Black Horse Tavern — Restaurant in Lebanon

Our friends, my husband, and myself drove nearly 40 minutes (live in Dayton) to dine at the legendary Golden Lamb/Black Horse Tavern tonight. My husband and I arrived before our friends so we got a table on the heated patio/balcony....

Appetizers were fine. Nothing to write home about. The salad was fine too. Dinner was served with reasonable portions and plated well.

The real weirdness came at about 8:40pm when one of the servers started opening the patio blinds and they turned off the heating. We were one of only two tables left outside. We were planning to order dessert. And the table next to us only had their salads. However, when we asked our server if they were closing she replied "Yup." We then asked if we should move from the patio to an inside table since they were clearly trying to freeze us out of there...and the server said "Ummm, well...I don't think there are any tables left inside...so..."

At that point we just asked for the check. Then, the server returned and apologized for how rude it was for them to turn off the heat and open the blinds (it was 38 degrees btw). We expressed how odd and rude it was and she offered to bring the manager over. He came over and apologized. We asked him where we should go for dessert and he offered to give us dessert on the house which we firmly declined.

Until the end of the evening, the experience was fine. But the last 5 minutes of the meal ruined our experience with Golden Lamb/Black Horse Tavern. I've never actually felt so unwelcome at an establishment in my life.

For a restaurant with such longevity and reputation, I expected a great deal more.

Truly disappointed. We'll most likely never return. But, I can't imagine anyone would care...

When I was a kid one of the places my folks liked to stop when we were headed to Cincinnati and points south was The Golden Lamb. We had an opportunity to see if it was still as good as I remember and I have to say, it was better! The Black Horse Tavern (the restaurant inside The Golden Lamb) is NOT a "bar" it is an old style coaching inn or early American tavern. Although there is no more family style service I remember from my childhood, there is an upscale farm to table and locally sourced menu with some great vegetarian entree options (that are NOT just salads) as well. Hence, I can recommend it to my entire family and not just the meat eaters. You can also get burgers and sandwiches. In short, the food was amazing. Best fried chicken since the Smithville Inn closed - we tried the 1/4 light and the 1/4 dark just to be sure. The special mushroom bisque was also really good. There is a full bar available with cocktail specialties, local beers and a wine list. Our service was attentively and respectfully provided by Joshua who gets 5 stars for service and for honesty. The only fly in the ointment was the sad ending to a perfect meal -- the "dessert topping" on the gelato was NOT real whipped cream! (Joshua was surprised, too!) It wasn't even Reddi-wip (which is at least a dairy product). It was essentially "cool whip in a can". After all the trouble to make a flawless meal with real ingredients, WHY would you pinch this penny? Sad to leave the final taste in your diner's mouths a lump of fat. The inn itself has been beautifully maintained and still has rooms available for hire. Would definitely return...

A good time at Black Tavern, great service, festive spirit friendly bar service. Then it went south. Had 5:30 reservation for annual Christmas dining...with family. Seating downstairs.. 7 of us. Serve took care of drinks/water, brought bread. Then brought more bread. Then more waiting....it was 7:10 before food arrived. We had plenty of time to share..but this was out of line...finished up by 7:45 ish, took some pictures; overall a "good" time. Server was fine..but Golden Lamb needs a Kitchen Manager ( better plan)to handle food quality(temperature), and 1.5 hours to get the food out is not acceptable. NOT the experience it had been in the past. 95% of the time I find local restaurants wonderful.. this was a total surprise, especially after wonderful, and delightful visits in the past. Hopefully better next time as we enjoy having our Christmas Eve...