The Cliff Dining Pub

Reviews 3

ZA

Zach Moore

Recently, during the holiday season, (Saturday, December 17th to be exact) I attempted to take my girlfriend to lunch at this establishment for her birthday. We had never been, and had always thought the place looked like it would be great. Looks can be deceiving. For starters, the side that faces the valley looks impressive, as it offers great views, but the back side of the facade, where you enter, has one ridiculous-looking sign that resembles a gas station sign....not what we had expected. It looked cheap. It was around 1:30 in the afternoon, on a Saturday, with most of the traffic at the malls. We walk in, with only a handful of cars in the parking lot. In other words, not crowded. We first noticed that no one was there to greet us. Finally, someone walks by, and says we can just sit wherever we want as he snags us some menus. But I would wonder later if we had sat ourselves, would we have even been given menus? As the restaurant was quite empty, we had the pick of our seats, still thinking, "Great, this will be fun". We pick out a table close to a window, but no more than ten feet from a table seating a party of six. A few minutes pass. Then a few more. We see a couple of staff members walk past us, as if we did not exist. We witnessed the bartender walk clear across the restaurant to assist the party of six, which had by this point become a party of eight, offering them water and taking additional drink orders and food orders. We were ten feet away, and nothing. There was only three other parties seated in this place, so its not like they were busy. We were never offered water. We were never even spoken to after our initial conversation with the person who just happened to walk by and told us to seat ourselves. After twenty-plus minutes of being ignored, we left. My girlfriend, who had her hopes set on having a great birthday lunch with your establishment, selected to go to Cheesecake Factory at Fashion Place Mall by default. We had to deal with the holiday crowds/traffic, but upon entering, we were greeted warmly, this despite there being a HUGE crowd of people in their restaurant. We were seated within 30 minutes (hey, they were actually busy) and our server was outstanding. The meal was excellent as well, and I tipped the waitress $20 for her positive attitude and prompt service, once again in spite of the place being packed. I mention this only to highlight how we had our heart set on dining with you, but your lack of care cost your business and one of your staff a great tip, as I am notorious (to a fault) for over-tipping. I had planned on ordering your steak & eggs (a $29 plate) off your brunch menu, but you and your employees had other plans. Instead, we went with a chain, not what I had hoped for my girlfriends special day, and had Cheesecake Factorys grilled pork chop, which I recommend to everyone, as it is quite good. Sadly, due to this experience in your business, we have no plans to return, and we have shared our experience with one other couple thus far. In short, great facade (on one side), abominable service, and food........who knows as we had no desire to wait what likely would have been forever to sample it. By the way, I had planned on giving you zero stars, but posting requires at least one star, so yah, you get a single star by default.

KA

Kaylan S

So, I have been in town for 2 weeks for work. I have been eating my way around Draper and Lehi, and I finally found The Cliff tonight - my last night in town. I cannot begin to explain how sad I am that I found them so late in the game I came in, was immediately sat. My waitress, Mary, appeared instantly like magic. While she was gone putting in my drink order, two more members of the wait staff stopped by to make sure someone had taken care of me. When Mary came back, she had an excellent suggestion for dinner. the blackened salmon. In my opinion, the wait staff usually know whats good-looking so trust them. Trusting Mary paid off hugely! The salmon was perfect. The asparagus was tender and well seasoned, the prosciutto was crisp and not too salty... The potatoes were smooth and creamy, and picked up flavor from the salmon spices. In addition, Mary was kind enough to spend some extra time talking with me while she wasnt busy- making suggestions on other restaurants to try in the area, and scenic drives to take to really enjoy the mountains while I am here. And she was adamant that I hang out long enough to see the sunset from their balcony, and you know.. she was right. I decided to splurge for dessert too, and trusted the guidance of Miss Mary once more. She didnt lead me astray. I was brought a beautiful, perfectly sized- gloriously caramalized creme brulee, with a beautiful strawberry on top. It was just the right amount of sweet to end the meal, and so smooth and creamy with real vanilla beans in the recipe. I spoke with the manager for a little bit, and learned that they recently relaunched this place with the new management. Theyre definitely on the right track.. if this is what they are capable early on in their tenure, I cant imagine what it will be like when they hit their stride. I am writing this review from their balcony, listening to the music and sipping my drink as the sun sets over the mountains and above the valley. After 2 weeks away from home, I am ready to go back. But this view, this porch and the kindness of the staff has made me a little sad to leave. But I will definitely be back, this isnt a place I am going to forget- and it doesnt matter where in the Salt Lake area I stay on my next trip... I will be stopping by the Cliff again, at sunset to watch the sun go down and the stars come out. And to eat some pretty wonderful food in the process.

SP

Spam Doomer

The Hollandaise sauce is absolutely amazing, and the sweet rolls are awesome. The best thing about this place is brunch, but they only do it Sundays. The food quality is inconsistent, but the Cordon Bleu hash is so good it keeps me coming back. Over 6 separate Sunday visits for brunch in Summer 2015, we experienced: 1. Very slow and disorganized servers. They dont seem to divide their tables to servers based on area, so servers are running all over the place with one drink or one plate of food. On multiple occasions I have waited over 30 minutes with my menu closed in front of me (hello, signals) before someone came to take my order. Its like someone hired all their friends who have never been servers before, few professionals like I would expect to see at at upscale place like this. 2. Dirty dishes. I have received water that was put into a dirty Bloody Mary glass (complete with floaties), plates with dried food, and dirty silverware. this place really needs to take dishwashing more seriously, especially the glasses which seem to be "washed" (or dipped) by hand by the bartenders. 3. All the bartenders (yes ALL of them) are jerks and provide super slow service. They act like its an inconvenience for them when I step up to the bar to order a drink. The bar always seems understaffed, and I have seen as many as 5 servers standing at the bar waiting for drinks from the one bartender. Not only does it take a long time to get a drink, but this slows down all the food service as the servers wait. 4. TV station management in the bar sucks. I can see 5 televisions from my seat, but they are all on the same channel. I once asked the bartender to change one to another channel and he changed all 5 of them to the other channel.