Bronte Bistro — Restaurant in Norwood

I hate to write this review, because I love Bronte Bistro, but I am compelled. Our group had a truly abysmal experience last week. From the get go it was clear we were not wanted in the cafe. I teach Tarot, and sometimes will have my students convene at Bronte for a change of pace. This is not dissimilar to say, a book club, or the Cincinnati Atheist group that meets at Bronte once a month.

We had a group of 8 (originally 10) for which I had reserved the back room. I have been frequenting Bronte since 2007, and never once been told the back room must be rented if you want privacy, which means the curtains would be closed. Even in the years I worked there this was not a policy, and we often closed the curtains for parties in the room as a courtesy. (Of course I understand things change, but this must have changed in the past month, as I had a similar group only a few weeks ago in the same room with closed curtains without issue.) Only a few minutes after closing the curtains, the manager, Kim, abruptly yanked them open and chastised us for not paying a rental fee. When I went to speak with her about the fee, I was told I couldn't rent it at that time. So I asked for future information and she couldn't give me an answer, saying it had to go through her Director, but when I asked who I should speak with she said she takes care of rentals. So which is it?

Kim then asked if we were "that same Tarot Card group from last month who didn't order anything". I said we were the same group, but we most certainly ordered drinks and meals. She goes into the back and returns claiming we only ordered 3 soups, which is incorrect. I found all this to be extremely weird. Not only can I not have information on renting the room, there's some sort of directory of bad information of what my guests and I have or haven't ordered in the office?

Our service was miserable. Inattentive. We ordered quite a bit and much of it was slow to come out or didn't come out at all. One of the ladies in my group is Latina, and the waiter became irritated with her accent as she couldn't understand her. To boot, her young son was with us and wanted a plain burger. It's not hard to see he is autistic, so when his burger came out with "vegetables" on the side, it almost triggered a meltdown. When plates did arrive they were dropped on the table. One of of ladies had to ask for her cup of soup 5 times before it came out, and then it wasn't the soup she wanted. It all felt very intentional.

Another girl from our party let me know she could hear the manager Kim complaining about us to her staff as she passed by the bar to use the restroom. I suppose I'm not surprised.

When one of our group reached out to upper management the blame was quickly directed back at us since when we first walked in I had a bottle of Gatorade in my backpack. It was laid out how much restaurants are struggling, and when other patrons see us bring in outside food and drink they might think it's ok as well. I'm not sure this would have been an issue if I hadn't been retrieving items from my bag, but I certainly wasn't trying to pull a fast one on Bronte here. I even ordered 2 drinks, although I was told I would be charged $4 if I didn't put the Gatorade away.

Rude. Embarrassing. Absurd. Unacceptable. Those are only a few of the words that can describe this encounter. We were nothing but polite, and treated indignantly. I'm starting to think maybe someone doesn't like me bringing Tarot into the Bistro. And this whole thing is starting to feel a little bit more like...

My sister and I decided to throw a surprise 70th birthday party for our mother. We debated for a long time on where to throw this party. We needed somewhere with gluten-free options, easily accessible parking and bathrooms, and alcohol and coffee options. I wanted a buffet setup of appetizers, but also wanted our guests to leave feeling well fed. We decided on the Bronte Bistro just north of Cincinnati.

Kim, the general manager of Bronte Bistro, was not always the easiest person to get a hold of. We attempted to plan a time to speak over the phone, but could not find a time that suited us both. We eventually settled on planning everything through email. This was nerve wrecking (to say the least), but the results were phenomenal.

Kim and her team curated a buffet of entirely gluten-free foods for us that fit perfectly into our price point. This included shrimp cocktail, mini steak sandwiches with goat cheese, ham and cheese sandwiches, salad with a variety of dressings and more. There was something for everyone. We received so many compliments on the food from our guests, most of who were from out of town. We had one server designated to our party whose name was Blake. He did an exceptional job of keeping our drinks refilled and bringing endless coffees.

We also really enjoyed having the bookstore so close. We rented a private space for three hours, allowing our guests to come and go freely from the party to the shopping area. This was not only great for some of the younger guests at the party, but also for my cousin Aaron from Texas whose wife sent him a two page list of books she would like to add to her collection.

I would plan this party at this venue again, and highly recommend it to anyone with a varied guest list who may require special accommodations. The Bronte Bistro took our ideas and made...

I eat dinner here every week. Last week, I happened to have had a late lunch and only wanted to sit down in a comfortable place and have a cup of coffee. I sat at a bar-booth, and a waitress came over to ask me what I would like, at which point I told her just a cup of coffee. She looked at me strangely, said, "Oh. Um. OK," then walked away. A moment later the manager showed up asking me what I'd like to order. I repeated, "Just a cup of coffee please." He then asked me to move to the express café area, and "enjoy my cup of coffee there," while joking that they needed to put the barista to work anyhow. He indicated they'd need the table for others. Mind you - it was 4:30 and there were DOZENS of empty tables. Seriously?

First of all, the tables over there are TINY and FAR from comfortable to sit and relax at the end of a workday. Secondly, when you sit at those express café tables, you are smack next to the bathroom doors, where you have to listen to constant doors swinging, toilets flushing, and towels being pulled. I was absolutely floored that a regular, weekly customer who ALWAYS orders a full dinner was asked to sit in an extremely cramped and unpleasant place just because this particular week, I only wanted a cup of coffee. I will take my weekly business to Longhorn or another Rookwood restaurant going forward after being made to feel like a nuisance who was just taking up space. It still makes me feel humiliated and embarrassed that I was treated like a vagrant. I'm just baffled even still, a week later. I will not spend a...