cleaver

tldr; we were asked to leave after spending 2 hours and $120 there and telling the waitress that we want to order more, because they had to sit the next reservation.

i can safely say that i've never been treated with such disrespect before. they're actually the united airlines of restaurants. 

my friend and i finally made plans to go for drinks, i reserved atableat cleaver. when we showed up, i was unpleasantly surprised with how little space there was between us and tables around – it felt like we were all sitting at the same table. between the two of us, we had 6 drinks and 3 appetizers. we noticed that the waitress came up to us a little too often, but an overly attentive staff is hardly something i'd ever complain about. she proceeded with taking away our appies before they were finished. then she asked if we would like to order something else or just get the bill. we said we'd like another round of cocktails and the bill. she came back a minute later saying that she can't bring us drinks, and that we had to leave, because the next reservation showed up and was waiting at the door. at that time, there were two empty tables just around ours; yet, they insisted that we leave. 

overall, the food and drinks were absolutely nothing to write home about. the business lives on the gimmicky cocktails and the fact that they make customers leave, so they can sit more people and make more money.

horrible experience. during our visit this past friday, the bearded hostess became hysterical and had a tantrum when we took down the umbrella at thetableto get some more sun rather than talking to us like a rational adult. judging by the multiple bad reviews this is not the first time he’s had a meltdown with customers and staff. save yourself the unpleasant experience and spend your money elsewhere.

worst restraunt ever. they took an hour to bring the food to thetableafter i waited for 20 minutes for a glass of water. i explained to them that i have a gluten allergy and they served me bread. i had an allergic reaction to something the fed me and i spoke to the owner who was entirely rude and self righteous told me that it was my mistake for ordering what i did. {i will never dine here again.

if i could give them negative stars i would.

this place is the absolute worst.

 we went there for my birthday dinner. we booked atablefor two, got seated at the bar, was told it was a three hour wait for a table. so we just took the seats they offered us. sitting at the bar for what was supposed to be a nice birthday dinner wasn't nice at all.

not a good start.

took a solid 15 minutes before our server came to take our drink order; when my partner ordered a cocktail and a glass a prosecco so we could have a toast, she straight up said "no, you can't order two drinks", stating something about it being 2 oz. pours. all while the two people directly beside us had a cocktail and a glass of bubbly each in front of them.

next up, the menu is incredibly unclear, and the server looked at us like we were nuts for asking her questions about it. sorry. it was our first (and last) time there. she also had no idea how to explain any of the food and was very rude/condescending about. so we ordered the steak tartare to start, it's a pretty straight forward dish. we sat there and watched the guys beside us receive course after course of what looked like really great food. even the people who sat on the other side of us were getting their food. we still had not seen ours, nor had anyone been by to check in. also, at this point, our drinks were empty for about 30 mins now. completely unacceptable. especially while seated at the bar.

finally, after about 45-50 minutes, our server stops by and is all surprised that our tartare had not come out, saying something about the kitchen being backed up--- yet everyone else around us was getting their food.

so i asked to speak to the manager. man was that ever a mistake. she comes over with the fakest smile, and oh! she "conveniently" has our food.

she didn't even apologize.

she tried to force us to take the tartare, when we said 'no, we're incredibly unhappy now, please send it back' she tried again to get us to take the food and to "hang out". we told her that everything has been incredibly unacceptable, she didn't seem to care at all, we just wanted to leave. so she says she'll bring us our bill and we say "we;d really appreciate it if you would comp the drinks" and she flat out said "no". so we once again tried to explain to her how awful our experience had been and that the least she could do is cover the 3 drinks on there (i ended up getting a glass of wine after 30 minutes of waiting, which i didn't even get to drink but was forced to pay for) she said she wouldn't be doing that, so we said we were going to leave the bill for her to deal with, and she then threatened to call the cops on us if we did leave. so we were forced to pay our bill, which now i really wish we hadn't done and let her call the cops and see what they have to say about wasting their time over $42 after what they put us through. this was the worst experience either of us have ever had at a restaurant. three days later and i'm still upset by it.

do not go here.

just don't do it. and don't go next door to gringostreet either.

go anywhere else.

