The Oliver House — Restaurant in Toledo

I cannot even give one star for my review, but Google made me select one star to post! I booked a private room for my wedding reception. I couldn't be more disappointed in the experience. The event coordinator seemed to be annoyed with my questions and desire for coordination of my special day. I had my flowers and cake delivered to the restaurant the day of. I asked before making these arrangements to make sure it was okay and that someone would take care of these items for me. Also, I arranged for horderves, since I was told that our salads would take at least 45 minutes after we arrived and I knew folks would be hungry when we got there after the ceremony. We arrived a little before 6:30pm (our start time) and the room was not set up. My flowers were in a bag on the floor of the room, the cake (which was supposed to be refrigerated) was sitting out on a table, and the staff was not available in the room. Thankfully, my family stepped in and took care of things for me. I had to ask to have the horderves delivered to the room and to have to the staff start taking drink orders. We asked for a booster seat for one of the little ones three times, having to finally go search for one ourselves. One of the friendly staff from the other part of the restaurant was kind enough to find one for us. One hour later our salads were delivered. Keep in mind, this is one of the premier steak houses in the city - no one was asked how they would like their prime rib cooked. The response to our inquiry was - you can get an end piece or a middle piece. When we got our bill it was over $1,800 for 18 people (including 2 little one who had kids meals). My husband asked for a detailed bill. Upon quick review and disagreement with the bill, the staff said they found $200 that they could remove that was added to our bill incorrectly from the people who were in the room prior to us for breakfast. We had people going to our house directly after dinner so we had to leave and hesitatingly paid the bill. Upon reviewing the detail on the way home. I discovered we were charged way over what we should have paid and that there were drinks on our bill that no one ordered -- like 41 mimosas. Hmmm...16 adults drank 41 mimosas for dinner????? The staff should have looked at the bill and discovered that something was incorrect, since they were bringing the drinks to our room. Someone from the restaurant called me back and I only authorized the revised bill amount; I have yet to see the detail. When booking a private room for an event at a nice restaurant, you should be able to expect good food (at $28 a plate) and good service. I am very disappointed with my experience and will not...

“Originally opened as a hotel by William Oliver in 1859, who commissioned famed American architect Isaiah Rogers as designer. Rogers’ work includes the Ohio Statehouse, the Merchants Exchange Building on Wall Street, and the Tremont House hotel in Boston.

At the time of its construction, The Oliver House was attractively positioned in an area of Toledo considered to be the center of downtown, near The Middlegrounds railroad center. It was among the first hotels in the United States to have a fireplace (for heat) in every room and bathrooms with running water on every floor. It was truly ahead of its time and no expense was spared.

As the city of Toledo rose down the street, the hotel was unfortunately too far from the city core to survive – and the opening of The Boody House hotel, a more modern and centrally located building, didn’t help matters. By 1880, Oliver’s hotel had fallen on hard times and into disrepair. In the ensuing years, the building took on several different purposes: a rooming house, a lighting manufacturing facility for wagon wheels and other industrial parts, and it was completely stripped of much of its luxurious hotel infrastructure.

Over the 20th century, the building now known as The Oliver House was used for various purposes – showrooms for a company known as Successful Sales (in the 1960s), rehearsal spaces, small businesses and offices, and novelty toy sales. After that, it was strictly a warehouse.

When the building was acquired in the 1990s, it had electric service and running water but no central heating. With a lot of work, we breathed life back into The Oliver House by cleaning brick, refinishing floors and restored molding to make this beautiful building into what...

We were celebrating a birthday with a party of 10 and showed up at 5pm well before the restaurant was near busy. We were told the wait would be 45 mins which seemed a tad long but we would happily wait. Several other larger parties were seated before us (they do not take reservations or call ahead seating) after 45 mins we asked how much longer and were told to wait another 10. We ended up waiting another 20 before asking again and being told there simply weren't tables available. As we were being told this we watched other larger parties be seated again. After waiting another 10 mins the staff told us we simply would not be getting a table and ushered us downstairs to another restaurant entirely. We did not come to go to another restaurant. We were never apologized to, the staff was rude and didn't seem very interested in helping us out. They seemed much more interested in moving us down stairs. I will not be making a return trip and was very...