Ironwood Cafe Westlake — Restaurant in Westlake

After being a server myself for several years in a busy downtown restaurant I’m always the first to make excuses for waitresses but my experience at ironwood cafe tonight was INEXCUSABLE.

The four of us ordered burgers, sandwiches and a few apps - nothing to crazy but easy money to be made. My one friend asked for a plain cheeseburger and even stated, don’t worry about any of the fixings. Just wanted meat, cheese, bread. Simpler requests like this are usually not what would put me in the weeds, it was the order that had 14 customizations that would annoy me but you’d do it anyway because people are spending their hard earned money at your restaurant that night, instead of choosing the competition. So there is really no reason to be upset over a simple request of meat,cheese, bread.

When our meals arrived, my friends meal was missing. We all waited at first but he asked us to go one before things got cold because 5 minutes passed before the waitress returned with his burger, however it was fully loaded. Before she even sat it down my friend politely said, oh that’s not mine, that’s not what I ordered. Without skipping a beat she suggested he switch with my husbands burger because they must’ve got mixed up. Two problems with this my husbands was already half way through his burger and his was also not a plain cheeseburger. Then again instead of apologizing for the mistake she stated that she was confused and walked off without any explanation. She did not return to the table to ensure us that the mistake was being fix, etc. another 10 minutes go by and his burger is delivered and he says thank you but I hope this would be comped. She just walked away.

Then we were shocked when the manager (Kelsey) comes to the table to again NOT apologize or try and fix the situation but to inform him that his burger would not be comped because even though it took 20 minutes to get to the table he was eating it now. She quite literally came to the table and without saying hello or introducing herself just demanded “what’s wrong with the burger”. Instead of arguing with her or making a scene my friend politely said ok no problem, thank you the burger is good. She then told us that the reason it took 20 minutes was because he sent it back not because her server got his order wrong. I just can’t imagine any owner wanting their staff to handle an issue this way. What is a $7 burger comp compared to four customers leaving uncomfortable and angry? They go to their friends and family and tell them about the awful experience they had, and all that had to be done was ONE apology at any point for either the server or manager. We get it, we wouldn’t want a server eating the cost or whatever was going on but you could at least pretend to sympathize with the customer who has to watch his friends eat for twenty minutes before getting his meal to only be interrupted by a manager who had no intention of apologizing but only to make us feel completely unwelcome.

Think it goes without saying that I won’t be back and that we will take our $150...

Delicious Food, Uncomfortable Atmosphere I've now experienced Iron Cafe twice, once through Uber Eats and once dining in, and I can confidently say the food is absolutely phenomenal. The flavors are incredible, and the quality is consistently high. I was so impressed with the dine-in experience that I tipped generously, as the service itself was also very good. However, the location in Westlake, Ohio, significantly marred the experience. While the food is undoubtedly worth trying, I must caution other Black patrons to tread carefully. My girlfriend and I, the only Black people in the restaurant, experienced a palpable sense of unease. During our meal, a white woman and her husband sat across from us. She made a pointed comment, saying, "it must be that time of year," while looking at us out of the corner of her eye. This felt distinctly racially charged. Furthermore, my girlfriend reported an uncomfortable encounter in the restroom, where she felt deliberately intimidated and pressured to leave by another white woman. While I cannot fault the food or the service provided by the staff, the atmosphere created by other patrons was undeniably hostile. It's a shame that such delicious food is served in an environment where Black customers are made to...

I want to start off by saying we visited this place during the week and had a good experience. We loved the food and especially the kids food options.

We told my parents about this place and how good the food was that we decided to take them Saturday evening. Service was slow, but from my understanding they were short staffed and that wasn’t really a problem for us. The real problem that we encountered was while we were eating dinner and waiting on another round of drinks, a male customer came up to our table and told us we had better wrap it up and leave since this was going to be his table. Just prior to this encounter, my family watched the hostess talking to this man and pointing to our table. We have no idea what was said , but it was apparent she knew this customer came up to our table and disrupted the good time we were having and made us feel so incredibly uncomfortable and unwelcome. Instead of asking this rude customer to leave, they allowed him to stay and wait near our table. The customer service was definitely not there this time around and unfortunately my family has no desire to return due to this awkward and...