NOMZ - Restaurant & Bar - Akron, OH — Restaurant in Akron

This is one of the most bizarre ordering experiences I’ve ever had. Great overall spot, but it felt like playing a game of Paperboy from the 90s just to order our stuff

This weekend we saw an advertisement for “Pancakes and Ice Cream” at the Northside Market

We decide to go with our 3 year old. We walk in and we are greeted with a TV sized advertisement for “Pancakes and Ice Cream”

We walk around aimlessly in the food area. Nothing at the dessert stand. Nothing at the bar. Nothing on the Nomz menu. Nothing on the table printed out menus. Nothing at the Boba stand. I finally decide to walk to the Nomz stand to ask someone, and I find the tiniest bookmark menus that finally include pancakes and ice cream

We take the menu along with the Nomz menu to our table and review our options. Our choices are boozy ice cream, hot chocolate with ice cream, or an ice cream ball (?).

We decide on hot chocolate and some tacos, I go up to order

I place an order from the tiny menu for the Teriyaki tacos. Order taker is caught off guard and has to walk to the kitchen for something. She returns and I am informed that the Teriyaki tacos aren’t available until 3. I walk back to my wife and ask for her alternative. She chooses the avocado toast. I go back to order again. I go for the Chorizo tacos, because it’s brunch and chorizo tacos are typically a brunch item. I am informed that all of the tacos are unavailable until 3. To be fair, this is written out in the menu, but we’ve already established the total menu confusion taking place so I missed that in the confusion. I settle for the fig ricotta whatever sandwich. I order the avocado toast. I begin my order for hot chocolate with ice cream. I am interrupted and informed that this must be ordered at the bar. Ok.

I finish up the first order and go to the bar to place my second order. A bartender arrives, and I begin my order. I am interrupted with the question “oh, are you ordering?” I indicate that yes, I am there to order. She tells me to hold please as she is taking care of another order. Ok.

She returns a minute or so later to take my order. On the ice cream and later-taco secret menu, my options are written as follows: “Chocolate Peanut butter, Vanilla Coconut”. So I go for two hot chocolates, one with Chocolate Peanut butter and one with Vanilla Coconut. I am informed that my options are rocky road or vanilla or vanilla coconut. Okey-dokey.

I go for rocky road and vanilla. My order is placed and I am instructed to go back to my seat while she prepares our hot chocolate. My order is called, and I step to the bar to pick up my ice cream thing. I am presented with two mugs of hot chocolate, and a rock hard frozen scoop of vanilla and rocky road (I believe this was their “chocolate peanut butter”), each placed in a plastic beer cup.

I walk back to my family. My wife and I share one, my three year old struggles with his rock hard rocky road ball as he just wanted ice cream, and he later gives up and asks for one of the free cupcakes being handed out.

We receive our food. My fig ricotta whatever sandwich is heavy on the fig spread, light on everything else. I am sweetened out, having finished hot chocolate, ice cream and a jar full of fig spread. My wife receives a falling-apart piece of avocado slices on top of a piece of dry bread, and a plate of what seems to be 6 eggs scrambled with no seasoning. We finish up and leave.

This place is cool. But the logistics are absolutely mind boggling unclear, and the food is just ok.

We’ll be back but will not be under the expectation of what is being advertised. Definitely won’t be promising a 3 year old Ice cream from this...

I used to love this place and would always get the vegan brunch bagel and the breakfast potatoes or pasta salad and it was always amazing. Never used to have problems but within the past couple of months when I come in they are always out of everything. Wasn’t sure why but was informed about new management/owners changing up everything. When I came in today to get the vegan brunch bagel which has lettuce, tomato, vegan cream cheese, and vegan bacon I was informed they didn’t have anymore bagels. They offered to put it on a brioche bun instead (or so I thought) and was told it would be a 30 minute wait. I understood because they were quite busy. I wanted a side of potatoes, but they were out of that. I asked for pasta salad instead and was told they didn’t have that either. My only option was a cucumber salad which wasn’t very good, but it wasn’t a big deal. After waiting about a half hour for my sandwich, it came out and was not what I ordered at all. I got a brioche? bun with lettuce, tomato, vegan cheese, and a vegan burger. I figured it was a mistake and went to let them know and the worker told me she let me know they were out of the bagel. Maybe it was a misunderstanding, but my interpretation was that they just didn’t have the bagels and they were going to make that same sandwich, except on a brioche bun. My next conclusion was that I misunderstood and they had probably actually meant they could make the “vegan brioche” sandwich instead. However, when I looked at the menu the vegan brioche consisted of a ciabatta bun, vegan egg, vegan chipotle aioli, vegan mozzarella, caramelized onion, and vegan bacon. This caused me to be even more confused, especially considering the fact I looked at their menu and couldn’t find anything with the specific ingredients they had given me. It seemed like they just slapped random items together and hoped for the best. It wasn’t good and I took about three bites and left the rest to be thrown away. Not to mention the main reason I went there was to get the BOGO mimosas and was told they no longer do that even though I just saw a review from a day ago that said they indeed do have that. The blonde bartender (didn’t get her name) was very accommodating and understanding and I appreciate her for alleviating some of the disappointment with this experience. However after spending $40 (food + tip) on just myself… l would have hoped for a better experience. I genuinely thought this was one of the best vegan spots in the area and was so happy when I found it, but now I suppose it's time to try some other places instead. I hope the new management and/or owners can address these issues and get NOMZ back to where it was before. It’s sad to watch the downfall of such an amazing and...

We have eaten here twice. Once, we ordered take-out during the pandemic. It was good to great. This most recent time (Friday, January 26th, 2024) it was a weirdly bad experience. We walked in, and a woman said hi and nothing else. We walked to the "Order Here" window, and made direct eye-contact with the person working, and they didn't acknowledge us for several minutes. Let's say 2 minutes. We were the only people in line, and one couple was at a table eating, and a few bar patrons drinking. Then the woman says "we'll be right with you." Then a different person came out to take our order, and hit a vape and blew it out, while I'm standing there talking to her. My wife ordered something with fake-chicken, tacos, and she said, "We are out of the fake chicken, but a lot of people have been getting that with the fake bacon." The food was VERY expensive for what it was. I had the veggie blt, and my wife got...not tacos with bacon. It was a bacon sandwich with pickles (which she dislikes) all served on paper dinnerware. No utensils were brought to the table, nor were they at the restaurant section, they were on the other end of the bar, maybe 20 feet away. Mediocre food, bad service, cool space with lots of potential. But this was just a poor, lazy experience all around. Writing this sucks, I feel bad. But the whole thing kinda sucked. We go out often, and really want to support smaller or local places and manage to find the good in stuff. But...