The Elusive Cow Cafe

Was not thrilled with this Northern Kentucky watering hole. The dry rub wings were great, the beers on top were plentiful. However, my main course was a signature burger and it was undercooked and served cold. The fries were over salted and took forever to come out, not to mention, they came out separate from the burger. Let’s hope the next time I come here, the service is different.

The atmosphere is good. The vegetarian offerings are varietal. The staff is super friendly.
The food took a very long time to arrive and was just so so. The fries were very salty… It was just OK…

I’ve never heard anything but rave reviews from anyone I’ve brought here. The quality and consistency are obviously a reflection of the owner’s standards. This little corner gem, conveniently tucked away just minutes from Newport on the Levy, has perfected a few vegan dishes that are uniquely prepared to perfection. The vegan falafel pita and vegetable lasagna are the best I’ve had. (Meat, Chicken, Fish, and Vegetarian options that are worth the wait). Be sure to try the portabello fries or sautéed kale. Everything is homemade. Generous selection of craft beer and mixed drinks are served from the bar. If you have room for desert, this café won’t disappoint. I’d give The Elusive Cow six stars if I could.

Came for dinner after a friend recommended based on more than one recommendation she had received. We were both disappointed/​not impressed. She had the cod dinner w onion rings side and I had the lamb burger w kale/​red onion side. I tasted her onion rings which looked really good but were definitely mediocre. My lamb burger was topped with havarti on a toasted kaiser roll. I chose not to top with any add ons except for the red onion/​tomato/​lettuce that came with it. I’m surprised on how blah it all was. Too bad.

Listen, No BS. And I usually get paid for endorsements… But, I will tell you this… Hands down, 5 Star food, Atmosphere and drinks.
Jim and his team are exceptional. Fresh seafood and Pastas from Findley Market and homemade lasagne and soups. Desserts… Local and most delicious thing that you’ve ever tasted. I promise you, you will love the jazz music and the organic and freshness that surrounds you and your Family. THE favorite for me and my Family for over two years now. (And we live 20 mins away) if that tells you anything. Truly, a Cincinnati secret that you must uncover. You won’t be disappointed. Enjoy. Let me know if I’ve called it.

I hate not giving this 5 stars because anywhere that has this many vegetarian and vegan options I automatically want to LOVE… But, … Meh.
GOOD THINGS: neat old building, nice cozy interior, Manager was friendly and accommodating for our 8-​person group, SO MANY vegan & vegetarian options I had a hard time picking! Dishes we liked: falafel, portobello sandwich, kale & apple side dish, cashew cream soup (yum!).
THE BAD: we waited for about 40 min. for our food, the server was average/​not super friendly, but okay. If you have a party of more than about 6 – 8 people you might have trouble trying to sit together, «fresh cut fries» were average, didn’t like the linguini dish, regular burgers were ok, nothing special.
Overall, I’d recommend if you’re trying to find a place for both meat eaters and veggies, lots to choose from, several unique dishes, good drink menu.

This place is AWESOME! Great food and alcohol selection. The food is sourced locally. The menu even tells you which farms the meat came from. The staff was friendly and knowledgeable and the prices were reasonable– especially considering the great quality of the food.

It’s not often that I will say I had the perfect meal, but this is one of the few exceptions.
There is a great craft beer selection that seems to rotate fairly frequently (twice during the couple of hours I was there). 3 Floyds Apocalypse Cow was available tonight, and it did not disappoint.
I tried a bison burger on rye (yes, you can choose from numerous styles of buns!) with bacon and a side of sautéed kale and it was very, very good.
I was also fortunate enough to try the wings that the folks next to me at the bar offered, I believe they said they were of the honey pepper variety, and they were also outstanding, and I am somewhat of a wing snob, so that means something to me.
I typically prefer to try as many different places as I can when traveling, but if I am back in town again, I may have to break that practice.
I believe I paid about $ 30 for this meal, as well as 2 more draft IPA’s, and even as someone who considers themselves to be rather frugal, I found this to be worth every penny.

Major disclaimer: I have several friends who vehemently disagree with my opinion on this restaurant but here goes…
I’m super «meh» on this place. And it’s a bummer because I LOVE the concept of the restaurant. It’s in a really cool old building that’s been renovated beautifully. It’s a great local bar/​restaurant. It serves fresh and healthier food with vegetarian options. It looks awesome from the outside. Need I say more?
I always get myself excited about coming here. I tell myself I’m gonna eat really healthy, I might even eat a vegetarian dish, and all the while I’ll be supporting a local business. And then I get to the restaurant, order something, and I am totally bummed. I just don’t think the food tastes all that spectacular. They have a great selection and everything sounds really good. I just end up not enjoying what I’ve ordered essentially every time I’ve come.
Now I will point out that by some happenstance, I always end up eating here right after a break up or a fight with my mother or something that definitely has put me in the bad mood. Perhaps my taste buds change in situations like that. So I’m not saying don’t try it… clearly a lot of people really like it. I’m just saying that maybe you just wanna order the onion rings. Cuz those rock.

