The Old Grist Mill Tavern

Comically inept staff. Totally overbook Saturday’s and after waiting an hour to be seated and getting a few blank stare/​no answers from the horrible hostesses we left. Only game in town but just keep driving. Not worth the ordeal.

I usually will not write a bad review of a restaurant because I know it is a hard business to operate.
But I felt that this one needed to be written.
We went to this Old Grist Mill with high expectations.
We called on Tuesday to make a reservation for Saturday night.
Reservation set for a 6:15 seating. We arrived at 5:30 to have a drink before we were seated. Well, we didn’t finally get seated until after 7:15. This is totally unacceptable. We were told by the Maitre d’ that they purposely overbook tables. Who does that?
We were standing and talking next to WALK IN guests that arrived 10 minutes before we did and were seated 20 minutes before us. Really???
The hostess apologized all the way to our table about the wait. It didn’t really matter at that point.
By the time our food arrived we weren’t even hungry anymore.
Our high expectations were ruined and we will never recommend the Old Grist Mill to ANYONE… EVER…
Signed,
Ruined Saturday night out!!!

Had an amazing birthday dinner tonight and have to praise the atmosphere, staff and quality of food! Absolutely amazing dinner from the lobster mushroom caps, filet and even the butter mixed with brown sugar and cinnamon I think! Worth the wait!
Wayne Hart

I’ve been to the old grist mill over a dozen times. This place has never disappoint me. Waiters are very polite and attentive, water is always filled up without having to ask. The waiter even folded my girlfriends napkin while she was away.
The food is great from the prime rib to the stuff lobster. Today I ordered the pan seared sea scallops and it was delicious.
I love this place and will always stop in from time to time.

This was my first time going and went because friends wanted to go there. Glancing over the menu beforehand, I knew it wasn’t really going to appeal to me but went with my friends anyways. This place is all meat and potatoes, so if that’s your thing, maybe will like it.
All meals came with free salad bar. To start, several of the dishes by the salad bar were dirty, so make sure you take a clean plate first. You get a choice of two lettuces, baby greens and I think iceberg. All the toppings were standard fare, though based upon the looks, like the cucumbers and onions, it looked like they were cut days before and not fresh. There were a few cold salad options as well like potato salad, but I didn’t try any of these. Dressing options were minimal.
Heading back to the table, they had placed a basket of sliced bread, multi-​grain, white, and cinnamon. Bread was served cold, so forget about spreading the butter on the bread.
All dinners are served with a starch and a veggie. There was no options for vegetables, so if you don’t like what the one option is, forget about having a vegetable side. The vegetable side was sliced buttered carrots. For starch, they had mashed, baked, sweet, fries, and rice. I ordered the sweet potato which came with a side of cinnamon butter.
For dinner, ordered the Sea Scallops and they give you the option of broiled or pan grilled. I went with the pan grilled. For the price, they give you quite a few scallops, I would guess around 10 or so. Quantity doesn’t typically go with quality though and sadly that held true here. I have no idea how they were seasoned, but they were floating in some liquid and had pretty much no flavor. I ate about 3 of them, had a couple bites of the sweet potato, and decided to just eat the carrots. Debated just going back for more salad but didn’t.
All the other dishes at the table looked pretty unexciting. Service was mediocre at best.
I think their target demographic is a much older clientele that doesn’t really enjoy creative flavorful food and that prefers massive portions for a reasonable cost. Bottom line, nothing at the table had any flavor and will pass if my friends ask to go there again. You can get much better (and cheaper!) food elsewhere.

This place was top notch!
From the appealing fire places that great you upon entrance… the fantastic service and the mouthwatering prime rib, I can’t give it anything less than 5 stars.
Not to mention the adorable waterfall and rustic appeal
I will be going back and making this my spot

Very good service. Great atmosphere. Decent wine selection. Now for the bad… saw multiple salad bar plates dirty with food stuck on them. Also, noticed something stuck on my side plate. Big turn off but not end of the world. Place was slamming busy to be fair. Prefer dinner rolls to be served warm which was not in this case. Got the ribeye combo with stuffed shrimp. Ribeye’s generally have some fat on them but thought mine had too much and wasn’t a good cut. I’ve just had much better. Stuffed shrimp was excellent though. Wished salad bar offered more dressing choices. Nothing wow-​ing but not bad either.

