Restaurants & Reservations: Dining in Cincinnati

We were really excited to try a new restaurant during Restaurant Week. We had a reservation for dinner at Blue Water Grill, formerly known as the Village Kitchen, near Mariemont. We arrived for a late-for-a-weeknight dinner, and were surprised to find...that we were the only ones in the restaurant below the age of 65. Including all visible serving staff and the hostess. We stood there for a couple of minutes trying to figure it all out, taking in the nursing home newsletter on the counter and the advertisements for Easter brunch, on a chalkboard, posted inside. We mostly felt really uncomfortable and out of place, enough so that we ended up leaving in our utter confusion that perhaps we had stumbled on a different Blue Water Grill.

Anyone have any insight into this restaurant? Did we miss out on a fantastic meal? Does it affiliate with a senior residence? Was this just entirely random? We're still scratching our heads over this one!

Brown Dog: Worth the Wait!

Brown Dog Cafe • 4893 Pfeiffer Road • Blue Ash, OH 45242 • (513) 794-1610

His Take

The title says it all. We took a lot of flak from our readers when we left Brown Dog before being seated on Valentine’s day because of the long wait (even with a reservation), unannounced special menu, and no-gift-certificates policy. But as promised, we returned to see if the food was really as good as everyone had said it was.

Brown Dog Café is a tiny, tiny, one-room restaurant in a very non-descript shopping plaza right near I-71 at Pfeiffer. This is not a venue you are likely to accidentally walk past. But no worries, because there are clearly a group of local patrons who rely on the restaurant for a top notch meal whenever they fancy one. Having only seen the restaurant at capacity (and then some) on Valentine’s Day, we were surprised to find it only a little more than half full when we arrived on a Saturday evening for our second attempt. We were even more surprised at how small the restaurant is, with a capacity probably near 50. Naturally, we were seated quickly and politely without any wait.

Brown Dog’s service quickly proved to be the opposite at our experience at Bangkok Bistro (when they forgot to tell our server we existed for 15 minutes). Apparently, our server was busy when we arrived, so another server offered to take care of us. In the end, they both thought they were responsible, so we heard the specials twice (usually a good thing) and almost enjoyed our amuse twice (until they figured out what was happening). Our server(s) were friendly and knowledgeable, which always makes the night more enjoyable.

OK, on to the food...

Aside from the whitefish amuse and delicious bread (note for every other restaurant: warm break + olive oil = mmmmmm), our meal really started with the Mediterranean sampler maza. We’ve been to other places that served this kind of sampler, which usually includes hummus, olives, pita, roasted red peppers, etc. What struck me about Brown Dog’s rendition of the dish was that everything was piled together in a large boat. I suppose this presentation gives you a hint that it’s worth trying bits of each component with the others — and they couldn’t be more right! From the amazing olive tapenade and delicious peppers to the pita and artichokes, everything was so flavorful, I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about a Mediterranean sampler. What a great start to our meal.

Next up was a simple Bibb lettuce salad with candied walnuts. It’s hard to go wrong with candied nuts, and the presentation was impressive, despite the relatively small portion size. Note: one salad per person, two people per appetizer.

For the main course, I decided to go with the evening’s special: a grilled swordfish with a spicy, brown mustard sauce and asparagus. The dish usually comes with garlic mashed potatoes. I’m not a huge mashed potatoes fan, and the kitchen was kind enough to swap them for “Brown Dog Fries.” The swordfish was a nice large portion cooked appropriately, and the mustard sauce was a terrific complement. Sadly, the “Brown Dog Fries” were a little disappointing for a restaurant-named dish. They weren’t bad, but we’ve grown to expect amazing things when a restaurant names a dish after itself — Honey with its Honey Fries is the perfect example. Brown Dog Fries were home-cut fries served with plain ketchup, nothing too exciting here.

Lest you think the meal ended on a down note, there is always dessert. And Brown Dog passed our dessert test with flying colors. I chose the Chocolate Banana Bread, largely because I wasn’t enticed by the espresso or ice cream in the Chocolate Tasting. The Chocolate Banana Bread has a liquid chocolate center that is sweet, rich, and satisfying. The caramelized bananas are a nice touch, too. This is one of the top desserts I’ve had anywhere in the area, so golf-clap for a perfect way to cap a fantastic meal.

