The Grill on the Edge

4   Great lunch

Just back from lunch with my colleague where we sat outside and enjoyed great food and excellent service from Emma and her staff. My steak and chips were perfectly cooked as requested and very tasty. The chips are about 1cm in thickness therefore happily weren't the thin tasteless Macdonalds types that you get elsewhere. These were chipped "skin on" and were cooked to perfection and served in a small wire basket. On inspection, there was no excess grease evident at all. The steak was tasty and well cooked....just what I would expect given the price. Thanks again...will be back soon.

1   Consistently Poor Food!!

We decided to try this restaurant again this evening after having previously had some of the worst steaks we have ever eaten. Having read some of the more recent feedback we thought things must have improved - how wrong we were. The staff are certainly more friendly and responsive but to waste money on a man playing the piano instead of paying for a chef who knows how to cook and present food in an appetising way is something that the owner should reconsider. The duck spring roll looked and tasted as though it had come out of a wrapper from Morrisons - the pate was ok but the toasted bread was what made it taste better!! As for the steak and frite - well Trading Standards would have a field day as "frite" in most people's comprehension are fine cut fries not thick, half peeled green and black potatoes oozing in dripping. The steaks were so small and almost had the appearance of processed meat and tasted of just oil - which apparently they used to pan fry it in and as if there wasn't already enough grease on the chips they then poured this all over the steak and fat chips. in fact it was swimming is grease that we enquired whether they had given us a sauce in error. - such a disappointing experience and the manager appeared as uninterested as the food looked. We left without eating it as even the dog at home would not have enjoyed it not to mention the grease would have killed it. I can see why they push the more expensive steaks as obviously to get something that tastes good one has to spend £30 for a steak - even steak at Tesco tastes far superior to their Steak & Frites. Very expensive and totally over-rated for very poor quality food !!

5   Anniv second time around

Long story short we had a meal last Saturday and it was excellent. It was a replanned anniversary meal, and the Grill did us proud.

5   Glad I returned.

I will admit I have had a couple of meals here before which were what I would describe as just ok, I returned for this first time in a while on Sunday and had a excellent meal. The menu has changed slightly but there is still a good choice and the menu seems more focused. I had the pate to start which was excellent and followed it up by the Sunday dinner which was amazing, would definitely plan to return on a Sunday just to have it again. The staff were excellent and there was a great atmosphere. Hopefully return soon!

1   Very Poor Alround

It has been quite a while since we had a restaurant in Alderley that consistently delivers such poor quality steak, dreadful service and poor value for money.

We went three times and on each and every occassion the steak was so tough we had to leave it - on notifying the waiters on each occassion all they could do was smile - not once did they ask during the meal if everything was ok. On the last occassion I subsequently complained to the so-called manager who had no idea that I had raised a complaint with the waiter as he seemed to pre-occupied all night chatting up the pretty girls at the bar. Having advised him that the waiter said we would not be charged for the steak that was too tough to eat he said he could not take it off the bill and we would have to pay for it.

Unless you like poor quality food and service and have a prefernce to pay exorbitant prices for this, I certainly wouldn't recommend it - - VERY DISAPPOINTING!!

4   Great meal

We went for the first time this evening since it had been taken over, we had a really nice meal, well cooked, well served - great service from Barbara who has been mentioned in an earlier review, she really knows how to strike a balance of being chatty but not too friendly.

We will be back and recommend it to friends.

5   Lovely service all round!

I took my mother for a birthday treat. Has she is a fussy eater they really did a good job in pleasing her.the waiting on staff was very helpful in letting us know the specials and prompt with the drinks.The steaks were excellent cooked to how we ask .the overall service got five stars of me and my family will be going again!thank you.

2   Good, bad and the ugly - and overall poor value for money

Visited last Friday with my wife and two friends. Good welcome and good table upstairs (as requested), but a mix of good and bad from then on. Over 10 minutes before being asked if we wanted drinks (though waitress did apologise for the delay) and then had to chase for drinks to be delivered. Menu varied and interesting. Starters were well presented and tasty. Main course fillet steak and sea bass good, but 'posh' surf & turf very disappointing - slab of meat (not fillet and no taste) supporting one prawn and a couple of tiny scallops, and meat lukewarm. Good cheeseboard to follow but request for a platter of fruit to go with it was declined (not even a grape!). Suggested they go to Tesco Express to get some! Waitress was pleasant but had to check if they served camomile tea - she should know. No chocolate/biscuit, or anything, with the tea/coffee. Good wine list. However £50 per head not justified by overall quality of the food nor inconsistent level of service. Can and must do better (we wont be back until significant improvement can be demonstrated).

