Café de Vine

Agree with 3.5. Nothing fancy here but if you want a filling breakfast with goetta — yes try it in lieu of bacon or sausage — it is a very localized treat.
Toast over buttered is my only complaint. Service fit the spot. Feel like you stepped into the times of Mad Men without any fancy woodwork.

Eh this place is just okay. It’s definitely not the best place I’ve eaten but also not the worst. I went to Café de Vine with a group of co-​workers, who had been there before. They all ordered burgers and I ordered a salad. Eh, again the salad was okay, edible and a decent size but it was nothing to write home about. This place reminds me of a downgraded version of Frisch’s or Shoney’s (in the south). If you have a choice between Café de Vine and another downtown eatery, I suggest that you opt for the latter.

There is absolutely nothing spectacular about Café de Vine. In fact, it’s mediocre at best. The closest comparison is Frisch’s. Just basic, greasy diner food. If you love Frisch’s, but all means, stop in. Otherwise, skip it altogether. The sandwiches are something you can make at home for a quarter of the cost and the soups taste like they were warmed up straight from the can.
There are a million other fantastic places downtown that are open for breakfast and lunch. Spend your money wisely and try something with a higher quality.

A great traditional café hidden in downtown Cincinnati. The potato crisp is very good for breakfast. The server was attentive and pleasant.

Was first disappointed that breakfast is not served after 10:30am on a weekday. Still wondering why they call themselves a breakfast & lunch place when it’s really breakfast or lunch. Coffee was great and food was average. What made me give a 2star rating was how one server tried to offer soda instead of more coffee like I’d asked. She clearly didn’t want to have to make more coffee, when she reluctantly did it was so watered down not even a dirty sock could’ve made that last cup taste worse

I’ll frequently give a positive review if the food is good but the service is mediocre because I’m typically a tolerant and empathetic person with a fine appreciation for flavor and texture. However, there are times when good service far outweighs the quality of the food.
Those times are when I’m with my kids.
Shane and his crew at Café de Vine went above and beyond what we expected from café service. We pretty much had the place to ourselves on a late Tuesday morning, and Shane changed the channel from Fox News to Sesame Street. Level 1 Complete. When they split the single pancake we ordered for our two kids into two smaller pancakes on separate plates, they beat level 2. Bonus points were awarded when Shane brought over a couple free cookies for the kids because they finished their food.
It didn’t surprise me when he said he had a 3-​year-​old.
The food was good, fresh, and average sized portions. Nothing to write home about, but we will be back if not just to hang out with these people.

A-​OK describes this place perfectly. I was glad to finally have found it as I had been intrigued by the sign over the past months and never really knew where it was located. So I finally tried it out with a colleague over lunch.
I had a chicken sandwich and some tomato soup. The soup was delicious, a bit creamy but not too much. The sandwich was average, pretty heavy, with a lot of sauce.
What I really didn’t like was the fact that there are no windows — it kind of contradicts going for lunch outside of the office when that’s the case…
All in all I wouldn’t mind going back but wouldn’t jump for joy at the prospect of doing so.

Came here for breakfast today. The place is kind of hidden inside a commercial building. It looks like a diner place you’d see in movies, nothing really special. The lady however was very nice.
I wanted to order their breakfast bowl, but their fryer was broken :(It was kind of disappointing to not being able to order what I wanted, especially since I’ve been looking forward to ordering this bowl the night before!
So I ended up getting a western omelet instead. The omelet was decent — definitely pretty cheesy. I really liked the toast that came with it. Pretty decent portion as well. Also ordered a medium coffee to go with it. As a result, I didn’t finish anything.
Since it’s so close to the place I work at, most likely will go back again for lunch sometime and hopefully their fyer wouldn’t be broken. Overall, the food taste decent, but it’s nothing too outstanding that would make me give it a four star.

This place is somewhere between a 2 and 3… nothing was blatantly bad about my meal, but it was very mediocre. I ordered the blackened chicken sandwich with fries. Bland sandwich that I had to smother with mustard and mayo. While it’s located downtown, it is not in one of the main sections and you have to go inside a building before you see the restaurant in the lobby. Again, it was okay, but I wouldn’t go back.

