Symphony Hotel & Restaurant

I had such a wonderful experience here that I just had to write a positive review. From the start to the end, customer service was phenomenal. Food was amazing and the cocktails!
The room was very clean and organized. I absolutely loved the musical theme of the room consisting of classical antiques from the old age.
Would 100% recommend this hotel to any travelers!

Very cool ambiance. Friendly staff. We stopped by before attending the CSO and were so pleased. Had a cocktails and wine as well as the Mediterranean Plate and loved it! The bard-​tender was friendly but not too talkative. We really enjoyed it, they were having live music but we missed out :-(definitely would recommend this spot

My wife and I decided to give this place a try for our anniversary dinner. We thought it would be the perfect match to a night at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra next door at Music Hall. The pairing seemed perfect, the restaurant has a special five course meal designed for symphony patrons that it serves from 5pm — 7pm on concert nights. Here are our thoughts:
First, when you make your reservations for concert night, you have to pre-​order your entrees ahead of time. Not a big deal, just something we weren’t use to. Sometimes you aren’t quite sure of what you are in the mood for until that particular time, so we played it safe and ordered the steak dish and Amish chicken dish. There are four entrees to choose from, wild-​caught fish, vegetarian and the aforementioned two.
The hotel is very quaint and has a great ambiance. The hotel itself is only 9 rooms with much of the downstairs devoted to dining space and bar. The hotel has been restored to its Victorian elegance and has very warm, comfortable dining. Our server was Alison, who was very nice and charming. She did an excellent job.
The special five-​course concert night dinner starts with soup. The menu changes every month and you only have a choice with the entrée and dessert courses. This month’s soup course was Jerusalem Artichoke. It was served at a perfect temperature and we found the soup very flavorful. To be honest, it is not something I would have ordered off of the menu if given the choice, but I am glad I didn’t have a choice. The soup was a good way to start the meal off.
The next course was the salad. Nothing special here. Some mixed greens, a few cucumber slices, though the small, unique sweety-​drop peppers were tasty. Their house-​made champagne vinaigrette was very good. The peppers were memorable, but all-​in-​all it was just a small mixed green salad. Don’t expect a lot of flavor here, especially with only a shot-​glass size portion of dressing.
The third course was, sadly, my favorite of the night. The sorbet was a very fresh, sweet and slighlty sour limoncello. Very delicious and a great palate cleanser. Shouldn’t have been the highlight of the meal, however.
The entrée’s were next, and at this point, we had been pushing over an hour for the first three courses. When they were brought out, we were met with instant disappointment. In a five-​course meal, portion management is key. You want portions that are small enough to allow enjoyment of every course, dessert included, but large enough to satisfy the diner’s appetite, especially given the price of the meal. The portions were more on the smallish size. My wife had the Amish chicken: good flavor, though a bit under-​seasoned. Nothing to make it a memorable dish. The presentation was colorful.
My entrée dish, on the other hand, left a lot to be desired. First, I had ordered the steak cooked to a medium rare temperature. To be clear, I am not a picky eater, so when ordering medium rare, anything between rare and medium is tolerable. This is a very thin cut of steak, so getting the meat to the exact temperature is a bit tricky. However, at a restaurant of this caliber and price, I do have an expectation that you at least come close. As you can see from the picture, the ends of the steak were well done and the center of the steak had a very, very tiny pink stripe in the very center, putting this much closer to medium well than medium rare. Given that we were over a hour into the dinner, and looking to meet friends for the symphony very soon, I opted to not send the steak back (which I rarely if ever do) and just deal. The steak was still moist, but lacked flavor. I believe the temperature situation would have been perfectly fine if the steak had been served as billed: with a compound of blue cheese, roasted garlic and butter. I expected to see at least a small amount of crumbled blue cheese or garlic shaving on this steak– there were none. These flavors were not discernible at all in this dish. I thought, maybe this had been left off of my dish by accident, but as I looked at other patron’s dishes, I noted theirs were all the same as well. The fingerling potatoes were flavorful, but a bit dry and only a very few appeared on the plate. Sadly, this dish left me with no flavor and a stomach wondering what I was going to pick up on the way home from the concert.
I thought the dessert course would be the saving grace. The description of the Vanilla Bean Panna Cotta with Orange Blossom Honey Caramel sounded amazing. Unfortunately, this was not available on this particular night. Maybe you should be allowed to pre-​order your dessert as well. Instead, we were left with the choices of chocolate cheese cake or seasonal berries and cream. We opted for the cheese cake. The «cheese cake», however was more of a mousse and was more salty than chocolaty. Another let down.
Disappointed. We are hoping we just caught this place on a bad night. Maybe we will try again sometime for a better experience.

