Grand Cru Wine Bar & Bistro

We had a great time with an amazing menu, wine selection, and ambience. Also, the staff was very accommodating to a small child, which we very much appreciated!

Great service, great food and great selection of wine

My husband and I ate at Grand Cru for the first time. We’ll definitely return. The food was outstanding. French onion soup, charcuterie plate, Brussels sprouts salad and crab cakes were on our menu. I had the crab cakes, which had great chunks of crab meat with little filler. We enjoyed our server and found the atmosphere pleasant. My only concern was the high noise level, but that’s pretty common in all eateries these days.

Great food and great service.

The French Onion soup was excellent. However, the risotto and lobster appetizer was not even warm when it was served, requiring it to be returned and redone, thus delaying arrival of our appetizer. The coffee granita with doughnuts was a fabulous dessert.

The bar was filthy. When sitting there we had to look at boxes and other items suited for storage. The bartenders wiped out wine glasses with a dirty rag, they never refreshed the rag. We ordered appetizers the lamb meatballs were excellent. The clams smelled horrible and tasted like they were cooked in old grease. I ordered a bourbon that I know well and I would bet dollars to donuts that what I was served is not what I ordered even though it was in the bottle that I requested. My companion ordered one of the wine flights and only one of the three was drinkable. They have no wine system to keep the wine refreshed. If they have any business at all it’s because of their location.

Great food, attentive, kind and friendly service... what more could one want? The steak frites underscores why it is a perennial classic, and the Grand Cru hamburger is emphatically satisfying. After a few dinners there, and after a delightful lunch, Grand Cru could become a de fault destination.

We like Grand Cru: the food is very tasty and the location is very convenient both to the Metro and our house. The service is good but this visit proved once again, that if you arrive after 8:45 PM, even though hours are listed to 9:30-10, one feels rushed with the service/servers, hoping you don't want dessert or another glass of wine.

Grand Cru would be is a great restaurant in theory but fails to deliver in reality. Ambiance is good, menu looks appealing but food is not well prepared, poor proportions and lacks flavor commiserate with price. I paid $31 for a steak that lacked flavor, small portion and tough. Appetizers were over priced, lacked character, detracted from ambiance and did not taste very good. Service was horrible. The waiter yelled at me, referred to my wife as my Hag and ignored us on our date night... all because I expected drinks to be refilled, the staff to accept follow-on drink orders and meals to be delivered on time. Until management evaluates the purpose of the establishment, the staff will experience roll conflict. Is this a mid to high end fine dinning establishment or a posh wine bar.... they can't be both. Service was really bad. I don't expect much but please don't disrespect my wife and neglect basic service requirements.

Grand Cru has an excellent wine selection. The staff members are very helpful in identifying and selecting a wine.

It was good.

All four of us were delighted with our meals, but the traditional French bistro classic, steak frites, and the US classic hamburger were each quite spectacular. The dessert menu is almost overwhelming - were I dining alone I'd over one of each - but the desserts that we decided up were fantastic (unnecessary, but fantastic). Grand Cru turned out to be precisely the right spot to have dinner and catch up with dear friends.

Main room was noisy but they happily reseated us in a quieter room which was a great relief to us. Food was great and Frank, our server, was attentive and had great recommendations again!

Great wine flights! Duck appetizer was way above expectations!! The duck breast entree was great with the fresh vegetables. And the desert with port was amazing!! Very satisfied!! Highly recommend....

This was a nice last minute meal with a colleague. My only real gripe is the cheese plate - it's pathetic and not up to the level of the rest of the menu. Wine list was terrific.

Great knowledgeable and friendly waiter. Delicious food

We appreciated the low noise level because we were trying to conduct some business. The wait staff was attentive without being overbearing. The food was very good and the Executive Lunch special is a good value.

I have dined at Grand Cru during most of my business trips into Arlington. Its a great location for lunch and a business dinner. Food is very good, service excellent and location perfect.

Great place for a weekday happy hour. Excellent wine selection, good value on HH food choices.

I enjoyed the food but did not enjoy the interaction with the hostess. I didn't feel the hospitality and was bluntly told that the reservation on opentable did not work for whatever reason. It was an offputting first impression.

Love this place. Great outdoor seating. Adorable indoor restaurant. Delicious food. Fantastic house wines. My favorite restaurant in Ballston.

