Winking Lizard

I love the Winking Lizard. I have been coming here with my family ever since my parents thought my brother and I were old enough to behave ourselves in a restaurant. As a child, getting to go to the place with the live, awesome-​looking lizard in the terrarium was a big deal! The Winking Lizard is such a nice place for food and beverages with any fun-​loving, chill group of people. You can come looking casual fancy; you can come looking sweaty in athletic wear after a walk or bike ride on the Towpath. I’ve even been on a first date here, after my Tinder match and I ran 10 miles!
The restaurant looks great no matter where you sit: the bar, the tables around the main room with the bar, the room to the right of the doorway, the tables on the glass-​windowed porch. You should also head down to the whiskey cave in the basement to check it out. The servers are always friendly and competent. The food is well-​made pub fare, with a great selection of salads that are both healthy and fun to eat. There are TVs with sports in the main rooms. Prices are extremely reasonable but not too cheap that you have suspicions about the quality.
What’s the best part of the Lizard? THE BEER MENU. It is insanely large and awesome. Whatever style you like, you can find it here. If I lived in the area, I would totally do their beer club, the Tour of Beers.
There are a ton of Winking Lizards around Northeast Ohio, including one quite close to the house in which I grew up. But we always go to the one in the Valley, so that’s the one that I like best. The original Winking Lizard is in Bedford Heights. If you are a visitor to the CLE, you def need to get slizzard at the Lizard.

It was quite busy on a Saturday but service was friendly and fast… our server was very accommodating. We enjoyed the atmosphere and our meals were very good. The only downside was their weak Wi-​Fi signal. I would definitely return.

The food is great every time we come. The chicken Philly is my favorite. Good atmosphere.

I have been a fan of this Winking Lizard since I started biking the Tow Path and it has been on my list everytime I’m biking down the trail. Very closely located for that great breaking spot.
As with the other Winking Lizard, their beer lists are one of the best in the area.
The food and service has been consistant everytime I have been here.
I’m a fan and I will contuine to visit as I make my treks down the tow path

I would never go out of my way to come here, but it’s the better of the two restaurants available in Peninsula — if you’re on the train and get off here, you’re limited on your dining options. This is the better of the two restaurants available — more room to spread out, larger menu, etc. The food was pretty good and priced well. We loved the brownie ice cream sundae! I’m sure during the warmer months, the patio would be very nice. We did have about a 15 minute wait, and I imagine the restaurant gets pretty busy as it gets warmer. The iguana is a nice touch!

Great food and atmosphere. Wait staff is excellent. Would recommend this place to all

Not sure what else to say except one of the best places over the last 20 years I’ve been going to

My daughter and I had a wonderful experience at the Winking Lizard last week. We were in from out of town and when my daughter heard the name of this place we just had to go, and it did not disappoint. Even though we were told the wait would be 30 minutes (really good for a Saturday evening!), we ended up waiting only about 10 or so. Our server, Angela, was awesome. I informed her of my daughter’s food allergies and she was super attentive and helpful, as was the kitchen manager working that evening (I wish I had gotten his name). I got their brisket sandwich, my daughter got their grilled cheese, and we split a chicken quesadilla. All were excellent! Of course, you can’t forget the popcorn and game room. Overall, a great experience for us out of towners. I’ll definitely go back when I find myself in town again. Don’t forget to say hi to Heisman the giant iguana too!

How can I not give a 4 star review to a place that has as much free popcorn as you want, great beer and great food? Exactly. This place is a local chain, with several locations. I ended up here after a hike /​trip to CVNP and it hit the spot. What was really funny was the giant lizard they had (it was an iguana) that all the patrons got to gawk at. In Florida, we see those things running around all over the place, and some actually eat them.
This place is known for its wings, but they also had good burgers and a huge selection of beers. I would go back if I was in the area. Did I mention all the POPCORN you can eat?

