Cork ‘N Cleaver — Restaurant in Fort Wayne

So, visiting Cork ‘N Cleaver has become an annual tradition for my wife and I every January when we’re in town. We were really looking forward to today’s visit. Unfortunately, it was very disappointing. 😢 Things that were great: the salad bar, crab cakes, and our server. I also liked the panko crusted chicken, even though it didn’t have tomatoes in it like the menu said it would, for some reason…

Things that were not great: the asparagus was way undercooked (very crunchy/raw and warm but the tips were still cold), and the filet mignon was super thin and severely overcooked… but that would not have been so bad if it were not for the second server that came over to try to convince us that it was actually cooked perfectly and that we were just not sure of what we ordered. We asked for somewhere between medium and medium well and they brought a super thin steak that was well-done. Our server said that filets just shrink when they’re overcooked, and she would bring us a new one, but then the second server came out and gaslighted us like we’ve never seen or eaten a filet mignon before. I’m not going to argue with you, lady. That’s not a $50 steak, that much I’m sure of…

This photo was the second steak they brought out. Still very thin for a FILET, but much thicker than the first one, and cooked medium, which was just fine. They did not charge us for the steak, which we appreciated, and we only felt ok about that because of the lady that tried to gaslight us.

The other thing that made the experience terrible, besides that it was really cold in the restaurant and there was an uncomfortable draft under our table, was the table of loud obnoxious patrons sitting near us. Shortly after they arrived, one of the servers asked them if they had done a little “pregaming” before they arrived, but they all said no, and that was the end of that line of questioning. They were SO loud the whole time… sometimes talking about urinals and other inappropriate things. One guy yelled “crème bru-gay!!” and my wife and I felt super-uncomfortable because yeah we’re both women and felt personally attacked… every time the server came over, I struggled to hear her… then,when the server brought us our bill, one of them yelled and the server was actually startled, and she looked at us (suddenly realizing what we had dealt with throughout our whole dinner) and said “I’m so sorry…” It would have been GREAT if they could have asked them to keep it down early on during the dinner service, or maybe even cut them off if they remained too loud.

Are we going to give up on this place?? Maybe… there are lots of other great restaurants in Fort Wayne. This was just a tradition for us and something we used to look forward to. Not many places still have a salad bar and I love quality salad bars. Maybe we’ll give them another try next year, but we’ll have to give that some...

Wonderful experience.

Hubs and I were looking for a place to have our anniversary dinner that was “high end”… and I think we found it.

Note: don’t miss the entrance to the lot. Only that one entrance goes to the little parking lot for the restaurant and it doesn’t connect to the ones past it.

… we learned this the hard way. 😅😂

We were sat almost immediately with our reservation we had made. Very nice interior with an older Spanish hacienda theme.

Their menu is on a dang cleaver! So clever.

Side note: you know it’s a specialty place when their menu fits on a cleaver. They are really really good at those menu items.

GIANT wine menu… which we ordered a wondrous Cabernet called Daou. A very smooth cab… highly recommended.

Their water IS FILTERED. Any big water drinker knows this is important and shows class.

We ordered the bacon wrapped artichoke hearts as a starter. The savory flavor of these… oh. My. Goodness. They are small, but the umami factor is INTENSE with these.

I ordered the lobster bisque soup instead of the salad bar (which is open) with my New York Center cut steak. The dark bread that came with it and the sugar/cinnamon butter… mmm. So good.

The bisque was beautifully hot and creamy… it was perfect temp. Not too hot or too cold. Very little lobster in it, but I also come from Maine where lobster is in recipes very liberally.

The steak was UHH-MAAYY—ZING. Very nicely done… I ordered medium rare. Now, I’m a well fed woman who can and does cook a medium rare steak on a regular basis in a hot second on a cast iron skillet. This steak I received was medium rare on the outside edges and rare in the middle… just the way I like it. If there was an emoji showing perfecto where my fingers kiss my lips, it belongs right here.

Hubby got the coffee crusted rib-eye with garlic sautéed mushrooms and baked potato… he inhaled that thing.

Service with Jenna was awesome. Very friendly with a smile.

Since it was our anniversary, we were graciously blessed with a mud cake (aka chocolate ice cream cake)… and oh my lord. 🤣 That ice cream was fantastic.

We will be back for special events and holidays. I look forward to having their...

I called Wednesday to get reservations for two on Friday night, but they were booked until 9:30 pm. So, we took a chance and arrived when they reopened for dinner, slightly before 5:00 pm. People were already filing into the restaurant. We told the hostess that we wanted to go to the bar. They took us past all those that were waiting and showed us to the bar area, which had plenty of seating.

The bartender, Nicole, asked if we were dining at the bar and we said yes. She got our drinks immediately (which were delicious), gave us the menu which was written on a cleaver, and told us the specials. She began to get busy, but she was great. She was able to keep up with all the other servers' drink orders without any problems. All the staff and patrons which we met were very friendly. Nicole took our orders. I couldn't decide between the salad bar or soup, so I got both. They have a very great salad bar & soups was delicious. I got the prime rib and my wife got the filet mignon. Both were done to perfection. I told Nicole that I have a new favorite place when I travel to Fort Wayne, IN. We topped our dinners off with dessert. I got the creme brule & she got the lemon berry cake and those were awesome, as well. We had a couple more drinks, then called it a night.

It was an excellent dining experience. Slightly pricey, but I can't wait to do it again the next time I'm...