Grand Lux Cafe
“*
Had a nice house Cab (a little tanic) with the Asian Nachos, veggie spring rolls, and jalapeño corn bread is a little skillet.”
“We also got the Sunday Night pasta which was a bolognese made with ground beef, mushrooms and short rib!”
“I ordered the Pot Roast Cheese Fries as my appetizer and the Cafe Beef Wellington as my entrée.”
Grand Lux Cafe
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Accepts Apple Pay: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$ Price range $11-30
8 reviews
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While the food here is pretty solid, especially pasta and sandwiches, the service and clientele was so awful on a recent visit that it will be my last time there. Service began with a waitress who didn't come to our table to take drink orders or at all, for nearly 30 minutes until we asked another employee to find her. I then had to track her down again because my beer order never showed up. When it did, it was the wrong beer. Our friend with us also got attitude for ordering a mix of juices on the menu because the mix itself wasn't on. She was also told twice that refills weren't included, which would be fine information if it weren't for the attitude and huffiness. Later, a patron across the aisle loudly commented that she'd like to be moved because our table was staring at her. This was apparently because a 10-month old baby had looked her way twice. He was probably confused as to her orange fake tanner glow. The food itself was good as it has always been. The pasta was excellent with a huge amount of flavor and the cuban I ordered was on delicious crispy bread with a good balance of meat and sourness from the pickles. This was also the first time I've ever been told we needed to order dessert before food even arrived because apparently one dish took 30 minutes to make, not even one we'd asked about. Forgive me, but that seems like a problem with the menu or approach. Very strange for a restaurant with tons of desserts sitting out at the counter on the way in. When we approached a manger while leaving, he did seem vaguely apologetic, but did nothing to make the experience right and I suspect it wasn't the first complaint. While walking out, I heard another table sending back food because it wasn't the dish they'd ordered. On food alone, Grand Lux is a great option to break up a long day of shopping at the mall, but the service can be truly horrendous.
Grand Lux is one of the better chain restaurants in Bergen County (it's similar to Cheesecake Factory with a better menu and a bit pricier). It's located in the Garden State Plaza mall so you could imagine how packed it gets during the weekend dinner rush. The past few times we came it was around a 25 minute wait for a table for 2.
They have a great drink menu with drink specials M-F. This particular time our waiter told us the bar is so backed up it wouldn't even be beneficial to order drinks. Uhhh ok then. We ended up getting our usual appetizer (buffalo chicken spring rolls) which is a must!
They have tons of pasta and seafood dishes along with your basic sandwiches, burgers, salads, etc. I ended up getting the fish and chips. The coleslaw is great but the fish wasn't anything to rave about & the fries were soggy. My boyfriend got the pastrami burger and loved it. The last time I came I got the catfish with brown rice and it was one of the better meals I've had at Grand Lux.
I used to love this place but it's always so packed and SO LOUD you can barely hear the person you are with. There's so many restaurants in the area- both chain and locally owned restaurants. I doubt I will be back.
The Story: Can you say Triple Date?
Food: I've been here a couple times with different groups of people. Overall I think their food is pretty good. They have an amazing Cobb salad but I didn't order that the most recent visit.
Tahitian Pineapple – This drink is yummy! It's one of those drinks that is so good you don't know until it hits you!
Volcano Shrimp – This is okay. But they literally halved 4 shrimps into 8 pieces. Talk about profit margin!
Chicken Pot Pie – It was yummy and creamy. However, I think I prefer the KFC one…
Price: A little more expensive than your local apple bees and chills. Around Outback steak house. Between 6 people we spent $300 with tip.
Decor: Very nice inside. Only complaint about the decor is how dim it was.
Service: Service wasn't outstanding. The fact that my water was NEVER filled up really annoyed me. (hence the 3 stars)
Parking & Finding the Place: Located next to the AMC at Garden State Plaza…you can't miss it!
Additional Thoughts:
It's Grand Luxe and being from a city where I've been many of times to a well ran and perfectly located it's hard to get excited at other locations in places like this (the mall).
The staff (host) is one thing that I say remains constant at this location as we visit NJ often to visit with inlaws and we tend to come for Happy Hour here as the Blueberry mojito is amazing and perfectly priced at $5 for HH. Now the wait staff in the bar area is what IS NOT CONSTANT. The attitudes vary vastly as I've had amazing help and then I've had HORRIBLE service with a frown.
