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| - My husband and I were doing some errands and decided to go out for dinner in Willoughby, knowing there were lots of options ... But, having no reservations at 8:00 on a Saturday night, those options narrowed down - fast!
We avoided the line up waiting for valet in the WBC lot and finally found a space in one of the free public lots. We decided to check out Ballentines - it looked like a more upscale pub with happy people in the seats near the windows. We were told it would be 25 - 30 min for a table, so we put our name in and grabbed a spot standing at the bar. The bartender was the best part of the evening - quick, friendly and helpful - it was too loud to hear her name (and I asked), but she was great.
After about 20 minutes, we were able to get seats at the bar, and no more than 5 minutes later, one of the hosts came to suggest that we eat at the bar since it would be at least another 30 minutes for a table ... since we were getting great service and enjoying his WBC Gutterpup and my Lambic, we decided to stay put. He offered nothing - no thanks, no free app - nothing - just ambled away to scratch one future customer off his list. Our heroine bartender apologized, ran the specials list and gave us a fee round. Again, perfect service.
By now, the evening bar crowd was starting to fill in and patrons were reaching - and yelling - over us to get drink service. So we passed on apps and definitely ruled out the 30 dollar steaks - so we tried the wood fired pizza. We could see the oven and everything looked primed for a great crispy 'za ... Not even close! The margharita pizza came wallowing in gooey, oily standard pizza mozzarella cheese with pale pink Roma tomato slices and 9 shreds (I counted) of basil ... not the beautiful mounds of meltingly wonderful fresh mozzarella that should have been there, no piquant tomato taste ... It was DULL and the dough was average. And it cost more than the marvels they serve at Bar Cento! Baaad. Same for my husband's pepperoni with red peppers - what looked like jarred roasted red peppers dominated the dough. We both needed fresh pepper and salt to generate any recognizable flavor. Really disappointing.
Go for the beers - the look of the place and the prices demand better food.
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