Winking Lizard Tavern

Where to start… consistency is not to be expected from this location. Before I delve any deeper into my experience at the Coventry Winking Lizard, I recommend you drive the extra distance to any other near by location and for go this one entirely. Watch out on Monday or Tuesday wing and pizza night, the food will be great but the service will leave a lot to be desired. Ask for a box for the remaining pizza I had left, which at any other location my server will more than happily provide. On Coventry, you will not receive such customer service because consistency is something that is not practiced here. Typically if you pay for the food you get to take home what is left. With my experience I attempted to negotiate with the server, I would be happy to order desert and if they happen to walk past a box I would appreciate it. Most servers would happily oblige, this time they didn’t. Subsequently I didn’t order the desert in a lack of faith of the servers competence; note to the owner of this troubled establishment: a please consider retraining your staff regarding profit and lose. Your store lost on a sale because your staff decided to disregard a controllable effort and lost a long time patron. I will be taking my business, and people I know, to other consistent establishments going forward. If I heard correctly, this location was moving to Mayfield Heights potentially? When you do, please consider seeking a more friendly and more competent staff.

OK. This has to be WLT’s smallest location. Often too crowded. They have a huge beer selection and a bunch of TV’s so that is most likely the draw. The food is OK. Standard for a pub. I gave 2 stars because it’s just to crowded too often. But for it being so busy the wait staff is good… so if you are willing to wait for a seat and handle a crowd it could be worth it.

Had about 30 minutes to pop in before sound check down the street, and I’m glad I did! Great local beers on tap, I forget what local IPA I tried, and I really enjoyed my jerk chicken sandwich. Fries were crispy, bartenders were attentive, football was on TV. It was the perfect getaway from tourlife for just a few minutes.
Thanks Winking Lizard, next time I’m in town I’m coming back!

My friends and I come here every month to get the Glass of the Month. Good atmosphere, good beer, and the bartenders are usually great. Only reason I’m not giving a 5 star is the last time we went the bartender only gave us the glass and not the beer because it was too close to closing time. But there were still people there…

Will not be my last visit! This place had great food, an awesome drink selection, and an iguana-​what else could you want? The service is spot on, everyone is attentive and friendly. The food comes out in a timely fashion and is priced just right! They have monthly and daily specials. I will be a repeat consumer for sure :)

Just got done eatting here and tried a good sample of stuff. First and foremost the beer selection is insane!!! The detail in the list as well is very nice so you know what it is where it is from and the alcohol content. As for the appetizers we tried the southwestern egg rolls and the loaded skins. The Potato skins were pretty run of the mill, but the southwestern egg rolls were AMAZING! So much flavor and the spicy ranch it came with just puts it over the top. We got 2 types of wings one with their 6 pepper dry rub and the other with the garlic parmesan dry rub. Both of them were some of the best wings I have every had. The skin was so crunchy and full of flavor I could of ate them all day. Of coarse you can get sauces or Bleu cheese to go with them but you honestly don’t need it. Also tried the gyro, it had alot of meat but all and all didn’t have great flavor. The rueben was really good with alot of meat and just enough sauerkraut. This is a place I will be visiting again without a doubt.

Nice location along coventry which caters to the beer aficionados. Love love love the daily 32 ounce beer specials !!! What a steal ! I usually love their meditaranean salads featured at other winking lizard locations but for some reason they didn’t have it here nor the seasonal specials offered at other lizard locations. A little disappointed in this particular location with respect to food. Got an order of
Wings which were obviously sitting around and had to ask for a fresh basket of wings (they were hard and rubbery). However along coventry this is a nice place to hit up for a beer. Also free popcorn as always

As far as chain restaurants can take you – This location will feed you. Don’t expect much else.

I didn’t have any alcohol but I did order cherry coke and a grilled cheese with fries. They didn’t put in any bacon or tomato as I requested. The fries were fried in old oil. I could tell by the taste. The plain grilled cheese was tasty but again, it was missing bacon and tomato as I would have asked.

