Clifton Martini & Wine Bar

Went here on a lazy Sunday afternoon hoping for a nice experience.

The first bad sign was the bartender. It looks like he rolled out of bed in the clothes he was wearing after a night of binge drinking. Dirty clothes, sagging pants, messy facial hair that wasn't trimmed. He was a mess. He was also doing shots behind the bar.

The bathrooms are old and outdated. The sink was coming off from the wall and it likens itself to a 1950's Lakewood school bathroom. Not what I expected from a place that's supposed to have some class.

The decor in the main bar is sparse. I'm not sure what they were going for. It looks like it's half finished. It was not a very welcoming environment.

The crab cakes took a long time to come out of the kitchen. I could understand if it were busy, but I was 1 of 15 people in the place. The outside was overcooked and had to be cracked open like a walnut. Couldn't even eat the "outer shell." The taste was disappointing. I think my cat's fancy feast would be more appealing. Presentation itself was nice, but if the food doesn't taste good, what is the point of nice plating?

One big annoyance was that the plates spin on the bar top. When trying to cut into my food the plate would spin around and it really made it difficult to eat a meal. At one point my plate spun and my fork fell off my plate. Really? I really have to deal with this silly stuff when I want to enjoy myself? These are the details that make this a never again place for me.

I've wanted to try this place for a while - I frequent MoCa (a nice little coffee joint next door) and I've been curious. A Living Social voucher came up, so ok, I gave it a shot.  

The service was fantastic - the staff were all friendly and attentive and I can't say enough nice things about them, but there were a few downbeats that kind of killed it for me.

One: The whole place smelled like bleach and cleaning solutions. Immediately upon entering the bar it hit my nose like a punch to the face. This smell was strong and overpowering, and affected my appetite, and possibly my taste. Yay for keeping the place clean, but that was just off-putting. Walking into a restaurant/bar with food, I expect to smell yummy food... not bleach.  

Two: I expected a nicer experience and better ambiance based on the prices and the wine & martini bar idea - the table was wobbly (to the point of spilling a drink), and the acoustics inside are awful. There was a table of girls giggling, a little loudly but nothing more than you'd expect from a table of girls drinking wine, and the sound was amplified so much that my companion and I kept having to say "What?" when trying to have a conversation even though we were sitting less than a foot apart. It wasn't that crowded (there were several empty tables for the duration of our visit) but it sounded like it was a bar packed with drunks.

Three: The food was only so-so (we both had the bone in ribeye) and definitely would have been put off by the price of it if I'd not had the Living Social voucher to offset the cost.  The steak itself wasn't awful, but not amazing either. I've had better ribeyes at diners for $12; at $22 I do expect just a bit more. The side dishes - mashed potatoes (that I think were supposed to be garlic, but there was very little garlic to be tasted if so) with a thin brown gravy and veggies - were bland and barely seasoned. It looked really pretty, but the flavor just wasn't there.

Four: The Riesling I had - Clean Slate, one which I've enjoyed elsewhere before - was a little off. Like it had been a bottle opened several days ago and left out warm, then chilled again. I'm giving them a little of the benefit of the doubt given the recent storms/trauma in the area (maybe they had power outages this week?). I'm trying to be a forgiving soul in light of that, but even still, if you opened the wine and then it got warm because of a power outage, toss it and claim it on the insurance, don't pass that off to the customers at $7 a glass. I will say the pumpkin martini my friend had was tasty and strong. Pity about the wine though.

One of the stars is for the service alone. Otherwise, this would be a much harsher review.

All that said, I am going to try them again, because they're close and they have a very cute patio that I'd like to try out - and I'll go for some of the small plates and appetizers next time rather than a dinner, with a different wine. I won't be in a hurry to go back though until warmer weather comes so I can enjoy the patio and know I won't have to smell bleach while trying to eat overpriced food and sit at a wobbly table where I can't hear the person sitting next to me.

I had a living social deal so me and three others went here on a Friday evening. We really had a great time. We didn't have reservations but got seated right away. The ambiance was great, warm and dark and the place was mostly full the whole time.

I got a chocolate martini and even though I usually don't like martinis I really loved it. The bf tried to order two different beers that they were out of before finding one they had. Their beer selection was good but then they seemed to be out of quite a few on the menu.

We got angry calamari that was really perfect. Then we got the perogie sampler which was really more like ravioli than perogies, it was alright.

Then for our meals. I tried to order the bone-in ribeye but they were out. So I got the pork chops. The bf got the smoked chicken ravioli which was to die for. My pork chops were amazing too. They were the best pork chops I've had, the baked apples were chopped up small so you could get some - along with bbq sauce and mashed potatoes - in every bite. But the chicken ravioli was even better. I am definitely getting that next time.

The only reason I'm not giving five stars is because they were out of a lot of things we asked for. And the server wasn't so hot at clearing anything away but then it was his second day. I'm going back again and I foresee five stars.