Elm Inn — Restaurant in Ohio

Overall very good, but let down by small but significant issues.

It's a decent place with decent prices, good bands, a friendly staff and a good-sized menu. But some of the food is mediocre and on the small size, (my deep fried veggies had an OK amount of zucchini and cauliflower, I guess, but only 2 scrawny mushrooms), and my chicken parm sandwich was very small and must have been overcooked... the batter was too hard and crunchy. But my biggest problem was with payment: they only accept cash, and their ATM is flaky. (And they're out in the middle of nowhere, so running to another ATM is not convenient).

I went there not knowing that they do not accept credit. I ordered a beer and then found out about their policy. I didn't have enough on me to cover it, but was told that they have am ATM. After a few attempts at getting money out of my account and being denied, I gave up for fear of the automatic security / fraud prevention feature of my bank card kicking in, as had happened to me at another business about 2 weeks before I visited The Elm. (It took me 20 minutes on the phone with Customer Service to get my card reactivated that time, and I didn't want to go through all that again).

So I go back up to the bar and tell the bartender what happened; he says "Oh yeah, it does that all the time." (???!) Like I mentioned, I had already ordered a beer, which was $4.25. I had $3.50 on me. I offered him the cash, and asked if I could drink the beer that he had already poured, and then drive to Louisville to get money out of my bank. But no, that wasn't acceptable. Fortunately a customer sitting at the bar overheard the conversation and offered to pay for my drink. I accepted a dollar from him to cover the beer. Then I spent 20-some minutes driving to an ATM to get cash and turn around to drive back. The whole thing kinda ruined my mood, and my buddy wasn't crazy about being left alone while I ran to the bank.

So I don't know... I'm torn; if they're aware of the problem with their ATM, they should have it fixed; but if they can't or won't fix it, then they could be a little more cooperative when someone gets caught off guard with little cash on them. And although their menu prices are very low, it's not really a good deal when you get so...

It's a good bar for the atmosphere of a small town or biker bar. The people are friendly and will talk to you when you sit down for a drink. There's a few pool tables($0.75 a game) and often live music. Bartenders are polite. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere, about 10 minutes from any thing else to do. If you're looking for something upscale, it's not for you. This just feels like a relaxed out of the way place you might see in a movie set in the Midwest. Quick service and fun times.

Main negative I had there was that they are cash only. They have an ATM, but it has a terrible network connection and sometimes wont work right away.

Most weeknights are slow unless there's live music. They charge more on those nights to pay the bands. Check their schedule to see...

The Elm Inn is a nice place to go for a decent dinner and a good time. For the most part this bar is set in a country setting and is pretty homely. It's not the most fancy looking place, however it is also not the most run down. I go there for the food and that's why I am giving it three stars. The food is "ok." The fish is delicious, the spaghetti is sub par, but what really is not good at all is the salads. The salads are just iceberg lettuce and some onions and a tomato and maybe a pickled beet. I wasn't expecting a good salad from a bar, but I was expecting something a little bit better for $9.50. overall though good food, fun atmosphere and a really...