My spouse and I dined at Grille 3501 on a Saturday night in
mid-February 2016. (We have dined at 3501 many times previously since its
opening in 2001, sometimes as a couple and sometimes in a group.) Grille 3501
is open for lunch on weekdays and dinner on Mondays through Saturdays (closed
Sundays). Sometimes on special occasion Sundays (such as Mother’s Day), the
restaurant is also open. You can reserve a table via telephone or by using the
Open Table reservation system (reservations are highly recommended for dinner,
because the restaurant is a crowd favorite). Parking is available in a
dedicated lot, although now that the restaurant has expanded, the lot might be
a bit undersized when larger parties are present.
Grille 3501 is located in Allentown (Cetronia) near the back
entrance to Dorney Park, in a somewhat residential area on Broadway between
Cedar Crest Boulevard and Cetronia Road. (Until 2001, this location housed
Trinkles Cetronia restaurant.) The main part of that old restaurant houses the
original part of Grille 3501 (nicely renovated since Trinkles days), but in
2014, the owners of 3501 added another dining area onto the main restaurant
called “The Loft”. The original part of the restaurant has a few dining sections:
a main dining room (the back of which can be closed off for small private
events), a side dining room, and the bar area. The Loft offers several dining
areas as well: an outdoor porch (which has heaters and roll-down sides so that
it can be used in colder weather), the large rectangular bar (with seating on
three sides), an L-shaped dining area adjacent to the bar, and the namesake
loft on a sort of mezzanine level overlooking the main room (this dining area
has stair access only as far as we could tell, so the loft is probably not
suitable for the mobility impaired). Both the main restaurant and the Loft are
very attractive. The décor is contemporary and classy in the original dining
area, and gorgeously modern (stone and wood) in the new loft area. Our only
comment was that in the ladies room, the sinks only offered cold water, which
is a bit unsettling to think that the staff washes their hands in only cold
water after using the facilities and then emerging to serve and/or cook food.
Grille 3501 serves Asian/French/Mediterranean cuisine. We
ordered several items from their appetizer/starter menu: the baked scallops
(which arrived atop actual scallop shells, combined with crab and bacon and
drenched in a delicious beurre blanc sauce), the wild boar agnolotti (topped
with delicious garnishes like bacon and kale atop a nice brown butter sauce),
and the calamari (served with the usual red dipping sauce [although the menu
proclaims it to be grape tomato jam], along with an unusual jalapeno relish
[which was tasty but seemed more like green tomatoes because it had no heat]).
For an entrée, we shared the duck, which was accompanied by sweet potato hash, shredded
cabbage, maitake mushrooms, and baby carrots (the two dollops of apricot jam on
the plate seemed unnecessary to us because the dish was delicious without it).
For dessert, we shared the banana almond bread pudding, which was served warm
atop a butterscotch-rum sauce, and crowned with a small scoop of vanilla ice
cream and then sprinkled with slivered almonds.
Grille 3501 is a dependable favorite of ours, and we find
ourselves returning again and again. We just wish that they were open for
Saturday lunch, because we would visit more often.
October 2018:
2019:
