The Grill Pit

Great place and good food.
Not too much of ah hug end and fairly priced.

I came here with another travelzoo deal that my bf looooves to get. When we got here, it seemed like pretty much everyone had the travelzoo deal. I’m assuming this because almost everyone had a bottle of the same wine and free bottle of wine was included in the travelzoo.
2.5 stars for service
4 stars for food
2 stars for the price taking into account the service
travelzoo deal:
1 shareable, 2 leafy, 1 flatbread pizza, 2 mains or grills, 2 desserts
Service was really i mean really slow especially since there were only 1 server and another helper. They were really awkward as servers too and made my bf and me kind of uncomfortable. Although they took our dessert order in the beginning, they asked us again after our entrée what we wanted for dessert. when we stated our dessert that we ordered in the beginning, they said that dessert ran out and we’d have to get the other one. If they ran out and there were only two choices for dessert, why did they ask which dessert we want?!
We had a bottle of red Pinot Noir. It was on the sweeter side. I mean super sweet that it almost didn’t taste like a pinot.
The food was delicious but the service so slow. It just took away from the dining experience. In my humble opinion, the overall experience was not worth the price tags on the food. If they hired more servers or improved the smoothness of the restaurant perhaps I would try it again
TIPS:
–NO SIGNS on the restaurant but they are next door and south to Matsuhisa. In fact, they SHARE the parking lot with Matsuhisa. Valet parking is $ 5.50 or if you could find a meter…

I had their Travelzoo deal. Made a reservation for Friday June 14^th on Monday. Showed up for a goodbye dinner for my friend of over 20 years who left the next day. The place was closed. Now, not out of business closed (yet) but just closed for the day. I called and got their answering machine (the same voice I made reservations with) and they said they were «closed» on Friday but would be open for dinner on Saturday. WTH.
Also, it looks like they’re going to try and escape their bad reputation by changing their name to Scratch, so watch out for that.
I’m getting my money back from Travelzoo. We did end up going to Bierbeisl in Beverly Hills instead and had a wonderful time!
I will make every effort to tell people to avoid this place. I should have known it would be trouble from the reviews but I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. Shame on me.

We came here last night with a Bloomspot deal – $ 69 – «5 course meal for two with bottle of wine». I didn’t look at what exactly the deal entailed, as I had seen The Grill Pit had different offers on multiple deal sites. However, I figured this wouldn’t be an issue. Making reservations for our dinner via phone was very easy, and the woman who helped us was very kind.
When we first arrived to the restuarant – well, we didn’t even know we arrived at the restuarant. It’s a cute little brick building with trees – and NO SIGN. Thankfully there were some meters right outside in addition to a valet next door for $ 5.50.
Upon arrival we were greeted warmly and seated immediately. The restaurant is small but nicely decorated. We presented our Bloomspot and the waitress was happy to take it. For our bottle of wine, we were offered a couple of red or whites, and went for the chardonnay. The wine was delivered and poured immediately, which was great. We asked the waitress exactly what the deal entailed – she hesitated for a minute because apparently all the deal sites had different deals – some had dessert included, some didn’t, etc. In the end she decided we could choose 1 shareable, 2 salad, 2 flatbread, and 2 entrees/​from the grill (no dessert).
We proceeded to look at the menu, make our selections… and wait. We probably waited about 30 minutes and had already started our second glass of wine before she took our order. It seems as though the restuarant has a small staff, and even though there wasn’t many people dining that night, everything still took forever.
So after 10 minutes after taking our order, we were finally served our salads. We got the Mediterranean one which was delicious – it was good, decent, nothing out of the ordinary. We were then served our shareable – a watermelon salad. This was absolutely amazing! To get the best flavors, you have to get a slice of watermelon, a little feta, and a little mint leaf in one bite. It was one of the most unique salads I had ever had! My only problem with it was that we didn’t know we were supposed to eat it with the mint leaves until the end. They sort of had this delicious cool, spicy watermelon on one side, a spoonful of feta plopped in the middle, and a bunch of mint leaves chillin’ whole on the other side. I would think they would make it easier to eat if it was meant to be eaten all together?
Next came delicious carbs… we were served some warm bread (randomly…didn’t come at the beginning of the meal… came in the middle…) and our mushroom flatbread. This was my favorite dish! The bread was crunchy but soft, the mushrooms had a little kick to them and of course there was more feta (I love feta).
After all this food and wine, my friend and I were pretty full and could barely even think about getting our main courses which hadn’t even come out yet. When they finally did, I was surprised at how small they were – I mean, I know I wasn’t expecting more food at the time but for the price we were paying – I was expecting more food. My friend got the salmon and I ordered the tilapia. Both were absolutely yummy. The tilapia came with roasted vegetables two sauces, one creamy and one smoky, I didn’t care for the smoky one though. The fish was also a little too salty for my taste, but I wasn’t sure if that was just me. I also got to choose a side dish for my tilapia – mac and cheese. It wasn’t anything special unfortunately.
Finally…after 3 hours (seriously), we received the bill. We were another $ 43 in taxes and 18% gratituity. It was very frustrating that they added on gratuity but provided disappointing service. We had to flag down the waitress to process our bill because we had made other plans and hadn’t expected dinner to take so long. The two couples next to us were also very disappointed in the service and the meal and were openly discussing it.
Overall, the food was good but not worth the price, and the service and the hassle really knocked off a lot of stars here. If they bought a sign and hired more staff, they could be more successful, but they’re just not there yet.