The atmosphere is fabulous in the area near the fireplace. The big fireplace gets a 5 star rating. The food is a whole other story. To begin, you have to get you salad from a salad bar. I find this to be rather unsavory. Secondly, our appetizer, the calamari, came out over cooked and way too spicy. I’ve had it all over New England, this was by far the worse. To add insult to injury, my entrée (chicken) came out undercooked. The side was a vegetable medley (over cooked watered down carrots, broccoli and cauliflower) which were previously frozen-​yuk! The fries next to it absorbed all the liquid from the over cooked vegetables making them inedible. Overall, it was a bad meal which I regret. Save your money, go to the frozen food aisle at the grocery store, you’ll get the same quality there.
And, make sure you don’t go during a Pats game because the entire staff was glued to the TV and not serving the customers!

Back before the fire, the Grist Mill was a 5 star restaurant to me, no questions asked. But since they rebuilt everything, it hasn’t been the same.
My fiancé is a fan of this place, so I will take him here for his birthday dinner. This year was no exception! Unlike prior experiences, we did not wait a long time to be seated (the year before we had waited close to 45 minutes WITH a reservation).
We both had a glass of wine, and I tried the Mocha Mint Martini off their winter drink menu (which was very good).
My major complaint with the Grist Mill is the salad bar. It used to be the BEST salad bar I had ever been to. Now it’s average– not bad, but pretty much the same as you’ll get at Ruby Tuesday’s.
Food wise, my fiancé got the broiled seafood platter and loved it. I got the filet mignon. My steak is almost never cooked correctly, and when I explained I like it medium rare but more on the rare side she said to just go with rare, and I am glad I did. Medium rare would have been way over cooked for me (and way over cooked for how «medium rare» is described). My steak was good, mashed potatoes were fine. The mixed vegetables, on the other hand, were a big disappointment. It was mainly carrots with some lima beans and broccoli that looked like it came out of a bag from the freezer. I took one bite and that was enough.
Our service was good, and we didn’t have to wait long for anything. Plus they were very accommodating– I had to change our reservation time due to my work schedule, and they were happy to switch it around with no problems.
Overall, I will probably continue to visit the Grist Mill once a year, but likely not more than that. I can get similar quality at a lower price elsewhere.
The nostalgia factor is there for me, and because of that I’d have to have a pretty bad experience to not round up to 4 stars, although in all honesty 3.5 is a more realistic rating.

This was our first time back after The Old Grist Mill Tavern was rebuilt. It had previously been my husband’s favorite restaurant, so we decided to go to celebrate his birthday. It’s unlikely that we will ever go back. It’s way overpriced for low quality service, and food that is just OK. I made a reservation over a week in advance and asked for a seat that overlooks the water but was told that they would take note of that, but couldn’t guarantee it. When we arrived there were 2 tables open over looking the water but they were only able to seat us nearby.
The service was ridiculously slow, and although our waitress apologized-​she did nothing about it. She told us there was a party of 20 and that’s why everything was taking longer, a poor excuse for her to hardly come by our table, and for our food to take well over 45 minutes to come out.
I got shrimp scampi, which was okay, but I could have probably had the same thing at Olive Garden for less than the $ 20 I paid. Our waitress did not tell us about specials until I asked and she seemed unsure. My husband order some type of surf and turf plate and asked for his steak to be cooked medium but it came out rare. Because we waited so long for it to come out in the first place, he didn’t want to send it back. The salad bar was okay but some of the lettuce was brown and didn’t look to great. Also they don’t serve you a basket of bread at your table, our waitress told us to get it ourselves –it was near the salad bar sitting under heat lamps. The bread only came in cinnamon raisin, white, and wheat slices and was extremely stale. I missed the nice rolls they use to serve way back when.
Someone I assume was the manager came to our table a few times to ask how things were. I told him the food wasn’t great. He also asked if we were celebrating a speiclal occasion, and I told him it was my husband’s birthday. Maybe he just wanted to chat, because he did nothing with any of that information. We couldn’t wait to leave, but even waiting for the check took forever. We skipped dessert as a result.
I’d rather pay just a little bit more, and go somewhere like the Capitol Grille and have excellent service and food, than eat here again. I could’ve just gone to Ruby Tuesday’s and spent a lot less.

