Austin's Wood Fire Grille — Restaurant in Brecksville

To be clear, the purpose of writing this review is to dissuade any new patron from this establishment. I would give negative stars if I could, since nothing resembling “service” was received. Now, on to the review…

My wife has been wanting to try prime rib, so I made a reservation via Open Table around 9am today for a 6:30pm reservation today (Friday 12/10/21). It showed all time slots available. No issues and easy to book online.

We arrived around 6:25pm. The restaurant was busy, but to be clear there were no other patrons at the host stand. We checked in, and she said would be right with us.

While we waited at the host stand, an older man and his wife entered, and he stepped in front of me to ask if his table was ready. Mind you, he was not in the restaurant prior. The hostess immediately sat him. Another 4 top came in after him and was also seated before us.

At this point, I began to become a bit confused. A lady came in 3rd, and asked about the wait without a reservation and she was told “1 hour or more”. The lady looked at us and asked the hostess if we were taken care of. The hostess then magically remembered us and said she would try to take care of us.

Then, I asked her, “if we had a reservation, how were 2 other parties seated before us?” Her response was that they personally reserved those specific tables.

This is the most ridiculous line of nonsense I’ve ever heard. First, what’s the point of having a reservation if you’re going to seat based on who you want to seat. 2nd, the man that cut in front of me must have been a regular, as he didn’t even provide a name and was taken to a table.

My only other observation is those that were seated in front of me were more mature, and a bit older. So clearly they are choosing who they want to seat, with a heavy amount of bias.

I was excited to try the food, but left in a huff due to the abysmal way in which we were treated. I’d love to speak to someone about this. In this day and age I can’t believe you could treat someone this way.

Highly dissatisfied, and would never return to this atrocious excuse for...

It wasn't busy, so the wait to sit down was quick. However, the service from our waitress Elisse was very slow. She was very sweet and soft spoken. But the wait between each question/ answer was a bit ridiculous. She would disappear for awhile. It took about 15 minutes to even get the check AFTER we had already boxed food, declined dessert, and she even cleared the table. So, we just sat there awkwardly as she disappeared. When she came back to the area - she started helping another table/ taking their order. We of course already had our payment ready, but she tried to hurry away after setting the check down. So, my partner flagged her to take the payment then.

Of course we were not rude! We still tipped 20% b/c waitresses are already underpaid. It was just more of a massive letdown to try a new place that was a flop. I would expect the kind of service we had if it were busy, but it certainly wasn't at all. 🙃

I'm gluten free and the options were okay. I had a GF side ceaser salad and the entrée of shrimp zoodles with pesto. I do think the serving was overpriced. I personally loved the ceaser salad but hated the zoodles. It was weirdly sweet and very bland. The zoodles were just one large crunchy clump. 🫠

My partner had the mushroom Swiss burger and fries - they said it was alright. We agreed it just felt a little overpriced for what it was supposed to be.

I can't say we will go back any...

Unfortunately, this restaurant's disrespectful service made someone like me who does not write negative reviews, to make the effort to write one. I would give a zero if I could. My father ordered a fajita and when our server brought it over, due to the sizzling of the pan, the sauce splattered all over his shirt, literally. If it got on his skin he would've been burnt. While we were still eating, the server came over many times and repetitively asked us if the plates could be taken away, when we were clearly still eating. Lastly, when the server brought the coffee over, he placed it on the table so aggressively that a bit spilled on the table. He didn't say sorry nor did he wipe off the spilled coffee. While all of this was happening, he did not apologize even once. He seemed like he was not aware of what he was doing wrong, nor did he seem to have any curtesy. I was with guests from out of the states and felt very uncomfortable for them to witness such horrible service from a resteraunt in our city. The food was okay, but that seemed meaningless when your server is so careless and insensitive. Regardless if this is an issue with this one particuler server or the entire store, management needs to seriously reconsider how they're training their servers. Will never return no will...