The Grill at the Ramada

At first the bar seemed nice. Dimly lit, German Hof style decor, decent German beer. After a few minutes it all went to shit. Most of the bar was completely powered down. The pool table section along with an entire lower level which had the juke box had no power at all. Dust covered everything but the bartop. The waitress let us sit at the bar for over 5 mins with empty glasses while she chatted with the (only) 2 other patrons. The kicker is that they closed at 10:15 on a Friday night.  We were going to ask the front desk clerk if this was normal but the lobby full of people drinking their bottles of beer told the story. All were also waiting for cabs to other bars in the area. Other notes, a source told us the authentic German beer they had on tap for 6 bucks a glass was just hoegaarden, they also added tax on it, thought that was odd.  Urinals in men's room also didn't work, they just filled them with ice. Nothing like chilled piss smell. Won't be back here by choice.

After spending the afternoon in Lake George, I decided to stop for dinner at the Grill at the Ramada Inn, which is located off Exit 19 of the Northway (I-87). I stayed at this hotel eons ago (in the late 1980s) when it was the Sheraton. There were many vehicles in the parking lot out in front of the restaurant/hotel as I might expect for a Saturday night.

However, upon entering, the dimly lit restaurant and lounge was very noisy and crowded on one side of the open dining room since there was a 40th high school reunion in progress complete with DJ and music. I did see plenty of "old faces" here. I had second thoughts of going somewhere else to eat, but I decided to stay here and I was promptly seated in the upper portion of the noisy dining room, where there were already a few patrons having their dinners. The noise from the reunion party is not factored into this review.

As for the food offerings, they specialize German cuisine, as well pub fare and a good variety of other dishes including steaks, seafood, poultry, salads, sandwiches, pasta dishes, and more. The prices are moderate here, most dinner entrees $10.95-$19.95, which includes soup & salad bar (when available). A kids menu is also offered (kids eat free Mon-Thurs with adult entree purchase) and a full bar as well. See the menu at <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.grillattheramada.com%2Fmenus%2F8-the-grill-menu&s=d8f8a84cb8d176d353775a85dc162236acdf4733e87bbecae8bb1d0211f0f3ab" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.grillattheram…</a>

I had an Entertainment card, which is accepted here (buy one entree get one free, up to $16). I decided to order two entrees with the intention of boxing up much of the food after dinner. The soup and salad bar was a decent spread with lettuce, greens, garnishes, dressings, pasta salad, potato salad, cottage cheese, broccoli & cheddar soup and warm bread on a board (slice your own). The food at the salad bar was pretty good and the soup was definitely homemade, which had fresh broccoli in the soup and not too rich.

The food portions for each dinner was generous. The Sauerbraten ($16.50) served with spaetzle & red cabbage was tender, slightly chewy slices of roast beef marinated in red wine & vinegar with sweet & sour gravy. The taste was alright and not the sweet and very tender soft sauerbraten I've enjoyed at another German restaurant in Canada. The Spaetzle were the spaghetti type egg noodles and not the traditional small sour dough dumplings. The side of red cabbage was zesty.

The Chicken Marsala ($15.95) served with spaetzle (rice was the other choice) was a big plate with grilled boneless chicken breasts cooked with marsala wine and topped with a light brown mushroom gravy. The chicken breast cutlets were tender and chewy inside and the mushroom gravy was lacking. The spaetzle was a good choice with this dish, as it was like eating thick spaghetti noodles.

The service was acceptable, as the food arrived to my table in under 20 minutes and I was given refills on the house ice water. The waitress packed up the remaining food at my table. I displayed my Entertainment card and it was not punched and I could use it again here.

However, when I received the dinner check, the total seemed higher than I thought it should be, even with the Entertainment discount. I asked the waitress about the total and was told that the 2 dinner entrees were first totaled with meals tax and then ADDED an 18 PERCENT GRATUITY (not spelled out on the check) on top of the taxed total, then subtracted $15.95 off the grand total, surprise, surprise surprise!!! This practice is expected for larger parties (6 or more), but not for a solo diner. Apparantly, restaurants may impose an 18 percent gratuity for Entertainment card holders with discretion. This is my first time ever using an Entertainment card when a gratuity was imposed on a check, but not the first time it's happened, very, very rare. The other restaurants I've been to using an Entertainment card, have not imposed an added gratuity expecting common sense when tipping. Queensbury, NY is not Burlington, VT!!

My standard protocol (if the service is acceptable or better) is to give a minimum 20 percent or greater gratuity based on the prediscounted higher total before tax (just being fair to the servers in DE & OR-no meals tax), which would've been higher than the imposed gratuity. If an 18 percent tip was imposed on the check and the service was only acceptable, then that's all they're getting and that's that! No tact.