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| - First - let me say, I am a BIG fan of Burgers 2 Beer. I loved all of my experiences at the Solon, OH location. My wife and I waited with great anticipation for the Lakewood restaurant to open. We originally heard it would be ready by end of August to early September. Good thing we didn't hold our breath! Finally it is open and we eagerly made our trip on Monday.
Sadly, based on my experience at this location and how we were treated I don't think this place is going to make it for very long unless they get through these growing pains quickly. I've helped open an establishment before and I know that when the timeline is pushed back there is a rush to open the doors - I'm hoping they can recover from what I can only call a very rough start.
First, we arrived at 4:45 to grab a quick meal before I left town for work. We were pleasantly surprised to see that there were $5 burgers on Monday nights. However, they wouldn't grant us that deal until 5:00, even at 4:52. Unfortunately we were in a time crunch to get a quick meal in so I could stay on-time with my travel arrangements. It wasn't a huge deal, but you'd think that a place that just opened would be eager to make their patrons first visit a pleasurable one. If I were running the place I would have made a bet that discounting our burgers on this first occasion would pay off in the long run. Anyway, we weren't too disappointed, just shocked that 8 minutes made a difference to them.
We browsed the menu and made our picks. My wife had the Breakfast Burger with fries and I had the Vampire Slayer with Tater Tots. The breakfast burger comes topped with a fried egg. My wife does not like runny yolk so she always orders over hard. It came out over-medium and too runny for her taste. We looked around for our waiter, but he was not to be seen. After waiting about 5 minutes she picked up her plate and caught the attention of some nearby staff (we think he was the manager). He was pleasant about it and ordered a new egg and after another 5 minutes it came out correctly. By this time I was just about done with my burger and was starting to eat the over-medium egg that my wife rejected. I know - not fair for me to eat while she waited to get her food, but I did give her several bites and she graciously egged me on to eat while my meal was still warm.
The Vampire Slayer tasted good at first, but by the end I really wasn't wowed. It wasn't bad, but it didn't make my taste buds jump like some of the other menu selections (Nut Butter, Hot Mess, Hot and Bothered). The tots tasted a little bit burnt or over-fried - although my 8 month old son loved them! My wife's review was: "If I had it to do over again, I just would have gone to Five Guys."
The check came and our meals weren't discounted for the inconvenience of getting my wife's order wrong. Maybe we didn't sound upset enough - we really aren't loud people, but considering that we had already asked for them to accommodate the $5 burger night and were refused, it again seems like they could have reversed this decision based on the circumstances.
The LAST THING that happened absolutely infuriates me to this moment. I wished we had not been in a hurry because I would have made a bigger stink about this. As we were getting ready to leave, my wife scraped her arm on a large splinter that came out of the edge of the table. By large splinter, I mean there was a clearly visible gouge in the table the size of a golf tee. It was still rough and a safety concern to whoever sat at the table later that night. If she had not been wearing long sleeves, it definitely would have done bodily harm to her arm. I tried to get the attention of the manager, but he was on the other side of the restaurant on the phone. As we needed to leave, I caught the waiter's attention and told him what just happened and expressed concern for the safety of whoever sat there next.
I was appalled at this reaction. He acted like it was no big deal. "Thanks for bringing that to my attention, we'll be sure to sand that down later." No apology. No concern. No questions like "are you alright? Can I get you a band-aid?" He very awkwardly thanked us for coming out - this now for the third time (once as he delivered the check, another as he took my card). You know - it's the thing that waiters and waitresses say at the end of the meal to make sure you remember to tip them well. There's no shame in it - it's good practice. Shows you care.... the FIRST TIME you do it. He clearly had no idea how to react and was just trying to get rid of us.
I hate to write such a negative review, and I hope I haven't sounded too whiny. My wife and I are very quiet and almost never complain about service. This was just unacceptable in my view and so I had to come and write about it.
As I mentioned, I LOVE B2B. I hope the Lakewood management figures out how to pull it together with better food and better service before its too late!!
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