also ordered the French onion soup ($ 6 by the way) which was bland and tasteless. When our food arrived we realized that there were only two thin slices of corn beef on each sandwich, which they have fried or something because it was withered and tough not to mention more fat than meat! The waiter never came to check how the meal was (he probably knew the answer) we finally got refills on our drinks when they took our plates away and did not make a mention of the fact that I had an entire dissected sandwich still left in my plate!!! The check finally came after we sat there for over 10 minutes of waiting only to discover that a pop was $ 3 and we were blowing or weekly money on going out to eat on something we didn’t even eat!
Ps– the reason we went there is because it used to be great and they went waaaaaaay downhill

So Grand Station has reopened under new management. I wasn’t there prior to the reopening, but here’s what I noticed on my first trip there:
They appeared to have only one waitress… there was a decent busboy/​cook/​etc staff, but only one lady taking orders. She was friendly and very upbeat, but it seemed a bit unfair. Organization overall wasn’t great either; she appeared to alone, the host (manager?) guy kept looking around confusedly, and a few times people came in and weren’t greeted or taken care of for a good 5 minutes.
The food was tasty, and I uploaded like 6 photos. From the crock of mac and cheese (which was really more of a platter for us) to the salmon and arugula salad were bountiful and yummy. The roasted lamb was amazing and the steak and gnocchi was very flavorful.
I’d certainly go back, but on my Tour of AH it isn’t in the top 3 based on my first visit.

It was one of those mornings when you feel like doing nothing and doing something at the same time. We have all been there. I don’t want to clean the dishes, but I realize my only clean plate is the hard black plastic tray included with my microwave dinner from three days ago.
I get up eventually and head out to meet the brother for lunch. Suburbs have their purpose I suppose. But it just seems some of them were ordered out of a catalog.
I like the look of the place and it reminded me of the ice cream shop in Andersonville, with tall ceilings, wood paneled walls and large windows.
I wasn’t too hungry so I browsed the menu for something light and tasty. The menu was large and had a good variety of food. Everyone should be happy, even those damn vegetarians (I kid, I kid)
My food was disappointing. I ordered their buffalo chicken sandwich which had a vinegar-​based sauce that had way too much twang for my tastes.
We also had the Santa Fe eggrolls stuffed with black beans, onions and whatever. (Yeah, that’s all I remember) It was definitely a takeoff from the outstanding Avocado Egg Rolls from Cheesecake Factory but fell short. But they were okay.
My review is mixed. My lunch was average but my brother enjoyed his very much. I’ll have to give this place another try.
The best part of my lunch was hearing this old guy sitting next to us complain about the three other women at his table. «Let me talk», «I didn’t say that», «please, be quiet», «I don’t care, really».

I had dinner here last night with my Mom and 4 of her friends (so 6 of us, total). My Mom made reservations for 6pm and mentioned to the reservationist that we were going to see a show at the Metropolis next door at 7:30. We were seated right away and it took a few minutes for our server to come over and he asked us if we’d like anything to drink. It was obvious that he was disappointed when we all said we were fine with water. Hey, buddy, I’ve been a server before and I know that no beverages means a lower total which means a lower tip, but come on, don’t let me see you’re disappointment.
A few minutes later he returned to take our order. When it was my turn I asked if the tomato soup was vegetarian. He looked at me confused for a second and then said «uh, well it has a little bit of milk in it so no, it’s not vegetarian». Ok, I’m a vegetarian (pescatarian, technically) not a vegan. I said «ok, that’s fine but it’s not made with chicken stock right?» and he gave me a quick «no no» so I figured I was safe.
We ordered our food around 6:15 and it did not arrive at our table until 5 minutes to 7pm. 40 minutes! Seriously? First off, they knew we were going to the theatre next door, which, yes, it’s a 2 minute walk over but a rushed meal was not what any of us had in mind. And 2^nd, what took 40 minutes? I had a grilled cheese sandwich and the most complicated item ordered was ribs. Which in all fairness, maybe they did take 40 minutes to make those because they were burned to a crisp. We were in such a hurry at that point that my Mom’s friend didn’t want to mention the burnt ribs.
The server checked on us once while eating and seemed to be spread pretty thin. I’m assuming it was a pretty busy night in the restaurant because he was hardly around and our food took so long. When it was time to pay, my Mom’s friend presented the server with a
«gift certificate» so the bill for the 6 of us ended up being $ 40. We of course tipped the server on the original total (not the discounted one) and made our way over to the theatre next door.
Overall, I don’t know if I would give this place another try. Their daily specials ($ 6 martinis on weds nights) seem like a good deal but I know I can get good food and decent service across the street at Peggy Kinnane’s.

