Bar Louie is a poor option in Crocker Park. Want Applebees level food at a higher price? Ok, check out Bar Louie. Otherwise, skip it and go to one of the other chain options (with better food). Went here for lunch today, a Monday, with my boss.
I haven't been to a Bar Louie since a random drinking binge barcrawl in 2005 as a grad student at Illinois - and I probably should have kept up that streak.
Pros:
- Service was fine. Nothing special, but OK.
- The dining room is nice. Great garage doors that open up in the summer and probably make it a good place for a happy hour beer or two.
Cons:
- The food was passable, but at $10+ for a burger and side, I expect more than a pre-formed frozen patty and some basic toppings.
- My side, black beans and rice, had obviously been sitting around for a couple days. After raising the issue to the server, she took it and subbed a side salad, but I could tell the rice was dried out and reheated at a glance. Should have never even been served.
- The side salad was a joke. It was a handful of cruddy lettuce, a few tomato bits, and a few cucumber bits. Not fresh, not made up - just thrown together haphazardly.
Overall, it's a subpar restaurant with bleh food at high prices. Check out somewhere different and save some cash.
Not as bad as some of the others make it out to be. Maybe I had a more competent server, or was just there on a "good night." It helped that we had a table saved (high top of about 10 seats in the bar area) and that I was being treated to a night out by our company owners. The food was nothing great -- just ok. The chop chop salad had an overly "lettuce-in-a-bag-that's-been-open-for-a-day" taste. The veggie flatbread was ok, as was the cheese quesadilla (spicy cheese though).
Like I said, not awful, but I might have felt differently had I been paying, as some stuff seemed way overpriced.
Bar Louie has your typical "bar style food." I went here for $1 burgers last Tuesday and was impressed. With the purchase of 1 drink (they have $3 drafts, $4 glasses of wine and $5 martinis on Tuesdays), you get a burger with lettuce for $1. Additional toppings are 50cents, but include things such as cheese, sauces and vegetables. I had cheddar cheese and jalapenos which were extremely spicy, but added good flavor to the burger.
I also heard that they have $1 beers on Wednesday nights so I'm pretty sure i'll be going back again soon!
This place was great! I went here with a couple of friends and we had an awesome time. They had a live dj who was taking requests and the place was still packed at 10pm on a Saturday night. The drinks were well worth the money and we shared a couple of the flatbreads which i enjoyed. The buffalo chicken flatbread was my favorite. Definitely coming back for more. Best bar on the west side of Cleveland.
Review Source:Bar Louie has always been a much better alternative than the typical chain options that cover the suburbs of Cleveland. Â Always have had a decent experience. Â However, the latest visit was the last. Â Let's start with the $7.25 Xmas Ale in a snifter....you've got to be kidding me! Â $50 for a few beers and two appetizers. Â But the biggest (and most disgusting) part of the experience was witnessing a bartender sample a customers drink twice with the same straw. Â Gross!!!!
Review Source:Okay, so I'm strickly reviewing their fish tacos. Â I've been desperate for a good fish taco since I returned to Ohio. Â These were just really disappointing cause they could have been good. Â The blackened fish was good, the presentation was good, but everything else....meh. Â Now, the key to a good fish taco is the slaw that its topped with and the sauce. Â these tacos have neither. Â They were also served with rice and refried beans which is unneccesary and weird. Â I think so much consideration was put into what they looked like and not the taste. Â Cause the blackening seasoning was great, it just needed a sweet element. Â Even the lettuce, which they are served with, was UNDER the taco holder: so it was done for presentation not taste. Â I like a good presentation as well as the next person, but if the taste isn't there, you've got nothing. Â My friend had the fish and chips which were okay, but nothing special and we had the bavarian pretzels for an appetizer. Â Again, they were good, but nothing special. Â the presentation of everything was great. Â Will I try again? Probably not.
Review Source:We went in here for an early dinner on a Tuesday during the fall. Â The whole experience was a disaster. Â There was the ever present "Please seat yourself" sign, (That seems to be very common from other reviews) just inside the door. Â We sat down at a 4 top, and looked around for a server. Â There were 2 people at the bar, but no servers in sight. Â It took at least 15 minutes for a server to come over and take our drink order, then another 15 minutes to actually get the drinks. Â Another 20 minutes later, she came over and finally took our food order. Â It was far from busy, with there only being 2 other tables occupied in the whole restaurant. Â Our food finally came another half hour later. Â It was absolutely terrible! Â I had the fish and chips, and the fish was cooked into oblivion. Â There was breading, and strings of fish inside of it. Â My aunt got the fish tacos. Â It said "Blackened Fish," but it looked more like shredded chicken. Â The server had to go back and check, when I asked what kind of fish it was, and they said tilapia. Â My grandma got the avocado chicken sandwich, and it was dry and tasteless. Â I sent back my "fish" and chips and asked for the "fish" tacos. Â They were absolutely inedible! Â I wouldn't have fed them to my dog. Â
I will never come back to this place, and I recommend that anyone pondering this place, avoid it too. Â Service is terrible, drinks are way overpriced and the food is disgusting!