We’ll be back, but most likely when we find someone else to pay :-)

Her Take

We went into Brown Dog on a recent Saturday night with a strike against it because of our experience there on Valentine’s Day, when we left before actually eating. Based on everything we had heard (and read here in the comments), we really still wanted to try it, so we made another reservation and headed in. It was the complete opposite from last time.

We were seated immediately, and there were a small handful of open tables. Our waitress came to greet us quickly to take drink orders and tell us about the specials. Shortly thereafter, a different waitress came over and repeated the specials. The first one came back a few minutes later with bread and a “gift from the chef,” a plate of two fancy spoons with a type of whitefish and a citrus sauce to cleanse our palettes before the meal. It had some kick and did its job! We also gave our orders to waitress-1.

As we were enjoying our first slices of warm bread with olive oil and roasted garlic (YUM!), waitress-2 came back, saw that we already had food, and handed off her plate of chef-gift to the hostess. She came over anyway to make sure we had given our orders to the other waitress as well. Apparently both said they would take our table, but then both took our table. Once they realized it, we were back to just one waitress.

A little while after enjoying some bread, our shared appetizer appeared. We ordered the Maza, a mix of olives, artichoke hearts, hummus, smoked peppers, olive tapenade, tomato salad, cucumber relish, feta, haloumi cheese, and pita with zaatar. Everything was delicious!! The olive tapenade was by far our favorite part. The haloumi didn’t have too much taste, and the “tomato salad” was more a pile of cherry tomatoes, but mixed with the other stuff, it didn’t matter. We could have used another couple of pieces of pita, but we managed to finish the whole plate anyway. This appetizer comes in a for-one size and a for-two size. We shared the for-one, because we wanted to have room to try more dishes!

Our (shared) salad was the Waldorf Bibb, which also came with granny smith apples, candied walnuts, celery, dried cherries, and a sweet onion dressing with chunks of swiss cheese. Unlike the appetizer, this one was a little smaller than expected, but still enough, especially with everything else we ate. It was an interesting mix of things I wouldn’t normally put together—especially the celery! It worked well. I thought I tasted pear in the salad, too, though, so I have a suspicion of pear in place of granny smith apples, but I’m not entirely positive.

My main course was Eggplant Bruschetta, slices of fried eggplant covered with roasted veggies and fresh mozzarella, and the whole thing on top of a parmesan risotto. Wow. It was fantastic. In spite of all the moisture, the outside of the eggplant was crispy. The risotto was creamy but not overly rich and heavy. There was more than enough mozzarella (and I seldom say that). The veggies on top helped the whole thing feel a little lighter. I couldn’t quite finish it (although I got close), and I was disappointed both that there wasn’t enough to take home, and with the knowledge that it wouldn’t be as good reheated anyway. Yum.

Even though we weren’t entirely hungry by the end of all that, we agreed to take a look at the dessert menu. We almost always share a dessert if we’re going to get one, but the one I wanted was really creamy, and he tries to stay away from those. So of course, we each ordered a dessert. I got a Chocolate Tasting. It was beautifully presented! There was homemade bittersweet chocolate chocolate chip ice cream, which was fantastic, even if the chips were smaller than the ones at Graeter’s. There was a white chocolate fondue with a sliced strawberry. I am the first to argue that white chocolate isn’t really chocolate, but the fondue was delicious anyway. And there was an espresso pot de crème, which turns out to be served in a kind of shot glass, sort of a cross between fudge and mousse, more the consistency of cream cheese. Thick chocolate-espresso with a spoon! What could be bad?! Nothing. It was fantastic.

We both commented that one of the great things about this meal was that it was fantastically paced. We were there for about an hour and a half, far longer than most restaurants, and they let us finish each course, and talk for a few minutes, before the next one arrived. It was comfortable and relaxed, the magical place between rushed and slow, and we enjoyed every bite. I hope I get to go back eventually!

