Music Box Supper Club

Music Box was having a sale where tickets were only $ 10 so I snagged some for a Griffin House concert on a Monday night. We pulled in and expected to pay for parking but no attendant was there so free parking! Our venue was upstairs and since we got in about 40 minutes before the start of the show we had an excellent choice for seating even with a crowd already starting to form front and center. The space looks great! Intimate feel to the place and I love all the windows with a view right next to the river.
The servers were nice and they would try to duck out of the way so as not to interrupt your concert experience too much. I also enjoyed the manager stopping by to make sure everything was okay. As for food I got this shrimp and grits bowl that was a bit salty, but still enjoyable for the most part. My friend went with a salad that they said was okay. Prices are a bit high here though; we’re talking $ 12 for a beer outside Bud Light.
Overall, really enjoyed the space and the music, just think the food and drink were «meh». I’d definitely hit this place up again as I think it would be excellent for a night out during the week, just maybe get a tastier dinner elsewhere beforehand or bring your suggar daddy to pay for drinks.

I really like this place. It’s a little different from what I usually like, since I feel a little weird just sitting and staring at a musician or band. But, this is a supper club, so I went in with an idea of what to expect.
I’ve seen shows both downstairs and upstairs and I must say I think I prefer downstairs, but I love it all! The venue is nice, the staff is wonderful (and especially when they’re trying to take orders over the noise of a show, they do a great job!), and the acts that they bring here are so fun! I’ve only eaten here once (downstairs before a menu revamp, so I can’t really speak to the quality of the food much). Even though this is a supper club, I don’t usually plan on eating where I’m seeing a show, so this isn’t a really important part to me. I did note that the service can be a little slow, even when you’re just ordering beers. The layout of the place and the packed shows certainly don’t help this situation.
I’ll certainly be back here plenty of times, I’m sure, and I recommend checking it out if you haven’t yet! Such a great part of the Flats!

Had a good time with another couple at the music box. Will try it again because I like the idea of it. The location is great and looks like a summer spot with views of the river and east bank.
The food was just ok. The dinners were pricey for the flavor. Good portions tho. The appetizers were good and worth it.
I didn’t pay too much attention to the band but they were ok. I’ve seen better but for only a few dollars it was fine.
So, I hope they improve the food and offer a few different price points for when we just want a snack or small bites during a show.

I was in Ohio and a musician I like was having a show at music box. I was skeptical about going to a show in Cleveland because the last venue I went to in the area was super shady. When I drove into the neighborhood I was pleasantly surprised. It was actually a pretty area located on the water and I didn’t feel unsafe at all. It was a little confusing getting to the venue. I couldn’t see a sign anywhere and I accidentally went to the cabaret club at first so beware. Once I got inside the venue I was impressed by how pretty it was. It has a view of the water and its big inside. Make sure you purchase your ticket in advance if sitting in the front is important to you. The tables in the back looked way too far from the stage for my taste. The seating is a little awkward. You sit at tables with strangers so it’s like going to a restaurant and sitting with random people. What I liked the most was the waitress never pressured me into ordering anything. They did not charge a food and drink minimum on top of the ticket price (I hate that!). The acoustics were good. I would come back if I’m ever in Cleveland and someone I like is performing.

This is a great place for music and food. Setting, acoustics (one of the few places that keeps the sound levels tolerable even for electric acts), food and service (Kate was our server tonight) are all excellent. Lobster macaroni and cheese, short ribs, margherita flatbread, and crime brûlée were outstanding.

Went to see the Dave Rawlings Machine last night. The music was terrific but that was all. It is overcrowded and the table placements leave a lot to be desired. We tried to order food were given menus 25 minutes past after we ordered and they came to tell us the kitchen was closed. I took another. Took another 15 minutes to get the wine and water we ordered. The waitress never came back to check on us when it was time to cash out she conveniently kept the change until we asked about it. The music box sounds like a great idea but it wasn’t. Very poor service

My husband and I went to Dinner and the John Lennon 75 th anniversary show.
We were greeted by Shannon our hostess, she was very friendly and made us feel very comfortable! Our waitress was a great girl named Angelica! Super nice and very helpful about menu items and beers!
Food was terrific and we loved the show!
The staff made us feel very welcome and they where fun! I can’t wait to come back and we will ask for Angelica! Shannon knows how to make a guest feel at home
See ya soon! Nancy &Mickey Masterson

Recently attended an event here and found it to be perfectly lovely. The wall of windows revealing a great river/​city view was really great. I didn’t have any food, so I can only speak to the venue. I thought it was very chic, fresh, and elegant. Would be a nice place to hold events.