4   A very pleasant lunch experience

We were tentative about going to the Grill for lunch. Had always had a good experience when it was the London Road but have to say, we were treated to a super lunch. The food was well presented and each dish lived up to expectations. More than that though, customer service was excellent on all fronts; meeting and greeting and our waiter was bright, articulate and very interested and always keen to be of assistance.

1   Very Poor

I have been a big fan of 'Grill on the Alley' in Manchester for a number of years, so I was initially excited about the change from 'London Road'.

I have now been twice in Jan and been very disappointed both times. Poor service and food quality now pervails. I thought 'London Road' was a very credible restaurant and I know Paul Heathcote was very proud of the restaurant. Paul is probably a few thousand pounds richer as we residents in Alderley are poorer for it.

Blackhouse Grill now have two restaurants in the villiage and I am not convinced that is a good thing.

4   Poor service, good food.

I went last week with the wife to take advantage of the 50% offer.

Great food and service by a lovely Polish lady called Barbara let down by other staff members. It seems the place is stafffed by young Alderley boys and girls who are more interested in gossip and "tweaking" their hair than they are in serving customers.

I actually got up and collected my own glass of wine from the bar so as not to disturb the chatting barmen!!

1   Invisible?

I went into the Grill on the Edge for a glass of wine at the bar.

I was there about five minutes while Tweedledum and Tweedledee tried to work out whether the bottles in front of them contained Pinot Noir or Shiraz for a table order. Thier mate was polishing glasses and this customer was totally ignored.

Never mind discounting food - get the staff to recognise a customer when they see one.

3   Improvements with customer service needed

We booked a table here for our 15th wedding anniversary on 20 January. Although the food was very good the customer service needs some tweaking.

We have eaten here 3 times in the last year (when it was still London Road) and wanted to take advantage of the 50% January offer which you receive if you book online.

Firstly we sat down and were given menu's and left to take a look. After some consideration I ordered the lamb for the main course but was then told they didn't have any! The waiter (although apologetic and admitted he should have told us when we sat down) said he would see whether they had enough (apparently they had a large party in and didn't know whether it was all allocated). He then came back to then tell me, they did have some! Great. Secondly, my husband asked for mustard and the waiter offered dijon, french or english, he opted for dijon but then the waiter came back and said they didn't have any! Hmm! Thirdly, we asked a lady waitress for the bill and it didn't arrive. After 15 minutes of waiting we asked our waiter who didn't realise we had asked for it.

For such a new place, which we had eaten at before when it was London Road - they need to think about the customer service matching the quality of the food!

1   Grill on the Edge

Great anticipation,table booked for six,of which two were vegetarians. Here the problem occurred......only ONE item on the menu for vegetarians.

Spoke to the young Manager,completely out of his depth in dealing with a fairly simple request......what can the Chef create and why have you launched a new restaurant with such a disregard for the growing number of vegetarians?

Nothing he could do....head office decision and Chef creating something.....not possible? Needless to say,The Grill on the Edge now off our radar and any vegetarians thinking of eating there, lots of other options locally,with creative Chefs!

5   Love it!

Excellent food and great service too, love the private dining room upstairs. Take the kids and put CBeebies on the TV to keep them busy whilst you enjoy the best steak in the area

5   Didnt take much to beat London Road but....

But beat it it did, with flying colours! Had a fantastic meal on Christmas Eve and was happy to give them very positive feedback at the time. Grill on the Alley is one of my favourites anyway but they have done a good turn around on the place. I was assured that they are going to be doing some refurb to make it less like London Rd with a different menu as it looks exactly the same! The food and service were great. Its not cheap but you get what you pay for. I certainly intend to return again soon...

5   A+

All good, food superb (for the money). Friendly staff. 5 out of 5 and only two very minor niggles for me............Coke was in small bottles, really annoys me how tight this is, just serve 330ml please!! and my pet hate, presenting a bottle of water at the table as if it's a fine wine LOL.

Will be back.

4   London Road reinvented as bluesy Grill

Generally would recommend this restaurant. It had only just opened and so perhaps some staff training still going on, the welcome by the front of house manager and the table service was very good but when we were ready to leave, all the staff had vanished and we were left to forage around in the wardrobe looking for our coats (which we did find eventually!). Even though we'd paid the bill, it still felt as though we were scurrying out without paying!

Unsurprisingly the food is a very similar menu to the 'Grill on the Alley' in Manchester, and very good quality. The starter portions (potted shrimps & crevette cocktail) were very generous indeed with the main courses being slightly less generous - the sea bass definitely needed a side order to go with it but delicious anyway. We didn't have puds but did have liqueur coffees instead and would recommend the latte with grand marnier. An interesting choice of music too, quite loud and bluesy but creates a buzzy atmosphere and livelier vibe than when this place was 'London Road'.