The king of the Bellevue strip!!! No, No. KY!!! This place is great!!! Love the variety on menu, sauces are some of the best in the city. The music is jazzy and relaxing along with the casual décor. Phenom service. A must go spot.
I can wait to come back. It will be a new downtown and Northern Kentucky spot.
Doug Elliott is literally one of the best service people I’ve ever met. I would buy stock in him and the chef/​owner Jim Fisher in a heartbeat. These guys are awesome.

We found this place using the Unilocal app while running around in Cincinnati. Its just across the river so we decided to give it a shot.
It’s in a cool old building. They have done a nice job renovating it. It’s a shame they didn’t have room for a nice patio. That would be a great compliment.
We sat at the bar. The bartender said he is famous for his Bloody Mary’s so I had to try one. It was decent. My wife got a glass of wine.
They have a good selection on the menu including vegetarian options. I got the Bison burger and my wife got the smoked chicken nachos. Again, decent. My burger was an obvious frozen patty and my wife’s nachos were a bit sad. The smoked chicken was really good though. I had hand cut fries with their house made ketchup. I am not a ketchup eater but it was good. The fries could have been cooked a little longer but still tasty.
If we were in the area I would eat here again but it wouldnt be a place I make a special trip for.

«The Elusive Cow» just has a ring to it that makes you want to step inside and explore the mystery. I was pleasantly surprised by what The Elusive Cow holds. Although there is not much seating for busy nights, the older building is a perfect setting for this restaurant. The food was top notch, at pretty reasonable prices! I was happy with the abundance of vegan options, because I for one am not used to the variety while eating out! We had pretty decent service for a Thursday night, but it was a bit crowded so I’ll give them credit! Definitely check it out, I know I’ll be back to explore the elusiveness.

While visiting the Cincinnati area we went with a friend to his local spot, The Elusive Cow, and from the start this place was very charming and welcoming.
The atmosphere and the vibe was mellow and I really felt like I’ve been to this bar a hundred times, the first time there. They had one of my favorite beers, AllDay IPA by Founders brewery so hat off to this establishment! They have a great selection of drinks, there’s a little something for everyone here!
The food was above and beyond fresh from the so good organic ketchup with handcut fries and their burger was Excalibur what I needed after a long day running around town. I would recommend this café for any one visiting this area, I would like to go again and try all the great things there menu had listed, even though the burger was one of the best I’ve had in a while!!!
TL; DR.
Eat here it’s Awesome! Great beer!

Meh. I’ve experienced better is an understatement. Paul and I were looking forward to our dinner at The Elusive Cow Café and walked away incredibly disappointed.
Although the setting and atmosphere were nice, food and service ranged from bad to okay. Food took an eternity to arrive, and once it was there, it was mostly not worth eating. I ordered one of the specials, the vegetable lasagna, along with a cup of mushroom soup. The soup would have been tasty had it not been for the heavy-​handed use of salt, and the lasagna would have been very good had it not been topped with a sauce that looked and tasted like dense tomato paste. Paul originally ordered a special, the bison sirloin, but our server returned to let us know they were out of it. He ended up opting for the shrimp/​crawfish po’ boy with onion rings and broccoli. The po’ boy was po’ in every imaginable way – bland shrimp and crawfish that reminded us of something that came from Sam’s Club served on stale, tasteless bread. The broccoli was also a loser; it seemed to have been steamed and then fried. If the onion ring batter had been seasoned, the rings would have been very good, but alas, they were bland too. Paul asked if they had some kind of sauce to dip them in and our server responded, «I usually dip them in ketchup.» Okay.
You would think we would have learned our lesson at this point and avoided dessert, but we decided to go for it. A bourbon chocolate «tort» and key lime pie that almost certainly came from boxed desserts that were once frozen and thawed. Not good.
Our server seemed like a nice enough young woman, but she had no idea what she was doing. She never refilled our drinks (but the bartender did), she didn’t know anything about the food, and she charged us for the elusive bison sirloin that we did not receive. When we asked for boxes (plural) she asked us if we wanted one box, because clearly everyone wants their vegetable lasagna mixed in with a po’ boy sandwich, onion rings, and broccoli, right? Geez.
There is nothing in this world that makes me feel as grouchy as a bad meal. I simply hate wasting calories and money. Blah!

