Gene's — Restaurant in Washington Township

We celebrated my wife's birthday at Gene's -- our first visit. We'll be back! We were just about to open the door to go in when one of the staff opened the door for us and welcomed us with a cheerful greeting -- a cheerfulness that continued throughout the evening as she was also our waitress.

The menu is brief, the wine list is not. Clearly the chef has determined to do a limited number of chosen things well, and as far as we're concerned, to very good effect. Serving sizes were perfect. We split single orders of oysters and gilda olives, anchovies and peppers. I understand that the menu changes over time so I can't be sure that you'll find the same halibut over risotto that I had, however, the seasonings of the fish and the bed of risotto nero, calamari and mushrooms were delightful. My spouse was very pleased with her pork loin, baked apple. maple glaze and celeriac puree. There's only one desert on the menu, composed of chocolate mousse, chocolate cake and concord grape jelly -- temping enough that neither of us wanted to share just a single serving. In the end, we had no regrets that we had ordered two.

The wine list is two pages long, single-spaced. It is reproduced online at the restaurant's website. Note that there is a separate wine by the glass list. We were there late Sunday afternoon, a relatively quiet time. Tables are not jammed into a loud noisy room. My spouse in particular enjoyed looking at the small decorations on the walls.

In sum, we had a very...

We had high hopes for Gene’s and decided to give it a try for a birthday dinner with friends.

The restaurant itself was very cozy—cute, fun atmosphere, and it was full when we arrived on Tuesday night. Definitely a popular spot in the area! We made a mistake with the reservation and ended up with bar seats, but the host was very kind and accommodated our request to switch to a table due to a no-show.

The service was fine. It was attentive, but with the pricing, we expected slightly warmer interactions. Our server asked about our occasion but didn’t offer or acknowledge anything after learning it was for a birthday—not even a candle on the dessert we ordered, which was a little disappointing.

Lastly, the food. Again, we came in with high hopes since Gene’s was mentioned by several local blogs as a fun new spot. We got the Crudo and Beef Tatski appetizers—they were good, but for the $25 each, you’d get much more at a Japanese restaurant or a CM steakhouse.

For entrées, we ordered the pork chop, steak, mushroom, and black cod. Everyone agreed the dishes were a bit underwhelming and needed more flavor. You get much more if you drive another 15–20 minutes downtown to Basi, Veritas, Speck, Lindey’s, etc. Our bill ended up around $400, but nothing was particularly memorable.

Overall, it’s a little bummed to see that Gene’s isn’t much different from most restaurants in the Dublin area. Guess we’ll stick with Kitchen Social...

What a really fun, lovely, delicious date night experience! This place is legit. Very beautiful plates with creative, well-executed unique offerings. The prawns with avocado, fresno chilis, cilantro and charred lime was my personal favorite dish, I could have ate about ten of those.

Second fav was the fried oysters with mignonette and hot sauce, just super flavorful through every aspect—the oysters, the breading, the cream sauce, the hot spice.

Also very much enjoyed the compressed watermelon with speck and microgreens—unexpected and not something I would normally order, but light and a great combination of flavors, perfectly refreshing between courses.

Grilled NY strip with potato pave and onion caramel and horseradish cream was cooked to medium rare perfection, this is the best strip I’ve had in Columbus.

Would highly recommend if you’re looking for a smaller, atmospheric intimate dining experience with some innovative dishes, fun for those who are adventurous eaters and looking for new dishes executed with experience. Service was on point. You can also visit their large garden out back where they grow all of their herbs, flowers, chives etc. for their dishes, it’s very cool and has a cute little sitting area there.

Also wine. ...