The oasis in a national park! Too many beers to list. Too many menu items to mention. More than a feel good atmosphere. This. Was. Perfect. Especially after hiking…

I love the Wink, and I especially love that this one was right across from the bicycle shop where my friends and I started our Towpath bike adventure. After 14 miles on that lovely path, it was great to have good food so close by.
As always, the first order of business was to go say hi to the lizard. I’ve forgotten this one’s name (Heisman, maybe? Something weird like that…), but he was sufficiently adorable and made my lizard-​loving husband reiterate his wish for a giant terrarium.
Then it was food time! I had a hard time choosing between all the delicious protein-​ful sandwiches, but I ended up with a BBQ pulled chicken and gouda sandwich that was exactly what I didn’t know I needed. I ended up bequeathing the second half of my sandwich to a hungry husband, but I’ll always remember that first half. :)
On the drinks side, I was sad not to find anything that sounded especially exciting on the draft beer list, but I was consoled by the existence of a Coke Freestyle machine and therefore endless Fanta Zero. Mmm, Fanta Zero.
And the best benefit, free wifi! With my phone’s poor signal in town, it was nice to be able to get my email and social media ready for the ride back to my friends’ place.
Now that I know that this Towpath-​Wink combination exists, you can bet I’ll be back here for both the next time I’m in town.

Husband ordered Wednesday special of ribs. He said it was very good. I ordered tomato cucumber mozzarella with grilled chicken, also very good. Service great. Would eat here again!

During our recent trip on the Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Railroad, my family and I stopped at the Peninsula station to explore and get some lunch. As for as lunch goes, there isn’t a whole lot in this historic village. Fortunately there is a Winking Lizard Tavern there, one of the eighteen locations of this northeastern Ohio based chain.
The restaurant was pretty full for it being mid-​afternoon on a Sunday. The restaurant is spacious enough that there was no wait, in fact we had our choice to be close to the game area or on the quieter side of the restaurant.
I ordered the pulled BBQ chicken melt topped with smoked Gouda along with Applewood bacon and served between grilled sourdough with steak fries and a pickle spear ($ 8.79). The sandwich was large and tasty. The BBQ sauce was especially good.
My wife enjoyed the Maui Maui grilled chicken sandwich, which is marinated in teriyaki and topped with grilled pineapple ($ 8.49). My kids devoured the mini corn dogs from the kids menu. From sandwiches and burgers to pizza and BBQ, there is something from everyone at the Winking Lizard. Plus the beer list is very good and constantly changing. Even if there were other places in Peninsula, this would still be the place to go.

The Winking Lizard has about 18 locations around northeastern Ohio, but I’ve always enjoyed visiting this location the most. I’m sure everyone has been to the Winking Lizard but if you’re new to the area or just passing through, let me give you the down-​low on this place.
This location can be found in the small town of Peninsula, next to the Cuyahoga river, Cuyahoga Valley Scenic Rail Road, and the Hike & Bike trail, which makes it an ideal place to grab some food or a beer. Unfortunately, due to the heavy foot traffic finding a parking spot can be a real pain in the butt, especially on the weekends. If you don’t find a spot around the building you can usually find a spot around town. Just take note of the towing signs, Peninsula doesn’t mess around.
As for the restaurant, the building has been there since the early 20’s from what I can tell. The main dinning room features vintage signs and photos, a large ‘u’ shaped bar, TVs in every direction you look, and a glass cage featuring what else… an iguana. They also have an outdoor patio for when the weather is nice out, and a VERY cool basement bar that used to be a speakeasy during the prohibition era.
The food is usually good… I would give them 8 out of 10 most of the time. You’re not going to find unique delicacies here, just your typical American food: BBQ, wings, burgers, salads, and pizzas. The free popcorn is a nice touch. What makes this place special though is their beer selection! Around 100 different beers to be exact. You can join what they call their ‘Beer Tour’, which is a competition to taste all 100 beers within a year and at the end they’ll reward you a prize. I’m a 2004 beer tour alumni :)
Some people have had bad experiences here, which I can understand. This place can get REALLY busy and you can’t please everyone. I can only speak from my own experiences and over the past 15 years they have all been good ones! So the next time you’re taking a trip through the valley, whether by car, train or bike, you should put this place on your agenda.