The food was overpriced for what it was. Â The fried chicken sandwich overwhelmed the bun it was on and the bun was mush after a few minutes. Â Given that nothing we ordered was complicated, it took a long time to get the food. Â We were told they didn't expect to be as busy as they were. Â It didn't seem overwhelmed and there were plenty of open tables. Â Of note, the circular booths have tables too large for people to comfortably get into or out of them. Â They are also so high they hide you from the service staff. Â Service was average. Â It took too long to get drinks and refills were difficult to come by, but we could at least tell our server was spending his time between numerous tables. Â I'll give the place another go again, to see if this experience was just a random "off night."
Review Source:Alright, first review after signing up on Yelp. This place made it necessary. Bar Louie in Crocker park has the worst service. Nothing has changes since it was Blake's Seafood. The server was consistently late on our drinks and when he did finally get our drinks, he consistently left our empty glasses on the table. He also left our plates on the table after we were done.
Additionally, when I ordered a Stoli orange and soda, he Said ok and walked away. Â The bar doesn't have Stoli o so he subbed Kettle orange, an up charge. I would have definitely agreed to the Kettle of he offered it, but he didn't. Â He do ask what was wrong after I bussed our table and made a comment for the bartender. Â I explained to him that if I had ordered a strip steak, they were out, and he subbed a filet, it would be wrong.
Bottom line: bad experience, poor service, and to top it off, the bathroom was horrible.
This is definitely a nice location. At 1930 on a Saturday night it was very busy - 30 minute wait for a 2 top. Was able to combine a couple seats at the bar however right away. It was busier tonight that it was on Dollar Burger NIght when I was here last. The one section of the patio was still open - where there is part of one of the bars outside - they have it enclosed in plastic so it is an option for cooler weather seating as well. The menu is pretty big, but there are not a ton of super healthy options. I had the Mediterranean Salmon which was cooked well and flavoured good, thought a bit salty if anything. A nice place to meet friends and catch a game on TV. Seating options good for groups.
Review Source:Typical bar Louie, horrible service just like all of them I've been to. Never believe the wait time the hostess tells you and at dinner time expect the slowest possible service. I've been to 3 different locations and it's like this at all of them, sad since its a cool environment, if you can get over the semi pricey drinks. We also got chicken nachos and had about 4 quarter size piece of chicken in the whole thing. Sorry bar Louie 3 strikes and you're out.
Review Source:I know it's a chain, but I enjoyed myself here. Â Staff was friendly and welcoming. Â They poured my Guinness correctly and the pretzels were exactly the same as the ones at the Tampa Bar Louie. Â Oh, may I mention this review is also from after a wedding, another bar, and at about 1 AM? Â Mostly just service industry people hanging out at the bar after getting out of work at the restaurants nearby.
Review Source:As to be expected... yucky chain shit.
This place may as well be called Applebee's, Friday's, Chili's or whatever other name that ends in an apostrophe-S. The only reason we even stepped foot in here was because B-Spot was closed. So, there you go Bar Louie, a half star for being open late on a Sunday and another half for the open dining room. I like the garage doors.
We walked in and sat at the bar. It wasn't too busy. The server chose to completely ignore us and go on charging a credit card. No wink or finger up, like "1 minute". No acknowledgement like he should have given. He then proceeded to check if everyone was OK on drinks around the whole bar starting at the opposite end we were at. I'm trying to flag him down as he got close enough to be within eye site because we wanted to order food. He annoyingly uttered "I see you, I am making my ROUNDS". OK THEN, SHORT BLACK DUDE. We got up and went to the other bar where the pretty blonde girl gave us what we wanted... good customer service.
