Relish

Update: this restaurant is permanently closed. The owners are now doing other things. Big loss for the Grinnell community!

Great food great atmosphere Great servers and great cocktails. The elderflower whiskey sour was amazing.
Highly recommend!!

Amazing meal with our student son! Highly recommend. Great service, amazing food. The salmon dish was delicious as was the steak. The navy bean soup as appetizer was unique and well received. Loved the desert options too!

We ordered a mixed appetizer platter as part of a takeout blitz we did for #YelpsBigNightIn2.0 last night. Awesome way to start the meal! The ingredients and preparation are so high quality. Loved the flavors and would highly recommend you get in on that.

We look forward to getting the whole experience soon. I really appreciate the steps they are taking to keep social distancing in mind and we look forward to coming back for some patio dining in the near future!

Great food, great people and decent bar too. Would definitely recommend this as the best restaurant in Grinnell town.

Incredible, fresh, beautiful healthy food made with care and love. This is a destination. Come to Grinnell and let Kemal cook for you.

We came as a party of vegetarians not expecting too many options in a small town in Iowa, and found this gem. The food is art. Healthful, real food. And not overpriced.

Couldn't be better.

It was a great experience from start to finish! Do yourself a favor and give it a try.

It was a slow night. The Chef, Kamal, greeted us shortly after we were seated. He told us about the specials. Nothing we ate was on the menu. It was all specials. Im sorry i cant remember the official names of anything we ate.

We had a beef sushi roll and beef dumpling for an appetizer. They were both so delicious. The pulled beef in the sushi roll was so moist it just fell apart. The dumpling had fresh vegetables that were crunchy and so tasty.

For dinner we split eggplant parmesan. It was hands down the best eggplant I've ever eaten. You didn't need a knife. It was lightly breaded and pan fried. Not greasy at all. I couldn't recommend this dish any higher.

The staff was attentive and welcoming. It was nice to spend some time with Kamal. He was very friendly and enjoyable. Please try this place!

I love this restaurant. It's a Grinnell classic. A different restaurant (or at least a different name) was here in the same building with the same chef when I was a student at Grinnell 25 years ago. Now my daughter is a student, and when I visit, I always reserve a table at Relish for dinner. The building and decor are simple and modest. The food, however, is consistently just excellent. The menu has great variety, and the flavors are just so so good! The wine list and bar are also great. And the prices are very reasonable. I would happily pay more for such great food.

Relish isn't a bad place to go if you want to impress without killing your wallet! Most of the meals are entirely reasonable. I got a special; the Ribeye with beets, mushrooms, and a decorative slice of watermelon, for $22, which from what I could see was among the most expensive items on the menu! Everything else was in the $10-15 range, which isn't too bad considering the classy nature of the place.

However, it does somewhat have the feel of being a home-turned restaurant, so you will be in a converted space in close proximity to other diners. Possibly near cold windows (in the winter time)

My Ribeye was one of the better steaks I've ever had, but the other items were almost satisfactory. The artichoke and chip appetizer was unfortunately a little watery and bland, possibly due to way too much sour cream. I have to admit, I was expecting a much more powerful artichoke flavor. The soup I asked for (cup of Salmon Manhattan Chowder) was also disproportionally filled with vegetables, with nowhere near the amount of salmon or salmon flavoring I was hoping for. Let me reiterate though that the steak, mushrooms, and beets were delicious! My dining partners were also impressed with their dishes, so perhaps I just made bad choices or the food I ordered was a little off that evening.

The service was great, with college students serving us in a well-dressed and appropriate manner. Frequent visits and interactions with the wait staff as well as the owner was well-appreciated.

Conclusion: I'd recommend trying here at least once! It's a neat space and the food is pretty good. You won't be getting a huge amount for your money but the overall experience was one that I'd recommend trying. I don't think I personally will be returning soon before trying some other restaurants in town, but again, it was worth a shot and didn't leave me in regret.

I'm not sure how I missed this gem on previous visits. Housed in an old Victorian is some seriously good food. I was not very hungry so I'll be back next time I'm in town because the, I think it was just the dinner salad? looked delicious -nuts and feta and yum. the desserts-all house made-also looked fabulous, a flourless chocolate, a rhubarb crisp cheesecake(?) and something else which clearly did not peak my interest!

I had the cod with lemon pesto and it was really good. The fish was perfectly cooked, the pests not overwhelming. It was served with sautéed cabbage which almost made me skip The Who dish but our server said that this had actually turned her around on cooked cabbage and she did not stew me wrong, not at all what I expected and in fact I would absolutely order it again.