My wife — who works downtown — has been telling me about this place for years, extolling its simple virtues to me anytime I would listen.
However, with so much to choose from within just a few blocks of the famous Fountain Square we always forget its existence until it’s too late and we have already eaten elsewhere.
That all changed last week when it finally registered on our joint radar and we decided to enjoy a late lunch there together.
It’s a wonder this place exists at all… but I’m glad it does. It is more than tucked away. They should really rename it «Needle in the Haystack». It is on Vine Street between 3^rd and 4^th, located behind some very nondescript ugly doors and opposite an unglamorous car park entrance. There is nothing on the building’s doors (that I could remember) to advertise the Café within, just a simple A-​board out on the sidewalk.
It has the vibe of a good old-​fashioned American diner, reminiscent of a ‘greasy spoon’ without the grease. Very clean and very well presented. I am told it does pretty good business at lunchtime but when we went at 2pm in the afternoon, we spent much of our meal as the only customers in the place. No surprise then that the service was quick and wildly efficient, our drinks refilled and empty plates taken away licketty split. I have it on good authority that the service is always this good… always a big plus in my book!
The menu is surprisingly varied and what we ordered came out hot and pretty tasty. The bill for both of us with drinks came to less than $ 15. There’s not many places that can boast that kind of good value for money these days so I’m going to big this place up to a rare (for me) 4 Unilocal stars. It’s worth hunting down!

Café de Vine is one of those places that you could walk past a million times without knowing that it existed. On the 300 block of Vine Street (duh) right by the PNC building, this cozy restaurant is about close to the river that you’re going to find food, other than the stadium concession stands. Because of this, and because of its small signage outside the building in which you have to walk in to actually get to the eats, Café de Vine is under the radar, which is a shame.
They serve breakfast until 11:00AM, but we got there a little after noon, so we partook in the lunch menu. After seating ourselves in a booth, we perused the menu, which contains a mix of sandwiches (both hot and cold), salads, and entrees. Because it was our first time here, we decided to each get the pick three option for a little under $ 8 apiece.
I chose the potato soup, a caesar salad, and a turkey sandwich. She also chose the potato soup, but accompanied hers with a tuna sandwich and the ‘de Vine Salad’ which is greens topped with cranberries and either feta or goat cheese. I couldn’t tell and I didn’t ask. Everything I ordered was pretty average except the potato soup. It was tremendous and she concurred. Rich, creamy soup with nice sized chunks of potato, topped with cheddar cheese and bacon, it was the perfect soup for this waaaaay too chilly day.
The service was cheerful and attentive, with drinks getting filled as we needed them. The seating is mixed between tables, booths, and diner’ish bar stools. You can see into the kitchen as the food is made. They also have daily specials, all of which you can find on their website.
Obviously this place has been around for awhile and hopefully it stays that way. Overall, it was good stuff and it set us back less than $ 20 for the food and sodas. I would recommend it, but you have to actually find it first to be able to eat there.

If you like wordplay or simply eating breakfast and lunch foods, then Café de Vine downtown may be the place for you to grab your next meal during the week. The «American cuisine» restaurant is located on the 300 block of Vine Street on the ground floor of what appears to be an office building, and it’s a nice little place to grab breakfast or lunch.
Café de Vine opens at 6:30 a.m. and serves breakfast until 11, and then they switch over to the lunch menu for the remainder of the day. The restaurant isn’t all that nice looking, but it’s very clean and cozy, and they offer booth seating, table seating, and countertop seating. The front gives off a diner-​like feel to it, while around the back it is somewhat reminding of a small Italian restaurant (see third photo).
There is a decent sized menu, although I disregarded checking out the breakfast items seeing that I got there after breakfast was no longer being served. For lunch there are salads, burgers, sandwiches, some entrée specials, and a «Fresh from the Deli» category (there is also Pick three option that includes ½ sandwiches, soups, etc.), and most items are between $ 7 and $ 8. I ordered from the latter, getting a Chicken Ranch Wrap that came with fries or soup (I went with Chicken with Wild Rice soup). The food was decent, which is probably the best way to describe the restaurant on the whole, but the service was really good. We had Linda as our server and she was excellent.
As I’ve indicated, Café de Vine isn’t the greatest restaurant, but it’s a nice way to mix up the lunch (or breakfast) routine if you are downtown, plus the service is really great. The service really made the dining experience worthwhile, because the rest of the restaurant is more average then anything. It’s definitely worth checking out Café de Vine at least once though.