The green kitchen

My husband & I are both vegan & are weekly regulars at numerous places around Cleveland & Akron that offer vegan options, but we especially love to support all-vegan restaurants. We’ve only been to Green Kitchen once though because we were unable to dine in – the building has very poor ventilation & everything smells deep fried. We don’t like restaurants like this because it’s really unappetizing, plus the smell gets in your clothes and hair and sticks to you all day. We changed that order to go, & while it was cold by the time we got it home we heated it up & it was tasty.

We went to one of GK’s popups, but decided to go back to the restaurant this past week for carryout & eat it at a nearby park instead of home since we live 35min away. We placed our order on Toast on Thurs around 1pm for 4:30 pickup. I got an email 5min later from Toast to call GK because there’s an issue/GK still hasn’t accepted my order. I tried calling, but no one answers & there’s no option to leave a message or even that I have reached GK. I figured maybe everyone’s on lunch or something & go to check their Instagram in case they’ve posted something about being closed, but there’s nothing. I tried calling 2 more times throughout the day & also sent a DM on Instagram, but no one replied or even saw it.

We get there & there’s a piece of paper on the door stating that they’re closed today and the next day. Okay, no problem – I understand restaurants closing or having emergencies, but just post something, & if it expires then it needs to be done again. If something is posted and I don't see it then that's on me, but if a restaurant never posts anything about a closure then that's on them. The next night I’m up late and check my DMs, but still no one has “seen” or replied to my message, yet I saw that GK had posted a story that they were closed earlier that day on Friday.

I send another DM letting them know that I was unable to cancel & get a refund for the order through Toast & for them to please issue that, as well as to post something next time they’re closed so that their customers don’t drive all the way out there for nothing. The response I got back was SO rude and sarcastic: “I’ll be sure to personally email you whenever there is an issue at the restaurant that may inconvenience you. Maybe try looking at the account and you would have seen both posts that we were closed”.

YIKES. For real, all he had to say was “hey, sorry about that, we’ll issue your refund once we’re back in the restaurant on Sat”, but he chose this route instead. I replied that there was no post on social, that if there was then it had expired by midday when we placed our order, there were no blacked out times or dates on Toast, no outgoing phone message to let anyone know, and no reply to my DM from the day before.

He THEN BLOCKED ME on Instagram (!!), and not just that but blocked my business account too that’s tagged in my profile. LOL, SERIOUSLY?? What kind of hissy fit reaction & poor customer service is that?!

We will never be going back here, obviously, and we were already not huge fans because of the fried grease ball smell anyway. Clearly John Haggerty the chef/owner is not concerned with getting or keeping customers, so we’re happy to oblige & support other places instead. And since he’s the partial owner (& chef) of Never Say Dive we won’t be going back there anymore either, which is really unfortunate because we’re big fans of Eric and Tommy and NSD's drinks were good.

If you want to eat at a great all-vegan place then make a reservation at Cloak & Dagger around the corner from this place – fantastic drinks & food and amazing customer service where you’re always treated like a human.