Agave & Rye Cleveland — Restaurant in Cleveland

Visited Cleveland for the weekend was very excited to come here Friday night for tacos. Ordered some chips with salsa, guacamole, and queso. Decided to sit outside because it was such a beautiful night. The waiter Armand was very kind and brought the chips out very quickly. However, the queso was ice cold, refrigerator cold. Armand was kind enough to take it back and get it very hot for us.

At that point, we were still excited about the tacos… We ordered the trio, I got the plain Jane, the chefs kiss, and something else with mac & cheese can’t remember what it was called. My boyfriend got three as well… The plain Jane, a steak, one and a pork one I do believe.

When they came out, the presentation was amazing! We were so ready for these tacos. We were hungry. We’ve been out all day.

We both decided to bite into the plane first which was a normal taco and consisted of ground beef, tomato, onion, lettuce that kind of stuff.

Well….. The ground meat was ice cold, I don’t know about you but biting into something and then having ice cold ground meat in your mouth was not very pleasing. I only had one napkin so I didn’t want to use it to spit out my food so I choked it down. My boyfriend was exactly the same.

So we figured OK let’s move onto the second taco. Maybe it’s just the ground beef.

My second taco had chicken his second taco had a steak….. Again, ice cold.

The third taco from my choice had macaroni and cheese and chicken. I stuck my finger in it before putting it in my mouth and again ice cold so I never even attempted to taste it.

My boyfriend didn’t taste His either. At that point, we were ready to go. The atmosphere on the inside of this restaurant was so nice, but there were not a lot of patrons in there. That should have been my first clue that we shouldn’t have got tacos there.

Maybe it was just an off night for Cook. Or maybe they’ve hired a different Cook because their reviews were pretty good

Armand the waiter was very apologetic. Got the manager who gave us a $25 gift card and 30% off our meal…. We were not looking for a free meal. We were willing to pay for everything as we ordered it but sadly, I cannot give this place a good review . As we were walking out. We gave another patron our gift card.

The only reason I’m writing this review is because the place looks amazing. The staff was amazing. They were very kind and apologetic. So hopefully they’ll have a talk with the chefs and the cooks and get them on point….. Otherwise, I fear their reviews are really going to go down bad.

The chips and...

Our server Crystal (sp?) was absolutely awesome! Crystal was congenial and very helpful when explaining the menu. I absolutely loved the aesthetics of this restaurant and their choice of music playing was great too.

The food was hit and miss. The birria street tacos were the star out of all of the entrees that we ordered. I really enjoyed them. We also enjoyed the chips, salsa roja and the guacamole. The queso was decent but a little on the bland side. My husband and stepsons enjoyed the corn fritters and I thought that the shrimp Rangoon was interesting.

I will say that when it comes to their food, I feel like they try to do too much with some of their menu items. For example, my husband got the following for his entree which I took directly from their menu online:

The Big Thumper*

Peppercorn Kangaroo, Mac N Cheese Beignets, Roasted Corn, Sweet & Spicy Bacon Crumble, Green Onion, Habanero Maple Syrup, Queso Love Cushion, Crispy Puffy Flour & Soft Flour Shells.

As you can guess, there were just too many competing flavors and textures. However, he can now check kangaroo off of the list of meats he has tried. The same could be said for the Nashville hot chicken balls and the carne asada egg rolls that were on their appetizer list.

Nashville Hott Chicken & Waffle Beignets

Fried Chicken, Sweet & Spicy Bacon, and Mac N Cheese-Filled Beignets. Dipped in Nashville Sauce and Topped with Diced Pickle Relish and Spicy Crispy Carrots. Served with Ranch and Habanero Maple Syrup

Carne Asada Egg Roll

House Carne Asada, A&R Sesame+Ginger Sauce, A&R Spicy Chili & BBQ Jam, Baby Corn, Water Chestnuts, Cilantro, Green Onion, Carrots, Red Bell Peppers, Lo Mein Noodles

We also did not care for the tres leches cake. I don’t know what was going on with it but I literally spit my bite out into my napkin. It just was a really strong flavor almost as though it was soaked in rum or bourbon. The menu just says it has the following:

Tres Leches Cake

Caramel, Strawberries

I definitely want to give this place another try at some point and just be more mindful about the dishes we select. I also want to try some of their mixed drink. If this rating was solely based on atmosphere and service, it would...

We went downtown on a busy night when there were several events going on. We did schedule a reservation online for 6:00PM so that we were assured to get a seat. When we arrived at the restaurant, maybe 10 minutes before our reservation time, it was busy but didn't seem overly crowded. We decided to take a seat at the bar and get a drink while we waited for our table since the hostess said they would text when the table was ready. This is where it went downhill. The bar was full with patrons so it was busy at the bar. The bartender was VERY SLOW and didn't make any attempt to help many people and didn't even make eye contact with us. A gal sitting next to us at the bar said "good luck, we've been waiting for 30 minutes" but then they got a table. So we were hopeful we would be able to get a drink. Then a little after 6:00 the bartender grabbed money from the tip jar, grabbed her purse and WALKED OUT. We assume her shift ended? But the bar was left without a bartender. We were not the only people to notice this. Shortly after another girl was at the bar but didn't appear to be making drinks and she spent most of the time at the cash register tapping away never really looking up or attempting to help many people. It was not even clear if she was the bartender (she was quite dressed down). So it was clear we were not going to be helped at the bar and our table was not going to be ready any time soon. Even looking around we noticed that not many tables were being cleared either so there were dirty dishes everywhere. It definitely started to look as if they didn't have the staff needed for the crowd. Around 6:30 we left to see if we could get a seat at another location. Thankfully we found a spot, got drinks and food in record time. We NEVER got a text from Agave & Rye that night letting us know our table was ready. It's a cute spot but maybe not the spot you go when there are several events going on downtown because you may never make it...