Barley House — Restaurant in Cleveland

Me and a few girlfriends recently visited this location because they were holding an event called “Girls night out”. We have never been here previously so we didn’t know what to expect. We were greeted by a very friendly doorman. When we entered we were “welcomed” by unfriendly servers who had trouble figuring out where to seat us. Two women in our group were in wheelchairs. We were unable to sit at the upper level because it wasn’t handicap accessible, which is a pretty big strike for us. We had to sit on the main level with the high top tables (we were also told that we would have to go to the bar and place our orders instead of having a server come to us. I guess they don’t “service” the high top tables. Although clearly we were unable to go to the upper level so we were hoping they would make an exception for us.) They sat us all the way in the back and we were barely able to see the stage. We got there about 30 minutes before the show even began and there were hardly any people in the bar. They could’ve sat us at a table where we would be able to enjoy the show. Especially with having two individuals in wheelchairs. I did not have good experiences with either of the female bartenders. They were both very confused and could not make drinks properly. They want you to stick to the menu of their overpriced cocktails with hardly any alcohol in them. When I attempted to get a certain drink or shot, they said they didn’t have that ingredient or they didn’t know how to make it. They then shoved the menu on me and basically said “stick to this”. Very rude, very short. Some women in the group ordered food, it came out pretty late and the fried pickles were left behind and when we mentioned where they were the girl brought them out and said “Sorry for your wait” and handed us cold friend pickles. Definitely forgotten, on accident or purpose? The bathroom WAS NOT fully handicap accessible. My friend in her motorized wheelchair could not even fit in one of their stalls. Most of the night the bartenders were lined up toward the back, not busy. The girls were all rude and extremely unfriendly or unwilling to help. They were avoidant from the beginning. The only Barley House worker that we had a very nice experience with, was the nice doorman that greeted us at the beginning. He also got us wristbands since we were unable to do so, which made it so easy on us. And he turned off the fan that was directly on us and kept looking over at us to make sure we were accommodated for. Very sweet and I wish I got his name. All in all I honestly wouldn’t recommend this bar. The staff In horrible, with the one exception. The drinks are awful and the vibe is definitely “off”. None of us will be returning, and I highly suggest you don’t visit this particular...

We were turned away 4 times for dress codes despite changing!!! We have tried to come to this establishment on two separate occasions. The first time we came we were turned away because of ripped jeans on one of the black male guests in our party. We thought this was odd because we could clearly see others at the bar who also had ripped jeans but we were told it is apart of the dress code and could not enter. We didn't argue and simply left to go across the street to a different bar. The second time we came we made sure that no one had ripped jeans and we were turned away again for another black male in our party who's sleeves were about an inch too short to enter. We had a suitcase of luggage in the car so this wasn't a big issue as he just went to change. After changing into a shirt with the appropriate sleeve length he was turned away again because his shirt and pants were both black. He went to change again coming back with a blue shirt and the bounce made him lift up his shirt! Seeing the elastic wait band on his pants he was turned away again for an issue that could not even be seen. Then he went to the car to change again and was still turned away despite fitting all of the dress code requirements. The bouncer gave no reason this time and simply said no. This was incredibly frustrating as we did everything we could to fit these rules. What frustrated me even more is that a dress code is not posted online or anywhere outside of barley house so that we could prepare for it. I have been to several places that have a dress code but never one that wasn't posted. During this entire time when my friend was changing I waited with a few others outside. I watched as time and time again people came up and we're turned away but it was very inconsistent. I watched a man get turned away for having a pattern on his pants I watch time and time again as black males were turned away for rules that seemed to be made up on the spot. This hurt me so much to see that this is still happening here and that there wasn't anything we could do about it. When we asked the bouncer why he was turned away the last time I made sure to be very polite and just wanted to know why or what the dress code was. He was very angry with me and told me that if we had a problem with it we could be arrested and gestured to the police officer behind him. We do not get to go out often as we work events usually on the weekends and this definitely ruined our night. I cannot support this establishment by returning or...

This past Friday (9/13), 3 friends and I tried to have dinner at Barley House before going to the Billy Joel concert. I made a reservation on Monday (9/8) for 5pm, so we would have plenty of time before the concert started at 7 (confirmation email attached below). When we arrived, we were met with a careless host who admitted there had been a problem with their reservations and said he couldn’t find ours, even after we showed him the confirmation email stating the date and time for the reservation. He then offered us the first spot on the list, but let us know it could be a 30-40 minute wait time. With no other options, as all other restaurants were full due to two concerts and a Guardians game on the same night, we were forced to wait. After 45 minutes, we checked in again, reminding them that we had a 5 pm reservation, and were told it would still be another 10-15 minutes. We waited again, only for 15 minutes to go by without being seated as we watched other groups of 4 get seated before us. We attempted to speak with the host once again after this incident, but instead watched as several staff members made direct eye contact with us and walked away, seemingly not wanting to deal with us. Meanwhile, we saw at least 5 empty tables inside the restaurant, and only 3 servers on the floor. At this point, we had been waiting for over an hour, meaning we no longer had time to have dinner.

On one of the busiest nights in Cleveland, Barley House was incredibly unprepared and uncooperative. We never received any type of apology or compensation for the reservation errors on their end. Staff members were rude and ignorant, clearly unaffected by the extreme inconvenience they had caused us. Issues with reservations happen, but it is the restaurant’s responsibility to resolve them. Instead, Barley House made no amends and left us without dinner...