We had wings, hot, which were perfectly acceptable for beer food and hit the spot. Two burgers, medium and rare, which were both cooked perfectly and served hot, with hot fresh French fries. A white pizza, served without tomatoes — perfect for our tomato haters — hit the spot, and was big enough to take half of it home when a large was ordered for one. A great deal. The beers were cold, and there was such a large selection. They had a list of beers for beginners and a list of diet choices. The bar had better lighting then the dining area, but we used our phone flashlights to look at the menu. It wasn’t very busy around 9 on a Saturday night, either. Will definitely be back on my next trip to Cleveland.
Glad that this time we needed somewhere to eat and we were pleasantly surprised to see a Winking Lizard, as we were familiar with the brand. All of the bad reviews tempted to put us off, but we were starving and our past memory meant more than bad reviews — thankfully. Every member of the staff really made us feel welcome, from the kind waitress to someone we stopped to ask about Ohio liquor laws. (The floor manager and GM seemed eager to hear about our experience as well!)

Wings specials on Mon and Tues make this place worth a visit. Besides their wings, I haven’t found any other good items from their menu. Love the soda options. The servers can be rude sometimes.

Wow some how this place managed to screw up wings, they were super greasy and tasted rancid. Like that had been fried several times I told the server they are super greasyshe said well they are fried. I was about to say yeah I know Einstein I make them at home. I left the Einstein part out. She took them away all pissed of. My girl did seem to have food poisoning that evening. Done with particular location

It hurts me to write this after the delicious soft pretzel they served me – piping hot. Oh.My.God. It was like the junk-​food angels came down from the heavens and told me, «You can die happy now.»
Based on the quality of the other food we ordered, I’m sure said pretzels were just the out-​of-​the-​frozen-​box variety, but when served hot, brushed with melted butter and accompanied by my favorite fake-​food condiment of all time (nacho cheese), I’m not complaining.
But that pretzel was really just a happy blip on the subpar radar of Winking Lizard Coventry. Now – I will cut the staff some slack here. I used to live near Coventry. I know the riff-​raff they deal with on a daily basis. Lots of underage college kids trying to sneak in for drinks, drunk twenty-​somethings testing their patience. I get it. But really, if you can’t slap a smile on for your shift, especially when dealing with ADULT, dine-​in customers? I’ve worked plenty of service jobs in my time. I’ve had to deal with the worst drunks (Browns game Sundays downtown… UGH x100) and I still wouldn’t take out my shitty attitude on other customers. Here… try this. Instead of having a bouncer-​like greeter at your door like you’re a nightclub, how about you just stick with a smiling, pleasant hostess?
And not to keep the complain train going… but no one likes to eat in a refrigerator just because the staff is warm. I hate to say this, but the customers’ comfort should be top priority. The room we were brought to was down-​right frigid. The A/​C was on in October. it was under 50 degrees outside. Problem número uno. The server was asked to turn the A/​C, which she did, especially after she noticed the entire room still had their winter coats on. Shortly afterwards another server told her to turn it back on because she was hot – AFTER hearing the request from a customer. Oy.
Lastly, like I mentioned before, the rest of our food was just not good. The wings looked soggy and under-​cooked, yet dry – if that makes sense? It was like they were sitting for a while and getting cold before they brought them out. My grilled cheese was hardly warm, complete with congealed cheese inside – no melty goodness for you! And the loaded fries were just meh, but I think that’s just my personal opinion. I don’t like steak fries.
LIke many of the other Unilocalers have mentioned, some consistency across all Winking Lizard locations would be nice. Oh, and staff that can at least pretend like they want to be there.