Was here for the 2015 Unilocaly Awards. First time in this space since it was a club. Impressive! Staff and bartenders were awesome! Drinks were good! Only got to try one hors d’oeuvres — beef tips with risotto. So good! I wish I got their earlier to sample the others. Not much to base my 5-​star rating on in this visit, but experience was all positive, so it’s a 5 for now. Will update when I return in the future.

I was here for a Unilocal event upstairs. Delicious appetizers and tasty cocktails were served. Being there an hour and a half, however, I only got two hors d’oeuvres. I won’t ding Music Box Supper Club on that as it might be a Unilocal thing or a Music Box thing… who knows. The bites of hummus I had were tasty, I just wish there’d been more to nibble on. Because we were starved I hopped on Open Table and made a reservation for the Rusty Anchor downstairs which made it convenient. Service at the bar was attentive and the views were spectacular of the east bank of the flats. This would definitely be a cool venue for a wedding and many other types of events. Thanks for hosting the Unilocaly Awards!

First time here, we won tickets and have been dying to come try this place.
Food was AAHHHHHHHMMMMAZZZZZZINGGGG! We had the risotto croquettes, crab cake and salad with goat cheese and strawberries. Everything paired well and tasted fabulous. Our server was Angelica and she was very attentive and friendly throughout the evening.
Enjoyed a show of Thorne tea Davis in the Supper Club with our meal. She was outstanding along with her fantastic band.
We will definitely be back soon, great way to get out on the town! A must do when in Cleveland!

The sound in this place was excellent. What a great venue in a prime location.
I cannot vouch for the food as our server disappeared after we ordered drinks and we never saw her or the drinks ever again. I told myself that I didn’t want food or drinks anyway.
I’ll be back for more music, though.

So their happy hour is da bomb! Awesome patio to watch the boats and hang out in the flats. Also the live music during the day was really great! Some guy with an acoustic guitar jammin’ out around 3pm. Felt like I was on vacation!
Then we came back for dinner. It was super crowded which we were expecting but the service was suuuuuuper slow. Once the food finally came out it was pretty cold which was a bummer.
Lastly, was not diggin’ the random polka band that played for 2 hours. But I guess they have different bands every weekend so I’ll have to go back when a different group is playing.
Excited to come back here for happy hour that’s for sure!

Never quite had such a negative experience with the service in any transactional setting, let alone a music venue/​restaurant. There is one undeniable truth: If you don’t want to be in the service industry, find another line of F’ing work. People come out to restaurants, concert venues, etc. in their spare time and on their own dime to have a good experience and not to deal with staff that have an attitude. As I’m reading all the posts here, just about every negative post mentions the poor service so there you have it.
I had basically a confrontation/​come to Jesus moment with our server. He was very rude to my fiancée and me. I don’t understand how you can sign up to do this job and do it with a scowl on your face (the entire time), say nothing, and be an overall gigantic self important douche. I told him he was ruining the evening for us and making the whole experience very awkward.
The manager came over and offered to change servers, letting me know this guy (Judd, idk, don’t care to know what his actual name was) has actually received many compliments from other customers. My @ss, he’s either blackmailing you for a job, or you’re trying to tell us that actually, WE are the @sshole customers.
How about people will take their business to a place with a good atmosphere that actually enriches their weekend experience, not the opposite. I’ve worked in the restaurant industry, and I’ve also been a server. I’ve had customers I can’t stand, but if I copped an attitude with every customer I’d probably be in jail by now, certainly fired.
Needless to say, not coming back after this. I give major props when it’s due (check my review history) but I always keep it 100, and I refuse to accept this wave of pompous entitlement that customers don’t matter. Too bad, actually seemed like a great venue and would have been an otherwise great evening.

