Lago

Lago is now closed but there will be a new wine and cocktail bar in 2013. Fabio Salerno is going to open a new spot in Ohio City AND the east bank of The Flats…
Loved Lago but this is more like a stock split!!! TWO more awsome restaurants and THEN something to fill in for the defunct Bar 806…
Well played Cleveland Restaurant moguls… Well played!!!

Went to Lagos on a friday night and were seated right away. The food was decent, the waitress was helpful. but the service was slow.

The service there was OK, nothing that impressive, drinks too way to long, took about 30 mins to get to us from ordering at our table.
Food: Our appetizer was the meatballs and you get 3 huge meatballs, so it is great for sharing for 2. Very tasty and real delicious. For dinner, I had the Gnocchi and it was amazing! Definitively if I go back, I will get this again. My better half had the vegetable ravioli and that wasn’t that great, not much of a taste to it.
All in all: We will try this place again, because they had a wedding party and were dealing with a lot of people.

I recently moved to Tremont from Tennessee. I took a new job and dropped everything to move up here. No friends, no contacts, empty apartment, but I had a job and in this economy, I jumped at the chance.
I knew about Lolita because, let’s face it, everyone on earth knows who Mike Symon is. Of course, it was the first place I tried on a not-​as-​bonkers snowy Cleveland night. But if the streets are clear, and Lolita is open, chances are, you’re not getting in. #omgThisPlaceIsSoFull So, since Lolita was not going to work as my after work «spot» I tried Lago.
I’m so glad I did.
The staff is perfect. Huge smiles, friendly people. The bartenders are amazing; three Italian ladies (Nichole (co-​owner), Megan and Jamie) who earnestly welcome you, pour a very generous cocktail and seem genuinely interested in how your day went.
The atmosphere is very cozy, dark ceilings, scenic murals, wine in racks, white tablecloths, open kitchen.
The Tremont locals are all found here, as they love the bar staff and they know this is the place with the best value.
The food is great. My favorites are the happy hour meatball sandwich (absolutely killer) with garlic-​Parmesan chips and if I’m eating a traditional meal, hands down it’s the veal tortelloni.
Oh my freakin’ god, the veal tortelloni; bacony-​flavored cream sauce with pancetta, peas and that über-​crusty bread they serve. It’s just too much. Rolling your eyes back in your head and moaning is totally appropriate when eating this thing. Honestly, the tortelloni itself is just icing on the cake. I could make a meal of the bread and the sauce.
I’ve not had dessert, because I’m usually packed to the gills after my meal.
The prices at Lago are on-​par with everything else in Tremont. It’s not cheap, but it’s not mind-​numbingly expensive, either. I don’t eat there every day, but I DO drink there almost every day after work.
I love Lago. It’s my favorite place to go in Tremont.

Lago has an awesome Happy Hour, Monday — Friday from 5 — 8pm. ½ off all drinks including shots of top shelf. Stop by and have a drink or two.

I’m updating my review for happy hour.
Ya know. I’ve been here for more than one occasion for happy hour. And I feel like like all the patrons around me need to put a dollar in the douche bag jar. It’s one thing to be out and loud because ya know, ya had one too many because pinot noir was $ 5 and you couldn’t resist. It’s another if it’s because you’re BFF with the bartender and you’re making all the other people at the bar uncomfortable talking about iPhone updates. The wine and cocktails and food are still outstanding, don’t get me wrong. But there is a point where that stops being important because everyone is so annoying. From the bar staff who took 10 minutes to bring me a menu to the bartender who asked me if I wanted another drink and got distracted and walked away because her friend interrupted me talking and asked if she could have another coffee.
Maybe that makes me annoying? It’s quite possible. Happy hour might be a good deal… but at Lago it comes at the price of grating on your every nerve.

Very nice room for small private parties.
Possibly the best White Russian I’ve ever had.
Calamari: 5 stars
Gnocchi: 5 stars
Chocolate cake w/​raspberry dessert: 3 stars
Overall it was expensive, but worth it. I would go back and would definitely recommend it.

Went here with a friend on a Friday after finding Lolita (intended place to go for the night) had a wait for an hour and 45 minutes. I should have made reservations but I didn’t think it would be that long for just two people. Anyways, I was open to try other places.
So we crossed the street and checked out this place instead. What a great replacement! I ordered the mussels and clams, side of squash, and a martini. The mussels and clams were cooked right and tasted great. The squash was grilled and seasoned right. It was very flavorful. The martini tasted strong but isn’t that what a martini should be?! I’m not complaining at all. I forgot what the name of the drink is called but it had grapefruit in it so it was pink. The waitress said it’s their most popular drink. My friend ordered their pizza.
It was flatbread pizza with chicken and it was good too. The presentation was elegant and it is one of those places you take a person on a date for. A candlelight dinner but they do have a bar area with TVs so it can be a chill place to go too. The décor is very elegant and the bar area is wooded so you have that nice crisp look.

