Simon’s Restaurant & Delicatessen — Restaurant in Brecksville

We’ve dined at Simon’s for years with great service and tasty hot food. Last night was a nightmare. Surprisingly, it was not as busy as we had anticipated given the first Friday of Lent. No line. No wait. We were greeted by a lovely hostess and seated in a booth at our request. We were greeted by our waitress and she brought us water upon our request. It then took 21 minutes (we timed it) for our waitress to return to take our dinner order. Meanwhile, many guests who came in well after us, were seated and eating. I asked another waitress walking by if we could have our order taken. I received her reply, “we’re busy tonight”, and she kept walking past us. Our waitress walked by our table 4 times saying “I’ll be right with you”, over that 21 minutes. She then took our order. Our soups came out literally lukewarm. ( I won’t eat a cream-based soup if it’s not hot with steam rolling off of it. ) We asked to have the soup heated and received a glare with no reply, grabbing the soup, banging my soup spoon against the side of my bowl 5 times and placing the spoon on top of my wrapped crackers. Not a “sure” or “sorry about that”, not even a grunt. No eye contact. My husband walked up to the store front to the counter and asked to speak with the manager. She took 10 minutes to arrive to our table. Meanwhile, the soup had been returned hot. I ordered a side of macaroni and cheese at our initial order. It finally arrived 30 minutes later, before the manager came by, and it was cold to the touch. The manager took my Mac and cheese and it came back 5 minutes later. It was warmer, but not hot. Not sure what’s going on with the food coming out NOT HOT! After the end of our meal of fish fry, and after asking our waitress for utensils, we were almost finished eating, and the manager stopped by again. We asked her too, for utensils. She obliged but also forgot. So my husband ate his meal with his hands and his soup spoon. The manager came back, we asked for utensils again and she replied, “Damn!”, and went to get them and returned with them. So after over an hour, we finally finished our meal. The waitress was clearly in a foul mood. When we shared our experience with the manager, her reply was “She’s worked here for 20 years”, giving a grimace on her face. Given our waitress had no eye contact with us, would not communicate or appear to be engaged, this was quite honestly a frustrating experience. We planned to meet a friend and drove in 30 minutes away for a nice meal and good conversation. No apologies were made by anyone. The waitress took care of the bill and said, “Thanks for putting up with us.” We paid our bill in full. No discounts. No apology or “Come back again”, no offer of free soda. We’ve always enjoyed dining at this establishment. We’ve brought our relatives and friends from out of town (NY, NJ, Columbus, Cincinnati). We love the location, atmosphere and down-home menu with a variety of choices. But, sadly, we...

Simon's is one of those places that probably your grandparents have been going to their whole life. I've been there on several occasions and have gotten the Reuben, Pastrami and Corned Beef sandwiches and was quite pleased with the sandwiches - the prices seem reasonable for their quantity and quality. I think they're a better value than Slymans and it also tastes better. Their Matzoh Ball and Chicken Noodle soup is also great and reasonably priced (sometimes due to digestive health reasons I'm limited to soup and this is a go to for me). The pastries they have on display looked exceptional, but I unfortunately couldn't have any since I was on a diet - they'll be a must try in the future! The only thing I don't care for too much are the fries - I think if the fries were better I'd rate Simon's as a solid 5, but the soup and pastry make up for it. My wife got the Corned Beef and Potatoe Pancake sandwich and that looked excellent as well.

I usually do take out, but have dined in once. The interior is more spacious than you'd expect from the outside. The decor is nice enough, but could use a bit of updating - it kinda caters to an older crowd. I'll give it a 4. The server was a bit busy and in terms of seating everyone was kind of clustered together - it would have been nice to have been spread out a bit more, but I understand it is more convenient for the staff. If you do take out be sure to ask for whatever sauces you want with your sandwich. They come on the side in containers. The parking lot is for the shopping strip it is located in, and is usually...

We visited this restaurant a couple times while we visited the area. I used to go to this restaurant years ago when it was in a smaller location down a few doors. Sometimes reality makes memories bittersweet. I had the Classic Reuben Sandwich which comes with pickles on the side. The sandwich was piled high with corned beef on grilled rye. It was a good sandwich, but I would have preferred a bolder tasting rye. Also, I would like a swiss cheese with a bit of a bite. Frankly, afterward I could not remember seeing cheese on my sandwich. The sauerkraut was very tasty on the the stack. My wife ordered the French Onion Soup and Veal Schnitzel with Potato Pancakes. Her favorite part of the meal was the soup. The pancakes were just 'warm' and she wished she just ordered with the soup. We did not know what was going on this night we were there, but the waitress seemed to get lost. I am not sure if she was ill, busy with customers in another area, but we were there longer than we needed to be.

We went another night just for dessert. Sharing a cream puff and a hot beverage. The waitress (different waitress) that night was excellent and attentive. The Cream Puff was fantastic. The crispness of the shell and sweetness of the cream and the drizzle on top all worked together. The next night we took a piece of Black Forest Cheesecake to share. That was great too. The bittersweet taste of the chocolate and little sweetness of the cherries on top complimented each other. From one night to the next you can find your kind of...