E+O Kitchen - Hyde Park — Restaurant in Cincinnati

It wasn't a complete disaster, but it was pretty close.

My wife and I went at 6:30 on a Saturday. We were told that everything was booked, so our only option was one of the two bars. The hostess pointed out the liquor bar, which had four seats on the side near us, of which the middle two were occupied by a couple (what kind of person takes the middle two seats of a four-seat bar in a crowded restaurant?). The hostess noted that with dismay, and dismissed it as an option, rather than asking the couple to move down to one end. We probably should have, but it would have been a little awkward taking that initiative for her, so we didn't.

We were then presented with the only other two seats that were open in the restaurant: two stools at the short end of the L-shaped sushi bar. Our little part of the bar was a foot deep, facing a wood-paneled wall that was a good ten feet high, and my seat was so close to one of the people sitting at the proper part of the bar that the hood of her coat was in my lap. We almost left, but wanted to try the food, were already there, and anywhere else would have been busy, so we took the seats. Worst seats I've ever had in any restaurant in my entire life. They should not have existed.

Our waitress showed up promptly - so promptly that we hadn't even looked at the drink menus yet. We asked for a little more time to look over the menus, and it was probably a good ten or fifteen minutes before she was back. We ordered a drink each, two steamed buns (one for each of us), tacos, a sushi roll, some ceviche, and some yakitori.

The wagyu yakitori and a single steamed bun arrived first. We let the person who dropped them off (who was not our waitress) know that we had ordered two. She said she would check on it. We never heard about the missing steamed bun again. The wagyu was under-seasoned, but E+O is the kind of restaurant that's too good to have salt out, so we couldn't correct that. The steamed bun was decent, but I ended up with a bite of pork and bun without sauce, and the pork, too, was under-seasoned and bland.

The scallop ceviche came next, and was reasonably good, though the portions were small for the price. We still had not received our drinks, so my wife asked our waitress, and she managed to return with them in a minute or less, which makes me think that they were waiting for awhile. Her Endless Consciousness was delicious and the best thing we had all night, my Wild Manhattan was underwhelming at best.

We moved to slightly better seats at the sushi bar and received our Tango sushi roll. Despite sitting at the sushi bar, and despite having chopsticks and soy sauce dishes, there was no soy sauce in sight. We waited a good five minutes with the roll in front of us before we got soy sauce from our waitress, who at least realized that we were lacking it on her own.

The "Sol" Pastor tacos arrived last, and they were pretty tiny for $9. They were, again, a bit under-seasoned and lacking in flavor. Mediocre at best.

While we were waiting for our check, we saw a sushi chef topping a sushi roll with gold leaf. I think that stands on its own with further commentary from me.

Our total bill was just over $62. After the meal my wife and I went to another restaurant to finish our dinner.

In fairness, the ambiance and architecture were nice - which you'll be able to enjoy if you're not staring at a wall that's a foot from your face. The wait staff was polite and friendly, but even more lost, uncertain, and disorganized. The food was overpriced and largely ranged from bad to mediocre. The best I can say about the food is that there are are some good ideas present, but the execution sucks.

Our experience was terrible, and we will not be returning or recommending the...

I was part of a party of 10 that had a reservation for a baby shower at the Hyde Park location. I want to start by saying that leading up the the reservation your service was amazing. Everyone was always very pleasant and accommodating on the phone. I was told I could come in early and decorate and that we would be sat at your living wall, which was great. We were all very much looking forward to this. The mom we were honoring specifically picked out your restaurant for her shower. However, our experience in the restaurant was very much lacking.

The first thing that went wrong was that the waitress (Rachel T.) didn’t take our drink order for the first half an hour. Water was late being placed at the table. Our waitress did apologize for this but then didn’t do better. She rarely checked on us while checking on all the other tables around us. Then our drinks arrived and the drink for the mom of honor was forgotten.

Then we were barely waited one. No one was offered drink refills and our food took about an hour. When I finally got up to speak to the manager, because the mom of honor was getting upset, I saw our waitress waiting on other tables and our food sitting out ready to be served.

After speaking with the manager our food was served instantly but it was cold. After waiting as long as we did, cold food was very disappointing. This is when the waitress finally got us drink refills- an hour and a half after we arrived!

And the worst part? She was not only rude, but she was mean. She made a comment under her breath, that we all heard, about how the mom of honor wanted her to take a group photo. She acted like we were SUCH an inconvenience to her. This is her job! She didn’t treat us with kindness or respect. I wish we would’ve hosted the baby shower at another location. It was so disappointing and put such a damper on the event. I expected more from this restaurant...

I wanted to like this place. The ambiance is nice. I enjoyed the decor and trendy music. It's in a great location and had positive reviews. Unfortunately, the sushi was bad, and the service was just okay.

Service: We saw our waiter a total of 3 times during an hour and a half lunch. This made it hard to ask for drink refills, condiments, etc. They charged us for an incorrect item on the bill but corrected the mistake when we pointed out the error.

Food: We ordered 3 sushi rolls (rainbow roll, vinnie, and number four) and the shishito peppers appetizer. All of the food was beautifully presented. The shishito peppers were delicious but overpriced ($9) for what you get. The sushi was very disappointing. Rolls ranged from $18 to $21 per roll and were poorly prepared. The ratio of fish to rice was off compared to other sushi restaurants. The rolls were slightly larger than average, square shaped, and consisted mostly of unseasoned rice (sushi rice requires rice vinegar) and paper thin bits of hacked fish served lukewarm vs cold. They were improperly rolled, resulting in pieces falling apart before they could be dipped in soy sauce. Somehow, our rolls were remarkably flavorless. Sushi requires a good amount of technique to prepare properly. Any one of these issues could have been forgiven individually, but when taken in totality, it resulted in some of the worst sushi I've ever had.

Price: For 3 rolls, an appetizer, and tap water to drink, we spent $85 after tip for subpar food.

Conclusion: You can get better food for less money elsewhere. E+O is not worth a visit,...