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| - I was very excited for the new Michael Symon restaurant. However, Bar Symon was quite the disappointment. My table shared the food of mussels, fried brussel sprouts, the Clevelander, pastrami burger- "voted #1 burger," according to the website, Lola fries, Guiness beer ice cream and pretzels, and apple bread pudding with bacon. The best part of the meal was the Lola fries, Guiness beer ice cream, kielbasa, and brussel sprouts. Half of the things I liked were from his menus at Lola and Lolita. The Clevelander was roughly 14.00 for mediocre saurkraut, 2 kielbasa links, and 4 perogies. The perogies were like the Mrs. T's perogies that you can buy frozen at the grocery store. The best part of the dish were the kielbasa links, which weren't exceptional. The #1 burger isn't really number 1, you can get a burger just as good if not better at Five Guys. The mussels were cooked in a beer and created a slightly bitter flavor in your mouth. The brussel sprouts were very good with a crispy outer coating. The apple bacon bread pudding sounds much better in theory than executed. The bread pudding was bland and the bacon was really chewy and it doesn't do a good job of meshing together like the Maple Bacon Ice cream at Lola. The Guiness beer ice cream is not to miss as the deep rich flavors of the dark beer come out and are enhanced with the salty pretzel bits. It isnt as severely priced as Lola, but definitely not worth as much as we paid for our meal. They have a really good selection of beers to choose from. Overall, this restaurant lacks the magic touch of Michael Symon's other restaurants. It seems as if he had not put any creative thought or impact on the dishes created. Perhaps the restaurant is paying him to use his name and are making their own dishes or maybe he is losing his touch. I see plenty of dishes that are inspired by his other offerings at Lola- showing lack of creativity. If you really want Michael Symon- best place is Lola or Lolita don't waste your time here.
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