Overlook Kitchen + Bar — Restaurant in Cincinnati

We really wanted to like this place and went there with some high hopes! Just dined there for Burger Week. Our service was pretty good, so no complaints there at all. Got drinks quickly, refills on water, etc. Our server was great! Super nice lady kept stopping by to get dirty dishes. Liked the atmosphere until the music started - it was SO LOUD, and they were on the other side of the bar from us. Even my teenager thought they were too loud.

Oh, and the seats - our four-top table had a booth-like bench seat for two on one side and two chairs on the other. I sat on the booth side, and I felt like I was really low to the table. It was kind of amusing as I am a tall person, and I felt really close to the table, which I'm not used to.

Here's what we had and our thoughts (as we both totally agreed on each dish):

Frito Misto - this dish is a joke for what you pay and probably the worst we had. See first photo as I would have expected a lot more for $22. Was just randomly on the plate, too, like half of it slid off en route, and this was the mess left. And the cherry peppers - watch out, as I took a tiny bite of one, and it burned my throat. The calamari tasted kinda funky, like it was on the edge of being bad. Overall, no flavor with the breading on the calamari nor the lemon aioli. Somehow, the broccolini was the star of the plate. After this and the pork belly arrived, and we tried some, my son was ready to cancel the burgers and leave. Don't order this dish is all I can say.

Crispy Pork Belly - wasn't really crispy. Hardly any of the hard cider reduction, and this dish would have benefited from some more sauce. I think we got two pieces of chicharron and weren't sure if the frisee was garnish or what. We did eat some, but it also would have benefited from more reduction or dressing or something.

Burger Week burgers - these were small but pretty good! They didn't totally come how we ordered them, but overall, these were good and probably the highlight of the meal. It's just too bad they were only 4 oz., so more bun than burger. If the Overlook burger is like this one, I would order it.

Side of fries - okay. Not the worst, not the best. Could have been a little hotter upon arrival, but the bar was pretty low after the frito misto, so we didn't complain.

Maple Bacon Fritters - so, these have promise. The bacon was on the chewy, overcooked side versus being crispy - which would have made a huge difference. Like some crispy baked bacon or candied bacon, and this dish would have been a hit. Not enough whipped cream either. And one fritter was raw dough inside. They did offer to remake them or take off our bill. Like I said, service was not the issue. And next to the burgers, even semi-raw fritters were the second best thing we had.

It's a restaurant in a hotel, and I get many/most of them aren't the best. For drinks outside or just the dessert (if throughly cooked), then maybe. Or perhaps we just didn't order the menu items that make them shine. Again, we really wanted to like this place, but after that first experience, I am not sure we'll be back - at least not anytime soon. Sorry, Overlook! We may give you another try in the future, but I will never order that frito...

One of my guests enjoyed a sirloin that was cooked properly, but everything else we had was mediocre at best. The dining room was booked for a rehearsal dinner, so perhaps the kitchen staff weren't up to their best. The lamb "lollipops" were shared, cooked well, but the pistachio pesto was bland with an unpleasant texture, and I love pistachios. We started with the crispy pork belly; it was undercooked, like room temp and flabby. The frito misto was sad, mostly breading, and dry. The salmon dish looked great, but the fish was overcooked and both it and the polenta cake were dry and bland. The brussels sprouts with the sirloin were crunch, almost raw inside while the outside was mushy. I had the cold noodle salad special and found it very dull. The mussels were actually pretty interesting, with watermelon notes, but one of them wasn't opened, so I don't think it should have been served. That's a big miss in a dish where the only protein was eight very small mussels. We ordered every dessert on the menu but there's nothing to recommend there either. The spicy margarita was really good. We had a rioja from the wine selection, but that was disappointing. The service was ok. There weren't many tables, and we didn't see our server nearly often enough. That seems to happen when restaurants aren't busy, ironically. Anyway, I will probably stay at this hotel again, but I will find another...

Didn’t have that great of an experience on Monday. We were in having wine and apps and just did not feel welcome. Don’t get us wrong, our server was great and very attentive, and the food was delicious. That charcuterie board was amazing. However, the manager was less than welcoming and seemed irritated that we were even there. She made it a point to not only come out and tell us that they were closing, but stared at us through window while we were on the patio like she was forcing us to leave. She came out twice. She didn’t give the same to the other people on the patio or those inside. I think we left at 9:30 and we have never seen someone so visibly irritated that it looked like they just wanted to leave and we were holding her up. Even though there were other people in the dining room and the patio. It was ridiculous. We used to come in a while back and the old manager Cole was always welcoming. We did not have the same experience this time. Needless to say, with the management acting like that, we won’t be back. That’s sucks because the sever actually was really good. Fix your management and maybe we’ll consider coming back with...