So last night for our New Eve tradition, a group of us had decided to try out the «new» Old Grist Mill. I have to say I was very excited after reading the reviews.
The parking lot is huge. As busy as the restaurant was yesterday, we still managed to find parking without a lot of hassle. The building is next to water which makes for really pretty scenery.
The waitress was super sweet and very attentive to our large party and didn’t skip a beat. I was rather impressed. She even cracked some jokes with us!
I choose to start with a Cesar salad verses the salad bar (there were great reviews about the salad bar), but I hadn’t read much on the Cesar, so I thought I should try it. It was very good. Not to much dressing, although, I would have liked some of the sharp shredded cheese that normally goes on a Cesar. For dinner, I tried the Shrimp Scampi. Shrimp was really good and juicy and the linguine was cooked perfect. I feel the flavor of the two together was lacking a little. I was expecting some pizzaz in my mouth, but it feel a little short. Still, for the price (19.99) it was good. The baked stuff shrimp was really good! The stuffing on it was amazing! Dip that bad boy I to some butta… And OMG!
All in all we had a great experience. I had read previous reviews that states service was very slow/​horrible. Well I can say, that for such a busy night, our service was not slow whatsoever. I have no complaints about the experience and plan to head back there to try another dish!
Until next time… Bön Appetite!

Amazing service, food and drinks. Always great menu selection, dinner specials and drinks specials. Would recommend this place to everyone.

My wife and I picked my daughter up from college and drove by TOGMT. My wife lived her childhood in Pawtucket and she asked me to stop here for dinner. It was a family favorite.
Well, it still is. The place is warm and quaint. The food is delicious and plentiful. And, between the hostess, our waiter, the manager who checked on us and the clientele, you can tell this is a family environment.
My wife made a comment that the restaurant looked a little different and the hostess over heard and explained how it had burned down and was rebuilt and share more about the history.
This place is great… period.

I love coming here. The food and service are always amazing. You can get lobster and other seafood for a very fair price. There’s a bar area if you just want to relax and watch the game or a more private experience on the dining side. Their New England clam chowder is always delicious and they have comfortable seating while you wait. Never gets rowdy and always well lit. Salad bar has a nice variety as well. I would definitely recommend going.

It was my favorite restaurant before the fire… and continue being my favorite restaurant. Staff is nice… food is outstanding, excellent calamari… I wish they have the triple lobster ravioli again… thats the only thing missing from back in the days…

I had not been back since the rebuild and I like the new set up. We went for my grandmothers birthday so it was a big party, 13 of us! Our serve Ryan, did an awesome job. We have some picky people in the group so to keep us all happy says a lot. Thanks!
I love all the options the salad bar has, one of my fav things about this place. I love that I can make my own with all the goodies I want, cheeses, croutons, olives, dried fruit, sun flower seeds… yum. We tried a few different apps like the clams casino, calamari, and stuffed mushrooms, classic and perfect.
I of course had to have the filet and lobster sautéed in buttah. Goodness me… friggin awesome. I got my own lil crock of melty butter full of big ol’ chunks of lobster. I wish they just gave me two of those crocks, nevermind the filet, which was cooked to perfection. I asked for a side of demi which I poured all over everything… potatoes, veggies, filet… sure, yes please. We brought our own homemade birthday cake for her which they nicely cut up and served for us. After we all sang and embarrassed her we drank coffee and took pictures. It was a great dinner than went really smoothly with no issues, no slow wait times and no messed up dinners. I would highly recommend The Old Grist Mill Tavern to anyone.

