Buckeye Beer Engine — Restaurant in Lakewood

My party of 8 (and a newborn) went to Buckeye Beer Engine yesterday. We called ahead of time to warn them as this is typically a larger party that requires reservation. They said they did not take reservations and to just come in but it would likely be a wait which we were fine with. When I got there I ran in and they took my name down, my number, and the fact that we had 8 people mentioning to us that it would likely be around 30 minutes before we got a table. About 10 minutes later my sister-in-law went in to sit at the bar and they mentioned again it would be about 15 more minutes, all good so far! the rest of us came in and joined her at the bar. This is when it all went downhill.

I ordered an old fashioned — it was made over the next 25 minutes and then lost at the bar. The bartenders were too busy casually talking to each other and what seemed to be their friends rather than making my drink. We had to ask again for my drink and was finally received (30 minutes later).

Our large party of 8 was mostly sitting at the bar (taking up half the bar mind you). We saw several people after us get seated, but assumed our table was getting organized because of the large party. We were wrong. I never received a call and after an HOUR of waiting, we asked what the deal was. The host that initially helped us gave us a response of “I don’t know, I already clocked out…” WHAT? How can you give that response to a customer?

Afterwards we had to ask someone else whole told us “we don’t typically seat 8… WHAT? How can you make a large group taking up your entire bar area wait an hour just to tell them this? If this was seriously a problem we should have been communicated to when we called that morning and we would have went elsewhere. It’s bad enough we never got a call, or even offered food at the bar while we waited for that hour. Common sense tells you to offer us two tables next to each other (there were two tables in the small dining area open EVERY time I looked over there). I understand being short staffed and assumed that was the case, but that is where we ended up after further conversations.

Thankfully at this point things got a bit better. The service once we sat down was fairly good (thank you to the blonde bartender who came and helped us). The food and drinks came out quick and was pretty good. The only other concern I had was that I never received an itemized receipt.. I did not think we were overcharged by any means, but I have no idea what I payed for.

One other thing to note: I saw a post in the AM on Facebook about the brunch menu and asked about if only the brunch menu was offered or if the regular menu was available. They wrote back mentioning only the brunch menu, which did not line up with the response we got from the person on the phone saying that most of the regular would be available as well. We did not know what we could order when we finally sat down.

This place used to be fantastic and I used to frequently pop in here. Incredibly disappointed in the experience and treatment we received. I fully understand being understaffed, and even some of the mistakes noted here but the overall experience is absolutely unacceptable. There is no way any of us will be back to this establishment or recommend...

The WORST burger I've ever had, including fast food burgers. I came to my favorite burger place to support locally, and also to get ready for the Browns - Chiefs playoff game. I ordered a Bourbon Bacon Burger, medium. I went to pick it up 45 minutes later, as they told me and actually timed it to be there 40 minutes since they said they were super busy. I get home and I live only 7 minutes from there. I open the box, it looked good, and first bite was one of the worst bites I've ever and I'm a chef of 28 years. First, the entire meal was so cold, so it obviously sat there for quite awhile. I could live with that. They should really work on their timing and communication with the kitchen. Onto the main reason for this review. The burger was RAW, not medium, not medium rare, not rare..... RAW. Then I open the bun and investigate the burger. The burger was boiled because the color of the meat was a grayish tint and then on the other side it had very light score char-grill marks. There was absolutely no seasoning, as that is hard to do with boiled meat. No matter how busy you may be, there is no reason to do what they did and precook the burger patties. A customer expects, deserves, and will wait for good and great food. A customer, though, will not be back for bad or horrible food. For a place that I’ve gone to many times, and recommend them to others for great burgers, this was unacceptable and I’m sure wasn’t the only customer that complained yesterday with a horrible burger. So I pain $14.50 for chips and a fried pickle, which is always good. Now that I was completely disappointed, I got into my car and went to another local place and got another burger, and at least it was good and happy with my food. I hope the manager and owners will take this review to heart and look into this issue. Not sure for the exact reason as I know that things occur, but this wasn’t a last-minute decision. This may be their new cooking process or something, but definitely do something about this. Taking short-cuts because of this pandemic is no excuse. Quality is always, and should always, be the standard of any bar or restaurant. And one last thing that managers should look into, the burger meat was definitely less than in the past. I will be giving them one more chance though, as I always do with restaurants and bars since I’m in the industry and things...

Food is good, but the service is very under par here anymore. First we tried to sit in the patio, the hostess explained the only table open was for 3+ guests so she sat us at a high top. Shortly after 2 men were seated at another high top, and they proceeded to get up and make their way outside and take up the table we had asked about. Instead of removing them they served them, making us feel lied to. Second, our waitress only took our order, never once checking on us, filling water etc. Even the bar manager checked on everyone else but our table. Food wise the size of the tomatoes slices on the BLT overwhelm the sandwich, slice them thinner

EDIT After the response given to me from the GM I dropped it from a 2 to 1 Star. First off sir, it was not very busy. So don’t compare it like that, it was dead inside and your hostess completely lied to us about the outside seating, that or they were all 2 scared to ask the men to move. 2nd, it does not excuse our waitress for only taking our order. A different server gave us our food and the bar manager gave us our bill. Not very courteous or professional. Lastly, you need to stop and read some of your other reviews. There’s more than a few that state the service is sub-par, especially if you are not getting drunk and wasting your money on your beer. Seems the non-drinkers get the short end of your staffs stick. And seems you are more worried about my tomato comment then the actual problem here. I will not return because of you poor response to this review

EDIT #2 Apparently the GM here is also just as unprofessional as his staff, as he has decided to go the route of name calling. Sorry you can’t take criticism well, if all everyone gave were positive reviews how would a business know how to better themselves? It’s my duty to let people know what really goes on at places like yours. Maybe if you took as much time as you did for your witty comments and trash talk and put it towards your actual job maybe you wouldn’t lose customers left and right. I’ll make sure to share your new response to the rest of...