Given that I'm originally from northern Ohio, I was pretty excited when the Bar Symon restaurant joined the Priority Pass lounge network this spring. I get back that way fairly often with my family, so having a place to grab a "free" bite to eat can save us a fair amount of money. I've now…
Continue reading: Review: Bar Symon Cleveland Airport (Priority Pass Lounge)
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
This is totally unrelated but does anyone know if ANA sells business class upgrades from premium economy at the gate/check in?
Hit it pretty much everytime we go though CLE. Which is fairly often being based out of CLE 😉 The food is decent as well as the service. Can't beat the price with a Priority pass card!
@travis good review. I'm also from NE Ohio and have been through CLE a few times lately and stopped at Bar Symon with Priority pass. I think we share a lot of the same observations. I love that Hopkins has revamped the food court area and appear to be on the up-&-up. Thanks for the review.
You can take the Fiji. It just goes on the bill as bottled water. I did it last week.
Hi Ben, I have been a reader of your blog for some time and just saw you noted you are from northeast Ohio! Myself too! Super awesome! Great travel stories and blog, keep up the good work and safe journey to you!
A little surprised by this review, as everything I've had at the PIT Bar Symon was awful, haha.
How does priority pass work with family and kids actually. Do you have one membership and are you able to use it with everyone who's traveling with you?
Or do your kids have their own priority pass membership?
Great Lakes Brewing has far better food and drinks (shoutout for the Edmund Fitzgerald Porter), but, free (or almost free) is free.
I had the fish, an iced tea, and the dessert (shaved ice). Was just all around okay. I would have felt underwhelmed having to pay cash for the food.
I think I now understand PP’s strategy: deny lounge access, send us to cheap restaurants, stuff us with fried food and wait for the heart attack to happen. Then less PP guests to complain about the terrible product that this is.
Do you go to a restaurant with a view expecting good food? Do you date a hot chick thinking she will be smart or still a virgin? Do you improve the quality of your food if most of your clientele will be freeloaders coming through the PP program and who are just stoked they don't have to pay for food?
Some questions just answer themselves. For everything else there is Debit.
There fact that food costs are expensive in an airport surprises you? And only one "meal" on the menu? It's called Bar Symon. It's bar food. The burgers are tremendous. The fries? Meh.
A couple observations...
Natch, we have the haters here. Again, why? Sorry a free Cleveland airport restaurant doesn’t meet your standards, but I’ve yet to see a two star Michelin restaurant in an airport. Anywhere.
@Travis- pro tip: if you’re taking a pic of the receipt for expensing through Concur, you crop the receipt under the ‘Total’ line. I know a, um, friend who does that. 😉
@Debit- nice points today. When you provide romantic advice it makes me wonder whether you were separated at birth from SmooveB of ‘The Onion’.
@Grant: Please tell your "friend" thank you for that pro tip. I just passed it on to a "friend" of my own, who plans to implement it on his next business trip this weekend!
In case there are any vegans reading this blog post, I am a Cleveland based priority pass member and just wanted to point out that even though it isn't advertised on the menu, the CLE Bar Symon serves impossible burgers. (They used to be advertised on a small card on top of each table, but they stopped putting those out a couple of months ago.)
For those that are curious as to what an impossible burger is, see:
https://www.womenshealthmag.com/food/a21050196/the-impossible-burger/
@BenL - Just FYI - The reason they call them “Impossible Burgers” is because the people that order them are impossible to please.
Please fly Greyhound instead.
Travis,
I was either the guy near you, or there are at least 3 crazy people who would connect Frontier to Southwest in CLE.
Played out fine, however server kept wanting to take order THEN verify if it was OK with the manager after I was committed to the order. Umm, no.
I resisted and it was quickly OK'd.
I kept forgetting how much I hate rosemary on fries but now order it without. Also their Sasparilla soda is excellent.
tim -- Wow, small world. Then again, I suppose anyone who would connect from F9 to WN in CLE would be an OMAAT reader, lol. Glad it all worked out for you !