Char Whiskey Bar & Grille — Restaurant in Rocky River

The atmosphere was okay. We sat ourselves at the bar and waited a few minutes to be greeted which was fine. However, after our first drink is where the wheels fell off the wagon. We ordered our food; the waygyu beef surf n turf and a seafood pasta, the 2 most expensive items on the menu. After waiting for our bartender to serve everyone around us multiple times, we finally got her attention and changed our orders to simple one pour items so we didn't have to wait for drinks as long this time and then the food came out. Presentation was great but that was it. I took one bite of my scallop and it was ice cold. I felt my beef (med rare) and it was barely room temp. The other dish was supposed to be 5 different seafood items in a white wine lemon butter and it was warm at best. After looking at us multiple times our bartender still hadn't come over to check on the items so we waited 5 more minutes until I was able to flag down the man that brought our food out. We explained the issue and without even an acknowledgement he takes our plates. He comes back and says 2 minutes. I looked at him in a confused manner and said, oh, you're reheating them. He said yeah, do you want us to make them again? I understand wagyu beef and lobster are expensive items so I told him it was fine. A few minutes later the items came back out and he drops them, grabs us a round of drinks and walks away without another word. My food brussels sprouts were piping hot, my scallops and steak were luke warm and the pasta dish was piping hot so I figured to just let it slide. We began eating and it turned out the pasta was just noodles and seafood drenched in a bowl of hot grease with very minimal flavor and somehow, blackened scallops had no blackened to them and somehow and I am unsure of how its possible to cook a marbled waygyu beef with absolutely zero flavor. (Salt, pepper, some fat and a cast iron is all you need to make a flavorful steak) Halfway through the man that dropped our food off came by and asked how it was. I responded so-so. I don't know about anyone else but if a customer tells me they are having a so-so experience, I am going to ask questions and fix it. Not this guy. He looks at me, says so-so, hmm, and walks away! If that doesn't scream customer service and personality, I don't know what does! Once we finished our meals, our bartender finally came up and asked us how we were doing so i gave her my plate. Another bartender came up a few minutes later and asked my girlfriend if she wanted to take hers home and she declined even though it was only half eaten due the fact that it was grease and seafood soup and not a nice sauce complimenting the main star of the dish. The last bartender took the pasta off and we paid. We actually asked several people around us about their experiences that evening as well and they all had similar experiences. Dry, overdone burger, half-eaten to my right, we don't even eat here, just have a few drinks to my left. I understand this is a new restaurant and there are growing pains but maybe try training your staff in some customer service basics and try not making us the guinea pigs of your kitchen experiments. Good luck, your whiskey selection is amazing but try catching the rest up...

Ohhhh where to start.....🙄🤔 The server seated my friend and when I showed up, we waited, she never even came back so we moved to the bar area Ordered food, bartender came back and said there were no mashed potatoes...ok fine, switched it to Mac& Cheese. Ordered Ribeye- came back and said there was no Ribeye, fine! Lets try your $37 NY strip steak.... Food came out, salmon was a tad over cooked but the flavors and seasoning was great... the Steak was NOT worth the $37 I think I would have had a better steak at Fairview Tavern for $12 or even Longhorns is way better.... Its as though all they did was just throw it on the grill, no seasonings, nothing.... Will NOT RECOMMEND THIS PLACE FOR STEAK TO ANYONE. Am actually really disappointed because was expecting it to be amazing. Oh an my favor part was when the bartender put my bourbon in a glass of ice and let it sit there getting watered down 🤣 So- dear owner Your servers: need to be more attentive, they need to move their feet , check on patrons Your steak- drop the price to $12 because it definitely isnt worth 38... i am really unhappy about it and told your bartender how disappointing it was.... It appeared that your cooks just wanted to leave as fast as possible from the kitchen.... ---- In response to owner's response---- Well helllooo! So glad you took a minute to respond yes, I was there when the woman was being assisted, this was prior too hence, the server never even came back to at least state, " hey I am so glad you found a seat at the bar, sorry about that! " or something but it wasn't even our server who was attending to the lady FYI. Ours just never came back... And we did say something to the bartender prior to completing our meal, we weren't going to send the steak back, like really, for what? We were also told the kitchen was closing .... So to send it back then to get the same type of steak back that was unseasoned ? lol..... as before the NY strip steak is not worth $37 in our opinion. Im thrilled that the Ribeye is a hit and sold out! Perhaps because its seasoned! Also, to clarify, Im fine with a bourbon being stirred, but not fine when it sits in crushed ice and is getting watered down. How about next time your response is more like: We would love to earn your business again and sorry we were all out of our most popular item. That evening did have some chaos and we typically take pride in serving our customers timely. Give us another shot and we will make your experience better! Thank you for checking out our restaurant and hope to see you again! -------- That right there is good business acumen for an...

Checked out Char with my significant other the other evening, great atmosphere, good selection of Whiskey, I really liked how their back bar is presented. We did dinner late night during the week in fear of a packed house of the weekend. Perfect time, found two spots at the bar, immediately greeted by the bartender (Lauren) handed menus, she immediately went through both the cocktail and food menu describing different items and asking us what we liked. We're a pretty laid back couple and enjoy letting the bartender and/or server take the lead when we are trying a new spot out so we let her pick out a few of her favorite items. She promptly came back with the Mezhanttan and Hey Jealously both were presented beautifully, and tasted great. I personally am on the fence about gin, but I am always willing to give it a try. This drink though, perfect, the flavors compliment each other so well and it's really light and refreshing. It's definitely going to be a hit when summer comes. We did two starters, the Crab Cakes and the Ahi Poke which Lauren mentioned is made in house. Both were delicious, unfortunately we couldn't resist and began to dig in to the Ahi Poke before I could get a photo so excuse our attempt to make it look as nice as it was presented. You could also tell that everything was made with fresh ingredients, my SO also really enjoyed the slaw that was paired with the Crab Cakes. We were told that the portion sizes are significantly large, so we decided to split the Short Rib Mac (pictured) which was amazing! The flavors were complex, but fit together so nicely, it was a combination of savory and sweet. We honestly couldn't get enough. We also tried two more drinks, So Bright and Pink and the New Fashioned. Ok, SBP literally tasted like raspberry sherbet, definitely coming back for that and Hey Jealousy. If we weren't full enough, Lauren then sold us on their boubon cake. Yum, I'm not a huge fan of dessert but this cake was perfect for me, sweet but not overkill where you feel like your teeth are going to rot out. All in all we really enjoyed our time at Char, everything from food, drinks, service, ambiance were perfect for us and were excited to not only come back but to see what else is good...