The Aperture — Restaurant in Cincinnati

I was looking forward to Aperture. When I visited Cinti for the holidays my brother, his wife, and I made a reservation for Saturday night.

We were warmly welcomed by the host, and the server (Anna) was excellent, friendly, enthusiastic, and super well informed. She never missed a beat, gave us suggestions on the menu, and anticipated every course and timing.

The decor is like a photo shoot from Dwell magazine. I normally like sleek, modern, and minimal but the room feels a little barren and empty, with too many hard surfaces and a little brittle. The tall white sheers that can be opened or closed at the back of the room to close off an area help to soften the room a bit, but overall it doesn’t feel warm, inviting, or comfortable.

The menu is a little confusing at first, which Anna explained that “it’s Mediterranean inspired” and that “the portion sizes are larger than tapas, but not full sized either” so it is suggested to order 2-3 plates per person. Hmmm. ($$$)

We ordered the eggplant dip to start, it comes with fresh house-made pita. It was delicious, but the presentation was not great as the dip was served on a plate that was the exact same deep purplish grey color. When it first hit the table I honestly couldn’t see the dip and thought the small pile of garnish in the center was the entire serving and thought “oh no.” Otherwise thumbs up on the eggplant dip, it had a rich warm earthy flavor and the pita was served hot and had a nice dusting of herbs. And they will bring you more pita if you like.

I then tried the polenta cake. It is served in a mushroom broth, garnished with a large raw mushroom on top. It was tasty, but honestly not exceptional.

For my main I had the Lumache pasta with fennel sausage. For the $28 price tag, the portion size is disappointing. The flavors were really nice but it was served just barely warm (and pretty quickly cooled to room temperature) and it was a bit dry. A little more sauce, a bit larger portion, and served hot and this would have been a winner. But not quite.

My brother and his wife were similarly underwhelmed by their choices, no real complaints but very little “wow this is delicious” moments that one hopes for at a much hyped, and frankly kind of overpriced, new resto. The one flavor combo that did inspire a “wow” was the sweet potato my SIL ordered. It is served with brown butter hollandaise, cornbread, and feta. Curiously it also had a good sprinkling of brown sugar, so it kind of walks a fine line between a savory and a dessert. In fact it was a good deal sweeter than the one dessert we ordered for the table to share.

We had the Spiced Custard Tart. It has an orange colored piped icing on top, and sits on a bed of of mildly sweetened but somehow characterless white sauce. When you see something that looks like cupcake icing, and it’s from the dessert menu, one anticipates excessive sweetness, or at least something sweet (one hopes). But it wasn’t at all sweet, the top icing was without flavor, or any sweetness at all, and the tart was also bland and nearly flavorless, and not at all sweet. Maybe the aim was a more Mediterranean style tart, but when you order dessert - you want something sweet. I felt like I was being taught a lesson about the evils of sweets that I didn’t want to pay $15 to learn. We had a couple of bites and left the rest uneaten, pretty rare for dessert! (this was the one miss in service - should have been addressed) Bummer.

I don’t like giving bad reviews but I see so many rave reviews about this place that I thought I’d share my experience. My brother and I had high hopes for Aperture, as we have a special connection with this beautiful building. Our father’s family ran a successful men’s clothing store in this location decades ago that supported generations of our family. My dad worked there when he was a young man. In fact our last name is still emblazoned in tile at the entry. So we were stoked to go here, but not sure I’d go back. My meal was $120, (and I didn't have drinks) and I left feeling unsatisfied and...

From the moment we walked in, it was the very best experience we have ever had in Cincinnati. It was quite a busy evening but since we had reservations, our table was nearly ready when we got there. In the meantime, we were able to enjoy a drink at the bar. I got a whiskey sour (probably the best I've had in a while) and my wife swears it was the best dirty martini she had ever had. When our table was ready, the hostess came and got us and showed us to our table and instead of taking extra time to go back to the bar and closeout, they graciously transferred the ticket to our table.

When we got to our table, we were greeted by our server, Kylie. She was fantastic! The menu at The Aperture is quite adventurous and has several items that I was unfamiliar with. As someone with food allergies, this can be a little unsettling but Kylie took the time to go over my allergies and the chef himself took a menu and went through each item and marked what was safe and what was not. Honestly, I don't have space or time to write all about everything that was done to make this experience fantastic but that touch in itself is a great example of the care that each person at The Aperture puts into the guest experience.

Now to the food. You guys. It was amazing. It goes far beyond anything I have had in Cincinnati with creativity and flavor. Everything we had was unlike anything we had before and it was all so delicious. The sommelier, Will, even brought us out wines to pair with one of our courses that complemented perfectly.

At the end of our visit to The Aperture, we left raving about our experience and how amazing it was. Not only that it was a great customer service and food experience but that we really felt cared for as guests and that we were comfortable with the price we paid for what we got.

Also- it's really nice to have a great nicer option for dining in the city that's not steak or Italian. (not that we're mad about our steak and Italian options in Cincinnati because those are great too.).

But for perspective, at The Aperture, we got 8 small plates, 3 cocktails, 2 glasses of wine, and dessert for $210 before tip. Everything was expertly flavored and paired and the experience left us wanting to go right back. A week or so ago, we went to one of the larger Cincinnati-based steak chains (a very famous one) and got no drinks, unseasoned, bland sides, and an overcooked entrée with mediocre service for the same money. I swore I would never go back there. The Aperture is well worth it on ALL fronts and it is our new...

We had a reservation on a Wednesday night at 7:30pm and were seated right away. The place was hopping....good sign. Our server Jeremy was excellent and was training a new staff member who was lovely. Our water glasses were never empty as the rest of the staff was just as attentive.

The ambiance...hmmm. White on white on greyish-white, with lighting that looked like the 70's. The tables and chairs looked like something from a hospital cafeteria, were not comfortable, and looked very cheap. We actually talked about the ways we could improve the space during dinner.

We had Jeremy explain the wine to us, which he did expertly. We chose a red and a white of varietals we have never had. Both were great. Chef Jordan Anthony-Brown has created some fabulous food for sure. They ask that you order all at once so they can course out the meal. We started with the Chicken Liver & Foie Tartine. I'm not a fan of sourdough, so asked if I could sub focaccia, which they did with no problem. It was phenomenal - so much so that my wife who doesn't like chicken liver, said it was the best one she has ever had. We then had the Kennebec Potato - a hassel-backed half of potato with a fantastic sauce, the Charred Carrot, and the Oyster Mushroom. I read a lot of reviews about the carrot and thought we would like it. However, it was very spicy and the topped with Moroccan spices and the merguez (lamb sausage) that was not to our liking. We couldn't discern that it was actually a carrot. The oyster mushroom dish was absolutely heavenly! Our favorite of the night.

We ordered the Branzino as our main. The chowder upon which it was served was rich and delicious with plenty of clams, shrimp, celery root, and cream. However, as the branzino was cooked perfectly, we were disappointed with the thickness of the filet. It was only about 1/4 inch thick, so we were basically eating skin.

We anxiously await to see what Chef Anthony-Brown prepares this spring.

Second review: We were on our way back home from downtown on a Thursday night and took a chance that they would still serve dinner at 9:30pm when they close at 10. We sat at the bar and as we apologized for being so late, Will was happy to serve us and seemed genuinely glad to do so. Great customer service! We had the new iteration of the chef's chicken liver mousse and it was so good we asked to take an order home to enjoy the next day. We also enjoyed the seasonal ramp pasta, the fried local mushrooms, and Chef's unique spin on Hamachi Crudo. Everything...