Capable of being a whole lot better and more consistent is this new upscale concert venue. An ambitious venture that should be supported and encouraged by the surrounding communities.
We have seen 2 shows here, in addition to having our wedding brunch in what has since been converted to the downstairs supper club. This is the year to figure out what is working and what is not, so we must be patient with them as they adjust to what could be a fabulous success. We want them very much to succeed.
That said, I have my issues. Poor communication, inexperience, and inconsistency are fixable only when open to criticism. Being able to accept and learn from mistakes are key to successful ventures that have a wonderful plan for entertainment, but this group may be new to whole house reservation dining and large groups. Staffing, buying, and service execution are critical to maintaining happy repeat customers and sustainable profit margins. The restaurant and music production businesses are both cruel to the unseasoned. Let’s hope this group can manage both.
Overall staffing, execution, and food quality were accomplished and even exceeded expectations on our wedding brunch afternoon. I thought the day went so well I didn’t give it another thought and praised the Music Box to anyone who would listen.
Then I found out what really happened on a couple of fronts with regard to our guests. One was actually confrontational between a bartender and close friend of ours. There was breach of contract, in that we ended up not having a quality draught beer available, due to the bar running out of it the evening prior. This problem was categorically ignored. Bartenders even proclaimed someone was running for cases of the product and that it would be available when it arrived.
I reached out on several occasions to have some closure on the obvious oversights during our fairly expensive event. When the draught beer offering was unavailable for our event, leaving only poor choices remaining, our planner was not made aware. Our guests were left to believe we have poor taste in choosing decent products for them. The beer in question was named in the contract, and no replacement of equal quality was offered or even discussed with us. It was not only ignored, but bartenders were not briefed on what to do in the event it or something similar was requested. They came up with excuse above on their own I was told. Additionally a dessert selection that we requested was at least replaced with an inferior selection. This was likely a post negotiation expense adjustment, also with no briefing for planner or payer. These facts we were unable to ascertain until the following day. I asked for no compensation, and only communication. I have been given no response to date, nothing since late April. I guess they beat me. Don’t let them beat you. I suppose it is a choice when running a business and looking to control costs, that these folks will just not give you things requested and throw up their hands saying «everything went great! we did everything you asked.» Everything but a few things we specifically requested, agreed upon, and paid for, but did not get or have any explanation or adjustment to compensate.
The cost of this review for a perhaps less than $ 200 in beer and food costs. That’s poor mathematics and business practices if Unilocal means anything. In a weird way I get it. I wouldn’t want to give attention to minor details when I have so many other important things going on preparing for events during Rock Hall induction week. But I asked for explanations well after the event and followed up more than a month later. No response. Nothing. I hate writing bad reviews.

I looked this place up online after hearing about it. The bands looked like bands I would like, and I researched them. I liked their sound, and I was pretty excited to check this place out. The place itself is gorgeous. It is right beside the water in the flats. You can watch large shipping boats pass by – it’s the mix of industrial and art that gives such aesthetically pleasing element.
I went with a friend and was pleased with everything I saw. We went to the actual restaurant, The Rusty Anchor. This amazing swing/​blues/​jazz band was playing, and I adored their sound. As a matter of fact, I hope to see them play this summer. Bummer I was listening to this band at this venue.
I went with a friend, and we both ordered drinks. The drinks took a very long time to get back to us. We felt ignored. We decided to leave during an intermission. When we couldn’t find the waiter since he was no where in sight for most of the night, in frustration, we went to the bar to ask for our check. The bartender told us our waiter had our check. He then proceeded to ignore us. Our check finally came, and we left pretty annoyed.
I really want to like this place. Too bad it’s going to be a while until I go back. The bands are amazing. The atmosphere is relaxing. The people who work there? Ruins everything. I crave seeing those views from their large windows overlooking the water while listening to Cole Porter songs. This place has a lot of potential.

We’ve been to Music Box Supper Club 3 – 4 times now, so it’s time for a review.
As a music venue, I’m pretty pleased. The sound is good (actually great, if you choose the right seats and band). The first couple times we succumbed to the temptation to sit right in front of the stage, but the sound is awful there, not surprisingly. Last night we saw one of our favorite bands, which we’ve seen in a million other places, but we chose to sit right behind the sound board. The combination of this location and the fact that the group had their own sound guy who ran the house board added up to an amazing sound.
The size of the venue is just about perfect… you can choose to be literally 5-​ft away from the performance. Or you can choose to be way in the back, which will still provide a solid sound and allow you to see everything. There really aren’t any bad seats.
The menu seems to be somewhat schizo. Every time we go it’s changed. Admittedly, the venue is still relatively new and maybe they’re still trying to find their way. But don’t count on getting an entrée you liked last time.
On our last visit, our friends (who are elite beer snobs) ordered beers based on our waitress’s description, but when they arrived, they both said those descriptions were highly inaccurate and they wouldn’t have ordered those beers if they’d known what they were getting.
I ordered a gin and tonic, stressing that if the waitress couldn’t guarantee that there’d be at least SOME alcohol in it, I’d prefer a glass of wine. «Oh, it’s ALL alcohol,» she assured me. She lied.
My wife and I ordered the fried calamari appetizer, which had a great flavor (pretty much all garlic, but it’s hard to go wrong with fried garlic anything) but the calamari was about 5% of the entrée; the rest is breading. Toward the end we all rowed through the pile of breading on the plate, looking for any calamari. It tasted yummy, but they could’ve brought us a plate of fried breading and it would’ve been pretty much the same.
Last night’s menu was weird. While they had the usual choices of proteins, their sides were oddly paired in just about every case. Asparagus was big last night; just about every entrée came with it. Which is great, if you like asparagus. Half of our party didn’t. When we asked if we could switch things up a bit, our waitress, who seemed somewhat confused by the menu herself, said they didn’t allow that. What?
Our wives got the beet salad, which turned out to be a limp plate of greens surrounded by whole slices of beets and a large scoop of something no one (including our waitress) could identify. She eventually hypothesized goat cheese and, while both wives agreed that this might be the case, they also said it was the strangest goat cheese they’d ever tasted, and an all-​around weird choice in that entrée to begin with.
I got the half-​chicken. The chicken was a fairly tiny squab, about the size as a Cornish hen. It’s smothered in a creamy sauce, which is where all the flavor comes from. It was cooked pretty much to death, but since it was swimming in sauce you didn’t notice much. It came with an unremarkable scoop of rice flavored with a mild horseradish. Meh.
Okay, the service. Our waitress acted like she was new, but I don’t know if she was. She kept mentioning that the menu was new and she hadn’t memorized anything yet, so pretty much any question necessitated a trip to the kitchen to get answers. Which was usually «No». She didn’t have the right answers for the food, she didn’t have the right answers for the beer. Maybe it was just her, I don’t know.
There were a lot of waiters/​waitresses. At one point my wife said, «I think there’s as many wait staff as customers here.» And they’re all milling around, checking drink levels, though they seemed to have sporadic accuracy; my wife got 3 diet Cokes in 10 minutes and finally had to tell them to stop, while my water sat empty for half the meal. With the blizzard of waitrons replenishing drinks, bringing food, taking plates, and always asking, «How’re we doing here?» it was somewhat frenetic. There are places where having everyone checking on every table works… but this isn’t one of them. MBSC is trying very hard to be upscale, and that requires a relaxing atmosphere. Instead, it’s like being in a busy breakfast diner.
And finally, there seems to be an odd reservation function going on here. It’s a Supper Club, right? We bought tickets for our show well in advance, but I got an email the day before the show reminding me to make reservations. Why? Aren’t purchased tickets enough?
So, my advice to MBSC would be:
1. Reign in your chef’s creativity. Less fru-​fru, better food, better cooking skills. $ 25 for a pork chop is fine, if it’s good. And asparagus for every entrée? Really?
2. Fix your reservation system. It’s weird.
3. Review your staffing. Less people but better utilization. You won’t be around long with that overhead.