Restaurant Week!

Greater Cincinnati Independents

Short Take

It’s Restaurant Week! The coalition of Cincinnati Independent Restaurants is offering Spring Restaurant Week, a chance to try great restaurants at a lower-than-usual price! From March 16-22, check out the almost 30 different Restaurant Week menus available (and more are added each day). Most of them are offering a three-course meal for $26.09, with a few of the “more casual” participants offering dinner for two for $26.09. Although their website doesn’t mention it, most of these places do take reservations, and especially over the weekend, they’re probably a good idea, and even a necessity at some places.

The three-course menus differ by which three courses they offer. Some are doing appetizer, salad, and entrée, while others are doing appetizer/soup/salad, entrée, and dessert. Naturally, I gravitate towards the latter, although I certainly understand the idea of separating appetizers and salad -- although I’m not sure I understand it at the cost of dessert, but that’s just me.

The menus vary widely. I am disappointed in a few, such as Bella Luna. We’ve eaten there and had good meals, but their Restaurant Week menu offers no vegetarian (or even fish) entrée. It was crossed off our list for this week simply because there’s nothing I can eat! The same goes for Daveed’s (who, by the way, apparently thinks fish and scallops are vegetarian-friendly?!), Red (although, to be fair, they’re a steak house and therefore not typically so vegetarian friendly), and China Gourmet. I’m also a little disappointed with menus like Vineyard Café's and Hugo’s, which don’t give actual options, just one dish per course. While I understand that the chefs may want to present a certain mixture of foods, as someone who can only eat certain things, that makes eating more difficult. Even during Restaurant Week, most restaurants are offering at least some choices, which makes the ones that aren’t stand out.

We’re also psyched about the dinner-for-two for $26.09. That pricing makes it possible to potentially enjoy multiple Restaurant Week offerings without totally breaking the bank—and to feel like we’re getting our money’s worth, even at a lower-end restaurant.

Looking forward to this week! Please share your Restaurant Week experiences in the comments!

Sit and Enjoy at Coffee Emporium

Coffee Emporium • 3316 Erie Avenue • Cincinnati, OH 45208 • (513) 321-5943

Her Take

I’m doing something unusual for me, and writing this review as I sit inside the restaurant. I go to Coffee Emporium with some regularity—enough that the woman who works the shift when I’m there knows my usual order. I am the kind of person who loves to sit in a coffee shop for hours and get work done, and Coffee Emporium (the East Hyde Park location) has become one of my usual places to do so. The downstairs is your typical independent coffee shop: fancifully decorated blackboard listing all their drinks, sign saying “friends don’t let friends go to Starbucks,” and lots of coffee and tea related merchandise, much of it local. The shop is in a converted row-house, so the enjoying-the-drink magic happens upstairs, in what I imagine started as the bedroom portion of the house. There is seating for about 25 spread across 9 tables (I’m sitting and counting, but I can’t take pictures since my phone isn’t the fancy one), although the exact configurations change from time to time. There is free wireless internet, one of my personal keys to a great coffee shop. It varies in noise level. Until about 10:30ish on a weekday, it is often somewhat noisy with groups, and it can be hard to get a table. After that, it is often quiet, with several individuals working, or groups of 2 or 3 meeting for coffee or lunch. They have Belgian waffles on Sunday mornings, and while I haven’t made it yet, I hear they are fantastic—and I would guess that the tables are full and noisy!

My drink of choice is a skim-dark-mocha. The dark refers to the chocolate; they also offer white and milk. One of my favorite policies is the bring-your-own-mug. They will charge you for a small, regardless of the size of your mug (up to a somewhat absurd 32 oz.), and fill your mug, even for the fancy drinks (like a mocha)! It’s fun to feel good about being environmentally conscious, and also get an extra $0.50 worth of mocha goodness. I usually eat lunch on my days working at Coffee Emporium as well. My usual choice is the Breakfast Burrito (no bacon), which is, of course, also available for lunch. Wrapped in a tortilla is egg, cheese, and potatoes, with salsa on the side. They warm it up when you order at the counter downstairs, and then bring it up to your table. The salsa has just a bit of kick to it to make it interesting, and it is a great filling lunch (or breakfast). They also have other sandwichy type foods; the spinach-ricotta pie is also very good, although not as filling. Today they had a special veggie wrap, roasted veggies with a bit of cheese in a wrap, but I stuck with my usual that I had been looking forward to.