Great onion soup. Tuna tartar very good. Halibut delicious.

Always a good experience, great neighborhood spot. They have a robust wine selection (reasonable priced) and well crafted cocktail program, never disappoint.

What a neighborhood gem. My husband and I recently tried Grand Cru for a rare night out and loved it. The service was fantastic, the place was cozy and not too loud, and the food was incredible. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. We plan to go back.

Service was mediocre; took a long time to get a waiter; he wasn't particularly friendly or helpful. Food was ok, not great. I had mentioned on Open Table that this dinner was a special occasion (which it was--our son had just been given a NASA leadership award), but the waiter/restaurant ignored this fact--why ask if nothing will be offered in recognition. Overall, we didn't receive the value of our dining cost and I only tipped 15%--a rarity for me as I believe good service always deserves at least 20%.

We were a party of three, dining outdoors in the lovely courtyard area next to the restaurant. This is a very nice area to dine in on a nice summer evening. This is an inner courtyard area surrounded by several large buildings, which means than street noise and sidewalk traffic are minimized. Unfortunately, this night we were next to a large, boisterous happy hour group, so the sound level was higher than usual. I have dined at Grand Cru many times over the years, and have found the food to be consistently good. I had the scallops, and my colleagues had the salmon and a hamburger. We were all pleased with the quality and the presentation. I sampled the French fries from my friend’s burger dish and thought they were some of the best I’ve had anywhere. My scallops were perfectly done and the sauce and purée complemented the scallops very well. All of us were happy with our choices. The menu is somewhat limited, but most people will find choices they will be happy with. While we were not there to drink, we each had a glass of one of the featured wines and were happy with these offerings. For wine by the bottle, there is an extensive list of options. Service was relaxed, so we had ample time to chat and enjoy the ambience.

Friendly and professional service, consistently fresh and well delivered food

The service was so slow and took 15 minutes just for someone to take a drink and appetizer order and then another 15 minutes for drinks and appetizer to arrive. Ordered an Aperol Spritz which was Aperol and water- onion soup arrived Luke warm and charcuterie platter arrived with stale bread that wasn’t crostini’s just stale bread. We decided NOT to order mains and continued on to another venue for the remainder of our dinner.

A Friday evening go-to place. Wish they had more outside seating. Inside is a little loud for us. But consistently good food and service

The location is superior, and outside seating is perfect! The food, the waitstaff, and the wine selections = first-class dining. We are so lucky to live very close by so we may frequent Grand Cru often. One of our favorite places!

Excellent food. Service was decent at the bar. Was not that busy on a Friday. It's a tad bit pricey, but worth a try.

Everything we had was delicious except the deviled eggs (truffles do not actually make everything better). The cheese selection was delicious, our salads were delicious and well dressed, and the entrees were outstanding. Cocktails were a delight and the Shiraz I tried was gorgeous and my friend was thrilled by his sparkling wine flight. Lovely night with excellent service and a great atmosphere.

Excellent food quality and variety of choices. Service was prompt and paced for proper digestion.

Joslyn, our server was very attentive and we had a very pleasant dining experience overall. Our entrees and desserts were nicely presented and cooked. Next time, I'd skip the cheese plate - it would be better to have fewer cheeses and larger portions of each and the bread with it was too hard and dry. Not the best presentation.

The wine was excellent. The food was very good. The only downside is the waiter was slight (very slightly) pushy in trying to get us to order. We were talking and taking our time, he seemed a bit impatient, though the indoor section was nearly empty.

My Mom and I had a wonderful time at Grand Cru. My scallops were possibly the best I've had and the halibut was delicious as well. We both had wine flights and enjoyed all the selections. We would definitely go back. Joceyln, our sever, was very professional and attentive.

Slow service from beginning to end. Good food.

Good food, good wine, good atmosphere, rude and confused servers.

This was a great dining experience. Our server, Josyln, was outstanding. The food was both artfully presented and cooked to perfection. The selection of wines will fit any taste and the assistance we received from the staff helped us pick a perfect wine to complement our meal.

Great food, service and wine selection. We ate "light bites style." The beet and timatoe salad is plentiful with lovely citrus surprise. The lamb meatballs were the highlight against some magnificent cheese dishes. Worth a visit to explore the menu and wines! I'll be back.