Tony's of Cincinnati — Restaurant in Symmes Township

Disclaimer: Unlike my other reviews, which are as objective as possible, the following is, without hyperbole or malicious intent, very subjective.

Saturday September, 17th; 7:50 PM - 9:15 PM, table 44.

I fully and completely believe in the sincerity expressed by Mr. Chan. His embarrassment, I believe, was matched only by my own. I picked Tony's to celebrate my wife's birthday. I picked attractions and things to do surrounding Tony's. I booked our hotel close to Tony's. I purchased a cake from a less than ideal confectioner close to Tony's. We spent 4 hours driving for Tony's (2 hours there, 2 hours back). And after an hour of arrival, our menus were still on the table because our mains order was still not taken. Now if there's one thing I want to make crystal clear it's this; For close to a decade my wife and I have been looking for "the" fine dining experience. It is understood that fine dining is not suppose to be the 40 minute table turn, sit down, order, stuff your face, and leave protocol associated with the plethora of chain restaurant available. So allow me to reiterated...1 hour: bread, 3 drinks, 3 appetizers (2 of them from the raw bar, still makes me laugh), and menus on the table. The pacing at Tony's was...well, let's just say that my wife enjoyed her drink slowly, very slowly, as she saw me sit for 20 minutes without a drink and was fearful of how long it might take her to get another one. For the record, I did eventually have the chance to request another one. Could I have simply stopped someone not assigned to our service and asked them for help? Absolutely...but at this price point I refused, and that's kind of the point isn't it? So let's wrap this up...my wife will have other birthdays, this wasn't some "end of the world" horrible experience. Actually, quite the contrary. With complete sincerity I want to thank the staff at Tony's. It is with this "effort" that my wife and I have decided to conclude our quest for unique and exciting dining experiences. Warning, incoming huge faux pas...my wife and I received better service from a server who was triple sat, making $4/hr + tips, at our local Applebees© the night prior. Tony's proved to us that the abstraction of "fine dining" has devolved into nothing more than social currency. See and be seen. Take pictures, document the visit, show others you've been. So why did I tip $60 on a comped $40 bill (I didn't even look, but I assume we were only charged for the alcohol), well, complete embarrassment aside and not even wanting to wait for the change, I knew in that moment it would be my last "fine dining" attempt. My wife and I wanted nothing more than to leave immediately in an attempt to find somewhere else to dine. It's funny though...when I found out that we would have 2 servers for the evening, I thought I discovered the secret of Tony's standards was in the redundancy. It's perfect, simple and makes sense. Funnily enough, we only ever saw our server twice (introduction and check back) and our assistant twice (drink order and delivery). 4 times in an hour, average of once every 15 minutes....and never had our actual order taken. Service is....service, and I have never labored under the delusion that it's level should be commensurate with the price of the fare. This is the very essence of price and value, is it not? Within 10 minutes of arrival, given the nature of the "sports bar" within sight and ear shot, combined with the decibel levels in the dining room due to the "no table estate lost" policy, it was obvious Tony's wasn't just dangerously flirting with the notion of "fine dining", Tony's is oblivious. Fine dining with neon lights and big screen TVs? Service, atmosphere, and food...the 3 components of any dining experience. The ambition of fine dining is to elevate all 3. Having experienced the first 2, we're actually fine with missing out on the 3rd. Should I desire fine dining the the future I suppose I'll just throw $100 bill on the floor before I get too much wing sauce on my fingers and...