There are also sometimes samples by the register, and today’s samples may prove to be my downfall. I had never tasted their cookies, but there were little pieces on a plate when I went to get my lunch. There were four different types of samples: chocolate chip, white chocolate macadamia, oatmeal raisin, and peanut butter. I tasted three of them (with encouragement from the woman at the register), and wow. Those are some outstanding cookies. And I have high standards for cookies! They are soft and chewy, thick, and full of the chunks of things they are supposed to have in them (chocolate chips, mainly). In fact if this posting is delayed, it’s probably because I decided to go back downstairs for a chippy treat.

I mostly sit here on Fridays, although I have been known to appear on other random off-days of school as well. I’ll most definitely be back. I’ll be back for the laid back, coffee-smelling, relatively quite atmosphere, I’ll be back for the coffee and lunch and hopefully eventually waffles, and I suspect I’ll be back for the cookies.

You Just Can't Trust a Spring Roll

Bangkok Bistro • 3506 Erie Ave • Cincinnati, OH 45208 • (513) 871-0707

His Take

As faithful readers might recall, we first sampled the fare from Bangkok Bistro at Taste of Cincinnati last year, and our experience with their veggie spring rolls was pretty disappointing. But after several readers posted encouraging comments about Bangkok Bistro, we decided to give it, and its spring rolls, a second chance. The good news is that we’ve seen the light and had a wonderful meal (not to mention leftovers) at Bangkok Bistro; the bad news is that our original take on their spring rolls continues to be spot on.

Bangkok Bistro is a larger than expected restaurant on the edge of Hyde Park (or Hyde Park East as some call it). You can tell from the aroma outside the restaurant why nearly every table was full on a Saturday night. Our experience that night had some high highs and low lows, but you’ll have to keep reading for the details.

We arrived at Bangkok Bistro hungry, nay starving. And as we have a habit of doing in such circumstances, we knew right away we needed an appetizer. We had made a reservation, but unfortunately were running about 20 minutes behind schedule. Luckily, this wasn’t a problem, and we were seated immediately when we arrived.

This leads us to our first low-point of the evening. We sat at our table studying the menus as we took in the organized chaos of the tables and servers around us. Ten minutes later, when we hadn’t met our server or even received water glasses, we knew something was amiss. And did I mention we were hungry? We politely grabbed one of the busboys walking by to inquire about ordering some food.

This is where the evening took its first turn. Normally, I expect someone else’s server/busboy to tell me “I’ll see if I can find someone...” and disappear again. This gentleman’s immediate response was “I’ll find out who it is; in the meantime, I can at least get you some water.” As a former management student, the idea of a restaurant employee being so proactive was surprisingly refreshing.

Anyhow, a moment later our server appeared. She was very friendly and apologized profusely, while explaining that the manager had forgotten to write down that we were seated. I gather our server’s tables were elsewhere, so she didn’t know we were there. Whether the story was true or not, we were happy to finally have someone’s attention and a chance to order food!

As I intimated earlier, we started our meal with the veggie spring rolls. We had initially wanted soup because it was mighty cold outside, but none of their soups were vegetarian -- even the vegetable soup, go figure. The spring rolls arrived about 5 minutes later and looked, well, like spring rolls. There were two in the order (ignore the missing one in the picture, like I said we were really hungry). The spring rolls were about as boring as boring can be. They tasted like a pile of lettuce with some bean sprouts and no seasoning. Even the sauce was very watery and had minimal taste. For two hungry people, this was a disturbing sign, but the smell of the restaurant gave us hope for the next course.

