Let me start off by saying that I was quite excited to try out the Alley Cat Oyster Bar. The place looks absolutely AMAZING. The view of the river is just so relaxing...if that can even make sense in a place like Cleveland, but ANYWAYS..(BTW MAPS DIRECTIONS TO THIS PLACE Are A NIGHTMARE. Just go all the way down W.9th and make a left at the last street. Take it straight down)
I came alone..so i sat at the bar. The bartender was GREAT.. I was exasperated from struggling to find the place so I just told him to make me something strong. He came up with a cosmo which tasted AMAZING. I'm quite the lover of spirits and I can say that it didn't taste like a cup of alcohol, but the buzz mirrored that of a drink that would.
I started off with the wedge salad. It looked great..and WOULD have tasted great if they hadn't given me a.....ugh..I can't even find the words..the "bad" part of the lettuce head. I don't know if lettuce ripens..but it just tasted like it wasn't "ripe". Forgive me for not knowing the right thing to say. It was hard and and had that weird taste to it...That was the ONLY thing wrong. I simply ate it because I was STARVING and it wasn't SO BAD with all of the fixings that wedge salads come with.
My entree was a big ticket item..then $60 Maine Lobster.
My god..it was terrible. I felt like I was chewing on it for days. I'm not a complainer..I'm the type of person who just goes with the flow and chalks everything up as "You chose this..now this is the consequence".
It was like they had cooked the lobster again..and again..and again. I've never had lobster that tough...ANYWHERE. I heard one of the cooks say that it was the "last" lobster which kind of made me wonder if they were cooking out the spoil.
THATS HOW TOUGH IT WAS.
The manager came and asked me how everything was..and I said it was bad. He offered me a free drink. Maybe if I would have been an angry customer he would have comped my meal, but HEY..like I said..I'm not a complainer unless the food is 100% inedible.
I struggled to finish half of the lobster before deciding to just be done with it.
Would I go to alleycat Oyster bar again? YES
I would only go for DRINKS and WINGS. I would never buy anything over $15 at that establishment...EVER AGAIN.