My wife and I stayed at the Symphony Hotel for our 6^th year anniversary. We stayed in the Shubert room, which was very nice and comfortable. The breakfast was so delicious. Colleen (host/​manager) was fantastic, always making sure that we had everything that we needed. The location was perfect, being close to Washington Park and all of the OTR shops and restaurants. The Cincy bike station is right down the street, and we rented bikes and rode to a Reds game. We will definitely be staying here again.

So, this is truly a hidden gem. My father has been here several times and finally he invited us to brunch. We came here and looked around. It reminds me of a «old cowboy town» with guns hanging on the walls to match. Super cozy, and the waiters are incredibly nice and helpful. I had the egg white veggie omelette with home fries and a side salad. Two of my family members got the french toast which was out of the world good! We ordered mimosas and bloody mary’s, both were good, but could have used some more spice on the bloody mary. We also ordered a side of goetta which tasted great, but was unfortunately served cold. Other than great experience, and can’t wait to come back again!

Visiting my sister from out of town my family came here for Easter brunch and were very pleased. We had a booth and I particularly loved how cozy it was with the cushions. We ordered the strata, salmon omelette, sweet potato pancakes, and French toast– all of us very much enjoyed our meals. French press coffee and loose leaf tea were also both very good. They ran out of bacon for my side but the fresh fruit I got instead was actually fresh and high quality. Only minor downsides were the lack of actual toasting on my Mom’s English muffin (sent it back twice and came out barely warm both times, really not a big deal) and that our waiter seemed a bit flustered and timid. Overall: great food, great environment, ok service.

A very cool hotel bar. I stumbled in one evening with a crew of friends and had a few nice drinks with great jazz by the esteemed George Simon on the guitar. Nice atmosphere and a good time. I recommend stopping by, perhaps after a show at Music Hall.

Called ahead on Wednesday to make reservations for 8pm on Saturday night. Called again on Friday to place our food orders, two five course meals, one chicken and one fish.
When we arrived on Saturday, they had no record of our reservation or orders. Luckily, the place was not busy so we were seated in the lounge without having to wait.
Soup was tasty. Salad was absolutely terrible – absolutely no flavor. Sorbet was ok, nothing special. It was too frozen, if that’s possible for a sorbet.
Entrees and desserts were both delicious.
Live jazz music was enjoyable – not too loud or disruptive, despite the small space. The atmosphere of the restaurant was nice, but our server was the only staff member that seemed appropriately dressed. Other staff members looked downright sloppy.
Overall, would definitely go back, but I’d skip the salad and call to double-​confirm my reservation if it was a weekend night or a larger group.

Went here for brunch with a large group and was (sadly) incredibly underwhelmed. Immediately, it was apparent that our server was not happy to have us there, a theory proven by the fact that our table was routinely left without service. It took 45 minutes after sitting down just to order drinks, and even then they were brought in 2 stages, with the second half of the drink order coming a full 15 minutes after the first. Not really seeing much on the menu that appealed, I made the huge mistake of getting the breakfast buffet which was totally NOT worth the $ 14. Everything was obviously food service grade, the salad (?) was a generic iceberg mix that was nothing like the salad the restaurant was serving and the only salad dressing option was a bowl of ranch dressing left out with an ICE CREAM SCOOP in it. There was a random chicken dish in the breakfast buffet and the desert was in a completely different part of the restaurant, not in the corner the rest of it was shoehorned into. There was no syrup out, and when I flagged down a different server, he brought me syrup in a cup. It was crystal, but since all the creamers came out in containers with spouts, I was confused by the vessel choice. The dishes my dining companions ordered looked good but again, didn’t really blow their socks off and weren’t really creative or seemed small. Coffee refills were hard to come by, and the tables around us regularly had «check ins» with the same server we had, but we had to flag our server down to get any attention. For as uncrowded as the place was, I was really disappointed in the lackluster service, food and overall care. With so many really stellar places in a block radius of this place, I don’t really feel compelled to give it a second chance.