My main dish was a new menu item: Green Curry Pasta Salmon. The dish is basically a large salmon filet served over a mountain of angel hair with vegetables and a green curry sauce. When it arrived, I was impressed by the enormous serving size. Note to self: this is easily a dish to feed two or three people if you want to split it. All of Bangkok Bistro’s dishes can be ordered on a spiciness scale of 1 to 10. I went with 6 tonight, and the dish had enough kick to leave my mouth tingling afterwards, but not enough to make my eyes water and nose run. Overall, the dish was very tasty. The salmon was cooked appropriately, and the green curry sauce was delicious. I would have gladly traded some of the pasta for some more vegetables, but overall I was very pleased. As much as I enjoyed it, I think I’m more of a rice than pasta person when it comes to curry, so I’ll probably go back to one of the curry dishes next time. And despite the initial service and the spring rolls, there will be a next time. Thanks to all our commenters who stood by this place! We enjoyed our visit.

Her Take

I, too, was skeptical about trying Bangkok Bistro after our disappointing Taste. But since they’re nearby and we had heard more good things about the restaurant than bad, we decided it was worth a real shot.

They initially were below our (admittedly low) expectations. The man who seated us led us wordlessly to a table, put down the menus and walked away without a word. Unfortunately, as described to my left, his silence was not exactly a mark of rushing back up front to let our waitress know she had a new table. At first, we pondered the menu happily. We had never been to the actual restaurant, so it was fun to see what they had, how they described (or didn’t describe) their different curries and other dishes, and to figure out exactly what we wanted to eat. Except that once that was done, we were ready to ask questions, order, and eat. And drink some water.

Once our waitress finally arrived, she was good! The non-vegetarian soups (including not only a chicken-stock-vegetable, but a chicken-stock-miso!) were disappointing, but we figured it gave the spring rolls a chance to redeem themselves. The waitress was also helpful with other questions about dishes, happy to make substitutions (tofu and veggies for chicken and shrimp) and made sure that we knew that substitutions were doable on any dish. Except the soup, obviously.

For my main course, I ordered the drunken noodles: flat noodles with a brown sauce, basil, tofu, and veggies, spice level 5 on a scale of 1-10. She informed me that 5 was about the level of Tabasco. Since I don’t really ever use Tabasco, I nodded my head. The dish was great. There was tons of tofu, and lots of vegetables. I was bummed that I forgot to order mine minus-the-broccoli, but luckily Michael doesn’t mind being the receptor of a pile of rejected broccoli. If their spicing is consistent (which at many restaurants it isn’t), I would probably order a 4 next time, but spiciness is probably even more subjective than, say, opinions of spring rolls. The dish was very good, as were the leftovers the next day for lunch!

My one comment of our waitress (after her eventual arrival) was probably not her fault. We didn’t see her at any of the tables nearby ours, so we got the sense that her tables were pretty spread out. She came by to make sure we were enjoying our food, and again at the end of the meal. We didn’t really need anything else, but the fact that we didn’t see her much after we had food also meant that if we had needed anything, it would have been hard to find her. Not a terrible complaint, simply an observation.

My overall impression was that the food (aside from the spring rolls) was good, and the service was decent (once they realized we were there). I’m psyched to have found another good restaurant nearby, and I’m sure we’ll be going back again!

Noodles & Co: Where Fast Food is Fast, but far from Fast Food

Noodles and Co. • 7800 Montgomery Road • Cincinnati, OH 45236 • (513) 791-6259

His Take

This post is one of the few about a restaurant I hadn't really planned to visit until literally 10 seconds before I turned into the parking lot. Noodles & Company is all about pasta (as the name makes obvious) and has the appearance of being just another neighborhood fast-food joint. But if that's what you are expecting, you're definitely in for a treat.

I visited the Noodles & Co. location across from the Kenwood mall as I was driving up Montgomery Road with a friend and starving. We were on our way elsewhere and didn't want to stop long enough to eat at Dewey's, Cheesecake, or some other dine-in spot along the way, but we weren't desperate enough to hit up a true fast-food joint. Noodles seemed like a decent compromise. I had seen the chain all over the place, but somehow had never been inside one.

