Dee-Lite Bar & Grill

User Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

I thought the food was just bad. Who grills the inside of a burger bun as if it was the outside of a grilled cheese? You could probably get fast food that tastes better and costs less. I wish I'd picked somewhere else to eat out while visiting Grand Haven.

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User Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

First of all, I think it is important to delineate between Dee-Lite Bar & Grill and The Grand, which are technically two different restaurants. Dee-Lite serves breakfast (outstanding, by the way), lunch and dinner. The food is generally good, but I have found the dinner menu is the weakest of their offerings. The Grand is a more upscale, dinner-only restaurant opening most of the year at 5:00 pm, and I will focus my review on this restaurant, as I have eaten there extensively. If pressed though, both restaurants will allow you to order off of each other's menu.

Both Dee-lite and The Grand have very nice outdoor sidewalk tables in appropriate weather. You can move indoors between restaurants through a common bar, called the Theatre Bar. The Theatre Bar is a very nice, classy little bar with live music on the weekends. Good drinks, good service, good ambiance.

The Grand is a restaurant that I have had a love-hate relationship with over the past three years. The interior is very cool--small, intimate, dark and interesting. The theme of of the restaurant is old cinema (as this used to be a tiny theater), with movie posters hanging on the walls and a small stage that hosts live music (some very talented solo acts) on the weekends. The bar area has a wonderful ambiance, with a 12+ foot salt-water fish tank and bartenders and sushi chefs all headquartered behind the bar. In the summer especially, it makes for an exciting and cultured atmosphere.

The drinks are excellent, with an obscure but tasty selection of draft beers and a decent wine list. Most impressive is their creative and delicious list of martinis and champagne cocktails, all named after blues musicians. My personal favourite is the "John Lee Hooker", a gin martini with muddled cucumber that is a near perfect stiff summer drink.

The food lately has been a bit too hit or miss for my liking. My wife and I ate there once a week for several months in 2005-2006, and had amazing meals every week. After dining extensively at the finest establishments in Chicago and Las Vegas, we still had some of our best meals at The Grand. Towards the summer of 2006 or so, we started getting food that tasted less fresh or dishes that were the same on the menu, but obviously prepared by a different (and frankly, lesser) kitchen staff. This was upsetting to us.

In the last few months, we have only been to the Grand a few times. It has been good some times and bad other times. The only advice I can offer is this: Let them know how you felt about your meal. Talk to a manager. This is a restaurant with a lot of potential, and I really sense they know the difference between great dining and crap dining. They simply need to be held accountable for consistency, which is at this point, their greatest flaw.

The service is generally admirable, except for in the summer when they are really busy. I have been told that the wait time would be 25 minutes and then waited for a 75 minutes, only to be offered a table at Dee-Lite. But if you can get there at a time when they are not typically understaffed (before 6:30 pm), the servers are exceptionally friendly, prompt and helpful.

In all, the Grand is probably the best that Grand Haven has to offer. It is just sad that in a fairly small town, the best we have to offer can be either really exceptional or at times, very meh. But please talk to the manager about your experience. I have every indication that this restaurant looks to be a long-timer in Grand Haven. It can't do that without support of our summer community as well as our year-round community. They appear to want to be an elite restaurant. Make them understand how to live up to that.

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User Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I love The Grand restuarant. The seafood pasta is my favorite with the chopped salad as a close second. Don't miss the "Martini and a Manicure in The Theatre Bar on Tuesdays. The nail techs are so sweet and give a great no frills manicure.

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