5 stars for the beer list + 1 star for the food divided by two gives me a 3 overall. And this goes for all locations, because they are all the same on the inside — although I like this location best because of its backdrop of the national park. On a winter’s day, you can actually cross country ski to the door, and pop in for a cold pint… Borderline sublime experience that can almost give you your «ski village» fix if you are missing Colorado.
As for the restaurant itself: It is what it is. A place to find bonafide IPA on draft, with a menu that consists of a grab bag of items from the Sysco food truck unimaginatively dropped into a fryer or thrown en masse onto a flat top grill. Peninsula doesn’t have many food options around, so if you are hungry, go to the Lizard, order a full bodied beer, and look for the least-​worst thing on the menu. Good luck.

Basically like all the other Winking Lizards (check my review of the other WL for more detail), but this one is probably my favorite. Great location, right off the towpath. Nice outdoor patio with great scenery. They also have a cool little cellar bar that is usually open, but can also be reserved for private parties.

We went to Winking Lizard with friends and we loved it. Décor is pretty cool, like a summer camp in Louisiana and they do beer bike rides in the summer and you can take a train ride back.
The beer selection is outrageous in size and the cost per draft was pretty cheap. We are from Pittsburgh, so we were really excited to try new beers and they have a lot of local breweries on tap.
We got wings, which were spot on and we really enjoyed their Mexican chicken salad. Our server was extremely helpful and she was also attentive the entire time.
Overall this place was a blast, food and service were great and it didn’t break the bank. We will definitely be visiting this place again this summer.

Wings, burgers and beer — all kinds of beer. Great selection of bottle beer and tap. Great selection of wings, burgers, and salads. Lots of big screen Tvs to watch the ball game. Free popcorn and a big green live lizard in the window. What more can you ask for?

I went to this Winking Lizard location on Saturday and the expierience was not consistant with the previous experiences I’ve had at the other locations. When we first walked in, we stood there waiting to be aknowledged. There were two ladies at the hostess stand who were just looking at us and finally, after a few awkward moments, they finally asked us how many were in our party. It was strange.
We were then seated in the bar area. If I knew it was going to be that noisy, I would have asked to sit on the other side of the restaurant. The waiter came over and took our drink orders and came back promptly with our beers. We love trying new beers from the lengthy beer list they have.
We then ordered wings and fries. I ordered regular wings with the spicy garlic sauce. My husband ordered boneless wings with a less hot sauce than I ordered. I’m not sure how long it was before we go out food but it felt like forever. When our food did come out, it was ice cold. My husband had also asked for his wing sauce to be on the side and it came out on the wings. After asking the waiter, he brought out a fresh, hot order for my husband. Here’s the weird part. Although I ordered sauce that was higher on the spice scale than my husband’s, his were 10x hotter! I tried a bite of his and it was like I was breathing fire. It was like drinking battery acid. Luckily, he likes hot wings so he didn’t mind the heat but there’s no way I would have been able to eat them.
Overall, I feel that this specific location is going downhill. We were there at 3 in the afternoon so they weren’t busy. There was really no excuse for the poor quality of our experience. I can’t imagine what it’s like there when they’re packed.

NOT FAMILY FRIENDLY.
Normally a fan, but had some college-​aged hostess yell at my two year old for playing on the games in the back (in a way I’ve seen lots of other kids play on/​with the games and in a way in which other hostesses, bartenders and waitresses have seen him and others play).
Usually go in once or twice a month, primarily because it was family friendly and there are games for my child to play while we wait for our food. My son actually would ask to go see lizard.
After this experience, we may stop going there altogether.