The Noodles menu is based on several permutations of pasta, veggies, and proteins (chicken, beef, shrimp, or tofu) -- 432 permutations to be precise. They've divided the menu by cuisine theme -- American, Asian, and Mediterranean. Each style has a few options for pastas, a soup, and a salad. Or just can make whatever combination you'd like.

I decided to start with a Chinese Chop Salad, which includes the usual fixings of sesame seeds, Asian vegetables, crispy wontons, and a sesame-soy dressing. The salad was bigger than I expected, but probably not big enough for a meal. I was impressed, though, because the ingredients looked and tasted very fresh and I've certainly had smaller, less tasty Asian salads for much more money. My friend opted for the smaller Cucumber and Tomato Salad, which is simply chopped tomatoes, cucumber, and onions with a little balsamic vinegar dressing. I didn't taste it, but it certainly looked fresh, and my friend was very content.

Since the name of the place is Noodles, I certainly wasn't going to leave without some pasta. My choice was the Pasta Fresca, one of their "Mediterranean" choices. The Pasta Fresca is penne with sauteed spinach, tomatoes, and onions in a balsamic vinegar, white wine, and garlic sauce.

Now, I'm not one to frequently order pasta at a restaurant, largely because I think I can do pasta at home just as well and for a fraction of the price. In other words, my expectations are pretty low for restaurant pasta because, seriously, how can you screw up pasta? That said, Noodles impressed me. The pasta was hot (which surprisingly doesn't always happen elsewhere), not drowned in oil (a la Pompilio's), and had exactly the flavor I wanted from those ingredients.

All in all, this was a successful, quick stop for lunch. It's inexpensive, fast, fresh, and generally pretty healthy -- a hard combination to come by on the road. If you need a quick lunch break, give this place a shot. You won't regret it.

Reliably Predictable Tex Mex at Don Pablo's

Don Pablo's • 2692 Madison Road • Cincinnati, OH 45208 • (513) 631-1356
401 Riverboat Road • Newport, KY 41071 • (859) 261-8100

His Take

Don Pablo's is one of those chains for which sometimes you are just in the right mood. As the name implies, it's a Tex-Mex restaurant, which means chips, salsa, burritos, chimichangas, enchiladas, fajitas, and every other variation of those words that seem to be introduced into the vernacular from time to time.

Generally, when we head to Don Pablo's we're hungry and feeling like fajitas. Sadly, I'm forced to avoid most of the cheesy items, which makes fajitas option numero uno. In the past, I've usually done either the steak or chicken fajitas (or sometimes both), but then I discovered a secret few carnivores know. At Don Pablos, the vegetarian portobello fajitas are far tastier than any of the meats they have. Shocking, I know.

While we've been to Don Pablos in a variety of cities, locally we've been to the Rookwood and Newport locations. As the pictures show, the Newport location has a great outdoor patio for the summer that overlooks the river. Like the Rookwood location, the Newport one is also decorated to accent its warehouse origins.

Meals at Don Pablos always start with chips and salsa. Their salsa is not the most amazing salsa you've likely ever had, but it's not bad, and if you're eating at Don Pablos, that's probably good enough for you.

I think Jessica has pretty much covered the details of the food, so I'll let you read and check out the pictures without further delay. Enjoy!

Her Take

I have been to Don Pablo’s at least a half dozen times in the last year or two, more because it’s convenient and good enough for a last minute dinner than because it’s really fantastic. The Rookwood location is in an old warehouse, and it still has a bit of that feel to it, but it has been decorated in a sort of funky Tex-Mex theme. The waitstaff is fairly non-notable. Sometimes they are a bit social with the tables, but more frequently they simply get their jobs done in a not particularly interesting fashion.

Meals at Don Pablo’s tend to start the same way. Instead of the bread and olive oil of many restaurants, they keep with their theme and bring chips and salsa to the table. It’s a never-ending basket, so if the table is as hungry as we usually are, it’s no problem for the waiter to continually refill both the chips and the salsa.