3 ½ but I’ll round up.
Went last Saturday for the conclusion of my birthday surprises as orchestrated by my girlfriend. She loves a good deal so we had the Bloomspot which gets you a ton of food and a bottle of wine.
We missed the place on our first go-​round. There’s no sign and no valet out front so take that into consideration. Valet next door.
— Their flatbread is great as is their hummus.
— Flatbread pizza with lamb was incredible.
— Salad was crunchy and fresh but nothing to write home about.
— Steak, as others have said, was on the low end of quality. Had I paid the real price of $ 33 I would have been VERY upset.
— GF’s salmon seemed good.
— Chocolate Molten Cake was delicious.
The servers were very attentive and nice although someone else commented on how they didn’t fill the water all the way and I noticed the same. I’ll power through 5 or 6 glasses of water during a long meal, keep me hydrated please!
We were there for 2 ½ hours which I consider a plus. I enjoy a long meal and good conversation and we never felt rushed. The outside balcony area is great but please spend the few hundred dollars to mount your speaker and put up some shrubs to block the view of the garage.
All in all, a good meal but the list prices are way too high. I came to the conclusion that no one here actually pays the list price. EVERYONE in the restaurant had some sort of deal and the Grill Pit (terrible name, btw, no wonder there is no sign) is always running them on various coupon sites. Half way through our bottle of wine I decided this is actually their model. Everyone knows small business never recoup from Groupon-​like sites. People come once and never return. Well, if you build it around always getting Groupon traffic through constant deals, perhaps it does work. Build in the discount and the coupon site’s cut and suddenly their prices make sense.
Or maybe that’s just me being a marketer and giving people the benefit of the doubt.
Conclusion? Make sure you bring a Groupon /​Living Social /​Bloomspot.

We came on a Travelzoo deal. For $ 69, it was 1 appetizer, 1 flatbread, 2 salads, 2 entrees, 2 desserts, 1 bottle of wine. It sounds like a lot of food, but the portions are really small. On a Saturday night, we were seated right away and through out the evening, the dining area never got more than 40% capacity. You would think the service would be pretty fast, but it was not. Service was actually painfully slow with the 2 waitresses that they had.
Our table had two vouchers, so we had two bottles of wine — Trinity Oaks pinot and Blackstone cab. I liked the cab. For the appetizer, we got the shrimp. There are two shrimp on the plate — works out to be 1/​person. It was tasty but nothing mind-​blowing. We had both the lamb and mushroom flatbreads. I think the flatbreads might have been the best thing that night. They came out hot and fresh with good flavors.
Our salads were pretty boring and completely not worth the retail value on the menu. It was about a cereal bowl size worth of greens. The restaurant was out of the new york strip. Okkkaaaaay… it’s early Saturday night — how can you be out already? I ended up getting the other steak option on the menu which came out to be more of a stir fry presentation than a whole slice of steak. The mac n cheese side was alright — just alright.
Dessert — they did not have the brownie option on the menu, instead they had a chocolate mousse cake and a vanilla cheesecake. We got one of each. It definitely tasted like they bought it from some factory somewhere, took it out of the box, and put it on a plate.
When the bill came, it was $ 43 for tax and tip. So our entire meal was $ 120 for 2 people. What da heck just happened? Seriously, for the price versus quality factor, this has got to be one of the worst rip-​offs in my dining experience. For having such a prestigious location on Restaurant Row, Grill Pit is a massive disappointment. I won’t come here again — I rather stay home and eat whatever I have in my fridge. Whatever it is in my fridge, it’s a better value than Grill Pit.

