Terrace Grill - Shelbyville Michigan

Terrace Grill - review which I had yelped too
http://baypointeinn.com/lakefront-dining/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall – 4.17

The ‘Terrace Grille’ restaurant is part and parcel of the Bay point inn @ Gun Lake, Michigan. It is tucked away in a far corner of Shelbyville, MI. I hit upon this little ‘ambient’ gem when I was searching for a quiet birthday dine avenue with my wife for her birthday. I had found the website, read the Yelp reviews and made up my mind for its shear ambience. The price points are considered ‘Medium-High’ as per my perspective.

Service – 4.5/5

I had reserved a table for two and was welcomed at the reception with a warm smile and no wait. We were ushered to the table which was at the outdoor patio.  The gentleman who took the order was very patient, knowledgeable and did know of the restaurant menu.

He even did pick one of the dishes as we were debating which might be better to go with. Full marks to that service at the front desk and the person who was waiting our table.

We were even served a couple of chocolate dipped strawberries on a white plate with ‘happy birthday’ written on it with chocolate -  as a birthday gift to my wife , this made the day better…

The couple of cons that I can think of was that the waiter didn’t turn to check on for a taste of the wine before serving the whole glass, with the price point I did expect that, but nevertheless the experience was good.

Ambience – 3.5/5

To me ambience not only is restricted to the chairs, tables, silverware and the ecosystem – it also includes how clean your surroundings are to give a whole some dining experience.

The lakeside tables were arranged well along with gas flame heaters so as to offset the little chilly breeze at that time. Loved the lake side arrangement but the turn off was that there were artificial little candles set up on the table which took away the natural beauty of things.  They could easily replace it with real candles in the same cage.

The setting was too good to be true on the lake side overlooking the boats on the lake and lot of energetic population walking on the shore of the lake. We watched the sunset during our dinner from the seating in the patio. Worth the dollars.

The big set off in this area was that the table was not cleaned before we were requested to be seated – there were leftovers from the previous guests and the lady made a good attempt to clean it up later. The next big TURN OFF was that the spoon which was totally untidy when brought to the table, had to request a new clean spoon – how can you get that wrong at such a good location??

Food Quality – 4/5

I started with the Argentinian Malbec and the Soup de jour – which was the Cajun Crawfish one for the day.The Malbec was served right and tasted good too. The bread which was served along with an olive oil – herb mix was ok to my taste. Felt the bread was too hard to my liking and the paste was too olive oily – no qualms though.

The soup was flavorful but lacked those little bites of crawfish which you crave for in the soup. It was really done right and of right consistency but the there was no soup spoon.

Being a sea food lover couldn’t resist ordering the Jumbo lump crab cakes – they were made from good crab meat, crusted right and cooked to perfection. This was served with cabbage slaw which was pickled just right for the taste buds along with the crab.

The NY steak with horseradish sauce along with a good portion of Cajun Redskin Potatoes, Zucchini, Yellow Squash and Bloody Mary Butter. The Cajun potatoes were really worth mentioning was really tasty and flavorful. I am not a big fan of yellow squash so passed it around to my wife. We wanted the steak medium well and it was a good portion and rightly cooked and good meat. The horseradish sauce was a little overpowering from my perspective so went easy on it after my first bite.

Hawaiian Ahi tuna was the best among the lot with distinct flavor of the tuna coming out of the cuts and well . The cilantro rice on the seared Ahi was low on cilantro and the accompanying coconut sause and one of the other sauces didn’t meet our expectations.

Then came the restaurant courtesy of strawberries dipped in rich chocolate that we loved – with the happy birthday note on the plate …

Overall a great experience and if I would dine again it is a 3-YES YESYESYES but with a caveat on the cleanliness aspect.  Overall a great restaurant with lovely ambience and some good food.