Because I am a creature of habit—but more because of a lack of vegetarian options—I tend to order the Portabella Fajitas. I get three plates with my order, and sometimes more, depending on the waiter. It comes with one dish of sizzling seasoned portabella, peppers, and onions, one dish of tortillas, and a third of all the other stuff, generally rice, refried beans, cheese, salsa, guacamole, sour cream, and lettuce. I say generally because the waiters do differ on one key point. When I ask whether the sides are all vegetarian, I have gotten more than one different answer.

There is a general consensus that the refried beans are, in fact, meat/pork-free, but the rice seems to be a bit of a mystery. Some have told me that it, too, is vegetarian, but others, as on my most recent visit, told me it was cooked with a chicken broth, making it decidedly not-vegetarian. In exchange, I got the corn bread, which brings my total number of dishes to four. A couple of other sides are also generally offered in exchange for the potentially-meaty-rice, but the corn bread is my favorite!

Once the vegetarian-ness has been sorted out, I thoroughly enjoy my meals at Don Pablo’s. The portabellas have good spices on them, and I generally leave stuffed. I can’t finish all the tortillas they bring, both because I get too full and because they are so messy to eat. After one or two (they’re small!) I tend to just mix the ingredients together on one of my several plates and eat it with a fork. The too-many-plates issue tends to be an issue only when everyone at the table orders fajitas, in which case multiply the 3-4 dishes per person by the number of people at the table, add chips and salsa and drinks, and, well, it’s a little crowded.

My most entertaining Don Pablo’s experience, by far, involved leaving before we ate. During the blackout in the fall, we showed up needing dinner, since without power, dinner was difficult at home. They had power, and they were crowded, but they had a couple of open tables. The hostess, however, warned us that they were out of a few things: chips and tortillas for starters. We laughed, since that meant few things on the menu were being served as usual…and we left to go elsewhere. But we generally go back again when we’re looking for something at the last minute. It isn’t the best in the city, but it’s reliable and certainly good enough for an unexciting and unadventurous night out.

A Sweet Time at Honey

Honey • 4034 Hamilton Ave • Cincinnati, OH 45223 • (513) 541-4300

His Take

Given all the comments we've read and heard about Honey, this review will likely not be a surprise to many (if not all) of you: Honey is fantastic. It's not always easy to find small, well-run, upscale restaurants with terrific food and without the air of elitism you expect at four star restaurants. Honey takes the best of those features and leaves out the rest -- its food is excellent, the service is great, the price is reasonable, and there's not even a hint of arrogance despite the fact they must know they have a good thing going.

Honey's Northside location is less than ideal, but with a staffed parking lot right next to the restaurant (and charging a whopping $3.00), the neighborhood should not be anyone's excuse for missing this venue. My first impression when we arrived was surprise at the diversity of the clientele (e.g., jeans to sport-coats, 20s, 30s, 40s, and up) and the nonchalant, low-key decor for a restaurant we've heard talked-up so much.

The restaurant didn't fill up until closer to 8 on a Saturday night, which meant we were well into our wonderful meal by the time people started lining up for tables. The warm bread was a nice start, but we didn't waste any time getting down to appetizers. (sorry for the terrible pictures, but flash photography at dinner is, well, a little obnoxious)

Everyone we know has recommended the Honey Fries, so that was an obvious choice. Our second choice was a little more eclectic: a veggie and potato cake served with olives and an artichoke heart presented like an upside-down tree. The Honey Fries easily met their reputation. The mix of potatoes and the sweet honey sauce were mouthwatering. If McDonalds had these fries, they wouldn't need to sell burgers. The second dish was also very tasty. The potato cake was a delicious combination of carrots, squash, and potatoes, although not particularly large for sharing purposes. The artichoke heart was a little less exciting because they hadn't dressed it up in any particular way. So I'd recommend skipping that for something more exotic.

My entree for the evening was a grilled wild salmon served with a shrimp and cabbage spring roll. I love fish, so ordering salmon is not exactly "adventurous" for me (as many of you probably already realize). But this is easily one of the best pieces of fish I've ever had. The salmon melted on my tongue and wasn't overcooked at all (something far too easy to do). There wasn't a fancy sauce glazed over the fish or a bucket of oil drowning it--just the natural taste with a little bit of seasoning. The shrimp and cabbage spring roll was also a nice and usual accompaniment. The spring roll was fried and crispy, but not a particularly thick or heavy dough. The shrimp and cabbage worked very well together, though I had my doubts at first.

