C2

Not bad for a hotel restaurant. I only ate here for breakfast and happy hour but I was well satisfied with my food. Also, the staff is phenomenal. They do have a decent wine selection and a nice little patio.

My girlfriend and I were in town for the weekend with her family. We stayed at the Intercontinental and C2 was convenient since it was downstairs. The bartender, Yolanda, gave us the best dinner recommendation. We took her advice and had a great meal. While we were not impressed with the beer selection, we cannot say enough good things about Yolanda. She was so friendly, extremely helpful and just a genuinely kind person. We would give her 5 stars, but the restaurant itself 3 stars which is why we are overall giving 4 stars.

Restaurant is located in the Intercontinental Hotel Suited. For my appetizer, I ordered the fried calamari. Was good, but could have been a little crispier. For the entrée, I had the pan seared steak medium rare, and for its price was not worth it. Firstly, the steak was unevenly cooked. Some parts were more medium and done. I had not bother sending it back to the kitchen because my server was so kind.
The cauliflower purée with bacon beneath the steak was so bland. Really needed a lot more salt.
Amenities included bread and olive oil.

The food was great and the staff was able to work with my gluten free diet. The staff was very nice and pleasant. I had the American Breakfast. The food was great!!!

Lunch and dinner – like, well… day and night.
Short take: Come for dinner only when the A-​team is at work. The C-​team cooks lunch; let them practice on someone else. Lunch highlight, however, is a delicious bread basket. Go figure.
Today, we had lunch a second time at C2. We ordered the street tacos, a cheese burger and the beet lettuce salad. Almost as bad as our experience at North Coast yesterday. It took far too long to get our food with so few diners having lunch. The street tacos had stayed under the warmer too long and wilted the tomatoes and lettuce in the tacos. The mystery meat in the tacos was boingy and felt like it had been microwaved. Just terrible, terrible. The crunchy beets that are the highlight of the salad – limp and chewy. I’ve ordered this salad three times now and each time, except this one – at lunch – I got those great crispy dehydrated beets that are super crispy like potato chips. My son ordered the parmesan fries and our server brought plain fries. We said we didn’t need ketchup; she brought it anyway – I don’t care about that, but the point is she was not paying attention at all; just like our server at North Coast. She took the order and didn’t check it before bringing it out. I was hungry at lunch and just got demoralized b/​c the food took so long to get out, obviously sat under the lamp, the tacos were unforgiveably terrible, and it made me not want to step into C2 again. Ever.
Dinner last night? As if we were in a completely different restaurant. The ribeyes were cooked perfectly (mid-​rare) as were the sweet potatoes that accompanied them. The prime rib we had for dinner one other night was also pretty good but the au jus was a bit salty.
We stayed at the Intercontinental Suites for almost 2 weeks and only once had the breakfast buffet here; mediocre; I wouldn’t recommend it. But, I did ask for poached eggs three mornings to take to a recuperating family member and they were excellently done each time. There’s ability lurking in the kitchen here but what’s the hurdle to becoming a great food outlet for the Intercontinental where so many of the guests are staying for weeks at a time to be near the Cleveland Clinic???

I’ve eaten here twice now. Not a fan. Breads are stale, oddly flavored, and just not good. Burger was flavorful, but the bun was stale. As bad as the food was, it was surpassed by the awful service. I waited 10 minutes for someone to come over and asked if I’d been served. Once my meal arrived, the waitress never came by to refill my glass, or ask about the meal. I had to wait over 20 minutes after finishing before the waitress came by with the check. Seriously, just not good.

I like it here alright. I was going here when the place was called Citrus and I continue to go here now that it is called C2: Cultural Cuisine. The new restaurant sports a combo modern/​retro styling. There is free valet parking compliments of the hotel (if you get the restaurant to validate your ticket). The food is consistently prepared well and there are definitely healthy options — the two big selling points for me. There are certain menu items highlighted in green (Go Healthy Foods) that have guaranteed certain levels of fat, sugars, etc…(all explained in the menu). I am personally working my way through sampling all of these and so far I have liked most of them. The servers are really friendly and remember you when you come in often enough. The pacing of the meal is rather slow however, but no one minds if you make the experience kind of coffee shop like and bring in work to do during your lunch or hold a lunch meeting as there are plenty of tables to accommodate others. The patio is rather nice as well and for being in the heart of Cleveland Clinic it is a rather quiet and secluded spot to escape to for a bit.

The renovation was complete on this establishment late last year. Wow! What an improvement. This is obviously not one of those places that you’d make a special trip to — but if you’re one of the more than 100k employees or visitors at Cleveland Clinic each day — you might need a drink. And, this is the perfect spot to do it. The bartender is an older gentleman who always seems to remember customers… and he makes a mean lemon drop martini.
Happy Hour is where its at here — free apps, drink specials ($ 5 martinis!). The environment is really relaxed — in an upscale way. And, they have a great little patio.
This is usually my after work go-​to.

Citrus is renovating to become C2. Until they move into their renovated space, they are serving their new menu in the lobby of the Intercontinental Suites Hotel, primarily servicing the Cleveland Clinic.
The menu sports an introduction of health consciousness and is color coded to highlight the meals that conform to the stringent specs for health, but not necessarily balanced nutrition.
Our experience is that the bugs are not worked out yet. We ordered the Scallops and the Citrus Chicken. The chicken was accompanied with a generous portion of roasted vegetables and no starch. That meal was prepared well and was a reasonable value at $ 17.
The Scallops were another matter, chiming in at $ 25. Presentation included 3 reasonable jumbo scallops on a garnish of stewed tomatoes, that’s it. No other vegetables, no starches, but there was a sprig of what appeared to be thyme attempting to occupy the vacuous space on the plate.
Food tasted good, came to the table hot and service was cordial. When we complained to the manager about the scallop meal, he apologized and said he’d take care of it for us.
Our bill arrived with two beers removed. The beers on the other hand, were fine.

I came here for a business dinner. A burger and two guinnesses later, I was sated but not elated.
Located within one of the Hotel Intercontinentals at Cleveland Clinic, Citrus is adorned with typical dark woods and flat screen TVs that show up in upper end sports bars. The food choice is pub-​like with the usual burgers, soups as well as steaks.
I can’t imagine coming here specifically for the restaurant — it’s just a bit out of the way. Still, as far as hotel restaurants go, it’s not bad.