We ordered the Mac n Cheese with Fried Chicken. It was horrible AND cold. Completely bland cheese sauce with overcooked pasta and dry chicken. And for an extra $4 for the chicken, I expected more than 5 tiny chicken nuggets. It was about $17 for this dish (way too much). The chicken was at least hot, but the macaroni was disturbingly cold. I sent it back and asked for a warm up. 15 mins later, it came out still too cool. But we were freaking starving at this point and ate it.
Yo, BL...if you are going to be a mediocre chain restaurant, at least cook the food correctly. If it was hot and the chicken wasn't dry as a rock, I wouldn't be complaining (as much).
Never again.
I like the setup at Bar Louie--they really opened up the space formerly occupied by Blake's Seafood. Â There are a mix of types of tables available--small high top tables for two, regular sit down tables for four, and bigger high top tables for groups of eight to ten--in addition to two bars. Â A number of flat screen TVs hang over the bar areas. Â They offer 20 beers on tap, and while I'm far from a beer expert, all the selections seemed pretty basic. Â The wine list featured 9 whites and 7 reds, all also available by the glass which is a plus. Â The menu has fairly wide range, albeit lunch and bar food focused: 17 small plate offerings (i.e., appetizers or bar food), 4 flatbreads, 10 burgers, 7 salads, 13 sandwiches, and 8 entree items.
But enough with the background and on to the actual food: Â I've been to Bar Louie a handful of times now, and I have yet to come across anything particularly impressive. Â Â The Chicken Avocado Club was unexciting: maybe around Panera Bread-level which is kind of disappointing for an actual restaurant. Â The Fried Louie Burger--a burger with bacon, cheddar, and a fried egg--is probably just barely good enough to get by. Â You can get a much better burger across the street at B Spot as well as a marginally better one at Champps. Â As for bar food, don't get too excited over the Truffle Butter Popcorn--served as an overflowing bowl of popcorn on a plate. Â There is just enough of a whiff of truffle butter on that popcorn to avoid a lawsuit. Â The "signature app" Bavarian Pretzel Sticks would be decent if they weren't so incredibly salty. Â Do yourself a favor and knock at least some of the salt off the stick before digging into the cinnamon butter, queso, and honey mustard dippers. Â The Chicken Nachos might have been the best thing I have had there (note the relativity)--toppings in a relatively clean layout (not a messy goo) though with slightly stale chips.
Despite these criticisms, Bar Louie gets a pass because of the nice layout and general environment (a much more difficult thing to improve upon than the food). Â Plus, while I haven't stayed much past midnight, I understand the kitchen is open until 2am, which is impressive. Â Finally, Bar Louie fills the "casual bar" void that Champps seemed too small to fill and had been missing for so long in the Crocker Park Wonderland.
It's good for what it is, which is a bar franchise. Not really like you're neighborhood bar. Â It's a little more upscale the drinks are delicious and as long as you're ok with paying around $8 for a cocktail then this place is for you. The food is typical bar food slightly dressed up. The fries are wonderfully good.
Review Source:I tried going here again last night and it was so busy that my friend and I decided to go elsewhere since we had purchased movie tickets and there was no way we would be getting served in an hour due to the amount of people that were there on a Friday night at 7.
So... I tried again tonight at 6:30 on a Saturday with my husband. Â We lucked out and found a small table (the only one available in the restaurant) for a drink before our 7:00 dinner reservation at Brio. Â We ordered a beer and a glass a wine and it took 15 minutes before we got our beer and wine. Â The irritating part was that we saw it sitting at the bar for a while before our waiter recognized that it was there. Â I now feel like I have given this place numerous occasions to make it right and it just doesn't work for me.
I tried Bar Louie on a Monday for lunch. It definitely looks a lot different than Blake's, much more open and spacious. The sign did say please seat yourself so we sat at a high top near the bar. For a lunch crowd there were a few business people and that's all.
I immediately recognized our waiter for some reason and turned out he worked at Bubba Qs. He was a good waiter, fast, and responsive. So I don't have any complaints about our service.
The food is pricey for a bar type of restaurant. I had the fish & chips for $13 which were good but small pieces of fish. For the money I just would have expected a little more food. But hey it was good.
The drink menu is large but so is the prices. I would recommend going during a happy hour. Other than that I don't think I'll be going back to Bar Louie anytime soon. There are so many other bar/restaurant places that I would like to try.
I went here with a few of my friends for their grand opening week. They had $2 martinis and 1/2 off appetizers from March 18-25 and it was between the times of 6-9pm only. I thought that it would be a great marketing event but come to think of it, how are they making any money. At most, a martini cost about $10 at least at Bar Louie but to charge it for just $2, it seems such a big drop so the place is like losing money.
