We Love Granite City Food & Brewery in Rockford, Illinois

Ok, call me a restaurant snob but I don't usually like chain restaurants. They're all so predictable. We tried Granite City Food and Brewery in Rockford, IL one busy day while we were out shopping and I have to say it was a real treat.

While Granite City is similar to many trendy restaurants we were impressed with the quality of the food, the service and the overall friendliness of the staff. I've got to believe that the wait staff is making good money because I have never seen so many happy waiters and waitresses. In fact, the service at Granite City was much better than the service at one of Rockford's well known fine dining restaurants. They have also implemented an interesting circular way of serving that seems to make them very efficient. One of the waiters was explaining that to us. In short you go in one end of the kitchen only and only come out the other. As with most other restaurants it's a team effort in serving. The food can, and probably will, be brought out by someone other than the person who took the order.

We have actually visited Granite City six times in the last month so that we could try a wide variety of their offerings. We would highly recommend the Sunday brunch. The roast beef was rare, tender and absolutely melted in your mouth. The garlic mashed potatoes with brown gravy, excellent. During the week they do not have gravy. If you get the mashed potatoes you top them with butter which is also very good. They have fresh caramel rolls on Sunday which you have to ask your server to bring to you, they are not put out on the buffet. The caramel rolls are served fresh. As with so many things in restaurants these days they were way too big. One caramel roll would have been enough for the three of us. Oh, and I should mention that all of the breakfast items that we tried were stellar as well.

I give Granite City a gold star for their soups. Every one of the soups that we have tried have been above and beyond other restaurant fare. I'm torn between the potato soup and the turkey rice almandine as my favorite. I love that they offer a half of a sandwich and a cup of soup for lunch. That was a perfect amount for lunch for me.