Winking Lizard Tavern

Today my wife and I planned on eating at this location and discovered it’s been closed permanently!
I guess it’s over for the location in rocky river!

Yes, this is just a Winking Lizard, and yes, it is just basically bar food. It used to be a Lizardville and we used to come at least once a week to grab some beers to go or for a meal. I was bummed when they up and moved all the goodies to Lakewood because the RR location is within walking distance to our house. But Winky Liz still has a large beer selection, free popcorn, and Pfred’s Preferred Pfries which I love ordering for the ridiculous name. And ridiculous amounts of what is definitely not real cheese. Their pizzas are blah, but recently they’ve had some specials that somewhat impressed me — a lamb burger, ravioli caprese salad and veggie-​stuffed pita. Ok, so they almost certainly don’t make their raviolis in-​house, or have the vegetables picked straight from some garden behind the AMC theater (ewe), but I don’t hold them to that standard. The ravioli caprese salad was doused with a tad too much balsamic, but other than that was well executed. My pita was filled with lots of crisp, crunchy veggies as well as avocado, and just the right amount of ranch-​type sauce. The pita itself was sturdy enough to not break open the second I bit into it, and yet it wasn’t stale and cardboard-​y. So no, this food is not revolutionary or farm-​to-​table by any means, but for standard bar food I’d much rather eat here than some of the chains and even local equivalents.
This is not true for all the WL’s I’ve been to, but this location has always had great service, both now and when it was Lizardville. One warning: this restaurant is considered «Winking Lizard Light,» so they don’t carry the full menu of stuff that the other WL’s have — for instance, no mac-​n-​cheese bites. Although, as our waiter informed us, they’d be happy to make us some nachos with their mac-​n-​cheese on top. Also, no actual lizard resides here.

You must remember: you are going to a chain tavern. Is the food gourmet? Probably not, but are the beers cold and the burgers juicy? Yes. They were kid friendly, fast, and clean. I like that they have a delicious vegetarian burger along with more traditional fare. The service was welcoming and our drinks hardly wanted for a refill. We have been here before and we will be back again.

Why yes, I will hold it against the company because they took away Lizardville. This is just another bland Stinking Gizzard, and a very small one at that. It’s useful for its patio, which overlooks a scenic suburban parking lot, but that’s about it.

Decent spot, nothing really special. it has an extensive beer and liquor menu. hung out in their tented area, which is kinda nice. it’s warm and has lots of TVs so you can watch a bunch of sports. but the bartender has to run inside to get your drink orders which slows down the service a little.
overall it’s a nice place to watch a ball game, but there’s better spots around the area to go.