We ordered their pot stickers, shrimp skewers, quesadilla, and pasta for food. The pot stickers was a bit overcooked to me and the sauce that came with it was not anything different either. The skewers (shrimp) was cooked perfectly but I felt that their mango salsa salad could have done a little better. It seemed lifeless on the plate and none of the flavors were combined into one. I wish they could have tossed it vs. serving it like that. Their tuscan pasta was tasteless to me, so it didn't do any good.
As far as the place goes, it looks just like any Bar Louie is but much bigger and has a patio area. There wasn't a hostess at the hour so we pretty much seat ourselves. At first, it was hard to look for a table since most of them were taken but we basically just sat at a table that just needed to be cleaned up. Service was alright for that day considering it was packed.
I think this would be a great place to hang out in the summer time if you're ever around the area in Westlake since they have that good size patio area.
I don't know about this place. You can't really rate a restaurant just from the first couple of weeks after their grand opening, let alone when they are running a special that crowds the place ($2 martinis + 1st small plate free from 6pm to 9pm). Overall, my experience with the martini and food was that both were delicious, but nothing memorable. Service could be much better but I'll give a fair assessment in a month or two.
Review Source:Going into last night's pre-opening party, none of us knew what entrées to expect - so the surprise element in addition to seeing the chain's new location before the general public was pretty cool.
This Bar Louie has two bars, well, three if you want to count the outdoor seating area bar that is attached to one of the two bars inside. I tried very hard to remember what the location used to look like as Blake's but I really couldn't visualize it. They had built a new bar somewhat in the center of the dining area and had arranged a number of high-top and low-top tables around that general area, in addition to a generous amount of seating (stools without backs) flanking both of the indoor bars. In addition to those tables were about three or four high-top tables that looked like they could seat upwards of 6 to 10 Â individuals - my immediate thought was, how fab for a birthday party!! My fave table was right up front in the corner by the windows looking out onto the corner of Main and Union (so, it looked at the movie theatre and across at Champps), it seemed kinda VIP (I'm a sucker for any seating area with a lot of windows) and I will specifically request this table for my next group night out.
Once we sat down, we opened up our envelope that contained our *surprise* dinner selections - 4 entrées and an appetizer for the table.
Here's how our ratings went:
Appetizer:
Buffalo Calamari (hand battered calamari, buffalo sauce, blue cheese dressing)
4 Stars: Tasted good, but didn't like the "cone" they were presented in. As for the cone - think like, what pretzel sticks or fries would usually be served in. Just wasn't easy to get calamari out.
Entrées:
Tuscan Chicken Pasta (grilled chicken, artichoke, cavatappi, fresh spinach, three cheese blend, basil, tomato, mushrooms, alfredo)
3 Stars: Very bland, no seasoning, would not order again.
Turkey, Ham, & Brie Sandwich (melted brie, ham, turkey, field greens, dijon mustard, blackberry jam, parmesan french bread)
4 Stars: Pretty good, bread a little soggy, hold the dijon mustard next time.
Shrimp Po'Boy (blackened or fried shrimp, lettuce, tomato, remoulade, hoagie roll)
3 Stars: Shrimp was good, but the dish lacked flavor overall.
Four Tacos Plato - Fish (blackened fish, onion, cilantro, avocado, queso fresco, salsa, black beans, & rice)
5 Stars: Spicy, but delicious.
As for our alcoholic beverage choices, we order a couple of Strawberry Fizz martinis and a Honeydew martini. The Strawberry Fizz had a distinct "cough-syrupy" flavor to it. The Honeydew didn't really taste like honeydew and had a very heavy coconut flavor. The beer/cider was good but, it would have been more helpful to have a full beer list available for the table.
Service was great, our waitress was very friendly and attentive. The boys commented that she reminded them of a cross between Lady GaGa and Amy Winehouse - which they thought was a BONUS. Haha.
Overall, I like the atmosphere, Bar Louie would be great for a group outing, the menu has a lot of selections, the drinks aren't bad (a little pricey at $9.50 a pop for those martinis though), and the service is friendly.
PS - Like the Bar Louies in downtown CLE and Lyndhurst, this new Louie location offers $1 Burgers on Tuesdays (5p - close) and $1 Buds on Wednesdays.
AND... for their grand opening celebration week they are offering the 1st Small plate free and $2 martinis all week (March 19th - March 25th, 2012), as well as nightly entertainment.
Looking forward to a return visit... Thanks, Bar Louie!
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