Eastside Grill

Used to be pretty good. Sloppy food, sloppy service. Poor quality. Mashed potatoes were grey… yes they were old and salty to hide the fact they were old. They are taking shortcuts and have gone way down in my opinion. Gave them second and third chances but it’s the last. Too many other better places to try. Btw we had the salmon, the tuna, and the gorganzola steak. Yuk all of it. Shrimp coctail was a joke. Served with ice and lemon and very small shrimp. Calamari was chewy and tasteless. Sorry, you have lost a customer.

First there was a zero wait to be seated, always a good feeling, even without a reservation. We sat in a booth which was cozy.
The entrée’s and appetizers were perfect and delicious. Emma our wait person was spectacular, not only was she one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen… she was the best wait person I have ever had the opportunity to be served by.

I finally made it to Eastside Grill after years of not coming because they did not take reservations. Back in the day they took no reservations, at some point they switched to taking reservations except for Saturday night. Well now they take them on Saturday night. Based on this, I booked a table and checked them out. I was very pleased. I would not have been pleased however if I had to wait an hour for a table… with so many other great options in Northampton, and places that take reservations.
Atmosphere was nice. It’s a little crowded and loud, but it’s all good. The building is traditional New England clapboard. It’s in front of a public parking area and there is also plenty of parking in and around Noho so you could walk there (and grab a nightcap somewhere else afterwards). There are a couple of main dining areas. The one upstairs is a tad nicer, but both are good. There is a bar area but it looks pretty cramped and people will be waiting for tables around you.
Cuisine is a pretty cool mix of New England and New Orleans. I have been to New Orleans a ton (I gave Arnaud’sg a nice review recently) and while I do not think they nail the cajun cuisine here — it is a well done and nice influence to mix with the traditional New England. I was there with my daughter and her BF and they had steak and steak and scallops with cajun spices. Their meals were very good. I had a haddock special that was not spectacular, but was perfectly prepared. Salads came with the meal and were good. I ordered a gumbo soup which was very tasty (although my own is better!). Desserts were super good. We had bread pudding, chocolate (!) crème brule (kind of an oxymoron, huh) and a dessert martini. This might have been the best course, although all were very good. Drinks were fairly imaginative and there was a good selection, at decent prices, of wine and beer.
Service was very good and they were super busy. For me this was another very positive point. Prices and value were good. This is not going to be a cheap meal but you get what you pay for — and Eastside delivers. Have I had better, sure. But I certainly enjoyed my meal here and Eastside is a «Do Again» and a «Recommend». I would like to go back and explore the menu. It would take me a while the wrap my appetite around all of it.

I haven’t been to the Eastside Grill in years but my partner got a gift certificate and we decided to see what their lunch was like as we had always been there for supper before. And we liked it.
This time around though the place seemed a little off somehow. Our waitress was very friendly, but couldn’t be bothered to remember who got which dish in a party of only two diners. She was very slow to return or notice when we had paid our bill.
The food was mostly ‘meh’. Both of our meals came with a house salad and it was superb. All the greens were fresh and not a single hint of iceberg lettuce in sight. I guess this restaurant has a thing for gorgonzola because that was what the salad dressing had in it.
Next we moved onto a cup of soup which was their very delicious Louisiana gumbo. Very delicious and with just the right amount of attitude to it.
I had an entrée of herb crusted chicken in a tomato cream sauce with bits of andouille sausage and bacon mixed in. The side on the dish was garlic mashed potatoes with two spears of asparagus. The way the dish was listed in the menu led one to believe that there would be more than a slight essence of andouille sausage in the sauce but the bacon bits outnumbered any hint of sausage. It was all pretty bland and average.
My partner had blackened steak tips with Gorgonzola fondue and the same kind of mashed potatoes I had. He reported that his dish was kind of average but did manage to eat it all. The portion size for both dishes was ample for the money it’s just the taste wasn’t there.
Next we moved onto dessert. I had the Key Lime pie and my partner had a chocolate drizzled, chocolate cheesecake. I’ve had better key lime pie from a diner and there was not a single garnish on the dish. It was very light on the lime taste. Unsatisfying. The look of my partners chocolate cheesecake was very good but it was not very chocolatey even with the sauce on it. And again no garnishing like chocolate shavings or something like that.
Pretty average for a place that puts on airs with cloth napkins and heavy silverware. The atmosphere is nice enough, but the tables are too close together. I don’t know if it’s the acoustics of the building but this is a very noisy restaurant.
This restaurant is OK but there are better places in town.

