Nicholson's Fine Food & Whiskey — Restaurant in Cincinnati

Horrible service. I was part of a party where we had a reservation for a bachelorette party in early July. We made reservations for a Saturday dinner at 4:30 so that we had time to allow for our party to make it to another reservation at 6:30 p.m. down the street. Upon arrival at our designated time, we had to wait for the staff to put tables together, despite the fact that it had been reserved for months. That wasn't such a big deal. Drink orders were taken and half the table was served with drinks. Service was SLOW which made no sense because we were the only folks in the joint and there were only like 12 of us. There were a handful of people at the bar, but no one at the tables. We finally ordered food. My own entree was fine, but the other girls had incorrect items or it wasn't cooked enough or was too cooked. We would have brought it to the attention of our server, but he was nowhere to be found. Not one time did anyone come check on our party. We sat for 20 minutes waiting for a staff member to come over and bring the checks. I finally had to go up to the host podium to get the attention of the three workers standing there having a random conversation to ask if we could get our checks. When we finally received our checks, none of them were correct. I was charged for the wrong entree and drinks. Not one person had the correct bill. Rather than wait another hour to correct it, we decided to work it out among ourselves. Had this place been super busy, we would have understood, but it wasn't busy. The wait staff had time to stand next to the hostess and carry on a full conversation but never checked on our table to make sure we didn't need refills or anything. Again, this was at like 4:30 in the afternoon on a Saturday. It was dead. No reason for service to be that slow when there were servers just...

I ordered a medium rare Ribeye. When asked how it was, I told the server it was thicker and less pink than I expected. She immediately took it away without another word. A few minutes later she returned with a male employee. He did not say anything to me, just stared. She asked whether I thought the steak was 'too cooked or not cooked enough'. I replied "too cooked". She turned away again without speaking. A few minutes later she returned saying, "They're re-making that for you." When the re-made dish was brought she said, "Cut into that for me." I did so, and she asked, how is it. I said I'd have to taste it. She said "Do that, then." So I did. The steak was just as thick, and just as lacking in marble. It really wasn't what I expected from a Ribeye at all, but I didn't really think I'd get anything but another re-cooked steak. So, I did my best and ate about half of it. The bill reflected the full price of the meal and no manager or other server returned to check on me. The bill was brought before I finished even half of the meal and I was not offered another glass of wine when my glass was empty. At this point I'm actually kind of worried the food had been spat in/on. Also, the fried potatoes accompanying my first steak were brown and crispy; the second set was more golden. Both were good, but that's quite a lack of consistency. The asparagus...

Unfortunately, ‘Whiskey’ is the only true part of the name Nicholson’s Fine Food & Whiskey. After arriving to our early anniversary dinner reservation for Saturday, we were placed at a table in a filled back room and had to personally shift our own table to make room between the other guests. We ordered 2 drinks ($15 Raspberry Gimlet, $11 1oz Oban Little Bay) and a $12 bread plate that had one literal block of cornbread with uncooked kernels still inside and italian bread cut into 4 slices which came cold in the middle. The entrees were not much better; the Pasta Alla Whiskey was edible albeit spicier than expected and the chicken seemed pre-cooked, but the Shepherd’s Pie was truly egregious. The meal came with a visible layer of grease over the meat filling which was barely covered by a scoop of mashed potatoes in the middle. The potatoes were weirdly tough at the top but gooey in the middle, and the meat filling tasted almost spicy in a very off-putting way. As someone who has personally visited Scotland and eaten multiple versions of shepherd’s pie, this looked and tasted like the worst attempt at recreating such a simple meal.

PS: Buying a bottle of scotch from Jungle Jim’s or even ordering it online would technically be cheaper than purchasing the 4x...