We visited this winking lizard to have drinks and dinner before going to a late show at the grog shop.
Drinks–
We split a reasonably priced pitcher of seasonal pumpkin beer ($ 15.75) followed by waitress recommend local ipa and blueberry beers.
Food —
I had a classic American cheeseburger with steak fries. It was cooked to order and had great flavor. My husband was in love with the Cajun style burger (Bo mans bacon cheeseburger) with added jalapeños and the shells and cheese side. Their table bbq sauce was pretty tasty too.
Service —
All in all, we must have visited on one of their «on» nights because everything about our experience that night was great. Our waitress kept our waters filled, beers fresh, ensured our food was good, and took the time to chat with us. Would love for this place to be local to us in Michigan.

I pretty much exclusively come here for cheap wings on Mondays and Tuesdays. That being said, as time goes by, everything goes up in price. :(They’re now 50c/​wing (in packs of 5) for bone-​in, and 45c for boneless after 3pm Mon and Tues. Although, guys, I really don’t understand «boneless wings»…aren’t they just chicken tenders?
Anyway, the last time I came here was over a year ago, and since then, they’ve added more flavors. There’s now a flavor spicier than magma (it’s called fire in the hole), and there are dry rubs available now. My favorite flavor is goldfinger. Try it, you won’t regret it. :D
Happy hour specials are also available from 3−7pm, including $ 1 off all 22oz drafts and other deals.

$.50 wings on Mon/​Tues after 3 pm, just in time for the Colombia World Cup massacre of Japan. No bueno. Great service, and awesome mixed sodas like Grape Sprite and Vanilla Barqs. Garlic wings were delicious.

Damn great wings! How do you go wrong here on any level? These are some of the best wings I’ve had. I left Cleveland and moved out West 20 years ago. Every time I’m back visiting family this is a must do along with Tommy’s, Geraci’s anything Little Italy ie. Presti’s, Mama Santa. They have so many beers on tap good thing I say walking distance. Great mojo, great people, great food and drink there is no way to go wrong. Be sure to sample a few different sauces with your wings! Trust me there are no better wings anywhere!

I went to college around the area and now that I’m living here again, I questioned why I had never frequented the Winking Lizard before.
I’ve since experienced what I would best describe as «hit or miss» dining at the Winking Lizard. One time, I’ll have really great food, but less than stellar service. The next time, the service will be great, but the food is just so-​so.
This last time, it was the latter. Our server was very nice and attentive, checking on us frequently and making sure we were happy with everything. My hamburger, though, was extremely dry. My boyfriend commented afterwards, «yeah, either you weren’t hungry, or you really didn’t like that.»
The beer selection is great, and I like that there are so many choices on draft. But I don’t like that the servers can be pretentious about them. When I went in October, I asked what pumpkin beer was better. The server’s response was less than nice. I wasn’t aware that pumpkin beer was an elitist drink reserved for only the highest in society!
In short, I’m not a big fan, and until things are a little more consistent, I don’t think I will be.

Pretty good spot to catch up on your sports teams but I’m not a sports guy myself. I come here for food and to catch up with friends. There are specials Sun-​Thurs like wings, pizza, ribs, and burgers. I especially enjoy coming here on wing nights (Mon/​Tues) and burger night (Thursday). Their wings are quite large and nicely done. You can choose from over 10 variety of flavors. My favorite is the goldfinger, which has a great combination of tanginess and sweetness. The burgers are also quite good. I like their wild western burger for it’s simplicity and heartiness. It’s just basically a big BBQ burger with bacon.
There’s a huge menu of beer at your disposal and you can also do their world beer tour. The beer tour rewards you with prizes along the way and a party invitation to their end of the year party if you completed the tour (100+ different beers over the course of the year). I have yet to take on this challenge but my friends have done it and had fun doing so. A few years ago, the party was held at the Browns stadium. Anyhow, the food here is typical for a bar restaurant. What’s neat here is that it’s convenient for people in the CWRU/​Cleveland Heights area to meet. There’s plenty of seating but it does tend to get busy and loud during home games.

Wraps and burgers are great. Prices are a tad steep. Happy hour is always a big plus. Best place in town to watch a game or two. Huge beer selection. Service is consistently hit or miss. 20 minute wait for cold soup: fail.