Santo Graal

Hidden little gem of a pizza place owned by Holy Grail. Pizza by the slice at the walk up window and lots of tvs to watch the game if you want to head inside. Prices are good and the pizza is real Italian pizza!

First time here, have to say not impressed at all! I got the veggie calzone, had no flavor at all and was cold. The wait was fine and great service.
Allan–

This pizza was the good stuff. A great lunch spot in the heart of the Banks. The Restaraunt has an Italian feel with pictures of old gangsters and celebrities from the early 1900’s. We had the all meat pizza which was phenomenal. They have a three cheese blend which they call pizza crack to dust your pizza slices with… amazing!

Food is just so average and the wait for the food is unbelievably long. Skip this place!

This was the third time I’ve been to Santo Graal for lunch. The first was right after they had opened in late July. A nice spot with a smart menu (especially for the lunch crowd). $ 4 slices and $ 8 Italian inspired sandwiches. All come with a good pasta salad and served on ciabatta bread.
I’ve now tried all but the meatball sandwich. My fave is the smoked chicken salad sandwich, but the Italian is close behind. The salads are also pretty tasty. Had the Santo Graal with grilled chicken. The service is good and it tends to be pretty fast (haven’t run into a big crowd yet). I definitely recommend you check it out.

Dropped in here Friday night after the Bengal’s game. Since there wasn’t a crowd here, we were able to sit and order pizza. I was happily surprised by the taste of the pizza, nice and fresh with great toppings. I hope they do well.

I was a very skeptical when I first heard that the owners of the Holy Grail were going to open an Italian restaurant next door to their riverfront location. I’ve never been a fan of the food from the always crowded sports bar, but recently decided to meet my wife for lunch at Santo Graal recently.
Just like their neighboring spot, Santo Graal has large garage doors that open up to let the fresh air in during nice weather days. There is also a small patio out front, which is where we sat for lunch. The interior finishes are much nicer than their sports bar, though it is still a casual spot for a meal.
The menu is decent sized with a handful of signature pizzas, plenty of pasta options, along with some sandwiches and salads. My wife and I both ordered the same thing, a slice of pizza along with a side salad and drink ($ 8). Pizza by the slice is served either as cheese, pepperoni, or the pizza of the day, which happened to be the vegetarian during our visit.
The side salad is a nice combination of lettuce, sweet peppers, cherry tomatoes, Parmesan Reggiano, and Balsamic Vinaigrette. Their veggie pizza features Portobello, capers, roasted red peppers, tomato, arugula, and roasted garlic. I was pleasantly surprised by the pizza, and while the crust was fairly bland, the fresh toppings and house cheese blend made up for it.

We will not be back. We ordered a large plain cheese pizza and two house salads. The salads were very mediocre but the pizza was the real issue. It tasted straight out of the freezer. The cheese had a smoked taste and the crust was flavorless. The worst part was it was so bad, not only could we not finish it, but our stomachs were upset for 2 days after eating there. The icing on the proverbial cake was when the waitress kept interrupting the meal to bend over next to the table to stare at our water glasses instead of refilling them and when she finally did refill them, said nothing but did reach across both of our faces twice to slam the glasses down. Do NOT waste your money. There is a reason this place isn’t packed before reds games.

The meatballs were cold in the middle that we ordered for an appetizer. Like out of the freezer cold. We were then given burnt meatballs when we brought this to the attention of the staff. They were not removed from the bill. The pizza and atmosphere were really good but the servers in general seemed inattentive and to me for a restaurant on the banks it seemed not busy at all. It seemed like the staff didn’t really have a good system in place to manage the needs of the small amount of customers in the restaurant. I likely won’t return and honestly don’t see it lasting for much longer unless there’s some kind of change. Oh and no beer on tap so we just went next door for that.

