Moerlein Lager House — Restaurant in Cincinnati

Date of Visit: Sunday May 19th, 2019 On a short trip to Cincinnati, we looked up 'best restaurants' and Moerlein Lager house came up as a top search. The building is located right across from the River, and conveniently located to various sports arenas. I am glad there wasnt a game on when we were there.

The building is very large, with huge floor to ceiling windows so you can enjoy the view of the river (and Kentucky) from virtually any table.

We were seated immediately, and promptly met with a very friendly greeting from our Server - Sheena. She was very friendly, helpful, pleasant, and eager to serve.

We ordered some great beers from the very vast and extensive list of craft beers - local, and from around. The food options were also quite plentiful. We had the short rib grilled cheese, and the applewood chicken salad. The food portions were massive. My salad was huge, and I had a side order of the Angry Mac & cheese** which was also rather large - very tasty as well.

** the regular angry mac and cheese states it comes with spicy shrimp, but the side portion doesnt say any different - however, it comes with Sausage. This was a bit disappointing as we do not eat sausage or any pork products. When i mentioned this to the server, she advised that the side portion doesnt have shrimp - she immediately got us an order of the shrimp as a side at no charge for our disappointment. This was not necessary, but I am glad she did because the shrimp was amazing.

The prices of the meals is very reasonable.

The restaurant can be very loud, especially when there are large groups. This is a little distracting, but once the large table left, the noise level was more manageble. The problem is the design of the building seems to amplify noise.

The food was amazing the beer was fantastic - so many great options. The service was phenomenal. and prices - very good.

there are several parking lots near by, but I did not see a specific parking lot for this restaurant. There is some street parking, but not enough.

If you are in Cincinnati, I highly recommend making this a priority place to eat. You will not be disappointed. I would just keep an eye on game times - i am sure this place...

A Complete Miss – Bland Food & Slow Service

Came in on Labor Day weekend with my girlfriend and another couple. We were walk-ins and waited about 40 minutes for a table, which was fine and expected. The real problems started once we sat down.

It took 15 minutes before our server even greeted us. She immediately brought water with ice (would’ve preferred to be asked first since I don’t like ice, but not a big deal). What was disappointing was that every interaction after that was painfully slow — we waited at least 10 minutes each time we needed something.

When we finally ordered drinks, I went with the Core 4 beer flight, while the rest of my party ordered a cocktail, a lager, and a soft drink. The beers were underwhelming — flat flavors, no distinction — and not worth the 20 minutes it took for drinks to arrive. At that point, we decided to keep it simple and just order appetizers before leaving.

We ordered the Mexican corn dip with chips and the BBQ nachos. The first appetizer took 15 minutes to arrive, and the second came out 10 minutes later after the server explained that the kitchen had “dropped them” and had to remake them. Not exactly reassuring.

To make matters worse, the food didn’t redeem the experience. The corn dip was bland, soulless, and unpleasant. The nachos were forgettable and lacked any real flavor. The server tried to make small talk, but given how slow and unprepared everything felt, it only made the lack of urgency more frustrating.

The only positive here is the location and views which are beautiful. Unfortunately, they’re completely overshadowed by the terrible service, lack of preparation, and food that fails to impress.

We were there for 90 minutes, but only spent about 20 of that actually eating. That says everything you need to know about the pace of service.

I understand it was a holiday weekend, but by 8:15 pm the crowd was slowing down, and the delays continued. That shows poor management and preparation, not just being “busy.”

Overall, this place was a letdown in every aspect. Gave it a try, but won’t be coming back and cannot...

This restaurant came highly recommended, and so I booked a reservation for our anniversary. We were seated at the worst table in the restaurant right against the wall right next to the kitchen door. We could not see the "great view" everyone raves about. Because we were right next to the kitchen, we had every server bumping into us or the table constantly. We were seated for 15 minutes before our waitress even asked us for our drink order. Our waitress was very nice, and she was the only nice thing about this disaster dinner, I felt bad for her because she had several large parties & no help. We ordered nachos, and they were terrible it tasted like Velveeta cheese, and they were cold. We ordered salads with our meal, and only my husbands came out at first. We told the lady that brought the salad that I was supposed to get one too, but she never did anything about it. We had to flag down our poor waitress (who was being run ragged by the larger groups) to let her know that I did not get my salad, she apologized and took care of it but I got mine 15 minutes after my husband received his and they were both warm, and the lettuce was soggy. We ordered steaks, and they were okay. This is not a good restaurant if you actually want to talk to the person that is with you. We had to basically yell across our very tiny table just to hear one another. A manager came over to our table and was nice she took the nachos & salads off our bill. Yes, the building is pretty, and the staff was nice, but the food is terrible, the layout of the tables are awful, and the music is too loud. If you want to be a sports bar that's one thing but if you are trying to be an upscale restaurant you need to get it together. I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone and we will...