George Martin's Grillfire

When I visit my mother and step father in Long Beach, NY, we often go to George Martin’s Grillfire and I have always very much enjoyed it. I actually request it when I'm visiting because they give you freshly baked hot pretzels at the beginning of the meal! When I learned that a Grillfire was opening near Arundel Mills, I of course knew I’d have to check it out (alas, I learned that there are no pretzels with dinner service here).

I meet some of my non city friends for lunch ~once a month and we decided on this venue. It’s located not far from the Arundel Mills Mall in The Hotel at Arundel Preserves. Going there I was a little annoyed because the exit was closed, but the detour was quick. However, since I started off a little irritated, I was less than forgiving when there was no parking out front! Until I realized there was a free garage connected to the hotel. My bad. So parking was great and it’s really easy to get to from the Arundel Mills exit from 295!

I had placed a reservation since it was 3 adults, 2 kids a little over one, and 2 preschoolers. Sometimes I find the restaurants I reserve through opentable.com don’t read the comments when I ask for high chairs, but this one did. We had a great table with two high chairs already set up next to each other (so Mr. B could sit next to his date, Miss A). I always love bench seats for kids because I feel they need the sprawling room, so L and her friend G got to sit next to each other on that side.They gave us some crayons for the kids, but no special activities or pictures on the kids' menu.

 Their kids menu  had the standard fare as well as things like kids’ salads and steaks listed, which I thought was nice and allowed for kids to eat like adults. The kids’ entrees were a little pricey, I thought, with the kids’ chicken tenders and fries coming in at $7, but not so egregious that I refused to pay it. The waitress was competent and pretty speedy, so we got the kids’ meals not long after we placed the order. I told L that if she split her meal with B I would get her one of the $3 kids’ desserts so that’s what we did. She opted for the aforementioned chicken tenders and I was so distracted getting them fed that I didn’t take a picture until midway through their meal! Oops. Here is what some of it looked like. 

I opted for the chopped tomato and bleu cheese salad with a bowl of the French Onion Soup and thought that was a little high but not enough to make me balk at $10. I’ve had the salad in NY and I was not disappointed with it here. Overdressed for those who don’t like a lot of dressing, but the perfect amount for a standard chopped salad I think. Very tasty and filling and I will get it again. The accompanying soup was pretty much what you’d get anywhere else. It fits the standard formula but it isn’t special. Again, half my salad was gone before I remembered the pic.

Since I promised the girl dessert, I ordered her the $3 ice cream sundae and it came topped with some fresh berries, which I very much appreciated. The adult desserts seem run around $9 (I didn’t see a menu, just asked on the price) so I passed on that. I instead ordered B a $3 brownie ala mode and split it with him. I was pretty disappointed that he wanted to eat as much of it as he did. Oh well, better for my waist line. He enjoyed it so much that he actually kept picking up his plate to lick it. They do offer a s'mores dessert over an open flame, but with the crowd I was keeping that seemed a little too dangerous. The kids’ dessert portions were nicely sized– the way they should be without being so big and delicious that you keep eating it well after you’re full and you end up sick.  

Traditionally at dinner service, the check arrives with fresh spun cotton candy. One of the servers who kept oohing and ahhing at the babies came by with a cone for each kid, which they very much enjoyed. Well, L and her friend did, the babies not so much. Be refused to try it and Miss A seemed to think it was a hairbrush and kept trying to brush her hair (and B’s) with it. Overall, sticky, but adorable! And now my kids are so very high on sugar. At least once the cotton candy came out, L chose not to finish her ice cream, so that's a small consolation. 

The bathrooms were clean and had a nice changing table. The wait staff was attentive without being overbearing. The kids were not too loud, but it wasn’t so crowded that I worried too much.  It is definitely geared more toward adults, though I would bring kids here again. However, I would like even more to go with my husband and stay in the beautiful hotel afterwards!

Kid Friendliness:  4/5

Service: 4/5

Prices: 3/5

Taste: 4/5