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The Cayman Islands Restaurant & Dining Reviews
The Grand Old House 09/30/2003
Reviewers Rating:  Fair
My final review is of The Grand Old House, past Georgetown and by Smith's Cove. I leave this review at the risk of making several people angry as I know this is a landmark restaurant in the area, but we did not find The Grand Old House all that "grand".
We arrived and there was no one there to greet us. We stood around for several minutes and then a waiter with his hands full of wine glasses and a bottle spotted us and came over. He asked if we wanted to sit "outside" to which we said no because we didn't want to be hot (having dressed up a bit for this place), so he seated us on the screened in porch. I should have said right then that I thought they had AC seating, but the porch had fans so I just assumed this is what they meant. It wasn't until another couple arrived and requested seating in the air conditioned INSIDE that I realized we could have been sitting in a cool, not humid room the whole time! I was most annoyed while sweating my way through a very expensive dinner I could not enjoy.
When we were seated, he offered to take a drink order and I wanted just plain water while my husband requested their beer list. I don't drink with dinner and we are not wine drinkers. I can only assume this either offended him, or he saw no real tip potential in us because he then disappeared and no one came back to us for quite a long time after that. Meantime, the waiter was happily filling wine glasses for another table and couldn't run fast enough to get to their table to help them out...that was my impression anyway, but maybe it was just because I was so annoyingly HOT!
Anyway, the second waitress was very friendly, helpful and had quite a bit of hussle. We liked her very much. Unfortunately, her service could not make up for the food. I ordered chicken stuffed with lobster and fresh vegetables served over mashed potatoes. The chicken was fine although a bit dry and chewy, but after a few bites, I started to realize that there was supposed to be a stuffing in there. So I opened the whole thing up along the cut and if there was a lobster and vegetable stuffing in there, it was playing hide and seek!! I was very disappointed. My husband ordered a fish plate consisting of tuna, salmon and mahi mahi. The mahi mahi was way overcooked, but the tuna and salmon were quite nice. The problem with both our entrees was that they were smothered in sauces - my chicken had two and the fish had three. The sauces were overpowing and we didn't like any of them, making it impossible to enjoy the meat.
Well, it was my birthday and we hoped to salvage the meal with a good dessert. They have a nice dessert tray (although I had been looking forward to a banana dessert they have on every menu posted around the island and at our hotel, but which they did not have as an offering this night). I ordered a "frozen Grand Marnier souffle", which was an absolute joke. It was like vanilla ice cream with a dash of Grand Marnier served in ramekins. I don't know how they can even consider calling it a "souffle". It was absolutely horrible in taste and texture. My husband ordered the key lime tart, which he claimed to really like and I only thought was okay.
The total came to around US $120 with 2 beers, a goat cheese salad (which I forgot to mention I really liked and my husband thought was just okay), 2 entrees, 2 desserts and gratuity. And the $120 came with the pleasure of sitting in the heat and humidity with about one million mesquitos. Overall, very disappointing and we would not recommend this place. I posted another review for Mezza on SMB which has good food with excellent service and atmosphere. We would go there any day over Grand Old House.
Happy travels!
Cindy
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