This place is a real mess and suffers from really poor management. The food was pretty good, but the whole meal was a cluster you-​know-​what. We went on one of the deals which was cool. However, it came with wine and all they had at the time was pinot. I hate pinot. This was on a weekend night too. So I had no choice but to drink pinot. About 20 minutes later the same lady I told about my dislike for pinot runs to the store and buys red wine for the place. Everyone who came after us got to drink cab. I would have waited and been far happier if she had told me that was an option. So who, on a weekend night neglects to check the flippin’ wine stock???
When we went to order they told us they were out of a couple things on the menu. Ok. But my BF ordered a steak and they came back telling us they were out of that too. Awesome.
The poor management didn’t stop there. No. The kitchen was also jacked. We waited forever to even get our salads… um…takes 2 minutes to throw lettuce in a bowl. Then with our salads they brought out flat bread and our appetizer all at once and there was no room on the table. We had to utilize the table next to us. Why not serve it in stages, eh?
We were actually lucky. The people on the other side of us ordered a salad to share and 2 entrees. They waited forever and the guy even told them he could see his salad just sitting there back in the kitchen. They basically ignored him. They had hit a couple of glasses of wine before they got any food and they brought out the entrees to them. Their salad was still sitting there. Same issue… they finally brought out their salad and there was no room for extra plates to eat the salad on. 2 grown men had to fork feed themselves out of the same bowl. Again, awesome.
Then it came to dessert. It took them forever to take our order and forever to bring it.
It is really sad. The place is too expensive to not have someone on top of things! There are far too many brilliant restaurants within 4 seconds of this place that charge the same for the meal and have management that can, I don’t know, manage. I would go again IF they ever got their act together because the food is actually good.

Five course Amazon deal, Includes, sharable (tiger shrimp), salad (ceasar), flatbread pizza (mushroom), main course (talpia), dessert (vanilla cheesecake with ice cream) and a bottle of wine… let’s begin. Well I must say it was well worth it! However beware… tax and gratuity was not included so we got a bill for 44 bucks with 29 bucks being her tip! The place is nice, clean good music and fast service. All courses were good and I would go there again without the deal!

Went last night with my husband for dinner with a Travelzoo promotion.
We were greeted warmly by Marina who brought us to a lovely table by the window. We selected Tiger Shrimp as our appetizer and it was so delicious. For our main course I had Salmon which was served and prepared so delicious and fresh. My husband had the ground turkey balls which he throughly enjoyed. Veena suggested the signature dishes which were fantastic. The highlight of the meal were the desserts, My husband had the chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream and I had the strawberry cheesecake topped with delicious ice cream.
We are definitely looking forward to returning to the Grill Pit with our friends.

This place is terrible. Okay let me restate that. the service is THE WORST I have ever experienced.
It was a Friday night and I couldn’t decide what to eat with a friend. Went on Travelzoo and bought a deal for The Grill Pit. Called them to make a last minute reservation, which they easily made for me for 8:30.
When I got there, the two servers saw my friend and I but ignored us. After 5 minutes of awkwardly standing in the front, we waived down one of the girls and told them we had a reservation. We were sat down and that’s when we were ignored for 10 minutes. The couple on the right were even more attentive. they offered us the rest of their bottle of wine since they couldn’t finish it. By that time though, I was already pissed with the lack of service and politely refused the kind neighbor (although I wanted to just down the bottle).
My friend recommended that she get up and get the server, but I told her that we’re just going to leave. The servers at The Grill Pit didn’t care. they saw us get up and saw us leave. No attempt to salvage any of the damage.
We ended up walking to Matsuhisa. I talked to the GM who quickly sat me down at the sushi bar and I ended up getting omakase and having one of the best dinner experiences. One of the servers from Matsuhisa told us when we were leaving that he’s heard nothing but bad stuff about The Grill Pit. yeah. The Grill Pit sucks
Glad everything ended up working at the end, I mean with dinner at a neighboring restaurant 100 times better.
Careful parking in the $ 5.50 lot, it’s exclusively for Matsuhisa.
Also, the night that we went, they were out of tiger shrimp and their menu has changed so whatever you read online (menu & set-​menu on travelzoo), be careful, its changed and you might not get what you paid for.

When dining in for lunch, the food was decently good, but the portions were quite small for the price. Perhaps it was because we used the Unilocal coupon we had purchased.
For delivery, they seem to have a different menu, that is significantly cheaper, with items you would expect to see on a delivery menu. I’ve been happy w/​the one time we had food delivered to our office. The food was good as far as delivery food goes, and the prices were fair.

After the fiasco of our first time ordering here, the next delivery came with a complimentary order of potato wedges… perhaps an olive branch? Much appreciated =]
We loved what we got this time, just Market Greens salad + Quinoa salad with flatiron steak and the flatiron «flatbread» nantaco (really a sandwich).

