Jedediah C.
Yelp
As a Cleveland native, I was able to enjoy to the rise of Melt through the 2000s and since moving away I often recommend Melt and especially Lakewood Melt (as it is the original) to anyone asking about the greatest place to enjoy for food and atmosphere in the Cleveland area.
Traveling back to Cleveland this week I filled my family with stories of gourmet grilled cheeses, the bustling atmosphere and delicious cocktails.
On a Saturday afternoon with a busy Lakewood street fair, a 30 min wait for a table was realistic. Our hostess was engaging to not only our party but the other parties waiting. Inside of the 30 min wait we watched as other tables got up and no one cleaned the tables. When they finally cleaned one up for us, I sat down and had to then accept that the fact that i was sitting in a chair with melt's award winning mac and cheese on the floor and now stuck to the bottom of my Jordan's. (The rest of the tables stayed dirty for the rest of what is going to be an epic failure of an experience.)
Our server (who wasn't cleaning the tables, the hostess was) finally came by to take our beverage order after 10 min of us sitting here. She opened with "Hi, my name is **** and I will be taking care of EVERYONE" with a negative emphasis on 'everyone. I can easily see that the restaurant was under staffed and tried to lighten the situation by telling her "you are doing great, we can see that you are having a hard time". I was trying to put positivity into the experience in hopes that we can just have a decent one ourselves.
I ordered the cream soda old fashioned and my partner ordered the Buffalo Bloody Mary (a drink garnished with blue cheese stuffed olives and a skewer) After 10 more minutes the server tells us it's going to be some more time on the drinks and takes our food order. Glasses of water at least would have been nice if the bar is backed up, but those weren't brought either. (A step in service to buy time for the bar, assuming the order gets put in and then the drinks come out). We order the Parma Italy and The chicken and waffles, subbing fries for a side salad and a watermelon cucumber salad.
Another TWENTY minutes go by and the server slams my now melted old fashioned on the table splashing the melted ice everywhere and you guessed it, no garnish or rim on the bloody Mary. There wasn't a chance to send the drink back because the server ran away. She ran away so fast and was not seen again for another 30 min. We were the only table of two tables in the section. At this point it isn't a no the lack of staffing, it's the downright neglect of the server.
Our food comes out with no dressing for the side salad and cheese for the watermelon and at this point the sandwiches are almost room temperature because they sat in the window for god knows how long. I knew it had to be long cause the cucumbers where now cooked and watermelon warm.
Not one time did our server ask if anything was ok, she showed up half way through our meal to offer us a box signaling to us that she wanted us gone and the experience to end.
Then when she dropped the check and i immediately put my card in it so I can also end this terrible experience, she ran away to EAT IN A SIDE STATION!
In the end, another server (I believe the nice queen that ran our food) had to run the check because our server took zero responsibility for our food or experience.
There was tops, 6 tables in the entire restaurant, this wasn't an issue of short staffed, this is pure apathy and lack of pride.
Melt is a landmark in Cleveland and a ping in every tourist destination. Please do better job with creating a team that can bring its reputation to life.