Yes — a best kept secret! This is the place if you want to have an excellent meal, prepared by a talented kitchen team, served by fun and attentive servers, in a warm, classy atmosphere. We went there for a birthday getaway and as jazz music lovers that don’t like loud, crowded bars, this was perfect. This is an old mansion they converted to a hotel and restaurant with a bar. They had live music and it was awesome. There are a couple sitting rooms off to the side, you can you enjoy the jazz music through the entire place but can also have your own private lounge. The food was excellent — you can choose from a 3 or 5 course dinner. No complaints. Highly recommend!

DINNER: Observations /​Thoughts from our dinner on Friday night: (2 couples)
+ Pre-​ordered the 3 course dinners on the phone a few nights prior but at dinner was informed we must purchase the 5 course.
+ Soup — was warm at best.
+ Salad — little or no dressing = no flavor.
+ Sorbet — was advertised as raspberry orange but what showed up was cranberry.
+ Entrée — chicken was tender with the presentation a little better than average.
+ Desert — French chocolate tart was served on a plate that in our opinion the chocolate almond cake was meant for. The almond cake wasn’t served with the advertised raspberry. We have no idea why the chocolate tart was served in a bowl on a plate with raspberry drizzle. Was this meant for the almond cake?
+ No coffee offered or served.
+ Table seating was cramped with one couples back to a wall.
+ The main entrance door needs a closure. The hostess constantly was shutting the door…
+ Server was friendly but the other staff seemed indifferent and stand offish.
+ Bar/​Lounge — cosy.

This is quite possibly the best kept secret in Cincinnati. It is so quaint and private its as if you found a secret European Hideaway. I first had Brunch on a Saturday (which if you live in this town that alone is a treat in itself). I can say its not the best brunch I have ever had but its so fabulous inside this place its forgiven. I went for dinner and I have to say it was amazing. The presentation was as beautiful as the taste. Its very refreshing to find such a nice vegetarian option as well. I can’t say enough about this place other than shhhhhh. Don’t let everyone know or it will make it harder for me to get a table.

I swear that I wrote a review for this place, but maybe it’s my subconscious saying to me this place is so incredible, let’s keep it a secret forever!
Symphony Hotel — I am obsessssssed with you. First up, I want to know how many of you have lived in Cincinnati your entire life and never knew this place existed? I didn’t until I did a search on Unilocal recently for brunch and this little place came up. Unfortunately we didn’t come from brunch but ventured over for what might be even better — LIVE JAZZ on Saturday nights!
We walked in and immediately noticed how incredibly cozy this place was. Unlike anything in OTR, this spot offers a fireplace, a cozy couch, intimate bar, and some of the friendliest people I have ever met. They really made us feel like family. Like we were coming into their home and they were just offering us a bevvy — nbd.
The drinks were SO CHEAP that my boyfriend and I each got a bottle for ourselves, sunk down into the couch, looked at each other and said, «we’re not moving.» This is rare for us. We love to bar hop, but we just couldn’t believe how romantic and cozy this place was. We felt like we were extras in a Woody Allen movie.
They have a limited menu like others have said, they work off a pre-​fixed coursed out menu, but there are some options like a cheese plate and other light bites.
Next Saturday, clear your calendar and come for some live Jazz at one of the most underrated establishments in Cincinnati — I’ll see you there!
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P. S. Venture around the hotel and check out the rooms. They are all historical and beautiful. I usually hate B&B’s but would HIGHLY recommend this one to anyone.
P. S.S. They have a crazy cool patio (who knew??) Open in the summer only. Can’t wait to take advantage of this as well.

This is one of my favorite OTR hidden gems! Nestled beside Music Hall, the Symphony Hotel & Restaurant is a building full of quick and charm! My husband and I had walked past this place several times on our way to Washington Park or a concert at Music Hall, always proclaiming that we needed to try it out. I’m so happy we finally did!
We chose to finally put our words into action for a Sunday brunch. We were so happily surprised — from the service to the food to the atmosphere — everything exceeded our expectations! The food is delicious, the portions are huge, and the prices are far below what is commonly found in the popular neighborhood that is OTR. I hope to return soon to check out their dinner offerings!

