Tricky Tortoise Brewing Company — Restaurant in Willoughby

OK, first things first... They just opened a few weeks ago. We went for Father's Day dinner (on Saturday) during the Willoughby Cruise-in (didn't know that was happening...) and had a reservation for 5:15. We snuck in the parking lot through the Todd Field parking lot, because Downtown was blocked by EMS vehicles and arrived on time for the reservation. We were seated and left with napkin wrapped silverware and no menus. After about 10 minutes I went in search of menus and was told they only have a few and might be able to find us one (later found out this is the preliminary & minimalist menu and will print the full menus soon). After arriving at the table with my menu, a couple of manager swooped in to find out what was going on. We were informed that our server hadn't showed for work because of illness and Iz (Isabel) another manager would be our server. They served us a couple of complimentary beers and we were good for the moment. They had a good playlist playing Indy songs and a band was setting up while we were there. The rest of our party arrived having walked about 1/2 mile away and we ordered more drinks and appetizers. It took until 6:15 for the appetizers to arrive (about 30 minutes from when we ordered). We ordered dinner and the food arrived and was good! I had the sausage sandwich (they make the sausage themselves), which was a large patty served open-face on a bun with marinara sauce, onions, peppers and mozzarella cheese. Just a suggestion... crisp that patty up a little to provide more texture variation and flavor. All in all not bad, but they will need to tighten up the ship and work out the service issues to build a more positive reputation. We'll be back! p.s. I purchased several Crowlers (LARGE freshly canned beer sealed by a cool can sealer machine)...

Best bar in northeast ohio. Food is extremely good, quality is something you’d see at a restaurant where you drop 6 figures on food, VERY impressed. Staff was all super nice, all were polite and on top of things even with the place packed. Tables were cleaned off literally right before we sat and you could tell the bathrooms are checked and cleaned regularly. They have live bands too, and not random garage bands they’re actual award winning bands that are local! can this place get any better???? Yes it can! Cause they have live sports of all kinds playing on the daily throughout the day, I recommend if you plan on coming during dinner time from Thursday to Saturday, make a reservation, we came in without one and we had to wait a little but only about half an hour before a table opened up.

All bad reviews on the place simply don’t seem to be true, saw some guy saying he waited forever for a table, when people tend to come in and out and cycle in every 30-45 minutes, t impressed this place is brand new, staff, cooks, environment, company, and all the above seems like something out of a seasoned restaurant. Overall very pleased, and if you see a negative review that doesn’t seem to match with this one then they’re just not reliable, you know how people can be 🤷‍♂️.

ALSO, if you’re coming and you have to “pay for parking” just tell the guy you’re coming to tricky tortoise and you can park free! If you’re forced to pay come and let the staff know and they’re super cool about it (know from personal experience)

Anyways great place can’t wait to come again and...

First off drinks should be rated here as well seeing that they're a brewery. I ordered an old fashion which was far too sweet and I could not taste the whisky/bourbon in it at all. My family however had ordered a variety of beers to which they were not pleased with either, stating that they were not strong enough, or that you could not taste the alcohol.

Let's get to the food portion. My wife and I had ordered the 16" pretzel and a chicken sandwich. The pretzel (an appetizer which did not come until all of our food had arrived) was fine, nothing special about it, and the cheese was meh... I'd rather have gotten a pretzel and cheese from the bowling alley at half the cost. The chicken sandwich was also meh.... it was totally comparable to a Wendy's chicken sandwich at 1/4 the cost.

Our service was alright. I'm not sure if our waitress was having a bad day and to each their own but the service we had received was mediocre and left a bad taste with us.

My assessment of this establishment is that they'll be out of business within the next 5 years. The food/drinks/service was not worth the $$, there are plenty of other local restaurants/breweries that are far better. This was our first time here and it will be our last.

Lastly, If you're going to try this place just remember.... youre already in the hole $5+ just to park, you're better off dining at daves...