I was pleasantly surprised with the new rendition of the Gris Mill. First as you pull into parking lot which is massive so plenty of parking, you see how the mill was designed the same way down to the tee from the outside (the previous one had burned down from a truck hitting it, they built a new an improved restaurant just opened I would say this year). It’s a beautiful building with a little water pond on the back side of it. Very quaint, great for photo taking.
Now the inside has changed a little but the same warm atmosphere, classic dinning and yummy salad bar is the same! I wouldn’t say it’s all causal like tshirt/​jeans, a nice collared shirt restaurant for sure, I mean you are getting excellent service and fine dining :). The prices are average (spent about $ 100 with drinks/​tip) for lobster sauté which was seriously like butter heaven and the stuffed shrimp was light but still so filing with a gracious amount of stuffing. I almost didn’t have dessert. Who am I kidding I did. I can’t remember the name but it looked like a molten lava cake. Yum yum! I was in fish heaven on Friday night lol. Also with each dish you get your choice of two sides and you must try their salad bar. Always fresh and tended too like every 10min!
But the best part was the waitstaff. We had Jason. He explained every meal, and made the experience which for me was my birthday and a romantic dinner like something out of a movie. I will be back again!

The things I am going to mention are «me» things. This review is based solely on my opinions and are not the opinions of Unilocal and Unilocal related websites. I don’t want all these haters emailing me. You know who you are. You write one review and that gives you the right to ruin my day with your hatred? No. Anyways:
Ambience: I both hated the hell out of it and loved it all at the same time. Country looking, there were some cool ideas, that they used for the decorating. But then there were two things: the deer antlers and the fake fireplace. I am just not a fan of fake fireplaces in general, but when you have this really nice fireplace, why ruin it with fake wood and gas? I don’t mind seeing wood next to the fireplace at a restaurant. It feels more homey with a wood pile. And as for a vegetarian animal rights activist, deer antlers are just gross, and I don’t want to see them when I am eating. Oh and take care of the cobwebs on the left hand side. It looks like crap. The waterfall next to the restaurant in the main dining room is amazing.
Service: Awesome, awesome awesome. We sat at the bar, and the bartender was very nice, and the guy that was tending to salad bar answered any questions I had. Awesome.
Food: The bun on my mother’s burger was too big she said. Whatever. Let’s talk about the salad bar shall we? Why did I get a bacon bit on my salad that promptly ended up in my mouth? Hmmm? It’s because you put the bacon bits in the way way back of the salad bar. Someone with shakey hands comes along to get bacon, and in the process of moving the bits to their plate drops bacon bits into the sprouts. THAT’S how I got a bacon bit. Small thing to consider is putting the bacon bits up front.
I don’t know if I will be back.

Much like everyone who has ever been there I was so bummed and saddened when the restaurant was demolished by a truck last year. They have rebuilt since then and did a fine job of it. We were greeted and seated warmly and promptly. The inside is homey and warm. Just makes you feel welcome to be there. They had an amazing looking salad bar which looked good but I was in the mood for meat. I had a large juicy well seasoned burger with blue cheese and fries. My father had a chicken Caesar salad and the salad is the reason for no five stars. I think for the price it could have been a little bit bigger. It had two tiny croutons on it and a dash of sprinkled Parmesan cheese. Also was small as in appetizer sized small. That will not keep us from going again especially since I need to partake of the salad bar :)

I was so glad to see the Gristmill back and made plans to dine with friends. It looks gorgeous inside; the owners did a beautiful job redecorating. The staff was extra friendly and happy to see us and our server was very attentive. Now for the food… It was not great. I had the meatloaf and it was so dry I almost wanted to pour my water on it. Even then it was bland; a cardinal sin when eating out. My friend had the chicken and biscuits and again bland with no flavor. It certainly didn’t taste home made– more out of the can.
The desserts were fine but it’s hard to mess up rice pudding. I think if they put more thought into their recipes and the quality of their ingredients they can be a hit. Right now they’re just another Chelo’s or Gregg’s.