Gigi's On Fairmount — Restaurant in Cleveland Heights

please turn off the auto play music on your website, or have a mute button.

Surprise. In this case, it’s not a good thing. Imagine this; you are working in a quiet office with your boss a yardstick away, then you decide to make a quick purchase from a certain site. As soon as you click on the link, the room is filled with noise or music coming from your computer. This might get you into a bit of trouble. It is for this reason that you should give your visitors an option.

It makes a lot of assumptions. By enabling the autoplay functionality of your site’s audio content, you are making a lot of assumptions. You assume that all your visitors: – Have browsers capable of playing the files without crashing – That all your visitors will be intrigued by the video – That the visitor is not listening to something else such as music as they surf the web – And that the person visiting your site is situated somewhere where the sudden noise will not disturb other people.

If any of this assumptions happens to be wrong and the video causes problems with the browser, disturbs someone working nearby or causes the visitor any grief, they will close the site and probably never return.

It’s not the industry standard. Take a look at some of the most successful websites on the internet such as Google, Amazon, Ebay or Facebook. Do they play videos automatically on their sites? These companies have put in thousands of research hours and millions of dollars to find out what web surfers like; if they don’t do it, neither should you.

It’s not good for multi-tabbed browsing.If your visitor has opened several tabs on his/her browser, an auto-playing video will force the user to flick through several tabs to find the source of the noise. This might be annoying and the user might end up closing your site’s tab.

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) does not recommend media autoplay for websites. They discourage auto-playing media that produces sounds. It will interrupt people using screen-reader software. This means that people who rely on screen readers to navigate your site will have to wait until the video is over (that’s if it doesn’t loop) to continue browsing.

It forces data down a person’s connection. This discourages users who are on fixed data plans or pay for their connection according to use. This is because videos need more data to load.

Distraction. Auto-playing media (not just videos) will distract your visitor making it hard for him or her to concentrate on the other parts of your website.

It takes control away from the user. We all like to be in control. We want to control how the browser or the website functions. Taking this control from your visitors might annoy them or seem arrogant on your part.

It’s a gamble. Not all your visitors will like the auto-playing video or media. This may lose you some visitors who can’t stand watching the video each time they visit your site. Although videos have the ability to enhance your sites user experience, then can also do the opposite if poorly implemented.

If you must have auto-playing videos, make sure they are:

– Mute if they are set to autoplay. – No longer than five seconds. – Have large and well-positioned...

07/24/2025:

update to my review, albeit few years later:

Came here with another couple. Most of the things we tried were really good. We tried the Bruschetta Board, Chicken Paillard, Caramelized Onion+Zucchini. Couple minor misses - Balsamic Blueberry soup, not a combination that works well together, tasted like a an off-tasting shake. Otherwise, a good experience

We always drive by the restaurant and its always packed. Few of our friends have been here and they seem to enjoy it. So we decided to give it a try.

Came here on a whim and by pure accident met another couple. Place itself is divided into 3 sections: main dining room, bar and outside patio. Its a smaller place but does have a cozy vibe. The music was very loud, to the point that manager/owner kept trying to lower it. But our experience truly was not as expected and has not lived up to any expectations - food was average at best, service was sub-par (and I understand that restaurants are understaffed but I still have to be honest about our experience).

As I mentioned, nothing really stood out from the food. We had couple of appetizers (Bruschetta and Fromage (cheese and nuts board), Brussels Sprouts Salad. From the main courses - French Chicken (was overly dry, the greens and sweet potatoes were pretty good), Seafood Jambalaya and Chicken Pailliard (our friends had those dishes and they said it was okay).

For the dessert, we tried all 3 they had on the menu (Almond Cake, Lemon Curd Tart and Chocolate Pot De Crème). Ok, nothing bad, nothing great, average. But I think our server forgot that we had the desserts or just got overwhelmed. He brought us the coffee right away but we had to wait 20 minutes for dessert, so we asked for a refill on the coffees but it took so long, by the time they got us the refills, we were done with dessert. So the timing was completely off.

I know that the restaurant was booming before COVID and I hope they recover. But our experience was extremely underwhelming and don't think we would...

Went here with a friend for a girls night out to celebrate her graduation from a masters degree program and a new job. We were excited to try Gigi’s and made a reservation for 8:30, with the website having reservation options for dinner as late as 9pm.

We were seated at a table very near the kitchen and there was lots of loud clanging of dishes and other noise throughout the entire meal.

I arrived at around 8:40 due to an issue with directions and was immediately greeted by our server informing me that the kitchen was closing soon and we needed to put our orders in asap.

I had not even had a moment to look at the drink or wine list. After we ordered our food we weren’t left with a drink or wine menu, those were deftly taken away.

We both chose salads and uncomplicated starters but even so we were incredibly rushed repeatedly during the meal and had the impression that our server would really like for us to just pay for our stuff and go. She did give us permission to wait on ordering dessert. She then brought us one check without even asking how we would like to handle it.

All of the food looked and tasted fine and the decor of the place was pretty but the service we received made us feel unwelcome and ruined our experience. The vibe we got the entire time was that it was a bother to allow us to have dinner there.

I would suggest to the owners to not accept reservations for 8:30 and 9:00 pm for dinner if this is an imposition to your preferred operating schedule. And perhaps edit your website as the text states seating for dinner goes until 9pm. Or find staff who can act like they want to be there.

Our bill was close to $135 plus tip and the service we received just didn’t match that.

It looked like a lot of love and care was put into the look of the restaurant and the dishes on the menu, too bad the overall experience...