in order not to be disappointed on a friday evening, and to ensure my husband had a great birthday treat, i made a reservation for cleaver through opentable1 week ahead of time. i confirmed with opentablethe day before that i was going to be there for my 7pm table. we arrive at 7pm and clearly there was not atableavailable for us - the place was buzzing! the hostess had a few conversations with some guy and after 10 mins of waiting by the door we were brought some 'complimentary' prosecco. it was good but didn't help with the wait. we were finally seated at 7:35pm a full 35 minutes later than expected. as we sat they gave us a complimentary appetizer to ease the pain of having to wait for our 'reserved' table. another 15 minutes went by as we yet again waited for our server to introduce them self [which they never did]. we ordered food and watched as thetablenext to us left for the evening, squeezing themselves through the very narrowtablegaps! the staff were very busy and the food going back and forth looked great, unfortunately none of it came our way. thetablenext to us was occupied again and they placed their order. our appetizer eventually arrived and coincided with next doors table's appetizer too! the food was delicious but at this point we had been in the restaurant for over an hour. next to come was our main course. another 30 minutes later mine arrived all by itself. being the polite person i am i didn't want to dig in until my 3 othertablecompanions had theirs. i gave up after 5 minutes as my pasta was going to be cold. uncomfortably i started on my food! two dinners arrived about 10 after mine and again was delivered along with thetablenext to us. my husband who ordered the 'coke & fries' arrived last. not quite sure how or why all our food options weren't delivered at the same time, as they managed to deliver everything at once for thetablenext to us [trust me you are so close to the other diners you can’t help but notice]. one of our orders included a side of tempura kale, this did not arrive until after the main course was finished, and i mean quite a while after! at this point thetablenext to us had finished and paid and were about the leave!! so this prompted a conversation with our server - he was polite but when asked why we waited so long for everything when thetablenext to us arrived after us, eat their complete meals before us and left before us, his response was that they cook each food individually to avoid it hanging around under a heat lamp, and the 'erratic' way in which our meals arrived is the way they do it at cleaver!!!

so if you want to wait over 2 hours for atableyou have reserved and have food arrive at completely different times to the people you are eating with then cleaver is the place for you. cleaver will not be the place for me, as unfortunately the service and/or the kitchentablepriority is not acceptable :(

i love coming here for their happy hour! $5 for a cocktail and they've got lots of delicious cocktails on their menu. the $3 sliders are alright, it's mostly on the dry side. nothing special except the soft shell crab is definitely a really good deal for $3.
customer service isn't the greatest. the owner is quite snobby and we were once late for 5mins for our reservation and he cancelled it. i told him it was tough looking for parking on 17th and he made us wait another 20mins for atableafterwards. some of the servers are very forgetful as well and doesn't attend to your needs, like getting you water and utensils, taking your orders and such.

great for happy hour specials (sun-thurs from 4-7)! sliders for $3 and 2oz cocktails for $5. i prefer the spider crab slider. you'll have to book a reservation or wait an hour to get atableduring happy hour, even if you show up at 5 like we did. i would recommend all the cocktails as they each have a different spin, i've tried enough of them *hicc*. the rest of the menu i've yet to try.

i honestly went into this meal expecting to be unimpressed. cleaver was picked by another couple as the spot for our double date night and after reading a lot of the reviews i expected the food to be meh, the restaurant to be overcrowded, and the service to be rushed. i was completely 100% wrong! i'm so glad we decided to go because we ended up having such a delicious meal with really great service!

we had a reservation for 4 at 7:30 on friday night and we were seated promptly. although the restaurant is not very big, we didn't feel that ourtablewas squished too close to thetablebeside us. we started looking at the drink menu and got a tiny bit overwhelmed! there were just so many different cocktails to choose from and they all had unusual names so you had to read the entire description of each drink to figure out what it was. i personally don't really have patience for that and prefer drink menus to be grouped a bit more into categories to make it appear less daunting, however the other three people in my party had fun choosing a few different drinks to try! i asked our server if i could just have a spicy caesar (my fave) and she was super nice about it even though it was considered "off menu", my fiancé had mighty craic, the others had randy granny and dose of original sin and everyone enjoyed their drinks (my caesar was fantastic).

