Rusty Bucket Restaurant and Tavern — Restaurant in Norwood

Our Overall Grade = C-

Oh, where to begin? I'd say we have a mixed review on this place. We used to live in the area and we used to come here from time to time. Our favorite thing here was breakfast with Santa but they stopped doing that several years ago.

Sadly, post Covid, as with many places, the prices have went up. What differentiates this place from other places however is the dramatic price hikes that seem to be a bit unreasonable.

For the type of food, the atmosphere, and the service you receive, the prices just aren't justified. You would think you would be dining in a fine fancy restaurant, but that's not the case. Any entree you are going to pay close to $20 and that for the most part doesn't include a choice of side dishes.

The food was decent with some issues out of the kitchen, which, at the price you are paying, you would expect everything to be excellent and perfectly prepared. This is the thing that really irritates us. When you're paying over $100 for a meal and the kitchen and service is careless with the preparation of your food, you would think it's not much to ask to expect everything to be carefully prepared, especially when the restaurant is not busy. Sadly, this happens more often than not these days and is definitely a deal breaker that will cause us not to return to a restaurant.

They did have a good selection of kids meals that were not overly priced like some post Covid restaurants however, the offset from the cost of non kid meals reduces the excitement of this.

For five of us, two adults and three children our bill came out to be $120 before tip. This includes an appetizer and a couple of adult beverages each as well. We typically average about $70 to $80 for a meal at a moderately priced restaurant, so this was a bit more than what we were expecting for what we were getting. We don't mind spending more money when it was worth it, but this was definitely was not worth the cost. We also had to have several corrections on our bill where they added extra items that we were not supposed to be charged for.

Our server was nice and friendly but not necessarily very attentive. She didn't know the menu well and didn't know much about the drinks. We asked a few basic questions about the beers on tap that she could not answer. If you're going to be a server in a restaurant with a bar, you should know the drinks. Our appetizer was delivered to the table and we didn't have any silverware. It took more than 5 minutes for her to come out and check on us to notice that we didn't have any silverware. It was not a finger food appetizer so we needed silverware to eat it. If you read any of our other reviews, you will see that one of our pet peeves is when an appetizer is delivered without silverware, plates or napkins. We had plates and napkins, just no silverware.

We ordered the fish tacos which were decent. They were $18 for three small tacos. It also came with a small bowl of street corn salad but no other sides. To add a side dish it would be at least $5 or more depending on what you get. So, to get the fish tacos with a side of your liking would be over $23. We also ordered the combo meal which was a decent amount of food for $15. Kids meals for about $6 each and we had to request that a portion of one be remade because it was burnt to a crisp. Not just slightly burnt, but blackened burnt to the point where it was insulting that they sent it to our table.

Overall, the food was okay but not worth the cost we paid for it. They do have happy hours with 50% off apps which might be the way to go. If you're paying full price, you're better off going somewhere else a bit more fancy. Sadly, we probably will not return...

Went to the Rusty Bucket in Norwood, oh and unfortunately it was an absolute horrible experience. The bartender who was working, tall guy with black slicked back hair was extremely inattentive and didn’t seem to care about anyone sitting at the bar. I was there on the evening of Tuesday 4/30. It took forever to order and I sat at the bar with the last persons food sitting in front of me for 5 minutes. And finally the manager had to come over and and clean it for me while the bartender stood there oblivious to what was going on. Once we finally asked for food menus, after sitting there for 15 minutes. We ordered and our food came out and it sat on the bar, not being brought to us while we could see the bartender in the kitchen eating. Once we finally got our food it was ice cold. I asked for it to be remade and sat there 15 minutes not getting my food. Given it was a Cuban sandwich, which is all premade food that just needed to be grilled. Once I finally decided to cancel my order the bartender finally Apologized and said he would go check on it. Miraculously when he went back there it was ready??? I told him I didn’t even want it and that I just wanted to pay and leave. He was literally the worst bartender I have ever had and just didn’t care at all about being there. I will never go back to the Rusty Bucket and will tell everyone I know to never go there. It was a total disaster and no one seemed to car. The worst service ever with the worst bartender ever. Not to mention I wasn’t the only one complaining and dissatisfied. The fact that management allows such horrible service shows that they just don’t care. Don’t waste your time or money at the Rusty Bucket. THEY...

A good alternative to the "Applebees" style chain restaurants.

This was our first time at The Rusty Bucket. It's a clean restaurant/tavern with a nice vibe and good music on the sound system. It was a bit chilly in there, but I personally don't mind the high beams being on.

We started with an order of the bbq chicken wings. They came out piping hot with a flavorful sauce. My wife had the fish and chips. Not the best she's ever had (tough to compare after living across from the beach in BC), but she enjoyed it. The fries were better than most. My daughter had the turkey club. It was standard fare and she ate it all. I had the citrus roasted salmon which comes with broccoli and quinoa salad. The salmon was good, cooked to medium. Part of it was closer to medium rare but was not cold or chewy. The broccoli was excellent, seasoned wonderfully and still warm. I was a bit disappointed that the quinoa was served cold. I am not a fan of serving a warm protein on a bed of something cold. At least room temperature would have improved it drastically. It did however have a good flavor.

All in all in was a good meal. Would be a fine choice to watch a game whilst having a few drinks and sharing some appetizers. I am sure we...