Schoolhouse Restaurant — Restaurant in Symmes Township

I’d like to start by saying the ambiance is great. There’s a sort of nostalgia about it that’s meant to be appreciated. If you’re going here for the food/service however, prepare to be extremely disappointed.

My husband and I ate at the schoolhouse restaurant last night. The restaurant opened at 4pm on Saturday. One of their “specials” on the board was roast Turkey and gravy that had *430 written next to it (assuming that’s the time when it would be available), so I attempted to order it at 4:20pm when our server came around. We ordered an appetizer that would come out first so in my mind this was a non-issue…just time it out. Instead of doing that, or even explaining that to me, she looked at me and simply said “we don’t have that”…so imagine my surprise (disappointment and disgust is a more accurate way to put it) when the two tables next to us that had the younger server had Turkey brought out to them at the same time our food arrived. Ridiculous. Our server (older woman) also rarely came over to our table once food was dropped. My husbands fork was taken during a table clearing and we asked for another one when entrees arrived…no surprise here she forgot so my husband ate his dry pork chops with a spoon. Dining room wasn’t busy at all so can’t really be justified in my opinion.

Your “salads” you receive pre-meal are: iceberg lettuce (the lettuce only) with country French dressing and a bowl of sweet coleslaw. The “free” sides you get with your meal (entrees are ($22-$30+dollars so that price feels VERY baked in) are: canned green beans, canned carrots, and instant mashed potatoes. You also get corn bread and I can’t lie to you that’s actually pretty tasty. HOWEVER my husband and I paid $100+ with tip for the two of us for a frozen cheesestick appetizer, 2 overcooked and under seasoned entrees, 2 canned beers and a sweet tea. Our server was off her rocker and continuously made weird comments to us throughout our visit trying to be funny but it just came off as very strange. We will never be back. For the same price you can go to the eagle in OTR and actually have edible fried chicken, sides, and 10x better service.

TLDR: don’t waste your money. This place is heavily overhyped and overpriced for the quality of food received. Service is also terrible. No photos to post as nothing was worth...

I’m not sure where exactly to begin on this review of our recent dining experience at the Schoolhouse. We are visiting family from out of town and my dad found out my wife really likes fried chicken. So he said we had to go to the Schoolhouse….it is known for its fried chicken. We made a reservation for 5 pm and excitingly headed out to our dinner. When we arrived there was only one other table busy, but I noticed a kind of old musty smell as we walked in that reminded me of old vacant buildings that I’ve worked in that had lots of mice. This kind of turned me off a little, but the waitress was friendly and quickly explained the family style dining and took our drink order. The customers kept streaming in, but it never got completely full and after a short while our waitress took our food order. In the meantime we had a salad to share that wasn’t much more than some iceberg lettuce and some basic French dressing, coleslaw was also provided that was decent. Our appetizer of fried pickles arrived and these were pretty good, nothing overly unique. After nearly an hour we got our food order and hungrily dug in. Immediately I noticed the fried chicken was very bland and nearly overdone, it had such little taste I was unsure if it was just the piece I had or all of it. Nope, the 2nd piece I had was not any better. I then checked in with my wife and she agreed, it was like there were no spice whatsoever in the batter. Maybe we are just not skookum on good fried chicken, but for the $48 we spent on two orders we expected something better. Our son got the $17 burger which we had great expectations for that as well, but as he put it “it was just like a McDonald’s burger”! My dad ordered the chicken livers which were way over done, he said at least half a dozen times…they’re a little overcooked. The atmosphere in the schoolhouse was pretty neat and we got plenty of food, but shoot for the over $200 we spent for a group of 5 we expected a much better experience. We never plan on being back and honestly I could never recommend the Schoolhouse as a good place to fried chicken or chicken livers or...

Different experience for the area, but that's about it. Seems like a place more summertime and kids oriented with the outside activities and called schoolhouse. Took about 1.5 hours for our group of 8, without desert. They said service would be a bit slower due to # there at the time and other reason or two, but in all honesty it was average. Anyone should be able to easily make 1-2 hours at a dinner out with their company. We had a reservation, though while there don't think I saw anyone wait for more than 15-20 minutes for a table. Now for the not so good aspects. When you walk in for a usually night out time, it's busy and crowded. Think they could use 2-3 less tables. Was at a similar place in Georgia and the tables were a lot bigger and you couldn't hit the closest table even with a yardstick. On more than one occasion myself or one of our group was stuck for 15-30+ seconds trying to get around to get back to our table. Food prices higher than website menu. Don't care that they didn't have the liver & onions i was really looking forward too, but the standards(fried chk, meatloaf, ham, etc) seemed 2-3 dollars higher. And the prices were a bit much, expect to spend about 30 per person and a lot of breading on anything fried. My favorite part of the meal was the mashed potatoes, someone else said the corn, someone else said the cornbread(which we all agreed was more like a light, sweet cake than traditional cornbread). At least the chicken for the cordon bleu was juicy, most meals were, some said their country fried steak was dry. I think the food prices should be about 20% less for what it is. Was told both men's stalls were a disgusting mess. Been wanting to try this place for about a year or so. Good for the experience but I wouldn't go back for multiple reasons. If I lived in Milford, prices went down to what they showed online or lower, and only had a group of 4-6, maybe I...