From the special Eastside Grill lunch menu, actual descriptions:
CRISPY HERBED CHICKEN WITH ANDOUILLE SAUSAGE AND BACON.
Boneless breast pan seared with a crispy herb and bread crumb crust, served over mashed potatoes with andouille sausage, smoked bacon, tomatoes and a touch of cream. $ 11. (lunch)
TENDERLOIN TIPS FONDUE
Grilled tenderloin tips with smoked gouda in mashed potato «pot». $ 12 (lunch)
Seasonally, the Eastside Grill is open for lunch around the Holidays. My partner and I stopped for lunch during one of these special days. Special indeed because they do not occur very often throughout the year and tables for lunch at this usually dinner-​only very popular Northampton establishment fill very fast.
After having the house gumbo and garden salads, we had the two entrees above. The chicken dish was quite bland which surprised us. I expected bigger sausage and bacon solids, actually bite-​size pieces, than the bits that appeared in the tomato cream sauce. That and the herb crusting did nothing to make this appetizing. It was presented well enough but we cannot say much more that would make us endorse this quite bland, undistinguished dish.
The tenderloin tips were reasonably tasty as was the mashed potatoes covered in melted gouda, however the temperature was tepid and one could tell it had been awaiting serving. (The melted cheese was beginning to set and the meat was cooling fast.)
Both entrees were served with two spears of asparagus suggesting the chef was a fan of the Mikado.
We then ordered two desserts: chocolate mousse cheesecake (very nice, lovely crust) and Key lime pie (another nice crust but needed more lime, please!).
This is one of the top eating establishments in Northampton and I must admit I was a little let down from my last visit a couple of years ago; even for lunch, I expected their usual quality. I knew there would be a lunch rush and there was. However, we arrived at 11:40am and did not leave until almost two hours later. Fortunately, I had no pressing engagement, so I was fascinated in how the very pleasant server was able to serve others quicker who arrived after us and who left before we did. It almost seemed there was a kind of selection process that I was ignorant of.
Yes, I would certainly visit Eastside Grill again. But I did not see it at it’s peak this time.

Going to be up front, this place gets a full star for the alligator appetizer alone. Otherwise it was just a bit below average.
So, it was a Saturday night and we had to wait almost an hour to be seated. (no reservations on Saturday) I do give them credit for being very honest about the wait when we arrived. It was very busy and loud in the bar/​waiting area, but we were able to grab a drink while we waited. Sadly, we ended up sitting in the same area as the rest of the crowd still waiting for tables. This meant the noise level stayed unpleasantly high. Could possibly have waited longer for a non-​bar area seat, but we were really very hungry by then. The service was pleasant, but slow. Especially at the start waiting for a drink, and then later for us to get the check after saying no to dessert. The blackened alligator was unique, delicious and truly a treat to find in New England, but it didn’t make up for the very mediocre main course. I had the Delmonico steak. Not the best cut and nothing to write home about. Husband had a chicken dish and rated it good, but not particularly special in any way. I might give it a second chance as it seemed very family friendly. I know the rest of it may just have been a bit of bad luck, but there are too many other options in Northampton. I might go back for the alligator alone, but the plan will be to get there early for apps and a drink before heading elsewhere for the rest of our meal.

Our server was really nice, quick, and helped us with the menu.

I’ve been here many times and never left disappointed. The food is solid and the service is very good. I sit at the bar which is cozy– good place to watch a game… The two bartenders, Samantha and Brian are great– really the reason why I keep going back and for the fourth star.
The food highlights are the blackened Scallops served with sauteed spinach, the fried Oyster app, seared Tuna with Asian slaw and Sirloin with candied bacon.
The menu hasn’t changed in the three years that I’ve gone so my wish would be a smaller menu that changes frequently (including Beer), otherwise it’s a great place to hang out.

