Al-Posto Italian Ristorante — Restaurant in Cincinnati

Busy but not overly loud or crowded. We didn’t feel rushed at all. Server Evan was spectacular- attentive but not disruptive. Gave recs with confidence when asked.

I was pleasantly surprised at all the vegetarian options. Like more than most restaurants in this category that I can think of. And non were impossible burgers so that’s even better!

Drinks stayed full. My friend got red wine and commented that she liked it so much she needed to note what it was so she could find it to buy. I got Prosecco- perfect temperature and I really enjoyed it.

We split the arancini. Texture was perfect and I’ve had it at several places… texture can be hard to get right or sometimes temp is inconsistent through the middle. This was perfect. My friend stated that it was “life changing”.… I’m not making that up.

We split a panzenella tomato salad - very fresh with great dressing. Acidic in all the right ways and the taste lingered until our next course.

We did the giant cheese wheel (linguine alla flora) at the table- a great experience! Steven (the GM) is also a cheese specialist (fromager) and was pleasant, put on a nice little show of preparing the cheese, mixing in pasta and plating it. People around us wanted to know what we had ordered once they saw the whole thing happening. It had a light taste, and did not feel heavy in my stomach. I ate the whole thing but wasn’t overly stuffed.

Dessert was amazing. She got an Affogato. I got a pudding but I can’t remember what it was. So rich and had great crunch with rice crispies on top!

Seriously had a great experience here. The price was great for what we got and I was full without feeling like we’d overeaten. It wasn’t stuffy or intimidating but you can still dress up a bit if you’d like. It was well lit and easy to have a conversation even with a mostly full restaurant. It’s gorgeous too- you won’t recognize it from its previous iterations as a restaurant. My ONLY critique is that this place needs to have brunch. It’s the only miss I can even think of! Surely the crowd/demand/demographic would support it and I can only imagine having egg strata, caprese omelette, focaccia toast, whipped yogurt with fresh fruit or elevated French toast and mimosas on that patio.

Make sure to stop in the bathrooms for selfies bc...

Food ordered: 1 Burrata-$16 2 Smoked Oyster Caesar Salad-$34 1 Cioppino(+linguini)-$50(w/o-$42) 1 Linguini alla Flora(+chicken)-$35(w/o-$26) 2 Espresso Marinti-$30 1 Happy Amber-$8

Our server, Matthew, took care of us that night. Service was well, he answered any questions we had. We ordered our apps and salads first so we could have more time to decide on our entree. The burrata appetizer, which I think we both agree that it wasn't anything to jump for joy for, but it was good (and very oily)

They then tried to serve us our entree but I had to stop them to ask about our salads. Matthew and Alyssa (assuming the assistant or actual manager) came over to apologize. Our salads were brought over fast, but to our dismay, we didn't quite enjoy it either. My date assumed that it would come with some kind of actual oyster being that this salad was $17, it didn't even have to be big. The smokey flavor was too much, it was the only thing I could taste. My date said the same and that his salad tasted sour. He was hungrier than I was, so I gave him the rest of my salad to finish (which was a little more than half).

Our entrees finally came out, it was obvious that it was seated under a heat lamp the entire time we were eating our salads, the plates were really hot to touch and I'm surprised the waitress (I didn't catch her name) didn't burn her hands. My date didn't enjoy the linguini alla flora's mint that was incorporated everywhere (being that he expected it to be as a garnish and not in the entire sauce) and the chicken added was overcooked and flat. my cioppino with linguini was pretty good, I enjoy spicy foods, but there was nothing but two large pieces of bread (that it came with) to combat that.

The workers and decor was nice, bathrooms were well maintained and clean, but the food isn't worth it, especially for that price. We didn't order dessert here and got ice cream elsewhere. If or when we do come back, we'll probably only order entrees and...

Went for a girls' night out. Really liked our server, Emily. She was friendly, knowledgeable, and as attentive as she could be considering how many tables she was helping. Our first round of drinks were good aside from the Manhattan tasting solely of the Amaro, my guest wanted to send it back but the server said we should keep it in case anyone else wanted it, I would have expected the drink to be taken off the bill since it was terrible, but it wasn't. The drinks we ordered before our main course arrived came after we had eaten it, and by that point we really wanted to leave, but we did finish them before our bills were returned to us. Ordered 3 starters, meatballs, arancini, and burrata. All of them were great. The Misto salad was good. The Cacio e pepe was very cold upon arrival, had very dry noodles, and had no flavor. The skirt steak pinwheels were good. The eggplant Parmesan was surprisingly fantastic. We also had the tableside prep of the linguine alla flora. The presentation was fun. The pasta was terrible. The noodles were cold (this I understand, since they had been sitting for a bit before being warmed up before going into the cheese bowl.), the sauce was overly lemony (one of my guests said it tasted how lemon cleaner smelled). It was very unbalanced in taste. We did mention that the Cacio e pepe was cold, and the kitchen sent a new one. This came quickly, was very hot, and saucy. However, it had no taste. Even though it looked creamy, it tasted like hot noodles in thick, hot water. Many dishes would have benefitted from salt.

I do not think we'll go back. I really wanted the creamy pastas to be good since that's my favorite, but they were very disappointing. There are many other restaurants in town I can go to and be very happy. I would, however, order the eggplant Parmesan again, but I would get it as a...