Winking Lizard

Bar, Eatery

9570 Mentor Ave
Mentor, Ohio, 44060
United States

(440) 354-2968 | map
winkinglizard.com
PLACE STATS
Average:
4.04
Reviews:
4
Ratings:
5
pDev:
3.71%
View: Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews.
Ratings by UDbeernut:
Photo of UDbeernut
Reviewed by UDbeernut from Florida

3.94/5  rDev -2.5%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4
This was my first time at any Winking Lizard besides the one in Cleveland Heights and the one downtown. This Winking Lizard is located in a stip mall in Mentor just off Mentor Ave (US-20). The resturant was large and had alot of open space, they were busy but it felt empty. Crowd was mixed age, the typical sports bar scene.

My wife and I sat at the bar. Selection was good, which is par for any Winking Lizard location. We did not eat during our visit but I would assume that it is equal to the other Lizards I have been at; good.

The bar tenders were propt. They even put the Phillies vs. Giants game on for us.

Overall, a decent place to go to, and may be a better location for East Side Clevelanders as apposed to the Cleveland Heights local.
Aug 05, 2009
More User Ratings:
 
Rated: 4.25 by FaradayUncaged from Michigan

Nov 05, 2014
Photo of adamette
Reviewed by adamette from Ohio

4.18/5  rDev +3.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4.5
I have been to this Winking Lizard about 10 times and most recently about one hour ago.

A I do not prefer this atmoshphere, exremely common with the Winking Lizards that I have been to, probably 5 of them. There are something like 30 flat screens all around, covering the walls and then some. There are also many, many beer signs and ads, favoring local (although now defunct) breweries. I really appreciate the latter vs. the flatscreens. Overall, though, it is a lot of fun if you are looking for a place to "watch the game" with some interesting beer and good pub food. I give it higher mark for succeeding at what it is even if I don't personally like all of the flatscreens.

Q Really pretty good for what this place is, a sports bar/restaurant with a moderate beer enthusiast slant. It is higher quality than I thought it might be.

Service: great, with readily available waitresses and bar tenders whenver you need one. Sure, at busier times it is slightly tougher to get help but his is understandable.

Selection: excllent for this sports bar/restaurant. 15 taps with a "Belgian Handle," a "Hop Handle" and "Great Lakes Handle" and one other and plenty of happy hour deals. Out of the 15 taps there are 10 that I will never order (macro brews, Guinness which I have had enough of) but the remaining 5 are interesting. The Belgian handle tonight was a Houblon Chouffe IPA. Sweet!

Food: Really great, again for what this place is. Really I have not had a bad meal here. It is by no means a gourmet place but the quality is both higher than I expected and higher than it really needs to be for the place that it is.

Value: Good. I had two tap beers (the belgian tap and Dogfish Head 90 minute IPA), a burger and my wife had a pizza. Our bill was $27. That is VERY reasonable imo.

Overall: I really recommend going to Winking Lizard about once a month to check out their monthly glass special (this month it is Paulaner Oktoberfest) and those 5 taps not macro brews as well as to get dinner which is better than you think.
Sep 26, 2008
Photo of barleysangel
Reviewed by barleysangel from Ohio

3.93/5  rDev -2.7%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5
This place (my husband and I call it the Winky)is a local chain in the Cleveland Ohio area. When one opened up in Mentor (east side of Cleveland) I was very happy. They have a "World Tour of beers", which they start fresh every year.

The beer selection is great. They have a "hop handle" and a "belgian handle", which means that they always have a hoppy beer and a belgian beer. Every month they change their beer menu and change out the "handles". They also have a special glass for the month too.

Lots of tvs, large bar area with seating at the bar, tall tables and booths. Then there is a restauant-type area with tables and booths. There is also a patio, which has a bar under the overhang, tables with umbrellas in the sun. Of course, all the smokers usually hoard this area.

The menu is huge, I think it's 7 pages. Kind of ridiculus, but it's fun to look through the menu, lots of cartoons (mostly of the winking lizard). The wings are great (especially with the white bread pizza). The only thing that they can not get right is the fried sandwiches, they don't fry long enough and by the time they get out to you, the bottom is soggy.
They have pretty much everything on the menu.

One draw back is that if they are not busy, they tend to not be in a hurry to serve you. But I find this to be true of almost every bar/restaurant. Also, if they want you to leave, they play bad music on the jukebox (like all Micheal Jackson). A server actually admitted this to me. Although, this hasn't happened lately.

This place is a nice change from the normal bars in Mentor/Painesville area. Great place to see a game, because everyone always gets into it (yelling and screaming and cheering). Plus it's walking distance for me.
May 17, 2008
Photo of jslot38
Reviewed by jslot38 from South Carolina

3.88/5  rDev -4%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4
We decided to head over here to watch some football on a Sunday afternoon. It wasn't too busy, as the Browns game had just let out. It's split into two sections, one which seems to be more of a restaurant, family setting, while the other is the bar section. As we were there to watch the Patriots game, we chose the bar portion. This is certainly a sports bar, plenty of tvs, a few arcade games, and great beer to be had. I was told that there is a third section, which is open in the non-winter months, it's a patio that I'm told is very nice. The staff was very accomodating in making sure that all of the patrons could see the games they wanted to see. We sat at a table in the middle, and had a good view of a few different games, making sure that we could see the Patriots go to 15-0.

The beer menu is pretty simple, 100 bottles, 12 or so taps. They also function as a full time bar, with plenty of mixed drink specials and options. They run game day beer specials, Sunday was 32oz Miller Lites for $4. So they do manage that crowd well. The bottles were a mixed collection, between your usuals and your hard to finds. They even had a few trappist beers on there. They also place a lot of emphasis on having beers from all around the world. One neat thing that they offer is a club for those that want to try all 100 beers from around the world. You have all year to do it, and when you complete it you get a jacket and are invited to a year end banquet. An interesting concept, and there were charts posted around the room with the status of the participants. There was a good amount of people in the race, and it's a good way to get people trying different beers. Thus there were beers from Maine, California, Australia, England, Germany, Sri Lanka, Belgium and other places. On tap they had an interesting array which included Sierra Nevada Celebration, Great Lakes Christmas Ale, Arcadia Hop Mouth, one or two other micros, and then the usual array of Bass, Guinness, and Miller. I had a Great Lakes Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, a Celebration Ale, and an Anderson Valley Barney Flats Oatmeal Stout. For beers on tap they offer 16oz, 22oz, and pitchers. The bottle prices were reasonable ($3.50 -$4 for many). And the tap prices were usually $4.75 for a 22ouncer of the good stuff.

We also did have food. They have a great bar menu that includes a bunch of style of wings (35cents each on mondays and tuesdays), all sorts of burgers, chicken sandwiches, ribs, pizzas, etc... The menu went on for quite some time. Everyone at our table (all 10 of us) was satisfied with the meals, and my cajun chicken sandwich was very good. They also have great fries. The prices of sandwiches were around $6-$8. The waitress was nice, but did make a few mistakes, such as not bringing a glass with my Fitzgerald porter. The glasses were chilled as you would expect at a place like this, but I think they would have accomodated upon asking. This is a cool place to go, a great place to catch a game have a few nice beers and a good pub meal.
Jan 02, 2008
Winking Lizard in Mentor, OH
Place rating: 4.04 out of 5 with 5 ratings