Chardon Buckeye Chocolate Café — Restaurant in Chardon

I absolutely love Buckeye Chocolate! I got both breakfast and lunch using call ahead and the drive-through today. The food is always excellent and the employees are so friendly and pleasant. Yes, the drive-through service is slower than what you might find at a fast food place, but the call ahead feature really helps with that. They clearly tell you how long it'll be before your order is ready.

One potential hitch is that sometimes, as you arrive to pick your order up, several cars are in line in front of you in the drive-through placing new orders, and you may have to wait until their orders are both taken and filled before it's your turn. They often send someone out with an iPad to try to speed things up, and this is appreciated, especially if you're the LAST car in the drive-through, because then you can reverse your way out of line. Otherwise, you'll need to wait until the line in front of you clears because there isn't room to pull past the line of cars. In my opinion, having the drive-through and call ahead service available is worth this potential small inconvenience.

I both love and hate that their menu changes seasonally. I hate it because I love so many of the options and, just when one becomes my favorite, the menu changes and I can't order it (at least until it might cycle back on the menu later -- hello Thai Peanut Salad!). I love it though, because it makes me try different options instead of always sticking with the same favorites. Recently, I've loved their Cashew Salad and Southwest Bowl options. Both are absolutely delicious and I feel good about eating them. I also love their Avocado Toast and I'm going to have to try the Marinated Tomato Toast before the menu changes again.

They offer really good drinks too, although, personally, the iced tea portion feels really small once you add ice, etc. It has really good flavor though and is hard to resist! Their candy options are really top-notch and are an especially good steal a couple of days after a holiday when they're discounted (although they are definitely worth full price). And, finally, a couple of years ago, they offered some sort of special chocolate cake with strawberries; I think it may have been around Valentine's Day. That cake was one of the best things my husband and I have ever eaten and we still ask, from time to time, if they're offering any cake and, sadly, I don't think they have since then :( Bring back the cake, Buckeye Chocolate, lol!

This place is definitely worth a visit if you're in the area and offers great healthy options for...

I really don’t know what the hell happened to this place. Been coming here semi regularly since they opened years ago and while it’s never been perfect it’s also never been as outright bad as it has for the past year or so. There’s no experience quite like standing at the counter while the cashier flat out ignores your presence. Once she was just counting chocolate for about 5 full minutes before finally glancing over at me and asking “have you been helped yet?” They have like nine people working at any given time, and it is fully impossible to get the attention of even one of them to place an order.

Just yesterday I pulled up to the empty drive-through and sat at the window for eight minutes while they walked by the window glancing over, trying to pretend they didn’t see the three cars waiting for one of them to do their job.

It wouldn’t be so bad if they were at least doing their job as well. I’m a pretty simple customer I get a house coffee and that’s it every single time. Half the time there’s grounds floating in the cup and probably 2 out of every 10 cups end up being whatever the flavored coffee of the day is.

You may ask “why do you keep going back?” And the answer is simple. When they get it right, the coffee is pretty good and also it’s the only option in the area aside from that Starbucks that I don’t want to go to.

It really is such a shame because this place has such potential but with a staff like this, I can’t possibly see it lasting another 5 years.

In case anyone ever actually reads this from Buckeye, I do want to make clear that there are a few great people on staff at this location who have been there for...

Prices are very affordable. The food is mediocre and the coffee is ok but nothing special or exceptional. Portion sizes are decent though. Desserts sold at the counter are nicely displayed and I’ve never been disappointed with anything I’ve gotten from there. Service is where this place falters. Alicia (not sure if spelled correctly) is the girl that served us that day and she was incredibly rude and cold. She repeatedly rolled her eyes and let out exasperated sighs anytime any one of us inquired about anything or even simply asked her opinion about something on the menu. Even after we thanked her for waiting on us she turned her back and walked away without a word. I understand having a bad day and not being in the mood to deal with people. Sometimes it’s personal issues or sometimes it’s exhaustion from working with the public, especially after you get an exceptionally nasty and disrespectful customer. Sometimes being civil is all someone can muster that day. And that would have been fine. But this was actively being disrespectful towards customers that were being kind, courteous and appreciative towards her. The other employees had always been polite every time I had been there before this. This was the first (and last) time I have ever interacted with Alicia. I have never gone back to Buckeye since this has occurred and neither has anyone I was with that day. There are many fantastic small unique shops and restaurants to give my business that serve better food and employ people with maturity and...