diff --git a/proxy/grpc_handler.go b/proxy/grpc_handler.go
index 642dd5a7c..675f5a0ab 100644
--- a/proxy/grpc_handler.go
+++ b/proxy/grpc_handler.go
@@ -81,7 +81,10 @@ func GetGRPCDirector(cfg *config.Config, tlscfg *tls.Config) func(ctx context.Co
 				credentials.NewTLS(&tls.Config{
 					ClientCAs:          tlscfg.ClientCAs,
 					InsecureSkipVerify: target.TLSSkipVerify,
-					ServerName:         target.Opts["grpcservername"],
+					// as per the http/2 spec, the host header isn't required, so if your
+					// target service doesn't have IP SANs in it's certificate
+					// then you will need to override the servername
+					ServerName: target.Opts["grpcservername"],
 				})))
 		}
 
diff --git a/route/parse_test.go b/route/parse_test.go
index 49328409c..5c3159226 100644
--- a/route/parse_test.go
+++ b/route/parse_test.go
@@ -31,6 +31,11 @@ func TestParse(t *testing.T) {
 			in:   `route add svc :1234 tcp://1.2.3.4:5678`,
 			out:  []*RouteDef{{Cmd: RouteAddCmd, Service: "svc", Src: ":1234", Dst: "tcp://1.2.3.4:5678"}},
 		},
+		{
+			desc: "RouteAddGRPCService",
+			in:   `route add svc :1234 grpc://1.2.3.4:5678`,
+			out:  []*RouteDef{{Cmd: RouteAddCmd, Service: "svc", Src: ":1234", Dst: "grpc://1.2.3.4:5678"}},
+		},
 		{
 			desc: "RouteAddServiceWeight",
 			in:   `route add svc /prefix http://1.2.3.4/ weight 1.2`,