Came here with some friends who just recently moved to Cleveland! We decided on a whim to come here. I was happy about how it happened to be Unilocal Eats week — nothing beats the 50% deal. :)
The atmosphere was really nice — very romantic and warm. We sat out on the back stone patio which was perfect for a summer evening. They had a nice little climbing flower plant going too.
We shared a calamari which was MMM. The bread was really great with the butter and tomato spread.
Then, the lobster gnocchi was so rich and fulfilling. Not mindblowing, but good. Plus, we had the 50% off deal. If you’re thinking about hitting up Unilocal Eats, do it!
One of the best parts was actually the service — 5 stars for that. Like many of the other reviewers, we had the young guy with glasses. He was so polite and came at the right time always!

Who is giving 4 stars for this place? Clearly, you have no understanding of the concept of Italian food. Here are the pluses:
1. Great location.
2. Friendly staff. The young waiter with glasses (Monday) was superb. What a great guy!
Here are the minuses:
1. Lame inappropriate music.
2. Pork ravioli — it was pork… stuffed in pasta!
3. Vegetarian ravioli — it was peas… stuffed in pasta!
4. The restrooms, including the staircase leading down to them were a disgrace — stinking!
This place needs a kick up the ass. Such potential!

Very upscale. Location= winning. Drinks= superb. Food= so so. Service= fairly decent. Calamari was good in a tomato soup. Risotto was yucky in an acorn squash shell. Everyone else I dined with seemed pretty content. I was fairly underwhelmed. Whatever, I like Long John Silvers. What do I know? Go there anyway.

A solid 4 stars for Lago! Some of the best Italian food I’ve experienced in the city of Cleveland. A big group of us were here for an UYE family dinner arranged by Rachel B. (Thanks again!) and I had a really great time.
We arrived a little before 7 and the place was already hopping, the dining room was close to full and the bar was completely packed, so we were ushered into the Carriage Room in the back… we get our own private room? We can be as loud as we want without the fear of disturbing other patrons of this lovely restaurant? Score! This was a really good move by the restaurant since we tend to be a more… errrr, «outgoing» group, shall we say ;o)
Our own private server was assigned to take care of our group and he did a wonderful job (good luck in medical school this fall!), especially dealing with the difficulty of the staggered entrance of our group. Drinks started flowing minutes after we sat down and appetizers were flying out of the kitchen very soon thereafter.
I was able to try out a few different things by virtue of sitting next to a couple of gentlemen who enjoy sharing their food!
Mussels and clams to start were ok, a little on the smaller side and the broth wasn’t anything outstanding.
The Poached Pear Salad was very good, something that I would definitely like to try and recreate at home. Simple ingredients, but they played off of each other very nicely. A light and refreshing interlude to my main course.
Gnocchi — oh yeah, what Stefanie C. said… absolutely phenomenal. And no, this isn’t your typical store-​bought gnocchi, guaranteed they were making this from scratch in the kitchen because each piece was a little bit of a different size and there were no machinery marks indicative of mass production on them at all. Some of the best gnocchi I have ever had and I will come back for more. The lobster and sweet corn with truffle, basil and roasted tomatoes worked perfectly for the dish, everything came together in sweet harmony.
The Grilled Lamb Chops were also something to write home about, especially that Pumpkin Gratin, WHERE did that come from? Probably one of my favorite components of that plate! And yes, finally a place that knows how to serve lamb chops… we were at Johnny’s downtown for Restaurant week and that little rack of lamb served there paled in comparison to this beautiful composition.
Even though I loved my dishes, I was slightly jealous of Rachel B.‘s veal tortelloni… I must try ;o)
Goat Cheese Crème Brûlée…I wasn’t going to order this originally, I had my heart set on the Pear tartlette, but boy am I glad my dining partner put up a fuss! ;o) Absolutely incredible, so light and airy, it literally was a little piece of heaven in my mouth… I really didn’t want to share it at all, but I conceded a little bite of it in exchange for a bite of Tiramisu. The Tiramisu was good, but not good enough to tear my greedy palate away from my goat cheese dessert!
Coffee, tea and wine (complements of Paulius N., thank you again!) capped off the end of another wonderful Unilocal get together with some of my favorite people in this city. Thank you Lago for going that extra mile and making it a very memorable night!

