Symphony Hotel & Restaurant

Novel place next to Music Hall. The rooms are beautifully decorated and reflect an era of Cincinnati before the turn of the century. The staff was very friendly and accommodating. They are very proud of this place. Just ask questions and let them tell you stories . They have a restaurant and a quaint bar area.. we're in their Biergarten having a brew before the FC Cincy match.

We stayed here back in October, and had a great time. The hotel staff were very kind and welcoming. Our rooms had eye masks and melatonin, which was a sweet touch! The breakfast on weekdays is very simple and there's not much to it, just grab and go. The weekend breakfast was very good, and you could choose from the menu. We also had dinner here one night which was good. It was pretty bare bones and I would say average but the staff were very kind.

Atmosphere and jazz music were terrific. Great drink menu. Sadly, the food was inedible. I ordered the crab cakes. It was served on a plate of cocktail sauce. The cakes were too salty to eat. I got the carrots as a side, but they were served on top of the cocktail sauce so that was the only thing I tasted. Nobody in our group of 4 enjoyed their dinner. I do not like to complain and rarely leave an unfavorable review, but I spent $150 for 3 drinks and 2 inedible entrees and it was very disappointing. My recommendation is go for drinks and eat elsewhere.

My friends and I enjoyed a nice dinner on Saturday evening before a show in OTR at the Symphony restaurant just across from Music Hall on 14th street. When you walk in you feel you're walking into someone's dining room and we were seated in tables along the front of the restaurant facing the street.We asked for a drink menu and we were handed one of the largest drink menus I've seen in Cincinnati just about any drink you can imagine plus a few crafty cocktails. Our group tried a variety of drinks the best cosmopolitan ever, the deconstructed old fashioned, a fall moscow mule with cranberry, vodka and ginger beer.We enjoyed the fried green tomatoes just the right amount of seasoning and greek yogurt sauce paired nicely. We then moved to salads and soups - the fall salad looked great mixed greens, apples, pears and feta cheese. Then to the main dishes the hangar steak was wonderful cooked just right with blue cheese, the cod dishes were enjoyed and so was the deconstructed chicken pot pie. I wanted lasagne, but they were sold out, so went with our waitresses suggestion of Chicken Parmesean, the chicken was huge, but was dry and so was the pasta and there wasn't any tomato sauce.We wrapped up the evening with desserts, not they have huge portions for their desserts - the gourmet cookie is huge, probably the biggest cookie in town, the corn cake was huge pancake with homemade corn ice cream and chocolate brownie with ice cream and chocolate icing.Thank you for wonderful time at the Symphony Hotel & Restaurant

I was so excited to try this place. And disappointed. They were short staffed and let us know this. I completely get it. And tried to be understanding. But while we can understand sub par service as a result of staffing issues, the other issues can't be ignored. The server didn't know the menu. I ordered a Bianca (white glass pour at the top of the menu page). She returned to the table asking me, " You ordered a Bianca? What is that??" Strange. Service went on to be horrible. We were told we'd be moved to the room with jazz. Never happened. But upon leaving, we saw that someone else was indeed moved there (of much lighter skin shades).I ordered the crab cakes. They were so salty, it burned the back of my throat and were inedible. I sent them back. My friend ordered the cod which was better seasoned but terribly LACKING salt. The butternut squash soup was more rustic as opposed to smooth. Which would've been fine if the flavor were more nuanced and the presentation more appealing. But they weren't. So it too was horrible. THE JAZZ WAS AMAZING! The jazz and the overall decor and ambiance of the place are the only saving graces for the evening. I would like to try again when better staffed -- both in number and quality.

I have now had dinner at Symphony, as well as listened to two more jazz performances here.It was great! I ordered off the lounge menu, with a slight bit of customization that I swore not to disclose, but the staff were extremely accommodating to my ridiculous requests.The food was delivered promptly, even with my changes, and the music was amazing.About the only downside - they only have one bar tender, and while he's a very funny guy, he's also very busy when they get more than ~5-10 people in the area, so if a large group comes in it can become a little chaotic.

I have loved going to this restaurant and brought three new people to share the experience with unfortunately the food was horrible. Not sure what changed since I was there last year but if this is the new direction, I'm not going back. The drinks were great but the food was terrible. They had a limited menu last night due to a big party and the table next to us actually left because they called ahead to make sure there were good vegetarian options and due to the limited menu their option was a salad. One of the people at my table wanted the pork but they were out so he went for the prime rib special and said it was absolutely the worst prime rib he's had. I've loved the deconstructed chicken pot pie and was craving it unfortunately I could only eat part since it was over cooked and rubbery and then when we got dessert it tasted like it was out of a freezer. The atmosphere and music is always great so I hope they get their food back to being good again but paying 300 for a table of four when the quality has gone this far down hill was disappointing. And the fact that there were two vegetarians next to us that had to leave because of the limited menu was even more disappointing. A chef should be able to pull something together especially if they called ahead to make sure before making reservations.

We were excited to try this place, and very disappointed. The waitstaff was very inexperienced. Server did not understand the menu, served breadbasket without bread plates, cappucino without a saucer. Minimized time in the room so it was hard to get her/their attention. They seemed to be in an awful hurry. I had the grouper, my wife had the chicken pot pie. Both were overcooked. The patrons on both sides of our table were similarly disappointed as we discussed other options for dining before the symphony. There are too many good restaurants in the area to return here.

We loved our stay here. We stayed in the Copland room and it was perfect from the nice queen bed to the large bathroom. The free electric tram stop is a 1 minute walk. Our first time in Cincinnati and we loved it more than our last road trip stop in Cleveland. The OTR neighborhood was for us very clean and we felt very safe walking at night to area bars. No elevator but they make that known you have to go up a few flights but your in an old historic building. We went on a Tuesday so no restaurant or music review but it looks very quaint

Ambiance checkGreat food checkWonderful service checkNice live music that you don't have scream over.