And then there was dessert. And it was chocolate. And it was goooooood. We're always suspicious of chocolate cakes served with fruit or liquor sauces, but Honey made the sauce a true accent, rather than an integral part of the dish. The cake was a tiny bit dry, but plenty rich and well worth ordering. Plus, I'm always impressed by caramelized artwork with dessert because I could never, ever do that at home.

All in all, this place is a winner. A great meal, relaxed atmosphere, and reasonable prices for as great as it is. We'll be back!

Her Take

Since my only other restaurant experience in the Northside was at Melt, I had high hopes for Honey. (Yes, those expectations are based on the simple basis that they are down the street from one another.) Also, it looked good driving past, I had heard good things about it, and their online sample menu made my mouth water. The food sounded not just good, but really creative and good, which I think is harder to find.

We called ahead on a Saturday evening for reservations, and were told they didn’t take any. We went early just in case, but just before 7:00, they were only about half full. That certainly changed throughout the night, and by the time we left a little after 8:00, the bar area was full beyond capacity with people waiting for tables. The restaurant is simple inside, with few decorations beyond small flowers on the tables. Our waitress brought us warm bread even before we ordered. The bread certainly gets bonus points for being warm, and it was good, although not the best I’ve had, and served with butter rather than any fancy olive oil. It may have been the (only) low point of the meal, and it was certainly better than at many other places!

The waitress read us somewhere around six different specials, and after she walked away I could remember parts of three of them. With that many specials, it would have been great to have them written down. But the menu itself was so appealing that I was happy enough to order from that! We started with two appetizers, mainly because we couldn’t agree. I really wanted to try the Honey Fries, and he wanted something more interesting (to which I readily agreed, while still pushing the fries). So we got both the Honey Fries (“sweet, Yukon, and Idaho, with chili lime honey”) and a carrot-squash-potato cake appetizer that also came with an eggplant dip, chick pea dip, artichoke heart, and olives. Except that the wording on the menu was far more complicated than “dip,” so we really had little idea of what we were getting, but…wow. It was fantastic. There was a wide range of flavors and they all came together deliciously.

The only problem was that there was also a basket of fries on the table, and we couldn’t decide which to eat first. The fries were great. They came out really hot, so while we tried them first, we came back to them after letting them cool down. They were sweet, and the dipping sauce was even more so. We ended up piling them on our plates, putting a little sauce over the top, and eating them with a fork, partly because they were hot, partly because they were small, and partly because it seemed a little more polite than shoving fries into our mouths at the speed we would have liked because they were so yummy.

But then there was more food. My main course was Wild Mushroom and Fresh Mozzarella Ravioli, served in a creamy sauce with caramelized onions and balsamic vinegar. And yet again…wow. I feel like I’m running out of words to describe this meal, because everything we tasted was fantastic! It was so much fun to go expecting a good dinner, and to get something truly delicious. The ravioli had a little more sauce than I would have liked, although if I had eaten a little less appetizer, I may have happily eaten the rest of the sauce with another piece of bread. Instead, I opted to stare longingly at the creaminess left behind while I contemplated dessert.

Like the specials, desserts were not on a menu, but required listening carefully. Or, in my case, listening selectively until I heard the word “chocolate” and then asking her to repeat that dessert. We got a flourless chocolate cake with Grand Marnier, served with raspberry sauce, chocolate sauce, and some strawberries. It was a little dry, but with a cake like that (and after a meal like that) I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and thoroughly enjoy it anyway.

The meal was fantastic. I can’t wait to go back. I’ll probably wait for an occasion (or a parental visit?), since it was a bit pricier than a typical dinner out, but in this case, it was absolutely worth it. The portions were good: not tiny and not enormous, and the food was fantastic. I can’t wait to go back. Did I say that already? Yeah, it was that good.

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