Bartleby — Restaurant in Cleveland

We were a table of 6 (3 couples) with a reservation made over a month in advance for a special birthday. Positives: The decor and aesthetic are incredible and really amazing and gorgeous. The drinks were very good and the bartender was nice. The appetizers we did order were delicious. Negatives: Unfortunately these far outweigh the positives. Hostess seemed perturbed and greeted us by letting us know there was only one server for the whole restaurant for the night. Despite having only one server they had him training a new server who was not allowed to take simple drink or appetizer order despite being a seasoned server (she was nice and we chatted with her). Drinks were very slow to come/make. One of our appetizers was a bread and dip and delivered with 4 slices of bread. We were offered more bread (which we were charged for). Menu is very limited yet includes two different burgers (a little strange for an upscale restaurant). No specials (or at least we were not told of any). Our server was not friendly or warm, very short and terse with us and we were repeatedly made to feel like we were a bother and unwelcome. We were told checks could not be divided by couples or split (after we had ordered several appetizers and drinks). It is supposedly a restaurant policy. Extremely strange for any restaurant let alone an upscale one. We have quite literally had individual checks with 30+ people at upscale restaurants by our home. When we asked for a few more minutes to decide our dinner order he did not return for 40 minutes and then led with telling us that they were sold out of the scallops (what four of us were ordering). There were only 8 tables seated at this time. He seemed agitated we were not prepared with a second menu choice after learning this. When he returned he led with, the manager says he will go ahead and buy your scallops for you if you want to order them now. We did not know what this meant. Would they be fresh? Was he literally running around the corner to get these? Would they be what the restaurant normally served? Then he offered a pork chop entree out of the blue which was not on the menu and told us that they used to have pork chops and are in the middle of changing the menu. The whole exchange was strange and out of place. We decided the vibe was way off and we felt unwelcome. We did not want to order food that was potentially old in a freezer or was bought at the grocery and not their normal fare for their prices. We asked for our check and pay for our drinks and appetizers and leave. When he returned we told him it wasn’t his fault about being the only server, we understood and felt for him having all served ourselves, nor his fault about the odd menu item back and forth however we just felt a negative vibe and wanted to head elsewhere. We were very kind to him despite his not being to us and we had tried to give his attitude the benefit of the doubt considering being short staffed. He started angrily clearing the table and telling telling us, this is all going to come back on me now! We were so confused and very put off. We had paid our bill and hadn’t complained to a manager but the whole vibe was off and we just wanted to leave and then were treated poorly for taking our...

Was SO excited to come here and unfortunately it was a a VERY sub par dining, service, and reservation experience.

I am usually so positive and try to give all new restaurants a chance, but I would steer clear of here for dining, I absolutely do not recommend the food as the quality was extremely subpar, sort of reminded me or the food at Pioneer.

I made reservations long in advance for 2 at 6pm on a Friday and arrived 10 minutes early to a line outside in the freezing cold. It would have been nice to know in advance that the restaurant does not even open the doors or begin seating until 6pm. I put in the reservation request that we were celebrating a birthday and they provided no special experience or even recognized it until mentioned. We immediately noticed the glasses were extremely dirty, not just at our table but multiple others. We were seated at a table far in the back against a book case with no view, when I requested to change tables, the owner said nothing was available although we were within the first 5 parties to be seated for the night and noticed multiple tables open throughout our entire dining experience.

The drinks were over priced for the quality and although we were aware there would be an up charge we were not indicated of the up charge for different liquor. Many of the items tasted microwaved, it was obvious the items were not prepared fresh. The steak and frites were fatty and under seasoned, the fries tasted like fair fries, but actually somehow worse. The menu is extremely limited with subpar options that do not seem to go together or form an actual menu. The crust on the crab pizza tasted store bought and the crab was not fresh at all. I believe many of the items were from Aldi's to be honest.

For the prices, the dining was extremely underwhelming.

Although the interior beautiful and our waitress was friendly - we've actually seen her at pioneer as well, we had a far less than ideal experience at Bartleby, however we remained polite throughout. It would have been simple to swap our reservation to another 2 person table but the owner refused and was non apologetic. Even on the way out the hostess did not thank us for visiting or speak to us at all even though she was clearly not busy.

There is so much potential with new ownership and training for the staff, but unfortunately I would not recommend for dining. Maybe visit for a quick drink and the atmosphere, but I would absolutely not go out of my way to celebrate anything here as it was possibly one our worst dining experiences...

On Friday, December 6th. My friend I decided to go here for drinks and a small bite to eat. Upon arrival, there was no hostess and a line of people waiting to be seated. After 10 minutes, We went to the bar and asked a bartender if we could sit at one of the tables in their lounge area because the hostess was no where to be found. He approved and walked us over to a table. Our waiter came over and gave us water and we order a bottle of Veuve Clicquot Brut. While we were waiting about 20 minutes for our bottle, out of no where comes this man rushing over to our table with such a nasty and hostile demeanor, claiming the table is reserved for a bigger party and that we need to get up using shooing motions with his hands for us to move. We try to tell him that an employee seated us there he argued with us and told us that we sat ourselves and that we need to move. Continuously using this shooing motions with his hands at us. As we follow him to the table he moved us to, the hostess cuts us all of and says that table is also reserved. He then moves us to small, off balance high top table in a corner which happened to be very cold. In the midst of all the chaos, our server (after waiting for our bottle for 20/25 minutes) brings a bottle of Lambrusco Wine which was already opened and poured into the glasses beforehand. Additionally, that isn’t what we ordered. The server appeared to be drunk and disheveled. While my friend is correcting him and requesting the right bottle, I’m speaking to the man who moved us. Expressing to him that I don’t appreciate his attitude or demeanor towards us. I tried to explain to him that we were seated by an employee and that it’s impertinent to uproot us from our table in the middle of our service. He continuously talked over me and questioned me about who seated us as if I was making it up. Then he ends the conversation with “well we can agree to disagree” and walked away mid conversation. I asked our server if there was a manger and who the rude man was and he told us he is actually the owner. My friend and I then decided to walk out of the establishment. Learning that he is the owner was very disappointing. We left feeling embarrassed, humiliated and in my opinion racially targeted. The service was terrible, the staff was very unorganized, inattentive and had no knowledge of the menu. The owner is a very impolite, ill-mannered, and harsh man. I will never step foot in Bartleby in my life and I make it my duty to tell anyone I come in contact with about my experience at this...