Like most restaurants I eat at, I’ve been hearing reports of Winston’s Grille, located at 6401 Falls of Neuse Road. We pass by quite often and my boyfriend often craves the Bananas Foster dessert here. We decided to go the other night and I was looking forward to the experience!
We ordered the Tomato and Goat cheese Bruschetta (I love bruschetta!) as an appetizer and two fountain sodas to start. The bruschetta came out and it looked good but unfortunately it missed the mark a bit. The balsamic dressing was actually a balsamic syrup which was a little too thick. This was not the best bruschetta I’ve ever eaten. Moving on to dinner!
My boyfriend ordered the prime rib and I ordered the baby back bbq ribs. While we waited for our meal, I noticed that while the restaurant has an upscale, classy look to it, many little corners and areas of the dining area have dust and dirt in them. There is also a slight mildew smell in the restaurant which was a little off-putting when mixed in with the smell of the food. We were served a portion of bread or rolls while we waited.
Our server was nice but was really busy with a bigger table next to us. While we were able to get our appetizer, drinks and pre-dinner bread in a fairly timely manner, it could have come a little faster.
Our food came out and we dug in. My baby back ribs were crusty on top which for me is a sign of burnt. I picked off most of the charred fat/skin/meat and didn’t have much left to eat. The bbq sauce wasn’t what I was expecting, it was more like a bbq-like sauce. I didn’t like the cole-slaw and so I munched on my fries which were probably the best part of my meal. Hello $25 french fries.
The prime rib looked good and tasted alright but was a little on the fatty side. We’ve definitely had better prime rib than the one we had here at Winston’s.
Once the plates were cleared it was time to order dessert: the awe-inspiring, amazing, wonderful, must-have Bananas Foster. I’m not a huge fan of bananas anything but I was willing to give it a shot. Out came a huge glump of banana-y deliciousness. I’m not sure what went into it but imagine a sweet puff pastry of sorts with bananas and drizzled in caramel with a lump of vanilla ice cream. Or maybe it was whipped cream. Not sure. Probably both.
Dessert was indeed good. For $8, it better have been good!
In all we spent $75.43 before tip. If the food had been delicious and we’d eaten all of it, it would have been worth it. Unfortunately, Winston’s just seemed to be a whole lot of pretentiousness that left me wanting more: if not for dessert I would have left hungry.
