Welch’s Riverside Restaurant

Food was ok. Waited WAY TOO LONG after ordering to get our food. Nice place if you’re not in a hurry. If you’re not ordering the special be prepared to wait.

We stopped in here on a Saturday. It was somewhat busy, there were plenty of empty tables though. We were told to seat ourselves, most of the empty tables hadn’t been bussed yet.
We waited awhile after we found a (dirty.) booth our drink order taken.
We both got cheeseburgers and shared an order of brew fries. It took over an hour for us to get our order, and our drinks sat empty. We had to ask for refills. The woman grabbed my cup from the top and my straw touched the palm of her hand. Gross. When our food finally came out it wasn’t cold, but it wasn’t hot either.
The place seemed dirty, the staff seemed flustered and the food was cheap but blah. We were there for almost two hours. It was just bad overall and I hope I don’t get sick from eating there.
I’m giving it 2 stars instead of 1 because from reading the other reviews I’m guessing that our experience what somewhat out of the ordinary. I hope they were just having a bad day.

This was a wonderful lunch find of authentic country cooking when we were traveling through the area. The dining room has a beautiful view of the Ohio river. The lunch special was only $ 6.25 for an entrée (catfish or salmon on this day), 2 sides and a choice of bread. The food was served promptly. The salmon turned out to be salmon cakes, which was a bit of a surprise, but a pleasant one as they were absolutely delicious. The mac and cheese was yummy, and the green beans were delectable (likely owing to a good amount of butter and pork fat.) We chose the cornbread, which was «johnny cake» style, and quite nearly as good as my grandmother’s. Nothing was too salty, too greasy, or overcooked. This restaurant doesn’t allow smoking, which is significant because other restaurants in this town do allow it. No alcoholic drinks either. I would absolutely visit again the next time I’m in town. Delicious food for a great price.

Was in town for the weekend, staying at the state park. Wandered in to town for a bite to eat. It was mid-​day and there were a few lunch regulars still hanging out just chatting.
This place had great views of the river. And we were able to sit anywhere (since it was like 230p). The burgers and pie were outstanding! Nothing beats a homemade burger! The staff was friendly and helpful.

This review is based on only one lunch meal here. Also, I give stars to restaurants etc based on their comparative level among others of their type and class. I’ll ding health issues hard but things like service, food value, menu options and the like are relative to the expectations for similar establishments. So an Economy Inn isn’t held to the standard of the Fairmount Hotel nor is a homestyle diner held to the standard of the English Grill.
I visited here for a weekday lunch with several coworkers.
Location: GREAT view. Riverfront and lots of windows. Right downtown and easy enough to access from interstate or Highway 42.
Service: Friendly but slow. It was only moderately busy that day but it still took a noticeable amount of time between each step of the dining process.
Food: Most of us had the plate lunch special. Meat and 2 plus a bread. Good but not top of its game for diner food. It also took a surprisingly long time to get a plate of the food considering most of it was waiting on steam tables. Coworker said the fries were ho-​hum, like frozen crinkle style, but that his burger was tasty. Green beans and mashed potatoes were quite good, meatloaf was okay.
Breakfast served all day.
Cleanliness: Generally good. Bathroom was clean but old. Plastic cups had lots of chips out of the rim which isn’t great for cleaning them well and it really weird to feel unless you drink from a straw.
I think the main reason for 3 vs 4 stars (for diner/​country cooking remember…) is service. Friendly is great but on a weekday lunch, it shouldn’t take 25 minutes to get a plate lunch. I think the majority of the diners were families or retired people but we did have a set time to be back at work so I may be judging it on a different basis than a more relaxed tourist or local might.
Overall, I’d happily return if I was in the area but I wouldn’t do it in a time crunch and I’d probably try a few other places first just to get a better idea of options for the area.