First National Grille

CLOSED.
First National is gone, and good riddance to it. As of April 19, all of the windows at First National Grille have been covered over with opaque clingwraps advertising «New Restaurant Coming Soon». At the lunch rush hour, the door was locked, the lights were off, and nobody was inside. The cash register was gone, and some of the decorations had been removed from the walls.
This place didn’t even make it a year, and I have to think that yanking the rug out from under the feet of Zef’s Coney Island (the longstanding preceding business) pissed off a lot more people than just me and my coworkers. I rarely saw more than 2 or 3 people inside at a time, even during the lunch rush.
(It’s weird to be the person who reports on the opening AND the closing of a restaurant in a prime downtown location.)

First off, the food here is pretty good, I enjoyed the two Coneys and chili cheese fries I ordered. The problem is that it took almost 30 minutes from the order being placed to the food arriving at our table and even then that was after our waitress asking the cook (s) to speed it up. I wouldn’t normally have such a big problem but I was on my lunch hour and the place was only half full. Even worse, when I looked back into the kitchen area the pace was noticeably lax. I know working in a kitchen is tough work but when you’re trying to compete in downtown for the lunch dollar, you need to bring the hustle.
Bottom line is for the same money at American or Lafayette Coney I could have had nearly the same meal for about the same price in about ¹⁄₃ the time.
Anyway, I’d be willing to give this place another shot, as it could have been an «off» day, but I’m going to have to be SURE I’ve got extra time.

It’s 11:30. Just tried over the past 10 minutes to call and place an order and no one is answering. Cadillac Square Coney it is! I miss Zef’s :(

Had breakfast there this morning. It’s a very plain space with a fairly plain menu. The food was OK. Nothing special but nothing terrible. The service was fine as well: nothing that wowed me but nothing offensive either. In summary there are much better breakfast places around town, but if you had to eat here it would be fine.

I called at 10:45 to place a carryout of french toast and was told they were no longer serving breakfast because there was no room on the grill? Ok. Woodward Coney it is.

A place I will never step foot in again. Being saddened by the closing of Zef’s, I tried to put that behind me and just bite my tongue. It was just so sad walking in and not seeing the usual people take care of me. Anyways, I didn’t like the food at all and they were not accommodating at all. I felt like the workers didn’t care which was the complete opposite before.

Perfect place to grab a quick breakfast. Friendly, quick service. Good food/​coffee. Great prices.
Unassuming signage/​décor. Don’t pass it up.