Yep, uh huh, yep… I liked it just fine! This was my first visit to The Grand Station in Arlington Heights, and I thought it was okay.
We had reservations for 16, but we did have to wait about 20 minutes for them to prepare our tables. I did not really understand this because we did have reservations. They should have had it set up in advance. At first they had us set up at a loooong booth on the wall. No one thought it was a good idea because everyone on the booth side would have to get up to let someone out to use the facilities.
We asked if we could have the loooong empty table in the middle of the room, and they seemed to have trepidations about it, but did it.
Once we were seated, the waitstaff was friendly and seemed competent. A guy came around with fresh warm bread every so often to offer each person more; I liked that.
I ordered what I thought would be a wonderful meal, but was slightly disappointed. The crab ravioli with creamy lobster sauce. The sauce was pretty spicy, and I’m not a big fan of spicy foods (well, my stomach isn’t a fan). The presentation was great, but that doesn’t account for much with me.
Someone else had the blue cheese burger and said it was great. The person sitting next to me ordered a particular drink and the wrong drink was brought, and then they brought her the wrong order. No one at the table had either the drink they brought, or the meal, so they either placed the wrong order, or brought an order from another table. I know that mistakes happen, but that was quite annoying. I heard other incorrect orders were being brought to the other end of our table.
Maybe it’s because this place is kind of new, or maybe our 16 person party threw them off. But whatever it was, I don’t want to go back with a large party.
I will go back and try something different with a small party.

Just a quick review…
Came here for lunch after Thanksgiving and had a great time and great food. Portions were very generous for the price, and the service at my table was good.

I’m sad to be knocking a couple of stars off my Grand Station review, but it has to be done – especially since I talked it up as a GREAT place to go with the parents.
We went for another Sunday afternoon lunch, but this time were seated on the bar side of the restaurant, which made all the difference (not in a good way). Inexplicably, at about 1 p.m. – the only people in the restaurant were our family, brunching moms with babies, and some old folks – they were BLASTING ‘80s pop (which doesn’t even fit with the restaurant’s speakeasy/​Rat Pack-​y vibe). It felt like the servers/​kitchen staff were just playing their own personal mix and ignoring that there were people there eating – it was that loud, and that incongruous. We were pretty frustrated, and even more so when we left at the end of the meal and realized that the other half of the place (where we’d been seated the last time) was totally quiet!
I don’t know how much say customers can have over which side of the restaurant they sit in, but if the atmosphere on each side is going to be so distinct it – felt like Regina’s on one side and Harry’s on the other– would be nice if a choice were available.
Also, unfortunately, on the same occasion, my sandwich had an «off» day. This is bound to happen if you order the same thing every time you go to a restaurant – you’ll notice when it’s not quite as good as last time. And this time, well, it just wasn’t.
Still three stars because overall the food was good, and I’ve had good experiences here in the past and will certainly be back in the future. But a 2 star reduction from my last review because I came here for two specific reasons: enjoyable-​but-​conversable atmosphere, and my special sandwich – and I was disappointed in both, this time.

Have to rate this highly because bottom line is that the food is excellent, and there is something for everyone. The space formerly served failed restaurants, but the large and varied menu is a winner this time. After navigating street parking (watch the signage), we were seated immediately in compliance with our reservation time and presented with a variety of fresh rolls. Wines by the glass are reasonably priced; pours are healthy.
Friday’s fish fry special with sauces, fries, and slaw was non-​greasy and flavorful. The flat iron steak was tender and plated with luscious mashed potatoes and perfectly cooked asparagus.
As if our entrees were not decadent enough, we splurged on the fudgy chocolate brownie topped with ice cream. This is a great dessert to share for two or three accompanied by mug sized coffee servings. One criticism is that coffee is on the weak side and needs to me hotter.
Service was good declining slightly as it got busier. Dinner for 2 with one drink, one soft drink, one dessert, coffee was about $ 66 before tip.
In summary, while a little pricey, this spot offers very good food including vegetarian selections, daily specials, and a move array of salads, burgers, and sandwiches,

I have been to «The Grand» too many times to count. I LOVE the cocktails that get served up at the bar in the back room… I think they make their own syrups. 2 flat screen TVs on either side of the bar are nice for keeping an eye on the game. Bob is one of my favorite bartenders of all time — he knows everyone that comes in, always has a smile on, and makes a killer cosmo. I think Bob should be the next Mayor of Arlington Heights!
The food is also delicious. The California Black Bean Burger is the best — I mean it, I’ve never had better. I’ve gone to lunch with my family, including picky grandparents, several times and everyone is always pleased with the nice assortment of salads (very fresh) and sandwiches. The Shrimp Po Boy always seems to get good two thumbs up although I don’t personally care for the sauce that comes with it.
The Grand is not the cheapest meal in downtown Arlington Heights (maybe $ 10 – 15 per lunch entrée), but it’s definitely the best. There’s a reason this restaurant is almost always busy… it’s damn good.