On a recent culinary meetup with our party of 16, Lago was plenty accommodating. Upon our arrival, there was a private room setup with four large tables arranged in a fashion to comfortably seat our large group. The setting was in order for the memorable meal that followed.
A three course prix fixe menu was offered as a value to those who didn’t wish to order from the full menu. Our server, admittedly new to Lago, was plenty attentive and patient with our group.
To start, my accomplice and I shared a bowl of steamed mussels and clams in a white wine garlic broth. The clams, I am unhappy to report, tasted gritty from sand left unrinsed. The broth, nothing I couldn’t have constructed at home.
Next, I had the grilled lamb chops with pumpkin gratin, brussels sprouts and pomegranate vinaigrette. Now, I’ve ordered lamp chops at other fine dining establishments and have only received a small chop or two of this delicate meat as an entire entrée (I’m talking to you Johnny’s Downtown). At Lago, I was served an entire rack of lamb with about 8 ribs each! Cooked to my choice of medium rare, they knocked this dish out of the park and certainly made up for the first course. Damn this was good!
Throughout the meal, my other gracious friends let me sample their lobster gnocchi and separately, the veal tortelloni. The flavors of each were intense and left me wanting to come back in the very near future to sample the rest of the menu.
For dessert, I ordered the tiramisu which is standard for me. My partner, the goat cheese crème brûlée which was absolutely phenomenal. My only complaint was that I would’ve ordered an entire portion of that instead of my tiramisu which by the way was also very good.
Overall, the entire dining experience seemed to go off without a hitch. It was nice in getting to experience good food with the company we were joined by. See you soon Lago. I’ll definitely be back soon.

I’m teetering back and forth here… not sure whether to give Lago 4 or 5 stars so let’s just say 4.5, shall we? (Uggh, I sound so serious).
I rarely, if ever, choose to eat at Italian restaurants. Reason being, I eat far too much Italian food at home. BUT (!!!) — I was really impressed with Lago.
Service was pretty darn wonderful. The staff went out of their way to acommodate us. We had a pretty large group of about ¹⁶⁄₁₇ — I didn’t count. I was too distracted with the lovely company and the wine I was drinking. They set us up in the Carriage House with the tables arranged in a big square. What a neat idea! We were all able to see each other and hold conversations with every person in attendance. Nice touch! I was also glad that I could personally thank our server and shake his hand at the end of the evening for putting up with us.
The food –
Beef Carpaccio: Delicious. I was trying to restrain myself from piling each piece of beef into a pile and shoving it all into my mouth at once.
Gnocchi: Lobster, truffle, sweet corn, basil and roasted tomatoes — it was heavenly. I was surprised by the amount of lobster on the plate. Flavor explosion. The pasta was so delicate. I was never a fan of gnocchi. Now I’m a convert.
Roasted Brussels Sprouts: Dare I say it? *gasp* They were better than Michael Symon’s fried version. (OMG, food nerds are going to be coming outta the Unilocal woodwork to attack my shizz!!!)
Goat Cheese Crème Brulee: I usually order crème brûlée anytime it’s on a menu. I sorta have a thing for it. This one was one of my favorites. Any dessert that can do well with goat cheese as an ingredient gets a thumbs up from this girl.
Overall, exceptional evening, in my opinion. Thank you Lago!
(and thank you to Rachel B. for setting this up. and also Paulius N. for the vino!)

5 stars for service, 4.5 stars for food.
We had 15 people in our group, and our waiter was outstanding. I give him so much credit for keeping up with us. Sure, there were a few snafus, but overall, it was perfect. Not to mention that they created a special prix fixe menu for our party. Just wow.
The food:
Beef Carpaccio: The BF said it was like eating beef flavored air. So light, yet oh-​so-​flavorful. ⁴⁄₅
Charcuterie Plate: The only disappointment of the evening. It came with salami, prosciutto, and one other meat, provolone and mozzarella cheese, olives, mushrooms, and artichoke. Good, but not special. The charcuterie across the street at Lolita is much better. ³⁄₅
House Salad– Awesome dressing, but otherwise not memorable. ³⁄₅
Caesar Salad– Very memorable. They serve it as a romaine wedge instead of chopped up. The dressing has a nice kick to it. Also, there are actual anchovies in the dish, which is pretty rare to see. ⁵⁄₅
Lamb Chops– I had mine served without the pumpkin gratin, due to a dairy intolerance, and they happily substituted some asparagus for me. While the lamb chops were quite good, I think the magic of the dish would have been much better with the pumpkin gratin. This is obviously no fault of the chef’s! ⁴⁄₅
Veal Short Ribs– Seriously out of this world. The veal and the parsnip purée somehow compliment each other to make a flavor explosion. Definitely the star of the evening. ⁵⁄₅
The only gripe of the evening was that some dishes had small portion sizes. Someone else in my party ordered the chicken dish, and it was seriously itty-​bitty. The salads were small, too. The good news is, you aren’t likely to be disappointed with any of the food, though!