My wife and I were looking for something ‘a little bit fancy’ to experience our kid free evening. Sometimes we find stuff that’s great, and sometimes we find Eastside Grill.
The good: The menu was pretty extensive and had a lot of stuff with a New Orleans twist, which is always a plus in my book. The drinks were good, I got something with Makers and Sriracha, and the wife got a Mayan Mule (think Moscow Mule minus vodka plus tequila). The sangria was kind of so-​so, I wouldn’t get it again, but the pieces of fruit in it were plentiful. In lieu of dessert we got a couple of boozy coffees, which definitely were great. Overall, the place was pretty nice on the inside (decorated sort of like an old Southern colonial) and had it not been for the bad, I’d say our target of a ‘little bit fancy’ would have been a total success. Oh, and our waiter was pretty good too.
The bad: Everything we ate was «eh». For an appetizer we got blackened alligator with some kind of deep fried cheese thing (the high point of the meal) with a side of «cajun sauce», which was really just thousand island dressing. We also got the fried cauliflower, which was exactly that: fried cauliflower. Usually you’d expect something a little bit more fancy than cauliflower tempura, but that’s exactly what it was. Not even peppered.
For dinner, my wife got a fried chicken with pine nut crust with sun dried tomatoes in some kind of cream sauce. She omitted the mushrooms, which they were more than happy to accommodate. I think the mushrooms could have had some added value, but the chicken tasted like absolutely nothing. I think they may have used the same breading from the cauliflower. They could make a killing in Plainville with this kind of stuff! Anyway, the real highlight was the Parmesan asparagus. All the cheese had melted together into some kind of puck in the middle. It was therefore impossible to enjoy your asparagus with parmesan cheese without cutting the puck. I think it was only like 3 pieces of asparagus too for 5 bucks, which makes it even more of an atrocity.
For dinner I got some sesame shrimp with lobster pieces with asparagus and rice. I could write more about this, but it doesn’t deserve more than me saying I would have rather got it at a Chinese restaurant.
Something else worth mentioning: All the other reviews say fish is the way to go… but the guy in the booth behind us complained to the waiter about his blackened swordfish «definitely being something, but not blackened». The waiter was apologetic, and then came to ask us how our stuff was and when we said «good» he said, «are you sure?»… and we told him about the Parmesan puck. Poor guy man. I can’t imagine trying to be a waiter somewhere where you pay 20 bucks a plate for mediocre when people expect better. That would suck, but he handled it well.
In summary– at 25 bucks a plate, you could do better. A lot better. The menu items all seemed like they had a lot to offer, but there was just something missing… something to make it stand out from the realm of *gasp* chain restaurant food. If it were me reading this on a Friday night, I’d say go get a drink at the tunnel bar and make your reservations for somewhere else… or you could stop here and have your drinks and then go elsewhere… or order some takeout and go blow a hundred bucks on liquor (maybe some 4-​Loko??) and have a party for similar food quality and a lot more booze! If you want to fancy it up, go buy a candle and you’ll still come out spending less!

Classic New England with an Orleans twist! Great Ribeye and Gumbo — BF had excellent Lobster Corn Chowder

Waitresses have a fairly basic job to do, take your order and bring it to you. One would think that concept is fairly simple but not for our waitress at the Eastside Grill last night. However, that wasn’t the beginning of the nightmare dining experience. It took almost 40 minutes for our first waitress to bring us waters and well over an hour for orders to be taken. Some time later our third waitress came back to tell us that the kitchen was out of the tuna I had ordered and I needed to pick a different entrée. «K» stated she would be back to take my order. Another hour later, when the meals arrived for the three other people at my table I asked her why she put a salad in front of me since I hadn’t yet ordered anything to eat. She just looked at me with a dumb expression on her face. I reminded her that she forgot to come back and take my order. Since we were entering hour 3, and it was near closing time, there was no longer enough time to make me a meal. My dining companions ate while I watched. Good thing I started that diet two days ago.
We ordered Gorgonzola garlic bread, which was slightly over cooked but tasty. One order is big enough to share with two people. That, and the ice water, were the two best tasting things out of the whole meal. The other appetizer was the calamari which was very bland. It only came with one dipping sauce which was a tasteless marinara. My friend had a shrimp dish over pasta which she had a hard time chocking down. After several bites she gave up. When «K» later asked if she wanted it wrapped to take home, her response was a quick no. Our male guest had steak, which was undercooked, mashed potatoes, just no, and three… count them, three limp pieces of asparagus. The last meal was jambalaya which looked fantastic on the plate. While I didn’t taste it, my 12 yo liked it.