We found this little gem quite by accident while driving the area. So happy we found the PERFECT spot for dinner. Our server was so incredibly nice and owner, Jim, made us feel very welcome. The décor of this restaurant is cozy and clean which was an added bonus.
The menu is very reasonably priced and the food is AMAZING! We shared probably the very best onion rings I’ve had in my life. No grease, just wonderful flavor with thick organic ketchup on the side. I enjoyed a house salad with smoked pulled chicken and house vinaigrette dressing. My salad ingredients tasted so fresh I’d swear there was a garden out back. My better half enjoyed his caprese flatbread pizza which was also tasty and fresh. All topped off nicely with a local MadTree Sol Drifter brew on tap.
Jim mentioned many ingredients on menu come from nearby Findley Market — go figure, also one of very favorite haunts while visiting Cincy. We will DEFINITELY return to the Elusive Cow!

I wish they had a way on Unilocal to provide two separate rating scales — one as a bar and the other one as a restaurant. As a bar I give ECC five stars mainly because they have a great draft selection for a smallish neighborhood joint. As a functional restaurant it only gets 3 stars. I greatly respect what they’re trying to do with the locally sourced and everything homemade concept, but the dishes are still lacking the wow factor for me.
However, I’ve not completely given up on ECC and neither should you. I still stop in to belly up to the bar for a cold craft brew or two. The staff is always friendly and laid back and it’s just the pace I expect/​want from my local neighborhood watering hole. As of late, the food quality has improved as I think they’re making some adjustments. Just had the breaded Freed Range Chicken sandwich the other night and it was definitely tastier than I remember. Although it could have just been my beer hunger talking. ;-)

The concept is great and the food quality is good but the flavors are lacking. Everything is house made down to the ketchup and most of it is farm fresh and local. A good start but it doesn’t come through in the dishes. We had the gazpacho to start. It was like a recipe for vegetable soup that was not cooked instead of a recipe for soup that was meant to be cold. The ingredients were very fresh but the combination was bland. Salt helped some. We had the wings and onion rings and bison burger to share. The same problem in all of the dishes. Wings were meaty but the sauce was very runny, more of a dressing than a wing sauce. The onion rings were large and made fresh but with no seasoning. Burger was the same. The price was decent and service was good. I can’t say I would recommend it but if you like your food on the plain side then this might be a place for you.

FOOD
Bison Burger w/​Gouda– Delish! I’ve been looking all over the place that served bison burgers and I finally found one. The burger was cooked perfectly (I.e. I asked for it to be medium and it didn’t come out over/​undercooked). The bread was amazing as well. They said they order their bread from a local bakery and their veggies are from Finley market. Brownie points for supporting local businesses!
Hand Cut Fries– The fries were thicker cut and good too but that made some of them a bit less crunchy and some that ended up being soggy. And honestly I don’t think anyone likes soggy fries. I tend to like skinny fries and secretly wished that they were slightly thinner… which I believe would probably have made them crunchier as well.
Onion Rings– These are some of the most delicious onion rings EVER. I’m usually more of a french fries girl but these were SO good. I would definitely order these over their hand cut fries. Not sure how they did the batter but I’ve never tasted anything like this before. It tasted like fried chicken wrapped around the onion rings (which, thank goodness it wasn’t…you know, for the sake of my waistline… I mean, heart. BUT it sounds delicious, doesn’t it?!). Not sure how else to describe it so go try it for yourself.
Beer– I’m not a big beer drinker, but they seem to have a good selection of beers.
ATMOSPHERE/​STAFF
I was there during lunner time on a weekday so, it was pretty low key and relaxing. There is a dining area and sports bar area with flat screens playing the most important sports of the moment. The waiter was extremely nice and knowledgeable about the menu, which I definitely appreciated as a first timer there.
OVERALL
I would definitely be back for their bison burger and of course, their onion rings.

A small, friendly, casual atmosphere offering a unique menu with lots of vegetarian options.
I love the concept of using local and organic meats and ingredients as well as offering vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options.
I ordered a bloody Mary and a burger with fries and was a little disappointed to find that they season their ground beef. It wasn’t terrible, just not what I was expecting — I’d prefer to season my own. Other than that everything was delicious. The fries were excellent and appeared to be fresh cut.
I’ll definitely be back to try some of their other menu options.

I ordered a simple meal of pulled pork sandwich on a kaiser bun, fries and a beer. The sandwich was good and the fries were exceptional. The beer selection looked pretty weak. The atmosphere was really nice and it just felt like a good neighborhood place to grab a beer and a bite to eat. I sat at the bar and the customer service was really exceptional.
I saw someone’s mozzarella, tomato and kale slaw sandwich and it looked really delicious. The photo on here doesn’t do it justice.