Amazonia — Restaurant in Lakewood

Went for dinner with friends the weekend after Valentine's weekend. The sidewalks around Amazonia and Hola were snow and ice covered and it was difficult to maneuver in high heels. It's not ideal, but I managed and the entrance looks really cool and feels like walking on a bridge into the jungle. I'm the first in my party and greeted warmly at the door and quickly shown to my table upstairs. Our server came and introduced herself and was very friendly. She told us a bit about the hand crafted cocktails and the pizzas. Our drinks came and 2 out of 3 of the drinks were the correct cocktails. It took longer than it should have for her to bring the correct drink as the rest of us were politely waiting until our friend received her proper order. We each got one of the unique cocktails from the menu and they were delicious. Mine didn't have the garnish that was stated in the menu, but it tasted great. Next, we ordered the birria tacos and chicken tinga tostadas. The tacos were good, but I would have liked more of the slaw topping to enhance the flavorful beef. The chicken for the tostada was almost like chicken salad. It was in a little cup and you could spread it on your tortilla (half moon) chip. It was a cold spread and none of us were expecting that. It was not very flavorful and a bit bland. Next, we ordered the burrata pizza. The wood fired crust was bubbly and light. The burrata and prosciutto toppings were cold. Not room temperature cold, but right out of the refrigerator cold. Again, this was unexpected. The toppings were fresh, but could have use a bit of salt, pepper or a drizzle of olive oil to bring out the flavors. Again it was cold and a bit bland for our liking. At this point, we are not impressed with the food and our server is pretty slow in checking in or bringing things. We order another round of drinks (Tito's & sodas) and ask for double limes on each. S She comes out without double limes, makes a comment about the fact that she owes us limes but never brings them. Not a big deal, but why mention it if you aren't going to fix it? Then she tells us we have a 90 minute maximum time on our table. I understand this constraint on a Saturday evening, but with the slow, relaxed timing of service it feels like we are being pushed out the door. She brings our check and the incorrect drink is still listed. She takes it back to get it corrected. We ask her to split it 3 ways and give 3 cards. She returns with 2 check slips that are correct and with a third that has an incorrect total .She explains an issue with the drink correction and totals and the ability to print the 3rd check. It didn't make sense to us because the merchant slip (with signature line) had a double amount but the receipt had the correct total. We point out that we are not signing the $90+ merchant slip because it's wrong. She says we can just sign the receipt with the correct total, even though there is no place to leave the tip or sign on that copy. All in all, the atmosphere is fantastic and really cool! The specialty cocktails are lovely and delicious. Our food choices were disappointing and the service timing was much too slow for 90 minute limit. Not sure if I'll...

Had a chance to visit Amazonia recently, which is a terrific addition to the "small bites" dining / cocktail scene on the Cleveland West Side. The place comes across as a speakeasy / cocktail bar and does it in spades with its food and drinks menu and even the venue itself. Don't know who put this business together, but they did a Helluva job as an intimate cocktail bar with a unique S. American influence. The secretive speakeasy aspect comes across as it is tucked away in a house just northwest of the intersection of Madison and Hopkins Ave.'s in Lakewood's east side (aka "Birdtown" neighborhood). The place does not have bright signage noting its location, but one needs to walk north past Hola Tacos small parking area on Hopkins Ave, follow the dark painted fencing, and duck through the opening in the fencing to the courtyard. Still not there yet... Walk through the small courtyard to the back of the house Amazonia is in and you'll see the steps to enter through the back door. Cool. Hidden. Just like one would expect of a speakeasy. Once in, the decor continues the speakeasy / cocktail theme: soft lighting, comfortable seating (some soft seating), small-ish 2-top and 4-top tables, Latin-themed music, and approx. 12 seats at the bar. Guessing there's a total of 25 seats on the on the lower floor; there's additional seating on the second floor, but since I didn't go there, don't know how many additional seats are there. The drinks and food menu is a very professionally done booklet, with descriptions of the more exotic specialty house cocktails made with spirits such as rum, rye, bourbon, gin, but with the addition of unique ingredients I learned that were found in S. America. Also offer traditional cocktails (e.g., martini's, Manhattan's, Old Fashions), beer, wines, along with their small item / shareable item menu of food. The specialty cocktails are worth a try just for the experience of trying something new, but if not interested, one can get a well-done traditional cocktail, or a glass of wine or beer. Tried the mushroom soup, guacamole dip, and ciabatta. All of them were excellent. While not a shareable item per se, the soup is terrific; a creamy base with flavorful mushrooms like they were sauteed in butter. The excellent dip and ciabatta were sizeable enough to pass as shareable items with your group as well as other items on the menu such as the tacos. They also have a traditional wood or gas pizza oven they offer shareable sized pizzas for 2-4 people to enjoy (next visit...). The attractive young ladies taking care of the guests came across as helpful but not intrusive; the young lady that took care of me at the bar was patient with all my questions about the two specialty cocktails I tried given their unique ingredients one would not see elsewhere. This is a great place to enjoy if you're enjoying date night or prefer a low-key evening with friends and want a break from the full-dinner...

Food is good, drinks are good, venue is unique, but the service was terrible.

Reserved a table for 2 for a Birthday Dinner at 6pm (mentioned in the reservation notes). Had to wait at the host stand to be greated for quite a while, the bartender did say someone would be with us but it took a while. The girl came over and couldn’t find my name so I had to show her it on the tablet. She confused the number of guests with the table number and after I corrected it she finally showed us to our table upstairs which was empty except for 1 other table. She didn't say anything about the happy hour or say anything else.

She was our server too and didn't come to the table for 10ish minutes after we sat. When she returned I specifically asked about the happy hour and she confirmed it was running. I asked her for food recommendations as we had never been before but she seemed very uninformed about the menu and basically just said ‘pizza or guacamole’.

The drinks and food were very good and the restaurant itself has a unique and dark/moody vibe which was very cool.

We tried to order a second round of drinks, she even checked the time to make sure it was still happy hour (it took nearly an hour to get to order another round). After about 25 minutes she came and we still hadn't received our drinks. After another 10 minutes she brought the drinks and it wasn’t the correct drink. She finally came back with the correct one.

When we got the bill it was incorrect. Only two of the 7 items on the bill were correct. I pointed it out and she returned with a bill where only 1 of the 7 items were correctly priced. I pointed it out again and they applied a discount to the total of the bill that still wasn’t correct but was only $2 more than it should have been so I just paid it so we could leave and continue our night.

Never got so much as a “happy birthday” for my guest which was disappointing because I wanted to make it special for him.

Extremely disappointed with the service. Really put a sour taste on our special birthday dinner. The food was very good and unique but i don’t know...