One of the best dining experiences I've had. It started with our excellent server, Matt. He has been our server multiple times over the years. I only hope we can continue to be lucky to have him for years to come. The bread was good, and so was the Bourbon butter. The Alaskan King crab was excellent. The dijonnaise sauce was a wonderful complement to what was already good crab by itself. The cocktail sauce was also good, but I only know that because I forced myself to taste it. Normally I wouldn't put that on crab. For an appetizer I had the crab cake. It was one cake, but it was HUGE. Our server said it was 80% lump crab and some good quality bread. So not much "cake" - just enough to hold it together. My wife and I shared it, and it was more than enough. I ended up having some with the dijonnaise that was left over, and that was a really good call. I had the Caesar salad, which comes with shaved parmesan cheese and a large parmesan cheese crisp. No question in my mind that is the way to go rather than croutons, which their salad doesn't have. I also had some fresh cracked black pepper which added to the flavor nicely. The salad dressing was just the right amount. For my entree it was The Dallas Clark, which is a 14oz Prime Cut New York Strip. It was a perfect medium-rare, as ordered. The seasoning was excellent. The steak was the most tender Strip I've had. I added a side of the Horsey Cream, at Matt's recommendation, and it was phenomenal. I would not hesitate to get that again. The Yukon Gold mashed potatoes were very creamy and tasty. They held their own with lots of other stars in this show. For dessert we shared both the Opera Cream cake from Bonbonnerie with raspberry sauce and their cheesecake with a torched sugar top and blueberry sauce. We wanted the carrot cake but they had just run out. Both were incredible options, though. The atmosphere was casual, lighting was not too bright, and it wasn't loud. The lack of pictures should say something in itself. We were enjoying the experience without our phones. If you are looking for one of the best dining experiences anywhere (not just in Cincinnati), I recommend you go to Tony's!

Update 1/28/2023: I made the difficult decision to NOT get steak this time, based on hearing a lot about their shrimp and grits. Not exaggerating when I say it's THE BEST shrimp and grits I've ever had! I was surprised when the dish showed up with a brick looking thing and shrimp with red eye gravy on the side. The brick was the grits - which appeared to be deep fried and seasoned. I can't express how good this was. If I wouldn't have devoured it I'd have a pic. You seriously just need to try it!

Update 9-28-2024: Still top notch food and service. Started with some huge shrimp from the raw bar. Two per person was plenty. It's a given that I'll get the crab cake. It's one of the best I've ever had. Tried some of the Alaskan King Crab bisque, which was tasty. My wife and I both got the filet Oscar with mashed potatoes. The potatoes were somewhat firm and buttery. The filet was extremely tender, seasoned perfectly, and the sauces were incredible. My wife got the carrot cake for dessert and I got the creme brulee. Birth were excellent. I decided against getting an order of the shrimp and grits to go, because it is a fantastic...

I want to start by saying our server last night was above and beyond excellent! (I think her name was Jen. She was a petite lady so if I got her name wrong I am sorry.) So it was my birthday and my wife put in a reservation for 7:30 and told them it was for a birthday celebration. She also ordered a bottle of wine for me when she put in the reservation. We got to the restaurant at 7:20. We were told our table was not ready but they would have it ready soon. We stood there and waited. We ended up waiting till 8:00 and in the time we were waiting 6 different 2 tops came in and got sat before us. To be honest we almost left. We got sat and there was nothing special at all for my birthday. No wine was at the table or even mentioned. Our server got us drinks and took care of us which I am assuming she was not told about the birthday because my wife had to tell her. We wanted some sort of surf and turf and our server told us about the chef special for the night which ended up being a fillet and scallops over barley. We got blue point oysters and crab cakes for starters Which both were on point and great. We then had the chefs soup which was a crab chowder which again great! We then had the Greek salads which were again great. We wanted a bottle of wine with dinner so my wife told our server we wee suppose to have a bottle of house wine at the table. She had the manager come over who was very knowledgeable about the wines and we ended up upgrading to a better bottle of wine from his suggestion. He was right the wine was top notch. We then got our dinner. The steaks were cooked perfect as well as the scallops. The barley underneath the scallops was cold and had a funny flavor. Our server got us some mash potatoes right away to replace the barley. We finished eating and they told us about dessert which we did not want dessert at this point. We did not have a manger come over and even say anything for the cold food. This was my first time coming to your place and I am very under whelmed for the $400.00 I spent there. There was no apologies or compensation for anything. I did get a tiny $6.00 birthday moose brought out to me and given free right at the end. I would think somewhere that my tab is $400.00 for two people would be...