WHOA! we stopped in from playing at the park and splash pads all over Cincy. Pizza is usally a cheap way to feed a family of 5 — pizzas here are expensive but soooo good! Menu is hard to understand since they don’t use dollar signs. The price is next to the item… 10″ 10 is 10″ pizza $ 10… then each topping is $ 2 of $ 3 depending on what you get. We had 16″ with sausage and half banana pepper and it was $ 23 (I think) It was good. Sausage reminds me of a brat. We also had a pizza of the day in a 10″ which was $ 18… it had meatball, jalapeño, red peppers. It was good. Meatball reminded me of meat loaf. Cheese strings everywhere! and the crust is good and crispy! lol I would go back.

The food was better than expected, and service was prompt and friendly. The surroundings were upscale casual.
The menu showed pizzas, pasta, sandwiches and salads. We enjoyed two thin-​crust pizza: veggie and meat lovers. The side salads were interesting and tasty.
Better than, but more expensive than, most pizza or Italian joints.

Well… it could be amazing but I believe the management may need to learn a few things. My wife and two friends went there. We were celebrating our anniversaries. We had open table reservations. We got seated immediately. Then the wait begins. We sat for 20 min to make our drink order. It is busy but as our waitress who was great explained there were only two servers. It is Johnny bench bobble head night. They should have known how busy it would be. Then half way through our meal the fire alarm went off for the rest of the time. No apologies no comp. I will not be back. If I could Rate 0 I would.

For customer service alone, they should get 5 stars.
When there was a mixup in the kitchen, and one of our meals was late, both the manager and the waiter stopped over to explain and apologize. They went above and beyond, comping our meal and asking us to please come back. It was the best customer service we’d had in a while!
This place opened just in time for the Reds season and warm weather, with a few outside tables and an open air feeling into the rest of the space.
Portion sizes are perfect for one adult: Enough to be filling, not excessive.
Try the spicy red sauce on your spaghetti. Not «hot» by any stretch, but flavorful. The bread that comes with pasta was light and delicious.
I can’t quite put my finger on why it wouldn’t be 5 stars, other than I wish they had more vegetarian or even vegan options (like a good pasta + vegetables dish)!

Came here during a Reds game rain delay so it was pretty busy. The meatball pizza was good, as well as the cannoli. Not the best service but may be better at a slower time. Only a few beers, more wines, seems to go with the more upscale theme.

Food was very mediocre and bland – the pasta especially. We split the fettuccine Alfredo. I didn’t think you could screw it up, but the pasta had no flavor. Had to put a ton of Parmesan cheese on it just to make it edible. Got the carne pizza as a table as well. The toppings were pretty good and there was a lot of them, but the pizza itself was just ok. The dough tasted like cardboard and the sauce was very strange – it tasted like it was just canned Ragu. It wasn’t cheap either. Dinner for two with not drinks was $ 50. Service wasn’t great either – it seems like they still haven’t figured everything out yet as the restaurant is still new, but hopefully they will figure this out soon. The only saving grace was was the bruschetta. It tasted quite nice. I was excited to have an Italian restaurant open up at the banks, but am sorely disappointed in Santo Graal. I definitely will not be returning.

This place opened up about a week before my visit. I came here about an hour before a reds game and we got sat right away which was shocking. There really weren’t that many people in here especially compared to all the neighboring bars. Everyone was sitting at tables or the bar, it wasn’t like the other bars around there where people pack in and stand around with drinks during busy times such as pre-​reds game. They had a pretty small beer selection with only about 5 on the menu, but they had a favorite of mine, so no hard feelings. They had lots of wines which I guess is supposed to go with the fancier Italian theme they’re going for. They’re definitely not trying to be like the neighboring bars, but more of a restaurant. We ordered a 16″ Margarita pizza with chicken and it was perfect for 3 – 4 people. The pizza tasted good, it didn’t disappoint. We were kind of in and out, we didn’t get the feeling we wanted to hang around for another beer. They also have slices to go at a window outside, I might find myself indulging in that sometime soon.