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| - Cleveland born-and-raised Michael Symon has been my favorite Iron Chef for years, so obviously when we ended up moving here I wanted to visit all of his restaurants. We decided to go for a somewhat impromptu date night, and surprisingly were able to get a reservation on OpenTable early on a Friday evening. The atmosphere is classy (there's a coat check) but not stuffy. It feels modern, is dark enough to have ambiance but not too dark to see the menu, and the wall of wine is very cool. The wine and drink menu is on a tablet, with a handy app that lets you save what you've picked for when your server comes back, helpfully eliminating that "oh crap, that tequila drink I saw several pages ago looked awesome" problem. Our service was Cleveland-nice and professional throughout the evening, with helpful recommendations.
We had:
--Drinks: my husband really enjoyed an aviation cocktail, and I really liked the citrus citrus margarita. The wine list has a lot of options, and we were both able to find a glass of something we wanted with our entree. For dessert, they have a large selection of after-dinner drinks, as well as coffee and espresso.
--Salad: let it be known I ate broccoli on purpose for the first time in my entire life and actually enjoyed it. I'm not sure if I'm actually converted, but the cruciferous salad is to die for.
--Soup: they had a special white bean soup made with ham stock and bacon, and this was definitely the best bean soup I've ever had (sorry Mom). They let us split both the salad and the soup which was really nice, because we were able to try more things and not be too stuffed to enjoy the rest of our meal.
--Strip Loin: my husband ordered this medium rare and while the pepper crust was a little too charred for his liking he said the meat was very, very good.
--Smoked Pork Chop: this was really delicious-- just the right amount of smoke flavor and the meat was really tender. The polenta it came with was perfection.
--Dessert: my husband talked me out of my usual chocolate go-tos and into the "Sweet Mess." This turned out to be a really good idea, because the panna cotta-like base of it was excellent and when mixed with the meringue and fruit it all came together really well. And for a "mess," it was pretty to look at! He had one of the chocolate options and finished it, so it must have been good.
This brings us to 3 wins in 3 visits to Michael Symon's restaurants so far (a trip to Mabel's still forthcoming). New York might think it's the culinary capital of America, but with places like this Ohio more than holds its own.
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