The Leaf Restaurant — Restaurant in Wooster

Driving through Wooster, Ohio on a Holiday road trip back to Atlanta, I wasn’t expecting to find anything more than the standard bacon and eggs for brunch. To my surprise, my wife and I stumbled upon the Leaf Restaurant and now have a reason to return to Wooster.

The Leaf is a cool, more upscale diner right in the charming downtown. We were quickly greeted with a smile and sat. Our server was very kind and personable, quick with the drinks and refills. The menu was quaint and diverse. Often diners have menus that are too lengthy and everything looks petty much the same. Not at the Leaf.

We started with the Brussel Sprouts…WOW! The portion was huge and the perfectly crisp Brussels were topped with my new favorite thing in the world, bacon aioli. The hint of maple added the perfect touch. These are a must. We order these often in the South and they are never this delicious! I gave a thumbs up to the head chef, Gina. Her team can be seen working with smiles and efficiency in the kitchen.

For our main course my wife had the fried chicken sandwich and I had the wet breakfast burrito. Fried chicken sandwiches are basically part of the Southern diet and this one didn’t disappoint. It was very tender and laying over top of crispy pickles and a bed of lettuce. What really made it was a garlic aioli spread that could compete with the bacon one we had earlier. The sweet potato fries with maple syrup were the perfect mix of crispy on the outside and deliciously soft on the inside. My wet burrito over a bed of home fried potatoes was a feast. It was stuffed with eggs, veggies, and most importantly melt in your mouth tender pork. I was stuffed, but kept eating it. Finally we sampled the fresh crepes for dessert. The crepe was perfectly made with fresh crème inside. I would devour just a bowl of that crème alone!

After sending more compliment to Chef Gina, she came out to greet us and thank us for coming in. She was so humble and you can tell she loves what she does, and has the talent and creativity to back it up. The owner, Sam, also came to say hi and they all made us feel like family. I wish I didn’t have to get back on the road because the bar menu also looks spectacular. Head to Wooster and The Leaf. These local businesses need your support. We can’t...

HORRIBLE experience from the moment we walked into the door. I had made a reservation 2 weeks earlier to celebrate Mother’s Day. Working in the food industry for 5+ years, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to expect this weekend to be busy.

We walked in and notified the host that I had a reservation. She looked at us and say “Forrrrrr?….” With an attitude waving her hand like I was an idiot for not knowing what information she was looking for. I explained my name, and she told me it wasn’t on the list. I pointed to my name, on the list right in front of her. She told me it would be another 20 min PAST our reservation time. When I started to say “20 minutes?” She raised her voice and said “THE KITCHEN IS BEHIND!!!” shouting over me.

After we waited in the lobby, we observed her speak rudely to other customers who walked in.

After we were sat, service was slow but the server was at least pleasant. We were notified there was a limited menu, not advertised anywhere. All of our favorites were not on the menu. We waited about 45 min for our food.

Once we ate, we got our checks and boxes eventually. We had eaten our food within probably 10 min of being served it. We were having our mom open her gift when another, who we presume to be server stopped over to the table.

“Hi ladies, hopefully you enjoyed. We have another reservation waiting, so we are going to have to kick you out.” The literal words out of her mouth. We were absolutely appalled. Not only were we spoken to like garbage by the host, we had waited past our reservation time, waited 45 min for food that was a limited menu, and then had been told we had to leave???

She told us that we had about 5-10 min to wrap things up and then to leave. We will absolutely not be back.

This is among one of the worst experiences we have had at any restaurant, and 2/4 of us have a lot of experience in the restaurant industry. The Leafs poor planning of not having enough kitchen staff or serving staff shouldn’t trickle down to the customer to the point we were told to leave.

Strongly suggest anyone considering this business for Mother’s Day or another holiday to cancel their reservation or patronize another nearby place. This ruined my first Mother’s Day, and...

Uncultured Heathens Beware!

I would give this restaurant a 4.5 out of 5 but Google review won't let me go in half star increments.

My wife and I decided to try out The Leaf because it was new in town. We walked into the restaurant expecting diner food. It was quite a bit different than that. It was very busy on the night before Valentine's Day. But we were immediately offered a spot at the bar (all tables/booths were booked from reservations). The atmosphere was very nice.

Looking through the menu was a little difficult because the script used on the titles of the dishes was hard to read. I couldn't pronounce most of the names. Originally I was interested in the Torched Salmon Oshi while my wife ordered Chicken Piccata. My wife bless her heart had the suspicion that the salmon might be sushi. Knowing that I like my food on the well done side of cooked she asked. Sure enough it was sushi. So I went with my backup choice of Beef Carpaccio. I didn't know what Carpaccio meant. But I saw the words Beef and Tenderloin and thought I'd be fine. I've included a picture of the dish that came to me 17 minutes after I ordered it. My wife Kayla initially thought it might have been a smoked beef of some sort. So, she poked it with her fork. Nope. It was completely raw. Bless her heart Kayla told the waitress we didn't realize this was served raw.

The waitress was very nice about it and asked me what I would like to eat. I saw my wife's food looked safe to eat. So, I immediately asked for that. They put a rush on it and 15 minutes later (I timed this all) I had my Chicken Piccata. It was piping hot and very much cooked. It was tasty. To this uncultured person it was like a fancy chicken parmesan.

The wait staff were very nice about my mistaken order and did not charge me for it. My only wish is that the food names were in clearer script and any food served raw is marked as such. I am very satisfied with the service. The food was fairly tasty. Hopefully my review has given you an idea of...