I love when my friends take me to restaurants that have been around forever and I can truly say I knew nothing about the restaurant and I’m so glad I do now. Johnny’s Bar on Fulton is one of those restaurants. Wow for sure a must eat at in Cleveland and I would say currently a top 20 Cleveland restaurant for me.
We ate outside in the Louise’s Garden area, which is just gorgeous. I didn’t go inside at all but have a feeling we will be back sometime soon to check out the inside. The garden area has beautiful flowers all over, tables with umbrellas and then some tables under a covered area.
For drinks they have wine, beer and cocktails. My friends ordered a red wine to go with dinner. Our waiter was very knowledgeable in wine and suggested a red wine that my friends were very happy with. I was all about the food though!
We started with some appetizers and what I really liked was there were 8 of us so they gave us 8 of each appetizer so everyone got one. They also served each appetizer so that is why my photos are just of the one on my plate. We got the sautéed veal stuffed banana peppers with marinara and the mozzarella marinara. The banana peppers were slightly on the spicy side but combined with the flavors from the veal and marinara were a great mix. The peppers were cooked perfect with just a little bit of crunch but not too much. Where the peppers were good and I would suggest them I love fried cheese and the mozzarella marinara was so good. There is just something about fried cheese and then with the marinara on top. I could have eaten all of these to myself.
All of our entrees came with a salad and we had 3 options. The traditional Caesar salad which has romaine lettuce, garlic croutons, Caesar dressing and anchovies. We added cheese of course and it tasted like a caesar salad. If your a fan of Caesars you will like this. I like Caesar salads but actual anchovies freak me out so when I saw that I kept clear. Everyone enjoyed their Caesar’s that got one. The tomato and mozzarella was the specialty salad of the evening. It came with a couple different colored tomatoes, lettuce, mozzarella cheese and balsamic dressing. The tomatoes and mozzarella were so fresh and all the flavors worked so well together. The house salad was the last option with a house dressing that was like a balsamic dressing. This was what I got and it was simple with just romaine lettuce and dressing but so good.
We tried a bunch of the different steak dishes and the gnocchi. For steak dishes we tried the Filet Mignon with char-grilled Portobello, Cabernet Demi glacé, the petite filet mignon char-grilled with broiled scampi, and a filet mignon with just the Demi glacé. The steaks were all cooked to the perfect temperature, melted in your mouth and had so much flavor. I know some people swear a good steak doesn’t need anything but some salt and pepper. I’m not saying I’m against that thinking but I think a great steak can be with or without accompaniments. These additions just added to the flavor of the steaks and great cuts of meat that they already were. The steaks came with different sides including asparagus, potato au gratin and green beans. All these sides had great flavor and the veggies still had a slight crispiness to them. The scampi was a great addition to the steak and I couldn’t get over the size of the scampi, which was not small at all.
The last dish we tried was the homemade gnocchi with shrimp, broccoli, heavy cream and Romano cheese. The gnocchi was pillowy, there was a comparative amount of shrimp to gnocchi and broccoli. This dish was set up so you got each of the items in every bite. The sauce had amazing flavor and was nice and creamy. I’m such a fan of this dish.
We were all stuffed but my friend insisted on us trying the carrot cake. I was so happy we did. It wasn’t too sweet but sweet enough. The cake was moist and spongy and it had the perfect amount of icing. I might not have had room but couldn’t stop eating.
I had never heard of Johnny’s Bar of Fulton and I’m still dreaming about this food. I can’t believe people don’t talk more about this Cleveland staple. I don’t think you could go wrong with anything they have here. They just do food great. The steak melted in your mouth, I fell in love with the gnocchi and the carrot cake was the perfect way to end our meal. Let me know if you have been here and your thoughts.