District — Restaurant in Cleveland

We had the misfortune of choosing this restuarant after seeing a show at The Hanna. Despite having to make a reservation after 9pm, the place was completely deserted. This should have been our first clue that this was going to be a terrible experience. They let us choose where we wanted to sit, that was maybe the best point in the service. The host/busboy threw some stained, greasy menus on our plates and silverware, disgusting.

Our waiter, Tony brought us water and told us the specials. He then proceeded to go to the bar, in plain sight and eat a steak while scrolling on his phone. Again, disgusting. I tried to order the brisket, but they were "out" of it. Cold rolls were brought to the table with hard butter blobs, oil/balsamic mix, and some weird gross salsa that we didn't touch.

The "Cleveland onion" soup had an odd consistency and flavor I could not place, but it was not an appetizing one. My fiance's salad had dark, rotten appearing romaine in it. When she questioned Tony about this, he claimed that it was grilled because that's how the grilled caesar is prepared. She ordered a house salad and that romaine was definitely not grilled. He offered to take the salad off the bill, which we gladly accepted, but did not offer to replace it with what she had actually ordered.

At this point, we really just wanted to leave. Our appetizers left us with no appetite. However before we could say anything, our entrees came to the table. We both ordered filet topped with chevre and arugula with truffle potato puree and heirloom carrots. My fiance's plate was chipped and the outside rim had a weird filmy residue all over it with obvious fingerprints from those who had handled it. Her steak was raw. We eat it medium-rare, but this was straight raw. They offered to "heat it up" for us, and took the whole plate. I was forced to eat my meal while she waited for her steak to come back and when it did it was still undercooked.

Now let's talk food. The "truffle potato puree" was lumpy with no trace of truffle. Yes, it was basic mashed potatoes. The heirloom carrots were undercooked and came to the table cold, stuck upright in the mashed potatoes. The "filet" was also served on top of the mashed potatoes. The quality of the meat was subpar at best. This establishment is obviously trying to sell sirloin as filet. It was stringy, full of tendons, and hard to chew. My fiance did not even finish hers.

While we were eating our meal, two other employees joined Tony at the bar to have a loud inappropriate conversation. After we ate what we could manage, he brought us our check. The salad was taken off, however we were charged for an 8oz pour when a 5oz was ordered. Tony claimed it was his mistake because people "usually" order the 8oz glass. After bringing us the corrected check, he went back to the bar to continue his conversation with the other employees. We got so sick of waiting to leave that my fiance got up and walked over to hand him the check and payment.

This place should be paying people to fill the tables because start to finish was miserable and is not a place I could ever in good faith reccomend to someone.

In the end, we wished we had just skipped going to District and stopped by Sheetz for chicken tenders and mozzarella sticks on the way home because it would have been better than this.

Tl;dr: Overpriced, gross, poor quality...

TL:DR Version - OK food, iffy cocktails and slow service.

Full Version: We were looking forward to our night out, complete with a show Downtown and dinner at District. We got there two hours before our show, thinking it would be enough time – and it was – barely. We started with cocktails and the first sign of trouble was that the host was behind the bar mixing drinks. OK, maybe he does double duty and to be fair, the first round of cocktails (a Moscow Mule and Bourbon Honey Cider) were quite nice. The second set was not and perhaps had something to do with the fact that one of the waiters or busboys was now mixing drinks. The Smoked Jalapeno Margarita tasted more like a marinade with nowhere near enough citrus or sweet to cut the burnt green pepper taste. My wife’s Cleveland Sour was also unbalanced with way too much sour. Pucker your lips and wince sour. I decided to switch to wine as they can’t mess that up. For the menu of cocktails they had and the place they seem to be trying to be, I would have expected a consistent, professional bartender.

We ordered the Sweet Potato Pancakes appetizer. While not bad, per se, $8 for five wilted, fried sweet potato slices is a bit much. Calling them “potato pancakes” is a bit of stretch of the term.

By this time, an hour has gone by. An hour, for two rounds of drinks and a lack luster appetizer. We were not yet concerned, but the clock was ticking.

We get our food after being there for about an hour and 20 minutes, about an hour and 10 minutes after we ordered it and surprisingly, about 2 minutes after we asked about it. Based on the state of the meals, I’d guess they were sitting under a heat lamp for a while.

The steak au poive was OK, but lacked any true crust to it and was rather devoid of black pepper (you know, the main part of steak au poive?). I wonder if it was cooked over high heat at all. The potato puree that came with it was full of lumps. All of this was covered in a gravy that again, while not bad, wasn’t much more than you can get out of a packet of gravy mix. The green beans were nice, though. My wife’s fish was (surprise!) unbalanced, being far too herby and could have benefitted from a nice cream sauce. It was served on top of risotto which could have helped, but it was served with the skin on, between the risotto and fish, so near impossible to eat both together. The risotto was also mushy, lacking any tooth, and felt like it had been sitting far longer than risotto should. Given our upcoming show time and the lateness of when we got our food, we more or less had to wolf it down and get going. Not that there was really all that much to savor, unfortunately.

To sum up, none of the food was bad (ok, that smoked jalapeno margarita was awful…), but given the overall quality and fantastically slow service, charging what they do seems ridiculous, bordering on offensive. To be fair, I’ve had comparable food at Applebee’s with far better service. I do not plan on eating at District again – at least until they start running some sort of 2 for $20 deal more fitting of...

My wife and I ate here in the summer, on a Saturday around 6. The restaurant was completely empty. We were confused why it was empty, as the restaurant looked really good. It was very uncomfortable because our conversation was echoed throughout the restaurant. That was the first problem.

The food itself was alright, but nothing special. The menu was very limited and most of it was macaroni and pasta related. We waited at least half an hour for our food, which made us wonder what they could've possibly been doing back there. How long does it take to bring out food for 2 people when the restaurants empty? That was the second problem.

After that wait, the appetizers came out. It was alright, but nothing I couldn't have gotten at any bar.

One of our biggest issues is that I ordered a coke. A. Coke. But the waiter kept bringing them out without asking me. I finished my intended coke. He then quickly brought out my second coke without asking. I said what the heck and finished it off. He then brought out the THIRD coke without asking me. At that point I felt uncomfortable not finishing it, so I finished half. The guy was about to bring out the FOURTH coke when I told him no! What I couldn't believe is that we were charged for all 4 cokes! I almost pissed myself on the Rapid. That was the third problem.

The entrees finally came. They were decent, but very greasy. My wife's ox tail, ended up being shreds of meat drenched in gravy sauce on top of spaghetti. My chicken Parmesan or something, which was also on top of spaghetti. Both of us had no knowledge of our food being on top of spaghetti. This was the fourth problem.

We had both finished about half of our meals, so we decided to get them boxed. The waiter offered to box the food for us, so he took it back to the kitchen, boxed it, and brought it back. I then looked into the bag and saw something that looked like food at the bottom of the bag. I picked up my box of food, and a ton of grease fell right on my crotch! It turns out that the waiter didn't close the box all the way. I took my napkin and dipped it into my water and tried to rub the grease out for about 20 minutes when the waiter finally came over and offered to bring out a cloth. By the time he brought it out I already got most of the grease out. I had to wait for the water to dry before I could even get up. It was very uncomfortable going outside and walking 14 or so blocks to the RTA Rapid station. This was the FIFTH and biggest problem.

The owner obviously doesn't know how to run a decent restaurant. Never have I had 5 problems with one dinner at any other...