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| - Overall impressions: swanky lounge in a swanky hotel serving up new takes on old favorites. Staff are still growing into their roles, but friendly. Good for dressy dates, business meetings, and hopefully drinks on the patio when the weather is warmer!
It's a shame that this shiny new part of Cleveland doesn't get the traffic it deserves after the boom that was Summer 2016. Getting here is about a 10 min walk from the RTA station, but at night, when there's hardly anyone around, and your phone light is shining brighter than the streetlights... The empty buildings can be pretty eerie. Buuut, I guess I can't complain about having my pick of the reservation times during Downtown Restaurant Week.
The Burnham can be entered directly from the side of the Hilton building, and my friend and I were pretty impressed by the upscale nautical wall deco. Everything still looked as though the plastic wrap had just been taken off. We were shown in short order to our table, a half-booth ordeal. Normally I'm all about the booth tables, but our booties sank a little too deep into the plush seat and made the table an awkward height to lean your arms on. Which, if you have just above can't-take-you-ANYWHERE etiquette like me, you tend to do quite often. Anyways. We were brought some complimentary bread and olive oil while looking through our menus, but the server nearly dropped the bread on the table instead of our plates, and the bread was quite plainly not fresh. A rough start.
Our hearts and stomachs dropped a little when we saw our first appetizer (not part of the Prix Fixe menu), five tiny Garlic & Onion Beignets. This was definitely not Southern hospitality. They were pretty good, but gone too soon, including the pickle garnish. Each of us then chose different salads for the first course and were pleasantly surprised by the unique ingredients. No plain Caesar from the grab bag - mine had a crunchy mix of greens, pickles, sunchoke, and a light dressing. Main course involved a Swordfish Schnitzel for me, and a Sous Vide Fried Chicken for her. You heard right. Schnitzel and sous vide, chicken and swordfish? Did they draw these combos out of a hat? Maybe, but they work surprisingly well together - both meats were tender, the accompanying sides (radish + mashed potatoes for me) appropriately balancing. I could probably have done with less salt overall, but know that you'll be leaving full after an entree. The desserts were cute trays of Petit Fours, including cake pops and macarons. Nothing mind-boggling, but easy to pack up and eat on the go.
Like others have said, service was fairly slow. It took a while for our dishes to come and for water to be refilled even though we were one of probably five tables that evening. The staff is definitely rough around the edges compared to the establishment (I mean, have you SEEN the bathrooms? Go, just go outside across the hallway, and enjoy the gilded glory.). It's not a place you should expect to grab a quick bite - although I think I spotted a kid eating chicken tenders a few tables over. But food-wise, we felt we got what we paid $30 (+ an appetizer) for. The menu, the staff, the booty-sucking seats, it all feels a little experimental, but I think we got some positive results out of the evening.
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