The Ghost Light Restaurant & Lounge
Let me start out by saying I have never experienced service at a restaurant like we did last night! It was almost comical and my husband and I thought we were being punked or something!
We had a 6pm reservation, we get seated right away, our waiter Bradley comes over and we each order a glass of wine and two appetizers! We notice that everyone around us gets their drinks, then Bradley literally disappears for a few minutes, comes back around the corner and still no drinks! So my husband and I decide to move to the bar, because we had a show to get to! We sit at the bar and Bradley doesn’t even notice until my husband tells him we moved to the bar. Bradley kind of says sorry and gives our order to the bartender! Her explanation, “we haven’t been this busy in months so it’s hard for us to keep up!” Whhaatttt?!?!! She blamed the amount of people at the restaurant as the problem. We waited 45 minutes for our app, which the bartender kept insisting that she put it in, she didn’t put it in, she forgot! We never ended up getting our dinner! Here’s the kicker....no one ever apologized, offered to pay our bill, nothing! The guy in the suit who we assumed was the manager was saw what happened and never said anything to us!!! We weren’t the only ones having issues, we saw one table wait 10 minutes for their drinks! The guy came up to the bartender and complained, he asked to talk to a manger and the manager ignored his request! Bradley if you read this....I don’t think serving tables is the right job for you, just saying!
If you have hours to spend on dinner, I would totally recommend this place, otherwise don’t waste your time!!
Food was fantastic. The service was amazing. Great location. Really great place!
The ambiance of the restaurant was typical of a hotel restaurant. The food was excellent! They do not have a kids menu featured on the menu but if you ask they will tell you. My youngest son said the grilled cheese was the best he ever had. The salmon and brussel sprouts were great as well! Because I was with kids I did not have a cocktail, but they looked amazing! It is very close to Playhouse Square making it easy to walk there. We got there at 5:00 and made it to our 6:30 show with no pronlem.
My wife and I visited before a show at the Playhouse for our Anniversary. The service was great, as was the food. The restaurant is tucked away inside the Crown Plaza Hotel and would be easily missed if you weren’t looking for it. Definitely will be back.
Very limited menu. Prices are a little on the high side.
Ran out of one of the menu item but didn’t find out until too late in meal to order anything and get it cooked and eaten in time to leave for the theatre. Then had to ask them to Comp the soup she was eating when we found out about the them being out of the entree she ordered! Service really lacking - didn’t know the menu, couldn’t answer questions, and then this mid communication problem with the kitchen. We are a party of 9 that won’t be back.
Went for lunch on a Saturday before a matinee at playhouse square. Place was empty and the service was slow but it might have been the kitchen because the hostess told us the breakfast service had just ended. When the food arrived however it was well prepared and delicious. I thought the lunch menu was limited with basic items like burgers and sandwiches. Don’t think I will go back.
Perfect restaurant for before a play, easy to get to and the view of Playhouse Square is outstanding! Once dinner is done, you are just a few steps from the theater.
Great place for pre-show dining. Menu selection isn't very wide but there's at least something for everyone (our party has both vegetarians and meat-eaters). The service could be a bit faster.
Very nice locale. Great service and even better food. It made for a very memorable valentines date night and i would love to dine there again sometime.
The plate presentations are very clean, the restaurant itself is very quiet and the portions for their price have a great cost to value.
Right in the heart of the playhouse block at the corner of huron and euclid it had a great setting. Would be perfect for dinner and a show after.
Food was Great before a show! Would return!
The ambiance at the Ghost Light is great, it's a beautiful establishment and bar. However, we went to the Ghost Light for Lunch around 11:15 AM before a 1:00 theater show. The breakfast menu handed to us said breakfast ended at 11 AM and the breakfast menu itself was quite short unless you were ordering the hotel buffet. However the waitress said they weren't going to be serving lunch until after noon that day. When she came back to the table about 15 minutes late around 11:30, she asked if we then wanted to order lunch but by then we had picked breakfast out. 30 minutes later, another table got seated next to us at noon and they also tried to order to order lunch but were told it would not be ready by their show at 1 so they had to order breakfast at noon. The experience would've been better if the website clearly stated breakfast, lunch and dinner times as other hotel restaurants downtown too as the breakfast menu did not have what we were seeking.
If I could give six stars for service I would. We went to Ghost Light before a show at Playhouse Square and the wait staff all made sure we were served with enough time to enjoy our meal and make it to curtain on time. My husband and I planned to split the rueben sandwich and told this to our waiter (Joshua) and he had the kitchen plate the sandwich on two plates for us. The restaurant wasn’t busy that night, but with such great service, they should be packed!
Had looked at menu online before arrival. Upon receiving menu at the restaurant, maybe a fourth of the options listed online were present. There apparently had been a recent menu change with extremely limited options now. Would not have made reservations if menu had been correct online.
The staff were incredibly welcoming, and made us feel like royalty. The new menu was a fresh take on modern as well as classic entree’s. Everything was absolutely perfect. If I could give 6 stars, I would. A must try, for anyone in the area.
We enjoyed dinner before a show at Playhouse Square. Made reservations for 5:30 which was more than adequate. At 6:00 the restaurant became much busier. Food was good, menu limited and offered sandwiches and lower priced options. Bradley was our waiter and he did an excellent job.
Unfortunately, one member in our party found a bug in his coffee. We had already ordered our food and had only 30 minutes until our show started at the playhouse so we felt stuck. It was hard to eat after finding the bug and wondering about the condition of the kitchen. The manger apologized and offered to bring fresh coffee, but he should have offered more than that. The food was very mediocre. The service was very slow. We won’t be back.