I finally discovered where they hide all the good restaurants in Cleveland. Tremont! I was raised in the east-​side suburbs, but live in Chicago now. When I come home to see family, it’s always hard for us to find a non-​chain restaurant with something interesting on the menu. Well, not anymore! My dad had read about Shaq’s famous tweet mentioning Lago’s lasagna and decided that we should try the restaurant. We really really enjoyed Lago.
We made early reservations and headed downtown. The restaurant is intimate, cozy and very appealing. We all ordered drinks (whoa, strong!) while we looked over the menu. We decided to order a small antipasta plate to share between all three of us. It was just the right size and everything was fresh and delicious. We also all ordered the poached pear salad which was really good.
For my meal, I ordered the acorn squash risotto with cranberries and gorgonzola cheese. This was sweet, but I like that sort of thing. It was very warming on a cold winter night. My stepmom had the pan seared scallops on a bed of orange, fennel arugula salad. This was fantastic! I’m looking forward to ordering that on my next visit. My dad had the veal tortelloni with peas and prosciutto in a parmesan cream sauce. He said it was good, but compared it to a similar dish he liked better in Chicago.
As we were reminiscing about our favorite flavors of gelato on our 2010 trip to Italy, I decided to try Lago’s gelato for dessert. I ordered the banana praline gelato. This was unbelievably similar to the banana gelato (my favorite) in Rome. I was very happy with my choice!
The service was decent; at times a little slow. Not slow enough to hinder us from returning though. We truly enjoyed our meal at Lago, and it was a nice way to end our holiday vacation together. Looking forward to dining at Lago again!

Still madly in love with Lago’s vegetarian Mondays where there’s an entire menu devoted to vegetarian and vegan food — including dessert!
Sadly, I never seem to see too many people partaking in this epic vegetarian feast. (which is interesting, because I see people flocking in droves to another restaurant’s monthly vegan night… hmmm)
Cleveland vegetarians, you owe it to yourself to check this place out…

Lago is deliciouso!
In other words, it’s Italian perfection in Cleveland. NOM.
With it’s super romantic interior and authentic décor, Lago truly makes you feel like you’re on a mini vaca. Priceless. Nothing is better than a restaurant experience that feel like a getaway.
On top of the visual goodies that Lago boasts, can I just say that the goat cheese tortellini was off the chain? Umm, best goat cheese experience of my life. No doubt. I crave it on a regular basis. The antipasto was the first one I’ve ever had and therefore set the standard for every other one I’ve ever tried. And trust me, they’ve all fallen short in comparison.
Honestly, this is great date pick spot. It’s not a cheap restaurant, but it’s worth the money. The vibe is incredible and matches the deliciousness of the food. If you want to impress someone, bring them here.

The ½ off all drinks for their happy hour [until 8:00 PM] is a great deal [at the bar only!]. Mixed Drinks were normally 8 – 11 but for happy hour ½ off, well worth it. I had a ‘honey, honey’ — stoli, chambord, crushed [frozen] strawberries, and some honey, It wasn’t sweet, which I liked. On a dead weekday night, our bartender did a great job taking care of us. The music, blur and gorillaz [someone loves damon albern, besides me], was there, noticeable [and perhaps slightly out of place] but still below conversation level. There’s just one small tv off to the side at the bar.
You can peek into the kitchen too, by sitting at the bar. Their beer selection was satisfactory, 5 – 6 different micros and Peroni [this is an Italian place, after all]. There’s also wine as well. I split a pizza with some freinds [also half off at happy hour], about 8 – 10 pieces, with chunks of tomato, it was tasty.
I’m definitely adding it to my rotation of happy hours.

The lobster gnocchi is delicious.
Truly delicious.
I did have a few pieces of lobster that were rather chewy, so –1 star
But I definitely go back!