Most consistent quality in town.
Good variety of american and creole food.
Busy also during the week better make a reservation.
Good selection of draft beers.

Enjoyed a wonderful and relaxing dinner with my wife. We both had the Delmonico steak, which were prepared exactly as ordered and very tasy, I had mine with Bernaise sauce and she had the Horseradish sauce, both very good. My Lemon Drop Martini was perfect and came with the shaker for about ¾ of a drink more. The Lemon Honey Vinaigrette was amazing and the Gorganzola Ranch was very good also. Highly recommend this restaurant if you are in Historic Northampton.

Just ok won’t run back
Beer that usually is great Berkshire steel rail was off too

You’d think you’d have to go out of your way to find such an aggressively mediocre establishment in Northampton, but you’d be wrong.
I went with a group of friends– six of us in total– for a friend’s birthday. We had told the hostess it was a party, but she walked us straight past a big round booth in favor of cramming us at a set of pushed-​together tables in the middle of a busy walkway. We had to shout to be heard, and barely had room for ourselves, let alone our coats and bags.
Our waitress was pleasant, if a bit on the brusque side. However, only two of us ordered alcoholic drinks, which obviously disappointed her, and after that the service slowed to a crawl. We waited to place our order, then waited more for our appetizers to arrive. The food was fine– except that when the entrees came out, one of my friends who had ordered a shrimp and mussel pasta dish, got her meal with no mussels. We had to wait (again!) for the waitress to return, so she could ask why her meal was incomplete, only to be told the kitchen was out of mussels. Why they didn’t supplement the meal with extra shrimp (or why the waitress didn’t tell my friend that when she ordered) was a mystery.
Everyone else’s food was the same level of «fine”– not stellar, not terrible. The soups were good, the grits were a bit on the gluey side. They comped my friend’s incomplete meal, but after waiting as long as we had and dealing with that hassle, we weren’t motivated to stick around for dessert.
We’re all 5 college alums who come back to the Valley for good food and good service– things restaurants in Noho, especially, are known for. If that’s what you’re after, give Eastside a miss and check out Hinge or Mama Iguana’s instead.

I went here with a bunch of co-​workers for the first time and we tried a little bit of everything!
The PROS
–service was very prompt, courteous and pleasant
–food was served with good timing so that we could finish each course
–portebello mushroom costini was super good
–cider cocktail was good
–apple/​squash bisque was on point
–parking lot has validation/​reimbursement if you dine there which is $ 5, there is other parking too if you can get a spot
The CONS
–entrees tasted a bit sub par overall
–the lobster/​shrimp asian dish didn’t meld well flavors-​wise
–oysters lacked flavor
–key lime pie was just ok (I’ve had better from the grocery store bakery)
Overall I was a little disappointed in the execution of Eastside Grill. I really wanted it to be awesome all the way around, but the key meal, the entrees did not deliver. The ideas sounded good on the menu, but most in my party, including me would not have ordered the same thing again.
With all the other places to choose from, not too sure I’d return unless it was for cocktails and appetizers which is a bit pointless when on business travel.

Excellent dinner at Eastside Grill! I have visited Northhampton countless times, but somehow have missed an opportunity to eat here. I was warned ahead of time that the place is always packed and does not accept reservations on Saturdays. However, the staff recommended we get there early with a large group. We did and had no problem getting a table immediately.
The drinks… they were very good. I enjoyed an Espresso Martini (with sidecar) and my friend enjoyed a dirty martini (with delicious stuffed olives).
Appetizers… The oysters were delicious. Fresh and huge! My table also got their famous gorgonzola garlic bread. I could not partake, but judging by how quickly it disappeared, I’m thinking it was good!
Soup… The lobster corn chowder was delicious/​amazing!
Entrée… I split the tuna with asian slaw. The tuna was cooked to perfection. Rare and wonderful. I got to the point where I didn’t think I could enjoy another bite, but I could not bear to leave the food behind :)
It was an excellent meal and a wonderful night!
One note to the contrary, a member of our party was overcharged on her credit card. Make sure to check your receipt. This can happen anywhere. As far as I know, the staff handled it fastidiously and apologetically.

