Sugar n’ Spice Diner — Restaurant in Cincinnati

We were very disappointed with our visit to the downtown location today. We’ve been to the location on Reading Rd. quite a few times (although not since Covid) and always had a pleasant experience even if they were crazy busy with lines out the door. They were always hustling and doing everything they could to make sure everyone had a good experience, very family-friendly and giving our littles ducks to play with while we waited for food. On my middle child’s 2nd bday she was even given special birthday ducks. Today, we decided to try the downtown location to celebrate our 3rd child’s birthday since she loves “duck ducks”. We were told a 40 min wait but it “probably wouldn’t be that long”, after 45 min we ask and are told we’re next. We then see that the group who put their name in after us was just finishing at their table… uhhh, I guess we were forgotten? Idk but they had 4 college-age girls and we were there with hungry and getting hard to wait children and no apologies or anything! We then sit and NO ONE comes for at least 10-15 min. We saw someone behind us get seated and their kids have drinks before anyone even comes over! A waitress finally comes over and takes our complete order as we’re getting frustrated but there’s still no apologies. No one is hustling or trying to get things going, just like this is how it is. And then the food runner who brings us our order does not say a single thing as she lays plates on the table. The food is not really that hot, edible but could have been better (has been on previous visits) and although our kids did get to pick ducks from a basket when she brought us the check, I asked about any special birthday ducks and was told they don’t have any. Then no one came back to take our payment for over 15 min. My husband had to go looking for someone to pay the bill just so we could leave! We left and my husband says “this was the worst service we’ve had...

Really disappointed with our experience today at Sugar N Spice in Over the Rhine- after coming back (from the COVID-19 hiatus)- myself and my family were really looking forward to eating today (July 27th) at Sugar N Spice- my Mother was always obsessed with Sugar N Spice's original pancakes, etc: the last time we tried to come to the restaurant, it was closed for a gas leak in the building, and today when we were there what we were met with was a Stressed Out Staff, nill Customer Service, and an experience that left such a bad taste in our mouth- definitely not Sugar Worthy- but more Spice Worthy. The waitress we had was not attentive, it appeared that she was covering for more than one area, she certainly did not go above and beyond to make our experience a great one today- we waited over 40 minutes for our food, and we left not with a smile, but a frown :( where our overall Sugar N Spice experience was ruined today due to such a poor experience overall. We didnt even have silverware when we sat down to eat, and the waitress, who was clearly disheveled- she essentially threw the silverware in front of us, and it was dirty- she gave us dirty silverware- and she was just not attentive, period. When a member of my family simply asked her when our food would be coming, since it was over 40 minutes, what we were met with was an overwhelmed reply- "You all came in at once"- meaning we as the customer, making a member of my family feel bad- even asking, as it was well beyond the reasonable wait time for our food. This location seems to be short staffed, and today- lost our business, from someone (my Mother) who was a Sugar N Spice Groupie and literally OBSESSED with your pancakes. Disappointed in this establishment and for 0 service. Take your...

Ok so let me start and say I love the food and the atmosphere, so that’s why it’s a 2 star. If it was a rating just on the food it’d be 5 stars. The low rating was due to our waiter being the worst I’ve had in years. Her name was Jaqueline E...

So it started with her not stopping by our table for 10 min when we first sat down, we honestly thought they didn’t give us a waiter. Then we both ordered coffee and she only brought one of the 2. We asked for sugar for our coffee.. she brought Splenda. Then we ordered food and when the food came out she didn’t bring syrup for the pancakes and she forgot my hash brown order. We got to about finishing our other food dish, before we asked a different waiter for our syrup and hashbrowns because she never came and checked on us, not once. The other waiter took care of us, and our waiter finally came by. Water was empty the whole meal, and I asked for some jelly for the English muffin.... which she never brought us, until I asked her a 2nd time, when she gave us our check. It was horrid service by this girl... The people behind us who also had her, actually had to get their food to go because she never came and served them.

I feel bad leaving such a low review, because the other waiters seemed to be doing fine and I loved the food and atmosphere. But I feel like management needs to know how terrible our waiter was... Including a picture of her name and time she served us to help out.

So overall, recommend the place for food, and atmosphere, loved the Euro Omelette, but don’t recommend the waiter we had, as it was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in years by a waiter.

Oh and we were never offered a duck.. something I was actually...