What a great hotel… Absolutely charming and in a great spot to enjoy the best of downtown Cincinnati. Don’t miss the cool outdoor roof deck.

Absolutely the place i have ever stayed. Any time my wife and i plan to go 45 minutes to Cincinnati we make a point to extend the trip to spend the night.

Great hotel! rooms were very elegantly decorated and comfortable accommodations. The restaurant had great service and food… I got the sweet potato pancakes, a very inventive dish and gluten free! Beautifully decorated hotel that fits the symphony theme well — perfect for dinner before going to see a concert.

I am so glad that I stumbled upon this hidden gem. Located on 14^th street in OTR, directly across from Music Hall and Washington Park, this place is definitely tucked away but always caught my eye. I’ve driven past this place several times and was always curious about it.
After leaving the Friday night Lumenocity show at Washington Park, we decided to stop by Symphony Hotel & Restaurant. What a happening little place to be! There was a live band with a jazzy-​soul lead singer. They played right in front of the window, which faces the street so passerbys could get a glimpse of just how great they were.
This was the most lively that I had ever seen this place! I simply couldn’t resist stopping by. The bar/​restuarant area are small but inviting. The staff was great and everyone was very welcoming. The drink prices were a tad bit high but that was to be expected in that type of atmosphere. The crowd was mostly mid 30s and up with a few 20-​somethings sprinkled in, me included :-)
All in all this was such a cool little place, very historical and a lot of fun. I would suggest this place on a Friday or Saturday night to get the full experience. This is a great place to take older family or friends that are looking for a night out without too much fuss.

Despite the prime location next to Music Hall and the newly revitalized Washington Square Park, this little stretch of street still looks rather run down. Once inside, it starts to feel more like the stately mansion it once was and after being seated in the dining room with beautiful architectural details (and unfortunate aubergine wall paint), you’re ready for a gourmet meal. Unfortunately however, the exterior foreshadows the experience inside this faded grande dame.
To eat at the Symphony Hotel, you must select your entrée and dessert in advance and it’s a set price of $ 45, not including drinks, tax or tip. Everyone started with the same soups (tomato & green chili bisque – lovely) and salads (fine, generic greens) and then a darling little palate cleanser of mango sorbet before moving on to the main courses.
I had the beef, which was a plentiful portion and cooked to medium well (wasn’t able to pre-​order temperature). It was supposed to have a ‘merlot shallot butter’ served with it, but I didn’t really get any of those flavors. The smashed Yukon potato was small-​ish and overdone to the point of hardness. There was also a side of a few asparagus spears, which were inedible because of extreme bitterness (and I usually really like asparagus).
My dessert was a bread pudding that seemed like it had been sitting under a warming lamp for quite some time – the top was like croutons. I also ordered a glass of Prosecco with the meal, but it was overly sweet and a little flat. The waitress brought me another one without my ordering it, but then made it complementary when I said something (still had to have the bill corrected later though).
I can’t speak to the hotel experience, but I won’t be rushing back as a diner.

I like my hotels like my men (er, man): classy, sophisticated, but with a nice bit of character and quirk.
The below are just a handful of reasons why my husband and I enjoyed our stay:
1. The price was right (~ $ 120/​night), which included a complimentary breakfast (artfully crafted and delicious — especially when accompanied by a mimosa carafe)
2. The location was unbeatable (central and walking distance to everything one would want to experience in the eclectic Over The Rhine neighborhood — do visit the Findlay Market, Japp’s, Collective Espresso, Rhinegeist Brewery, and Taste of Belgium if you can)
3. Welcoming and Efficient Service (the owners and waitstaff were wonderful)
4. Our room was beautiful (we stayed in the «Rachmaninoff», the smallest room yet quite spacious)
5. Free Parking (yes, the «alley» leading to the lot is frighteningly narrow — but we managed to squeeze our volkswagen in/​out unscathed)
So, if you find yourself heading to Cincinnati, do stay here if you have the same taste in hotels and men as I do ;)