Came here for our one nice meal in Northampton and I have to say, I was a bit disappointed. My partner’s steak was tough and our waiter, while eager to be helpful, had to run off to ask a coworker every time we asked him a question. I’ll give him credit for asking, I suppose.
The lobster corn chowder was good — lots of meet. The Italian white wine on special was also good, a huge improvement from the «local» wine we tried only a taste of, thank god. Are you sure that wasn’t fruit punch?
I ordered the duck because I was curious about the ginger blueberry jam, but without the risotto cakes (rolled in flour, I was told) the dish was lacking. I think I expected too much when I read ahead of time they had a gluten free menu. Oh well.

The Eastside Grill, in downtown Northampton, Massachusetts prides itself on being a little New England, and a little New Orleans. The first thing that you should know is that the correct address for this restaurant is 19 Strong Avenue, across from the train tracks. The restaurant is located on the right side of Strong Avenue, next to the municipal parking lot.
From the outside, Eastside looks like a traditional New England gray clapboard house with lots of windows, and white shutters. There’s an outdoor covered patio for al fresco dining in the warmer weather. Inside you’ll find two large dining rooms as well as a bar area where guests may also dine on a separate bar menu.
The Eastside Grill specializes in creative American fare, including grilled steaks, freshly prepared seafood and Cajun /​Creole cuisine. Everything at the Eastside Grill is made fresh daily from the highest quality ingredients including the salad dressings, gumbos, chowders, sauces and desserts. The steaks and chops are fresh Midwestern grain fed beef, which is the highest quality choice beef available. They also serve only fresh, never frozen chicken and fish.
The menu has all sorts of tasty appetizers including freshly-​shucked oysters, New Orleans-​style fried oysters, garlicky mussels, crab cakes, seared tuna, blackened alligator, Cajun-​fried cauliflower, fresh salads, and homemade chowders, soups, and gumbo.
Now the dinner menu is an eclectic blend of steaks, chops, duck, pork, lamb, chicken, seafood, and vegetarian entrées with lots of Cajun /​Creole-​inspired food on the menu. I started my feasting with a cup of their homemade alligator, Andouille, and seafood gumbo. Sorry Darren, but this was THE best gumbo outside of New Orleans!
All of the entrées came with a salad, so I had a small mixed greens salad before diving face-​fist into (I mean, «daintily nibbling upon») a bowl of their New Orleans Barbecue Shrimp which was pan-​seared, head-​on jumbo shrimp in a traditional New Orleans dark roux /​barbecue sauce, served over cheesy grits and baby spinach and accompanied by toasted French bread for sopping up the sauce. Wow!!!
For dessert, my client forced me to try their warm New Orleans-​style bread pudding which was the traditional fresh-​from-​the-​oven sweet, bread custard topped with a bourbon sauce and pecans, raisins and coconut. I couldn’t resist! My week on the road was done, and I deserved to oink all the way back to my hotel. :-)
According to Eastside’s website they have won numerous awards including Best Restaurant and Best Seafood Restaurant in the Pioneer Valley. They’ve taken home awards from Bön Appetit, Gourmet, and the Boston Globe. I really enjoyed my meal, and will gladly come back the next time that I’m in town.

Eastside Grill has its sights set on what amounts to a niche in Northampton: generic American food in a plain family restaurant. They can’t all be fancy pants international or locavore places I suppose.
They’ve got a sizable menu here, and I decided to go with the special that day instead — a top sirloin steak with a bacon, brandy and porcini mushroom demi glacé, mashed potatoes, asparagus, as well as a side salad. The intimidating Newcastle Werewolf Red was my choice to wet my whistle.
The bread they served my co-​worker and I was tough and wasn’t cut all the way through, and the butter was cold and just in packets. Not a good start.
My salad was an improvement with its fresh veggies and the Gorgonzola dressing was tangy and had a hint of earthiness from the olive oil. MY bread induced anger was starting to subside.
The steak continued the improvement from the bread. Cooked to a perfect medium rare and the demi glacé was fantastic — balanced with the sweet and hearty, with peppery notes for a bit of pop, its smooth consistency clung to the meat and potatoes like a delicious brown passenger. The potatoes were smooth and buttery with a hint of garlic and some skins mixed in as well. All in all, a solid steak dinner.
The Newcastle definitely had a badass name, but it wasn’t nearly as red as purported but was tasty nonetheless.
I can’t imagine being wowed in a place like Eastside, but it did its job well, providing a decent, inoffensive meal at a reasonable price. Keep shooting for the middle, champ!