We had a great meal before a show at the Palace Theater. Very nice experience-the place was nicely decorated for the holidays, the staff was helpful and the shrimp scampi was delicious.
Good food and great location for a before-show meal.
There waitress was friendly and welcoming. Service provided was very efficient; menu items explained, order arrived timely, and table attended during the meal. Food was good and prepared well. Overall we would recommend and will return in the future.
We waited an hour for our food. The food was very delicious however we waited an hour. No explanation for the delay. Also they had run out of dinner rolls and were served pasty bread. We had theater tickets and got there just in time. We did get a twenty five percent discount but we really just wanted the food in a timely manner
Too limited of a menu. The Shrimp Scampi was WAY over powered with lemon. Not what I would expect at a high priced restaurant.
I went on a Saturday night before seeing a show at Playhouse square. It started out a little bad with the restaurant running out of the drinks we wanted. Not a terrible issue, but the waitress clearly did not know their drink menu at all. We ordered pretty quickly but waited 45 minutes for our food to come out. Considering the restaurant was not even full, I would hate to see how long something would take if they were busy. We would have ordered desert if the food hadn't take so long. We also would have ordered more drinks if the waitress had ever come back and offered. By the time we got our food mine was cold. I would not go back here.
We miss the happy hour for the Theater. But we will continue to come back.
Good for a casual relaxed bite before or after a Broadway show.
They stuck us in a corner. Poor food selection. My husband could only find one option that he would enjoy. All specials were meat of some kind. More diversity would have been better.
Night at the theatre with my daughtert
Had a 5pm reservation in order to make a 7pm show at Playhouse Square a couple of blocks away. Had some concerns about that given a few reviews that had issues with timeliness of service.
We were warmly greeted by the gentleman manning the host station and seated promptly. We were also then greeted promptly by our server who asked if we were attending a show which we confirmed.
We had a cheese board appetizer and a salad. Both were of good quality although I felt the "greens" salad was a bit pricey at $12. Wife had the salmon and I had scampi. Above average, not knock your socks off great.
In all, service was friendly, food arrived easily in time for us to make our show.
Would I return? It wouldn't be a "go to" spot for us as a regular dining spot. Ambience is a bit too cold or sterile. However, it was good enough for us to return for a pre show meal.
Hostess and server were polite and attentive. Food was very good. Convenient to Playhouse Square.
Convenient for pre theater dining. Service was very good. The French onion soup was excellent!
Service was great - waitress asked first thing whether we were headed to the theater and made sure our meals came out timely and our bills were brought out with time to spare.
We attended before a play. It was not very busy but our service was incredibly slow. Overall the food was just OK. Nothing to rave about. The exception was the salmon. Do NOT get this. One in our party ordered and it came out raw inside. She sent it back and the second time had same results. We had to beg for our checks to not be late to the play. With so many other choices surrounding the playhouse my advice is to avoid.
The service was very slow; we were nervous about making it to our show on time. The food was nice, but nothing really spectacular. I didn't really just want to order a sandwich at a nice place, but none of the entrees seemed that special for the price point. Salmon BLT was good but the fries could have been from a school cafeteria.
My experience at Ghost Light was a very pleasant one. Loved the comfortable atmosphere and our server was a great help in informing us about the different items on the menu. I had the Shrimp and Grits as she suggested and totally enjoyed it. The entire staff was friendly and warm. I will definitely dine there again.
We were there before going to a Broadway show. It was less than half full. The service was good. We started with a bottle of wine. While our first selection was not available they recommended a replacement that met our expectation. We started with fish tacos which were very good. We were eating light and next had the chicken wrap with fries. This also met expectations. Overall we had a good experience and will put this on our rotation for dinner when we go to the theater.
Convenience to the playhouse and affordable prices are the selling points for the Ghost Light. The fare was good but selection was limited. Service was ok. It wasn't crowded, but the staff was too laid back.
The food was delicious. The service was great until it was time to pay the bill. We were in a bit of a hurry to get to the theatre and our server was nowhere to be seen. At that time, there were only a couple of other patrons in the restaurant, so I'm not sure what happened. We had to take our checks to the bar to pay them. Despite that, I'd go again.
The lunch menu was not real specia. Inhad clam chowder which was good abd a tukey sandwich which was quite salty
Oh, the shrimp and grits was glorious! The wait staff was so friendly and efficient to be sure I made it to my show on time. They honored my request for a table out of the way by the window which I so appreciated. What a great beginning to a show at Playhouse Square!
I was disappointed in this dining experience. The dinner I ordered - the shrimp scampi - was bland, and inconsistent in temperature. Some bites were flat out cold, others were lukewarm. The pasta itself was broken or cut up into such small pieces that it was difficult to eat, as I could not twirl it on my fork as expected. My dining partners' meals were not much better.
Additionally, the bar was out of prosecco and unable to make the drink I requested (a drink listed on their menu). It was early on a Saturday night, the bar / restaurant is dead, and you're already out of prosecco? The drink I ordered instead was terrible. A mulled red wine served over a giant cup of ice, with no flavor of mulling spices.
Our service was slow, too. Again, the place was dead, so it shouldn't have taken 15 minutes for me to simply place a drink order.
I guess the fact that this restaurant was so slow on a Saturday night, in a very active location, on a sort of holiday (Sweetest Day) should have tipped me off to the idea that this wasn't going to be a great dining experience.
FAQs
The Ghost Light Restaurant & Lounge offers takeout which you can order by calling the restaurant at (216) 615-7500.
The Ghost Light Restaurant & Lounge is rated 3.6 stars by 160 OpenTable diners.
Yes, you can generally book this restaurant by choosing the date, time and party size on OpenTable. Due to local restrictions, this restaurant may not be accepting reservations at the moment.