Gavins Gill and Grill - New Philadelphia, OH

The hurricane has kept me inside for the most part this week. It has been very wet and cold outside. Our office's heater was not working until late today as well so staying in my nice, warm, dry hotel room was my last two afternoons.

Tonight I ate at Gavins Gill and Grill in New Philly. It is located in the middle of down town right across from the courthouse. Just look for the building with Gavins in Jokerman font on the sign, its hard to miss. Yes they used Jokerman...  When I walked in I was immediately skeptical of my expectations of this restaurant. I have noticed that a lot of small restaurants in New Philly appear to be more bar than restaurant.  Gavins was no different; the walls were cluttered with random items, mostly witty novelty and beer signs. Gavins atmosphere was very low energy despite the loud classic rock and 90's pop mix that was blasting uncomfortably in the background.

The service was incredibly slow and impersonal which was very surprising for the few amount of patrons inside. I waited at least eight minutes to get any attention. I asked for a few minutes on my drink and ended up waiting another five for a glass of water. The food was slow coming out and I waited at least 10 minuets after finishing my meal to get the bill when the waiter walked by several times right after I was done.

On the food:
I may have set myself up for disaster on this one. The menu at Gavins was not very creative. Most of the items are sandwiches and quick foods, and the dinner menu is very limited. I ended up deciding on the Lemon Pepper Cod.

Lemon Pepper Cod

The cod was very fresh, not fishy at all, although overcooked and not well trimmed. It was well seasoned where thin, but fell a little bland on the thicker end. The portions were fairly unbalanced. The cod was small, and there was quite a bit of broccoli. Speaking of the broccoli it was overcooked and the only seasoning was a gratuitous douse of garlic powder. The rice was good, but I would argue that it came from a packet. The meal ended up being $19.40 which I think is very overpriced, granted $4.25 went to a single bottle of beer, which is way overpriced as well.

I did really want to like Gavins and plan on going back for something different. Probably a sandwich for lunch.

I am going to start a grading system for all of the restaurants. This will be the first one, but I plan on going back to the previous entries and doing the same.

Food Quality: 5.5 / 10  -  Food wasn't too bad but could have been better.
Portion Size: 6 / 10  -  Portions were unbalanced and protein was very small.
Service: 4/10  -  Server was nice, but quite slow.
Environment: 6 / 10  -  Dated
Cost: 3 / 10  -  Slightly overpriced for the item ordered and way overpriced considering quality
Overall Expectations: 7 / 10
Calculated Overall Experience: 5 / 10
Opinionated Overall Experience: 5 / 10