I came to the Grill Pit after purchasing the Unilocal deal online. The restaurant is conveniently located on La Cienega and Wilshire where there are plenty of metered parking spots available.
With the $ 100 gift certificate (which I purchased for $ 50) me and my friend got a bottle of wine to split, and a six course tasting menu which consisted of hummus, pizza, a salad with goat cheese, grapes, and pomegranates, a salmon and shrimp dish, a turkey meatball dish, a steak dish, and finally cake and ice cream for desert. This is the night I went from a size 4 to a size 6.
The woman serving us was lovely although she was the only employee I saw all night. She was quick on her feet and super accommodating, however I don’t think she will be that way when this place starts getting busier! I would definitely recommend hiring at least one more person on board because I think word will get out about how tasty this place is.
The deal I bought was definitely a steal and I do plan on coming back… Maybe bring a group for dinner and then hop over to The Phoenix after.

I love this place! I had to write a review because I’ve been several times since my husband and I discovered it a few months back, and we’re going again tonight. The food is delicious – consistently good, flavorful, solid Mediterranean fare. True to the name, meats and seafood are grilled to perfection. The salads are also really yummy. The owner/​chef is extremely nice and makes dining here a pleasant experience.
I highly recommend the Grill Pit for lunch or dinner. It’s unfortunate that this spot isn’t packed – it really deserves to be.

This was the first restaurant that got a ‘wow’ reaction from me in Los Angeles. While there are plenty of good places to eat, very few have a combination of delicious meals, great ambiance, and awesome soundtrack.
We’ve ordered ‘from the grill’ both times and haven’t been dissappointed. The combination of chicken, steak, vegetables, and sauces is perhaps the best I’ve had.
Also, both times we’ve gone the place has been near empty, which is peculiar, because of how amazing the food is. I like the privateness that it’s provided, but I also worry that it won’t last very long if more people don’t come and eat!
We part at the valet just north of the building, which makes it ultra convenient to get to on La Cienega.

I feel bad because I honestly wanted to like this place… but it was really disappointing. Not sure how its received so many good reviews.
Overall, the food was mediocre:
–To start, we ordered the pizza, which the waitress claimed was the famed dish for this place. It was pretty underwhelming, light on the toppings, and tasted like any other (probably frozen) bar-​fare pizza.
–Next, we order the «from the grill» shrimp. The plate cost $ 19 and came with six of the tiniest, most depressing shrimp I’ve ever had. In addition, it came with side of «grilled veggies,» which was mostly comprised of under-​cooked eggplant and onions.
–We also got the mac and cheese, which was depressing. It was a dish of really bland elbow macaroni with some funky cheese topping I WISH was Velveeta.
In addition, despite being extremely nice and gracious, the waitress had no serving etiquette. I think this may have been the first time she’s ever opened a bottle of wine. She was really nice but clearly inexperienced and was left in charge of the whole restaurant.
I will not be coming back here and am really shocked this place is still open considering the location.

I went here for my Birthday Dinner with a party of 12 people and it was amazing. Service was fantastic as well as the food. Loved the ambiance… the lighting, decoration, music etc etc. Definitely can’t wait to come back here again soon!!!
Thank you so much for a great evening.
Maria :)

gf bought the Unilocal deal so dropped by for lunch
honestly, not bad
it’s a fairly new place so it def has a few kinks that need to be worked out
def need more staff members
many of the tables still had dirty dishes when we walked in
no one greeted us at the door so we sat ourselves
food took awhile to come out so maybe not the most ideal quick lunch spot
we ordered
–a shrimp nantaco & a beef burger ball nantaco combo (nantaco + small salad) as they were out of the steak (stock up on more steak! a restaurant should never «run out» of one of their major star players). i really liked the shrimp & gf said hers was okay but on the bland side so she def put the condiments to good use ($ 12 for each combo)
–Mediterranean salad. same as the smaller ones that came with our nantacos. refreshing & crisp but standard
–quinoa salad. literally the same salad as the Mediterranean but with quinoa. the dressing should stand out a little more as it was too watery to add any flavor to the salad.
if they work out the kinks, the grill pit has the potential to be a casual lunch or happy hour spot for people working at cedars or around the area to drop by & check out.

My friend just picked up a flat bread taco today
I threw it in trash when I had a bite.
The food was cold and it took him 45 min to pick up the food.
This is new version of Darius I hope this time works. This is the
Fourth or fifth time Darius changed the name.

This place is THA BOMB!!!
I have to hand it to the owner as he has provided the area with something that was needed. Not only does he provide healthy fresh quality food, but he also does it with great pricing. My office is walking distance and I come here 2 – 4 times per week. His sandwiches are awesome, but my favorite is the large salad with choice of protein. The owners name is Darioush, he is very personable and likable. He is what an owner should be like and makes this restaurant even more attractive to frequent.
We started catering from him as well and he does not disappoint.
For what its worth, I am a major foody… I am as picky as they come and have very high expectations. I have thought about joining Unilocal for quite some time but never motivated enough to do it till now. I hope that shows you how much I like the food and the owner.
GOOD LUCK «THE GRILL PIT»
I dont think it will be long before the word get out and this place is packed all of the time.