Water Grill Reviews

3.1

24% would recommend to a friend

(97 total reviews)

Nitin Kashyap

28% approve of CEO

28% positive business outlook

Water Grill has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 97 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Water Grill employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Restaurants and food service industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

97 reviews
2.0
25 Mar 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good menu and fresh shellfish. One of the best oyster selections around. Great staff, great mid-level kitchen managers who are really kind and responsive. The cooks are among the hardest working I've ever seen.

Cons

Company owned by very conservative (read White Republican) family who are looking only at the bottom line. You will be promised health benefits when you apply only to find they are only available if you work 37 Hours per week average for one year. You will never be given the requisite number of hours as a cook to get coverage. The cooks who have been there 27 years are without health insurance! Shame on you Mr. King. When you apply, please be aware that the company will immediately notify Equifax (one of the 3 major credit bureaus) that you are working there. Equifax will immediately notify your creditors who will then be able to litigate or garnish your wages. Be very careful about applying here if you owe money on your student loans! The Water Grill will facilitate a 15% wage garnishment from your student loan creditor after a few months of service and then will tell you that it is your own fault, etc. Senior management will not lift a finger to assist you. Middle management is constrained by senior management.

2.0
19 Jan 2019

DTLA

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good tips, decent food, Dine la

Cons

Management: they can be very rude and condescending. One manager in particular has put her finger in multiple crewmembers faces almost in a sense of provocking them. The management team is pure chaos - they do not get a long and because of that it drags into the crewmembers. One manager can tell you one thing and another manger will you another. It’s very annoying to get your job done. Scheduling: They will purposely mess up your schedule to fit their needs. If you put on hot schedules that you can’t work certain days they will still find a way to schedule you on that day. Then they will just tell you “ooops my bad” can you still come in? No! They purposely took me off the schedule because they “didn’t like what I was wearing” and if I changed my outfits then they would give me more days again. The thing is I had to come to them about it. They didn’t come to me. So, I would have never known my outfits were bothersome until I came to them.

2.0
6 Feb 2021

Server Work Culture

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

As a server, your product, your food is solid. They import their food in daily, and is lightly if not seasoned at all--to really appreciate the freshness and sheer quality. You can make great money nightly, depending on your location and business volume.

Cons

Water Grill is not an employee first company. They are a guest first company, which means if a guest feels you've done something subpar, it is an automatic write up and a redirect. "It is not in our company culture" to ask you what happened, since guest are first, and hence always right. This can be a massive downside, especially with guest who complain about things that are completely out of your control. You are expected to be a busser and server simultaneously, not only for yourself but for your "Crew members" around you as well. Water Grill does employ bussers, however their job descriptions involve cleaning the remnants of a table post them leaving--typically this is just glassware--as a server all the table maintenance Is your responsibility. This is very unpleasant when you are weeded, and they won't lift a finger to help you. This is also a write up, as it does not align with their KWS standards (Kings Way of Service), where a server must maintain a table at all times--zero to little exceptions or excuses. They will claim to be a hands on company where managers will get their hands dirty to help out anyone and everyone who is not hitting their KWS--however, is rarely true unless it is Josh, who (if you work for this company you will meet since it is a family ran business and fairly small) is a regional manager and comes into evaluate the teams operating standards. He wears a full tailored suit, and will run around living up to the standards most managers never reach in their careers. This is not a dig, simply an observation that has been sustained over the course of my two years as a server here. During holidays they will do preset menus, which is great, my location however always ran out of food by the 7 o'clock seating so most second, third, and dessert courses were random offerings that the kitchen could make in lieu of the preset menu. This means you a server not only get to deal with unruly customers PO'd beyond belief, but management comping $2-500 off the bill--leaving you with disgruntled guest and per our KWS "recovering" with the guest post their intervention. Well let me tell you, there is no recovering when they could have gone to a restaurant for their special holiday, and had the preset they were promised and enjoyed their meal while tipping on a full bill-- and not on the reduced one. My location (I shall spare them the embarrassment) also loved to operate with some questionable health ethics. For the new year, we were washing everything with hot water because they had forgotten to order detergent. So for a full week our glassware, silverware, plateware, kitchenware was washed in unfiltered brackish hot water--hows that for COVID friendly? Furthermore, they like to sell product whose expiration dates have just expired--to move product and reach their bonuses. This means a server sometimes you will have multiple send backs for things tasting fishy--go figure at a sea food house. My favorite thing is when management makes you and guest feel silly for saying such a thing, because "its supposed to its fish" when in reality its simply expired--and there's a difference. Lastly, you are unsupported, and contrary to their claims, have little interest in seeing your POV. If it can be your fault it will be. They have taken classes to become management and have learned how to negate business accountability, and place it solely on you--again not in spite for them--but because this is how they run their business practices.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 97 Reviews

Glassdoor has 98 Water Grill reviews submitted anonymously by Water Grill employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Water Grill is right for you.