The National Exemplar

The National Exemplar is a terrific restaurant for dining out.The food is absolutely wonderful.The Hungarian Mushroom Soup is to die for and you will not find it anywhere else.The ambience is cozy and perfect.Service is always top notch.Highly recommended!!!!

We came here for a nice family date night on a Sunday evening because my husband wanted to show me how cool the vibe was lol. It's a really old school place - my husband's kind of vibe lol.Anywho, we had a nice dinner here. Overall I would like to give my experience here a 3.5, but I'll round up. Our server was really nice and attentive. Our food came out in a timely manner too.- Volcano Pork Shank: This was definitely the star of the night. The pork shank was tender and cooked to perfection - this was really a perfect dish! And it was a huge portion!- Mushroom Truffle Garganelli: Your girl right here loves a good mushroom truffle dish.. but this.. was not it. I was honestly disappointed on this dish.. a few things here.. the dish was very watery.. meaning that they did not reduce the liquid from the mushroom enough and it lacked salt and cheese. I took half of this home and added some heavy cream and parmesan.. reduced it down and it tasted SO MUCH BETTER.Overall a nice experience, but I wish my dish was better.

You just have to love the atmosphere. I have been to a number of old pubs in England and this harkens back to those days. The lobby and the restaurant are so darn comforting that I hate to leave. Mariemont, itself, is modeled after an old English village concept by Mary Emery. The Exemplar restaurant sits inside the Mariemont Inn - an old half-timbered and brick building.The food is some of the best in the area. I go often just for their omelettes and variations of eggs Benedict. I eat out almost every day and this warm, inviting, and comfortable place is on the top of my list. The quality is consistent. In addition, the wine list is varied - in a good way. I especially like the Chateau Montelena and the Super Tuscan. I strongly recommend that you give the National Exemplar a try.

Every visit is wonderful and it is one of my most favorite places to visit in the area. The staff is always friendly, it's always clean, and the food is always perfect. I highly recommend all of their breakfasts! And the Hungarian mushroom soup is superb. Great for families, a business lunch/meal, or out with friends. A true Mariemont gem!

Had New Years Eve dinner here and the service food and ambiance was excellent as usual. My prime rib was awesome as was my drink- the exemplar !! Highly recommend for any meal

Honestly, this was the best meal of our trip to Cincinnati. Everything was plated beautifully with lots of fresh ingredients. Our server, Mandi, was friendly and we got our food quickly. They leave the pot of coffee at your table which is automatically bonus points in my book. I started with the Morning Glow juice, which was delicious. I also had the steel cut oats topped with berries and pecans and a blueberry muffin on the side. I would eat that everyday. My brother had the smoked salmon bagel and my mom had the strawberry banana crepe. Both looked amazing. They have both indoor and patio seating. They do close midday but are open early for breakfast and lunch and then reopen again for dinner. If you're staying at the Best Western Mariemont or even just nearby, this place is definitely worth stopping in for a meal!

We had a very enjoyable Father's day dinner. The service was great! Our waitress was very responsive with iced tea/water refills and clearing dishes, bringing the next course, offering dessert, and check. Many good options and a few specials like meat loaf and ribs. I had a great filet with a tasty sauce served with spinich and mashed potatoes. My wife had scallops, and my son had the mushroom pasta. For appertizers, we had the salmon and mussels. All top notch. All came with sourdough bread.

This place is cozy with a fireplace and looks like a lodge. There's also a room you can rent for parties. Staff were all friendly and on point. We had salmon, mashed potato's, Cesar salad, Bisen burger with honey roasted carrots. All amazing . After wards we walked in the lobby of the hotel that's connected which was neat as well.

Getting old sure does change perceptions. And maybe the National Exemplar itself has changed, but I wouldn't really know because I never stepped through its doors until relatively recently.When we first moved to Cincinnati, I was barely 40, and the National Exemplar barely registered on my consciousness, even though it was 10 minutes from where we lived. I figured it was too fuddy-dud suburban and so conventional and bland food-wise that only scaredy-cat old folks dined there.Now that 60 isn't that far away on my horizon, the old-timers bit really isn't an issue anymore. (Holy shit, I'm almost an old-timer, too!) And it turns out the spacious seating and lower-than-normal noise levels are perfect for the wife and me to dine with the mother-in-law and her husband.At this point, I don't really remember what was on the NE's menu 16 or 17 years ago, but I was pleasantly surprised by the menu when we were invited to eat there three or so years ago. Contrary to what I remember from back then, the NE seems pretty solidly anchored in the 21st century at this point.And its kitchen does a consistently nice job at executing most of it: For example, grilled branzino (served with (Israeli?) cous cous and a bit of a Latin-oriented prep (chimichurri, lime, cilantro)) is a better fish dish than all but the most renowned restaurants in the metro serve. And Volcano Pork Shank is a massive and hugely flavorful bit of comfort-food eating, with grits and root veggies. The NE can be depended on to cook salmon to order more than most restaurants in town, and on the one recent occasion when they overcooked it, the manager absolutely insisted on having the kitchen given my wife a new, properly cooked dish.There are occasional misfires: the charcuterie plate, for example, is pretty subpar.And it'd be nice for the restaurant to change up the menu occasionally, even if there are good specials (get the pot roast if its offered) that appear now and then.Another big bonus is the breakfast/brunch/lunch menu, which has a long menu of interesting choices at reasonable prices.The decor, not surprisingly, sort of carries over the baronial Tudor style of the hotel its housed in. It's somewhat goofy, but it's pleasant enough, and as noted above, not too loud. Service is usually by really young folks who are mostly very good and evidently well-trained by management.The Gen Zers and younger millennials probably won't be interested in this place, and that's understandable, but I have found it surprisingly dependable and good after 6 or 8 visits over the last three years. Recommended, and four-stars plus.

We had brunch here and do often! Ate the TriFecta and subbed the waffle for French toast it was delicious. Lovely old world ambiance. Service was very attentive and quick.