cork 'n cleaver restaurant

good. the steak was juicy. the ribeye lacked flavor but was tender. the service was great. the salad bar and the new shredded beef egg rolls were greate.

great prime rib. out of state resident. had the prime rib on three separate occasions. your 10 oz prime rib well done (had that twice) was very tender; the steak was the best. usually, other steakhouses make their well done a little tough. your 17 oz prime rib medium well was to die for. parts of the meat was so juicy, i felt like i was drinking the steak cause it was so tender (sooo good). and the salad bar was "sick". servers were courteous. and being 6'6", it was nice to have server there who was 6'7". loved it.

most overrated place in town. i don't really understand the draw of this place. it's always busy and there's always a wait, but the food sucks. i ordered crab cakes the last time i was there, and they were clearly using frozen crab cakes. i know fort wayne is not on a coast, but this restaurant touts itself as being a little more upscale, so they should bring in fresh fish products. the salad bar is decent but not as good as others have mentioned, and the service is average at best. definitely not worth the money. the bread is good, though! i will give them that!

big steaks. big juicy piece of meat for your money makers. cooked to perfection and the salad bar woooooo hoooooooo. best i ever had son. i got the 16oz cowboy steak with seasoned baked potato, some of the best i ever had. try it you'll see how good this place is.

remember to get the cowboy cut steak, it's $24, but worth every penny. slice her up and shove her right on in your money maker son.

dork n cleaver. food was great and servers and service overall was excellent. manager on duty (07 august) needs to get some basic charm school completed. not one good word to customers and servers and comments made to patrons was short and direct. not even sure if please and thank you are in his vocabulary. due to his rudeness i give an overall rating of 2 stars.

favorite. what can i say? i love this place....especially the salad bar. i have been here many many times and every time i leave a happy girl. worth every single penny.

best in town!. the cork , in my opinion, is the best restuarant in town. the food is consistent and the service is always exemplary. the salad bar is top notch. it's hard to impress someone with a salad bar but cork manages to do so. i highly recommend the ahi tuna or the chilean sea bass. it is pricey, but worth it for special occasions.

really overrated. i went to cork 'n cleaver once, and i doubt i'll bother again. it's just a snob restaurant. the food was good, but ridiculously overpriced. you can get steak that's just as good at almost any steakhouse in town, usually for much less. and i really don't see what all the hype is about their "award winning" salad bar. it's just a salad bar.

a wonderful birthday. i celebrated my birthday at cork and clever. what a wonderful experience. the decor was different, and fun. we went for lunch, and though they were busy we were sat right away. i choose the rib sandwich, and it was pretty delicious. they brought out bread first and it tasted as good as the bread i make at home. i think it was the best bread i had ever tried at a fort wayne restaurant. i asked for fruit as my side and was delighted that it did not include melons. the fruit was fresh and consisted of strawberries, oranges, pineapple, and grapes. since it was my birthday they brought out a very large piece of mud pie. it was so large that my husband and i split it and still didnt finish it. the mud pie was very much like icecream cake. i would recommend this restaurant to a friend.

very nice dinner, friendly staff. we went to cork 'n cleaver for dinner, and were thoroughly delighted. fun staff, fun decor, and unlike the poster below me, the cleaver menu was fun and unique to us.

i had the filet of steak, which was delicious, my co-worker had the coffee rubbed steak, which was unique and delicious, if you like coffee.

the manager was also very friendly, and we plan on returning tomorrow night.

don't get me wrong i'm not trying to make this place sound terrible....but my experience will never leave me heading back any time soon. a lot of people talk really good about it so maybe it was just my experience. steak was bland over cooked.... and the teriyaki shrimp was dry.. i'd give it 3 stars out of 10

a miserable gimmick. a generous former neighbor bought me a sizable gift certificate to this place before i moved from new england a while back... she obviously looked it up online and thought it would be a nice gift. she was very generous, but i think she'd be very disappointed if she knew her money went to such a miserable restaurant. here's what happened:

the first problem is partially my fault.. i called up to make a reservation about two hours before arriving on a saturday night, and was basically told by the hostess that one wouldn't be necessary. against sound judgement, i took her advice and showed up without one. when i arrived, all the tables were full, leaving only bar seats. bar seats normally wouldn't be a huge problem, but the table we were seated at rocked back and forth, the chairs were uncomfortable, and equally flimsy. my seat was right in front of a glass divider and all night i had to hear waitresses loudly stacking plates from the other side... not a great experience (why not just put the plates somewhere out back?). the decor doesn't look like it's been updated in 25 years.

moving on: the menus are printed on these ridiculous, heavy, faux-butcher's knives that are polished and reflect the light from above... very tacky and quite hard to read (and i'm in my 20's). i don't go out to eat so i can be hit over the head with gimmicks, i go out to eat so i can enjoy my meal.

for an appetizer, we ordered the mini beef wellingtons per the recommendation of our server. the fillet was cooked well enough, but the pastry surrounding them was doughy and undercooked. the mushroom sauce was over-salted and not very flavorful.

i'll put the salad bar in the same category as the ridiculous knife menu: it's a tacky gimmick. it's 2012, people!!! i really don't want to stand in line for some lettuce and canned salad dressing... this isn't tgi friday's. just put a couple nice, well-crafted salads on the menu and let me have at it. oh, and our waitress made a big deal that there's caviar at the salad bar... gimme a break! it's crap quality and, again, a complete gimmick. i'm not suggesting they should serve good-quality caviar, because that would be ridiculous... just... if you're going to serve food, why not just serve the best quality you can provide at the price point.

now for the steak: i ordered the "southwestern ribeye" or whatever... as steaks go, it was alright... not the best i've had, but for $28, i'm not expecting the world either. the real problem was this "southwestern" topping. salty, goopy and really, not that flavorful. any real steakhouse respects the meat, cooks it well and leaves it alone. i scooped the remainder of the topping off.

unfortunately, this place is everything i've come to expect from fort wayne, indiana: mediocre, and tacky. maybe the owner(s) should be a little less concerned about gimmicks and more concerned about giving me a plate of good food. go to a similarly-priced steakhouse in new york, boston or chicago and you'll see nothing like this cork 'n cleaver. why should fort wayne be any different?!? why don't the locals demand more!?!?!

an institution. the cork 'n cleaver is the go-to place in fort wayne for prom couples, business lunches, and special occasions. the food is good but predictable. and sometimes it is very nice to know what to expect and not be disappointed! of course, the salad bar is wonderful and at the peak of lunch time expect to wait in line for a while at the salad bar. the menu is limited but good quality ingredients and the service is always good. you must have reservations for weekend dinner!

i don't go for the steak. our last trip to cork 'n cleaver continues the trend that we have seen over the past few years. the quality of the steaks is good, but not top-notch. however, the atmosphere and the salad bar have kept us coming back. (i mean, who can resist a salad bar with caviar? okay, i know some people can, but for them they have jelly bellies.) however, each time i go i feel a little bit more like i could have gotten a better dinner elsewhere for less.

i came here for dinner a yea.... after we had a disappointing lunch, we returned for dinner, and were much happier. we sat at the bar; i ordered the coffee crusted fillet. unlike the petit fillet i had last time, the steak was quite large and perfectly seasoned. the same borderlaise sauce which was poor on my last visit was dramatically improved. i requested medium rare and they were spot on. the baked potato was tasty as well, salting the skin was a nice touch. salad bar was included; a bit old-fashioned and not my thing, but it was executed well. compared with our other visit, the difference is night and day. we will be returning in the future!