I really enjoyed my experience. Parking was $ 6 and we went to a Lucky 7 concert which was $ 7 and included a drink. Bossa Nova night was just perfect. I would have paid more to see the awesome duo (Luca Mundaca and an awesome percusionist) The food is overpriced but I guess that is how they make their money, you could just eat before or after if that is s problem. The place is beautiful with excellent views and atmosphere. The service was a little slow when the concert started but then the server got better checking on us while we were eating… it was ok.
I had a chop salad with chicken which I thought was small for $ 14 but then it was $ 12.50 on my check. My friends had salads and also de sliders whith frech fries which she seemed to like. The food is not something to write home about but it tasted good and I enjoyed my salad with the complimentary Cuba Libre during the performance.
The sound is fantastic, I cannot wait to try a concert at the Concert Hall. This is not at all expensive considering how beautiful the place is and the high quality of the performances. Check it out! I am think I want to come at least once a week now. I am hooked!

The sound and views in this place are fabulous — among my favorite in Cleveland. However, the table arrangements need some work. It always seems so crowded, and if you are sitting closer to the stage it seems like an obstacle course when you have to get up to go to the bar or the bathroom. We’ve been here twice, and the first time our service was — not the best, to put it lightly. They use iPads to take orders, which seemed to be the source of the problem. Their computer system went down, which led to us waiting at least 20 minutes before someone even came over to take our drink orders. Once someone did, it took him forever to find whatever we ordered on the iPad. Like, it was awkward how many times we had to point to what we wanted on the menu.
We ended up having a mix-​up with a bottle of wine (apparently he couldn’t find the one we wanted on the iPad, so brought us another bottle that was like $ 20 more) and with a cocktail (my sister’s BF ordered a whiskey drink, and what he got was some sort of sugary vodka creation). Both situations were remedied, but the whole process just seemed to take forever.
The second time we came a few days before St. Patrick’s Day to see the Portersharks (best Irish music in town, people!) and service was much better, especially considering how crowded it was.
Still: I was claustrophobic in my seat, knowing that if I tilted my head back I’d probably conk the person sitting behind me. Also: the food is fine, but definitely overpriced. The flatbreads aren’t that big or filling for what you pay, and $ 12 for hummus is just ridiculous. I would recommend just eating before or after a show, if you can.

Very disappointed in the follow through from Christina, regarding private events. She had the Bride’s budget, head count and expectations and Christina said it was ‘doable’. Many emails were sent, several phone calls made… and she didn’t reply for a week and a half. Finally, one of the bridesmaids contacted her and she quoted a price that is easily THREE TIMES higher than the budget that was discussed. I will not be recommending them to future brides or hosts.
I was really excited to try this venue personally, but after this initial impression, I think I’ll wait until they get their ducks in a row.