Kiki on Ludlow — Restaurant in Cincinnati

We went to Kiki’s to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Our reservation was originally for 12, but we added a 13th last minute, knowing it might be an inconvenience. When we arrived, we were told the reservation had mistakenly been entered for 4 instead of three 4-tops. After some juggling, the staff managed to seat us in the dining room, which we really appreciated.

However, once it became clear we had 13 instead of 12, the attitude shifted. The host who seated us seemed frustrated, and our server was noticeably cold throughout the evening. We completely understand that the mix-up and extra guest added stress, and we stayed positive and patient, but their frustration came through in a way that made the night feel less celebratory.

As someone who worked in front-of-house for 20 years, I empathize with how tough these situations can be. Still, it was disappointing to see so little effort to hide that stress. The food itself was solid, and I’m sure they usually provide better service, but unfortunately this wasn’t our...

Update: On my second visit, even though we had a reservation, we were given a table at the very end, in a poorly lit corner next to the restrooms, while almost every other table was available. I didn’t like it and asked for a different table. The host explained it was for optimizing space and said switching wasn’t possible. We arrived right when the restaurant opened, and I was with friends who came because of my recommendation. To be honest, I don’t care about optimization, nobody wants to sit in a corner when there are better tables available. I requested a different table from our server, and she was able to move us a little further down, but we were still far from the crowd. It made us feel like outcasts, lol. It really killed the vibe for us. The food and service were good. Tried the chicken karaage, Wagyu skewers, pork bao buns, and the mango cheesecake. Everything was delicious. Our server was nice and helpful. We'll be back to try...

An expensive restaurant is worth paying for if the ambience is great, the service is perfect and the food is exquisite and unfortunately Kiki on Ludlow is neither for the price that we pay for the food. Granted some dishes that we ordered like the Jackfruit Bao, Karaage were pretty good in flavor. Small details like menu not having no description of the dishes (not helped by servers either) to the service being not very friendly and being extremely slow, we were very...