we started with the pork and chorizo sausage rolls and they were amaaaaazing!!! seriously so good, i could have eaten them as my main and been perfectly satisfied. everyone agreed they were the highlight for sure. then we had the baked breads with chicken drippings and bacon butter. the bread was great, nice and warm. dipping it in the chicken drippings was sooo good! we tried spreading the bacon butter on as well and it just tasted like butter, didn't notice the bacon. next each couple chose 1 slider to share. we got the lamb, our friends got the chipotle cheeseburger. the lamb was delicious!! i think it was a lamb meatball, and it was cooked medium rare (which is fine by me) and it had mint leaves on it instead of just having mint sauce and it was soooo good! if you like the combo of mint and lamb you should definitely try this. our friends said theirs was really good too.

for our second round of drinks i got another caesar, my fiancé got turning japanese (which was pretty good), my friend got culture shock which was like a raspberry mojito and she said it was good, her husband got farewell to sober which was supposed to be white rum, maraschino, lime, grapefruit and while he was expecting it to be rum mixed in assorted juices it was actually more like rum with a few garnished so he said it just tasted like straight rum and wasn't enjoyable at all (she tasted it and agreed).

for our main we got the cock for 2 which was an entire roasted chicken with stuffing, bread sauce and duck fat fries. i don't know about you but i've never been able to eat half a chicken before so it should probably be called cock for 4. it was a pretty big chicken too and we ended up with about 1/3 of the chicken leftover. first off i'll say that the chicken was fantastic! super moist and very flavourful! the fries were fine, i only had a few and they weren't anything spectacular. i forgot to try the stuffing and the bread sauce so i can't really comment on that part. the only problem i had with this dish (and the reason i'm giving cleaver 4.5 instead of 5) is that when the chicken comes out it's plated in the "beer can chicken" style where it's whole and standing upright, and after you take in the fancy presentation (it even has its feet still attached) you realize that it came with a giant knife and a roast fork and you have to cut it yourself. it was a bit awkward and slightly messy trying to cut this thing into pieces and we ended up using one of our dinner plates as a platter for the chicken pieces and there were fries all over the place because the chicken kept spinning around its plate while we were trying to cut it and the roast fork was a bit difficult to use so we ended up using our hands a bit. thankfully this was a casual meal with good friends so we just laughed about it, but if it was a first date or a meal with a client or something it would be a bit awkward. and besides the awkwardness it just felt like we had to work for our meal and i got out for dinner so that i don't have to do any work! i get that presentation is important but maybe after they brought it out whole for us to look at they could give us the choice of "butcher diy" or having it cut for us. or just plate a big pile of chicken parts surrounded by fries?

i almost forgot, we also got the mac and cheese as our side and it was really good. not the best i've ever had but definitely satisfying!

our server, who i believe is named grace, was awesome! she was very casual and laid back but was very knowledgeable and gave great recommendations. our order was timed perfectly and the entire night flowed very smoothly!

overall our meal was fantastic! we did order a little bit too much, in hindsight we probably should have gotten the 1/2 cock instead of the cock for 2, but everything was delicious so it didn't matter. the price was a bit on the high side (our bill was split by couple so each couple paid for their own drinks and all the food was split) and our bill was around 96.00 before tip, and i assume our friends' bill was pretty close to that as well. if you consider how many drinks we had (2 per person) then it makes sense though and we're not really bothered by the price. we are definitely looking forward to returning to cleaver!

was very disappointed. we have been to cleaver several times before but it was our first time being served by bri and she made our experience very poor. first, she came up to ourtableand demanded that we move tables to accommodate a large party that had walked in, we obliged but she was very rude and abrupt when telling us to move, again telling, not asking...after we had made a reservation and had been at thattablefor around an hour already. when we did move she continued to have an attitude, slamming drinks down, throwing our bills at us etc. when taking payments she did not interact with us but flirted with thetablebehind us and did not offer copies of our receipts. the food was good and in the times we have come to cleaver before we have enjoyed our experience. also, it is important to mention that the restaurant did take care of a round of drinks due to them moving us (did not lead with this though, only when we didn't seem thrilled was it offered) but it wasn't enough to salvage our server bri's rudeness. will think twice before coming back.

