Clusters & Hops, Wine Bar, Restaurant & Retail Gourmet Shop — Restaurant in Tallahassee

The food all had a thanksgiving undertone - nutmeg, rosemary, sage, thyme...so much so that the dishes blended together. And what's with the random sprig of cilantro thrown on top of the dishes at the end? Either incorporate it or don't.

Anyway, let's talk about the dishes one by one...

Duck lavosh - a good idea, moderately well executed. The cheese was so sharp that it overpowered the duck and we could barely tell it was there. Cilantro was a nice touch but seemed an afterthought. 6/10. Catch of the day (unicorn fish) - bland, bland, bland. Steamed fish wrapped in a strange wax bag (I assume to be fancy, color me unimpressed) with stringed zucchini (unseasoned), carrots (unseasoned), and sliced almonds over a bed of pearl pasta. Again, with an afterthought of cilantro. Sense a trend here? The sauce was incredibly tasteless and did nothing to complement the beautiful piece of fish. The almonds had the strongest flavor profile of the whole dish - almonds! A mild nut! Where was the lemon in the sauce? Thank god for that cilantro or I wouldn't have tasted anything at all. 1/10. Lamb - nicely cooked, over a bed of pumpkin puree (or something like that) with cheese-stuffed sweet red peppers (just like the ones I buy at Publix....hmm) that did nothing to complement the lamb. Not cohesive at all. Saving grace was the sous-vide preparation (which the waiter pronounced "swee-veed"??? It's "soo," like soup, buddy) which ensured that the meat was cooked perfectly throughout. 6/10 only because the meat was tender. Escargot - basically snails ratatouille without the red sauce. Disrespectful to how beautifully elegant escargot can be. Snails were completely overpowered and lost in the mix. Listen, the garlic/butter/parsley escargot preparation is a staple for a reason - sometimes it's best to acknowledge what works and play off of it instead of...whatever this was. Also again, this had a similar taste profile to the lamb, the lavosh, the duck pot pie, and the mushroom cobbler dish. 2/10 Thanksgiving snails. Short rib mac - WHERE WAS THE SHORT RIB??? One piece of fat and the essence of short rib, zero meat. 1/10. Sheesh. Duck pot pie - savory, well cooked, same flavor profile as everything else so kind of hard to tell it apart...not bad though. 7/10. Mushroom cobbler - this was sincerely just elevated stuffing (or dressing as y'all call it). Just tasted like mushrooms sautéed in butter, with chunks of stuffing mixed in. Not worth the price. Also, these mushrooms appeared in numerous other dishes and always tasted the same. Maybe they just sauté one huge platter of mushrooms and spread them throughout the menu, haha. 4/10.

On the plus side, the wine selection was lovely and the parmesan cheese for dessert was a nice touch. Bold move. Truffle honey could be left out - regular honey would have complemented the sharp cheese just fine on its own. 2/5 instead of 1/5 because honestly, you're hard-pressed to find a restaurant around here that serves espresso/cappuccino on the dessert menu.

All of that to say that I will not be returning and it was not worth the price. Sorely...

I never had the pleasure of trying the old location, but I was very excited for the new location as several friends had raved about it. The greeting was very friendly and our server was fine, but the food was mediocre. We had the duck lovash, the escargot and shortrib mac & cheese as appetizers. The escargot, which i suspect by the texture to be of the canned variety, were completley lost, drowned in a savory mushroom and onion mix which reminded me of thanksgiving. There was no shortrib to be found in the shortrib Mac & cheese, advertised as "meat crack" was practically meatless. Lastly the duck lovash was matzoh with cheese, the duck was completely overpowered by the sharpness of the cheeses and if not for the sprigs of cilantro, would have been one uninspired note. For entrée's, I got the sous vide lamb special with pumpkin mash and stuffed peppers. The lamb was fine, but I began to notice a trend - all the dishes were seasoned the same and they all tasted like stuffing. I will say the lamb was cooked correctly, the mash was fine, but the stuffed peppers seemed out of place and just belonged on a cheese board, and the portion was very small for the price. My wife got the Fresh Fish Catch 'en Papillote' which was seasoned in a way that the flavors of the fish were cloudy and dismal with strange notes which made no sense given the description on the menu. Again the portion was meager and the dish was forgettable. We finished the meal with the 2 year aged Parmigiano with fruit honey and balsamic. The cheese was nice, the honey, balsamic and fruit were nice too, but the truffle oil was used heavily and kind of ruined it. Overall it did not live up to the hype and unless something changes in the kitchen, i would not go back. Our bill came to around $170 before tip, and I can make stuffing at home...

Clusters & Hops is the perfect date night spot and their cheese board is incredible.

I came here a few months ago after reading so many good things about the place on Yelp. There was a short wait when my friend and I went in for dinner, but we were seated in about 10 minutes.

We sat down and ordered a cheese and charcuterie plate. Now, I'm still not totally sure what cheeses we had because they weren't labeled and they were all pretty different than any other cheeses I've ever tasted, but let me tell you, Yelpies reading this review: get thee to Clusters & Hops for their cheese, immediately.

The cheese flavors were bold, they were creamy, they were sharp, and they were heavenly.

For my main dish I ordered the ostrich and duck and it was one of the best dishes I've ever had in Tallahassee. It's definitely very decadent, but the ostrich and duck were both juicy and tender and cooked to perfection. I had vegetables with my meal and the vegetables were perfect.

Price point is pretty steep for Tallahassee but the price is worth it for a nice night out.

I would definitely try this...