Gunselman's Tavern

We found ourselves in the Fairview Park area around dinner time, so I headed to Twitter to ask for recommendations nearby. Gunselman's Tavern was quickly suggested, and after a peek at their menu online, we headed right over.

We snagged a table on the patio, some beers, and started to look over the menu.

This tavern has traditional American bar food, kicked up a notch. They were awarded Best Burger by cleveland.com in 2018, so there are plenty of interesting and standard burger options. We knew we had to try one, but we also wanted to share something else. We settled on the Maine-style Lobster Roll ($14). You have your choice of side from fresh-cut fries, mac n' cheese, brussels, side house salad, or side Cesar salad. As you can see, we went for the mac n' cheese!

The lobster roll bun was phenomenal. The sandwich was heavily seasoned with Old Bay, which dominated a bit too much for our taste, but it was a good sized portion and held together well in that glorious bun. The mac n' cheese was creamy without being soupy, and there was just enough crunch from the light dusting of toasted breadcrumbs on top.

We also shared the Hawaiian Style burger ($12) with grilled pineapple, SPAM, and provolone topped with garlic zing and cilantro.

Again, a great bun. I wonder where they source their bread products from. The burger patty itself was pretty good too, and we enjoyed the burger overall but felt that it needed more of the garlic sauce. It was just missing a little flavor, and the sauce had been completely absorbed by the bun. A good heavy schmear of it probably would have been just what it needed. But, this burger definitely left us wanting to try another version. The fries were also very good, and served with a side of cheese sauce (surprise!).

They were out of their Alligator Tacos that evening, or that may have been our non-burger selection! I'd love to try them.

We aren't overly familiar with that area of town, so it was great to find a place that we want to go back to.

Gunselman's Tavern
21490 Lorain Road
Cleveland, OH 44126
(440) 331-5719