Cleveland-Heath — Restaurant in Edwardsville

I used to absolutely love this place, but, as usual, the "Edwardsville effect" as I like to call it, has set in and they've gotten lazy and started price gouging. It was ridiculously cramped, and though tasty, the food is ridiculously overpriced. I brought my girlfriend in because we wanted to have a nice date night. We've both been working a lot lately, and I told her how good the food is at a relatively reasonable price tag. I was wrong, the food is in fact good, but $30 for a 14oz porkchop? No way haha. The prices have all been jacked up, the service absolutely sucked, and I regret tipping the 15% that I did, and that's coming from someone who's been a server in the past, as well as my girlfriend. We were seated immediately, but it took 45 minutes and my girlfriend looking around trying to make direct eye contact for our server to lock eyes with her, mouth "oh crap", and scurry over to us realizing that we were forgotten about. In the 2 hours we were there, she was at our table 4 times, once to take our order, second to bring us our food, third to get us our check and boxes (I had to flag her down to achieve this) and ask how everything was, and finally to return for payment, which was BY FAR the shortest amount of time it took for her to return to our table, and it was under 5 minutes that time. If I'm paying close to a hundred dollars for a supper for 2, I expect service that's better than when I go to a fast casual chain like Freddy's or McAlister's, but it ain't here that's for sure. When she came back, she even had the audacity to ask if I wanted any change, implying that she expected me to leave a tip. In all honesty, if I hadn't already put down the cash for the 15% that I tipped her, I wouldn't have tipped at all, and I'm someone who generally tips upwards of 40% at a place like this, and tips very well in general, but she simply didn't deserve much of anything. Like I said, the food was good, but nowhere near worth the price tag. The place is loud as all hell with pop music playing and people shouting over each other, and the service was honestly terrible. It was a little busy when we first got seated, but most people were at the bar, and quite a few guests left within 10 minutes of us being seated, rendering the wait staff relatively not too busy, so there's no reason we should have had to wait as long as we did for honestly anything touched on above. I also happen to work for a local farmer, and know how all sorts of goods are priced to local businesses, and the price gouging here is absolutely insane. Go to Texas Roadhouse instead, don't waste your time and money here. That's what my ol lady and I wished that we did, and before the waitress finally came to us, we were actually getting ready to simply walk out. At least at TR they'll tell you how long the wait is, the food is absolutely delicious, it's not ridiculously loud and cramped, it's reasonably priced, and every time I've gone to the one in Edwardsville the service has been spot on. Summary; Used to be good, the food is in fact very good, simply overpriced like crazy, the service and atmosphere absolutely suck, and this place is a lot of wasted potential, as it has the potential to be great. I would name the waitress, but I could hardly hear her half of the time, and I'm not entirely certain she even introduced her name. Come on y'all, you're better than this, I've seen it in...

I went out with a dear friend whom I don’t visit enough for a lunch here knowing it’s one of her favorites, wanting awesome eats and to catch up with one another. We got the eats. However we were both disappointed with this visit. Main complaint? We couldn’t carry a conversation due to the servers needless (we don’t need to talk about a water refill lengthily) intrusions.

While the food, drinks and general atmosphere were amazingly excellent the obtrusive service was extremely off putting. Overdone, obnoxious, overbearing and off putting.

Rocky, our server, was not at all intuitive but very intrusive with her theatrical overly loud chirpy baby talking and hovering during our long lunch. To be fair, it just wasn’t her but the entire floor staff, in particular the guy with glasses was the ring leader.

We left prematurely out of sheer annoyance. .

It didn’t jibe well with the reviews I read of the food or the wonderful food we ate. I was expecting a more subdued refined dining experience and not a diner.

I was unable to visit with my companion and hold a conversation. The experience was not relaxing.

If you don’t mind the familiarity and noisome servers - the food is excellent, prices are more than fair, the menu creative and I love the use of locally sourced ingredients and goods. Even the music selection was stellar. Really great kitchen service, floor servers need to calm down, lay off the caffeine or whatever.

I really do love and appreciate genuine attentive service having been in the industry for years - but this was simply over the top, too much and too loud. A carnival experience. My advice to the servers? Refill the drinks, do ask about the food once or twice during courses- but show some tact, quiet down a little, do NOT touch me, I am not your new BFF, observe and serve. Again, observe and serve. Don’t interject at every opportunity. Can’t you see we’re trying to talk and eat? Back...

Second update (2/14/23): the new owners have revived our love for CH again and we are so grateful! It's now our go-to place like it always used to be, and we even use them to cater my husband's 40th birthday party, which went amazingly in the food was incredible! So grateful for what the new owners have done to turn it around and bring it back to it's original glory!

Update: we have tried to give this place MANY chances over the last year or so with the new ownership and told ourselves there was no reason for anything to be different. In other words, we were very optimistic. Sadly, we were let down almost every visit. Drinks were still awesome, but our favorite dishes that we have loved since the day they first opened just aren't the same. The sweet and spicy wings have been our staple order and the last time we ordered them they smelled awful and weren't crispy at all. We sadly couldn't even finish them and sent them back. We also always loved the chips and salsa, but the last two times we ordered, the chips were completely soaked in grease and weren't light and fluffy like we were used to. Even the salsa wasn't the same fresh taste that we had grown to love over the years. We are so sad to say that we probably won't be back and it breaks our hearts as this was always our go-to dining spot and we recommended it to literally everyone. It was a running joke with our friends and family that it was the only place we ever are out.

From 2016: Our absolute favorite place to eat since it opened! Creative, delicious dishes made with high quality (and many times local) ingredients at an affordable price. Staff is also fantastic and knowledgeable. Can't...