The food is good, you can get lost in the menu same as their sister restaurant (Cheesecake Factory) which is why we like Happy Hour for less of a menu with fewer choices that are all tasty to say the least.
We Love Grand Luxe so this place will see us again as its the only one near my In Laws. The baked to order Beignets and cookies are AMAZING they take 30minutes so don't forget to order in advance 😉
I've eaten here a few times, just stopped in most recently on a Saturday evening just after the new year. It was about 10:30 pm and there was still a lot of people in the place.
Its just your typical Grand Lux. Very nice decor, the place was clean, the waitress was nice. I usually come here just for the small plates and tapas, i love the fact they have so much to choose from and its good food to snack on when you don't want a big meal.
Ive never been here before, and was happy to try it on a weekday for lunch. The Grand Lux has a similar charm to that of a Cheesecake Factory, but with just a little more polish. We were seated quickly, and greeted by our waiter, Shane, shortly after being seated. He was great, and really appreciated his service.
I ordered the Bento Box with caesar salad, cream of chicken, Parmesan fries, and steak. It was very good, but a bit much for one person unless you are pushing the obesity meter. I would suggest sharing it or if you are really hungry then just hold off on any appetizers.
I would only suggest looking at the steak sauce. It was very sweet ad tangy, and I really prefer a saltier taste with my steak.
I will definitely be back, and looking forward to trying more of the menu.
We love Grand Lux Cafe! I don't know if we come at the right times or if it's always this way, but we always luck out and get the best servers here. Our waitress was a sweetheart and somehow persuaded us to try their peach bellini to start off. She did not disappoint.
As a sister company to Cheesecake factory, the menus are extensive. It doesn't make the decision any easier since there's pages upon pages of selections to choose from. Luckily, I was still somewhat full from a late lunch so I knew to order something off the sandwich section. I opted for the Grand BLT while my friends ordered the lemon chicken piccata (my other go to), miso salmon, and salmon cooked 3 ways. All were plated so nicely and smelled sooo good. Everything on our table had a lot of flavor and we had no problem finishing it all up.
Seeing that they offered some made-to-order sweets, we unanimously decided to order beignets for dessert. After 30 minutes in the oven, the fluffy powdered pieces arrived to our table. Off to the side were three glazes to dip them into. Sooo yummy and a nice treat to top off our early dinner.
Even though we are a 30 minute drive down Rt. 80, we will definitely have to come back sooner than later.
The food was actually a lot better than I thought it would be. Decor felt like a Cheesecake factory knockoff. I did have a few complaints. The service at the bar was fairly inattentive. There were 4 bartenders, 2 of the them were for the service bar. So, there was plenty of staff. I literally stared at one of the bartenders for 5 minutes, and he/she (not trying to get anyone in trouble) never even glanced at me to see if I was okay. And it's not like they were really busy. Also, the service bartender was kind of casually making drinks and loudly tossing shakers into the sink right in front of me. It was unnerving. Even though the food was good, I wouldn't go back. Service is important to me, and I just got the feeling that most of the people that helped me didn't really need their jobs.
Finally, almost forgot, but this was frustrating at the time because I couldn't get anyone's attention: My girlfriend and I had 3 different plates that included ramikens of sauce or dressing. One was ketchup, one was salad dressing, and the last was sour cream. We ran out of condiments on all three. And really, we're not people that drench our food in condiments. Really, I don't see how a 1oz souffle cup of dressing is going to be enough for a platter sized cob salad (mind you, she didn't ask for it on the side. She did however ask for the salad to be chopped, but it wasn't). A 1oz cup of sour cream might be enough for a large quesadilla, if you filled the cup more than half way. Same goes for the ketchup with my french fries.
Restaurant owners take note: it may look like you fancied up your place by not putting a ketchup bottle on the table, and adding a ramiken of ketchup to the plate. I know, you can also cut down on wasted ketchup, and fill out the plate a little better (since apparently you're not offering a pickle with your BLT [which was excellent btw]). But, if the souffle cup of ketchup is too small, or served half empty, and your servers are not on point, then you've reached the point of diminishing returns.
I know. i'm a jerk. I just want a restaurant to run the way it should for once.
So, GLC is 3-stars A-ok if you're okay with unenthusiastic service and good food that is really close, but still not completely dialed in.