i couldn't have been happier with my experience at cleaver.  i went in with a group of 16 people for my husband's birthday.  they gave exceptional service from the moment i called to make the reservation.  they were very accommodating without having any ridiculous rules regarding large groups as some restaurants have. 

our server recommended having the kitchen come up with a few different things for thetableto share.  everything was amazing!  i especially recommend the beef tartare, kale tempura and the delicious butters they provide with their bread.  the entire group was very imposed with the dinner.  the restaurant is very cozy and welcoming as well.

really neat restaraunt and concept. the menu is really cool and there is a lot of variety! perfect place to go with a group of people - share and try new things. the cocktails are really unique- i enjoyed the spicy red thai chili cocktail- as the ice melts the drink gets spicier and spicier ! we shared "the cock" which made for goodtableconversation. i really enjoyed the yellowfin sashimi style with passion fruit sauce and chips ! i would definitely go back, there were a few other items that caught my eye to try on another day !

we arrived for dinner for a 6:30 pm reservation, had a wonderful meal, and were then, asked to leave at 8:40 pm because people were waiting for our table. when asked to leave we were in the middle of an important discussion among friends who had not seen each other for a long time. 

my experience at other restaurants has been when atableis booked for a later reservation the host will tell you and then you know what to expect. being suddenly asked to leave and rushed out the door - even while our tab was at 200.00, ruined, for me, what was a lovely evening. very disappointing and will not recommend.

don't sit at the bar .. my boyfriend and i went out to celebrate his birthday , and when we arrived the host was so kind to notice that i pregnant and offer to change ourtablefrom the bar to atableonce one was ready. we were seated at th bar in the mean time ,
not only did it take the bar tender 5 minutes to ask if we wanted water ,
it took him another 15 minutes to ask if we would like something else to drink. i order a virgin ceaser and him a beer. so when my ceaser arrived all that was it in it was ice and clam juice that being said the only reason why i order a ceaser was to get all the extra goodies that granish one ( duhhhh , i'm pregnant ! ) so i asked the bartender " do i not get the toppings ? his response was " its a virgin " and in disbelief i replied with " i'm pregnant , the only reason why i order one was to get all that stuff " he hesitated and grab me a stick of celery and tossed it
into my glass with nothing else ( it comes with , a piece of bacon , pepper , beat and grilled lime ) i was so upset that i wanted to leave , his attitude and professionalism was not one i expected from a place like that or from a bar tender , there job is to please and entertain the guess. we sat at the bar for another 28 minutes before he asked if we wanted to
order food off the menu. we were clearly there to eat and not drink with me being 8 and half months pregnant and us discussing the menu between the two of us. both of us were so upset that we were ready to leave after our drinks, i asked the host if ourtablewas almost ready and he told us it would be about ten more minutes so we give them the benefit of the doubt and waited
for our table. once seated ,
our server was amazing and the food was great !

food was okay. highlights were the polenta, the striploin, and the yorkshire pudding. unfortunately the service was sub par. the wait staff are very helpful in accommodating dietary concerns but they seem to have mixed priorities when it comes to serving thetableand taking orders. for instance, we ordered a bottle of wine and the server wanted to put away the tray before opening and serving the wine. also, they wanted to open another table' swine after asking us what we needed.

mediocre food, horrible service. i went in a group of 7. we had a reso for 7:30. 5 of us had arrived on time and two friends (travelling together) were not here yet.

we ordered 3 appetizers to start with and some drinks. it was now 7:50. my friends were looking for parking at the time. then the hostess comes up to ourtablewith two guests and tells us its been an hour and that she needs to take atableaway.
i told her our reso was at 7:30 and she said yes. then i told her that it's only been 20 minutes and that we ordered food and drinks already and guess what she said? - "do you want me to call my manager?"

funny thing is, my friend just then arrived. food was mediocre (6 appies and steak), the steak we ordered took 40 mins and it was bleeding raw. i couldn't eat it. we will not return. they're all about turning the tables for more money. management and servers alike.