The Precinct

Ah what to say. I love steak, I mean really love it. I grew up eating round steak which can barely be called steak. Into adulthood I grew to love steak that was prepared with obvious care. My husband and I love the Precinct. It's quickly becoming our go-to for any old occasion from birthdays to celebrating our tax refund.

I have tried other steak places, not so many around Cincinnati, but in other cities. I tried Shula's steakhouse in Detroit and was woefully disappointed. I made a vow to seriously consider before going to another a la carte restaurant again. The audacity of these high end steak restaurants to charge you for EVERYTHING! It's obscene. When you are going to throw down that much cash for a steak you should at the very, very least get a side for free. Honestly. At Shula's we didn't get anything for free. Potato - extra. Salad - extra and was not the best cesar salad I ever ate.

Sounds like a scathing review of Shula's right? Well it's not. Just steak restaurants in general. Onto The Precinct after I got down from my soapbox.

At The Precinct you are welcomed to a beautiful space with an antique looking bar. If you have the opportunity stop by the bar and see Joe. He's very friendly and a great bartender. I have the French Martini. Don't let it's sweetness fool you! After 2 of those I may have some problem getting to my table.

When your table is ready you will be escorted to either tables in the main room or in the smaller area with mirror walls. I enjoy eating in the main room. The exposed brick walls look very warm and inviting. When you're seated your server will give you a brief introduction to the restaurant and the method of preparation of the steaks. The steaks are seasoned with Jeff Ruby's own recipe seasoning and then seared to a light char. You are offered an option of your side potato either garlic mashed or baked. I prefer the garlic mashed. Mashed is a misnomer these are delicately whipped potatoes. You are also offered a choice of a Greek salad or their house Freddie salad which is a BLT salad. Honestly delicious.



If you have the room I recommend you get the crab cake ($11.95). It is about the size of a hockey puck and comes with a dressed salad and the remoulade sauce on a beautifully decorated plate. It is cooked to perfection. It could be large enough to share, but I never do. Also worthwhile is the Mixed Mushroom Garlic Toast ($8.25). I did share that. You have a huge piece of Challah bread with a mix of balsamic sauteed exotic mushrooms. Suitable for your vegetarian friend's entree! Why would you bring a vegetarian to the Precinct anyways? It's just mean.

There is a great selection of seafood whether you choose the raw bar which is at market prices or their fish selections. A pescetarian friend enjoyed the Salmon ($25.75) very much.

While waiting to order or waiting to receive your food you have baskets of tasty bread to enjoy. Sourdough bread and a wonderful salted rye. You have regular butter and a mushroom compound butter. So good! I was told once that the sourdough is flown in from San Francisco.

Onto steaks! My husband gets the Ruby's Jewel ($41.50) which is a bone in ribeye. I don't recall the weight but it is massive! He likes it medium and when it is served you receive a generous helping of onion straws.


Here's the Shayne Graham - the smaller filet. I have figured out Steak Math. Crab cake + wine = I need a smaller steak. No Crab Cake + no wine = King's Filet!

I get the king's filet ($42.00). This thing is huge. It's easily an inch thick and 6-8 inches long. I enjoy it medium and always eat it with the onion straws. The steaks are seasoned so well and the char adds so much flavor that if you ARE a steak sauce person, you may find yourself leaving it off.

My friend usually gets the Steak Collinsworth ($37.00) which is a filet with crab and asparagus and a bearnaise sauce. She enjoys the decadence of it very much.
She has also tried the Steak A la Roth ($36.75) which is a peppercorn crusted filet with a peppercorn congnac demi sauce. This has become her favorite steak out of all of them.


My friend recently tried the Brian Kelly - ($32.50)Twin Tournedos, Portabello, Bearnaise. She said it was very good, but may still prefer Steak a la Roth.

You also have the option of sharable sides. We always have the macaroni and cheese. It's a cavatappi pasta with 6 cheeses. It smells wonderful and is such a good addition to your plate of mashed potato and onion straws.

Your other option are the Hussey's Table selections which are table-side prepared and meant to be shared. These are other seafood options for your non-meat eater friends. This is also where your Bananas Foster is prepared if you order it. I don't love Bananas Foster so I can't really judge, it tasted good, just not for me.

If you stop in and are planning to come back, have a chat with Ryan Byrne, one of the managers. He will no doubt stop by your table to see how you are. He's a great guy and really understands the concept of cultivating a repeat clientele. We have been there less than 10 times and not with any kind of regularity and he always remembers our names and greets us by name when we arrive.

The valet service is extremely affordable at $3 and they are always friendly.

After all that it seems stupid to say "in short". But in short the Precinct is a neighborhood gem and will quickly become your favorite if you give it a chance.

Miyako

We ate at Miyako on a whim one Friday. I had a job interview earlier that day and we decided to jump the gun and celebrate. Since I eat my work lunch at about 8pm it seemed like a good idea. First impressions: nice exterior, a little confusing on how to get to there from the interstate. There are a couple of turns behind Chipotle, McDonalds and Arby’s to get to Miyako. I didn’t realize until after we left that this was the old Bob Evan’s restaurant. It certainly didn’t remind me of that on the inside. When I looked at the building leaving I could see the resemblance.

We were seated by the restroom since we did not need a grill. This does not always indicate to me that it will be a bad experience. They have to put tables back there right? So after a while and I mean a “while” our waitress came over and took our order. We decided on 5 rolls:

Spicy Salmon
Happy Roll
Tuna Fantastic
Miyako
Spider

We were told immediately that it would be a wait on the sushi. We were surprised when it came about 15 – 20 minutes later. Here they go.

Spicy Salmon – Good flavor. The salmon tasted fresh and it was sufficiently spicy. I am a big spicy salmon fan.

Happy Roll – Their menu won't describe the special rolls so I can't quite recall what is inside this one but I remember it being tasty with good flavor. If I find the more descriptive menu I will repost.

Tuna Fantastic – Same deal. I can remember tuna and avocado. Pretty tasty.

Miyako – Again. Can't remember what's in it but the only one that was below par is the spider (below).

Spider – This was made with frozen crab. I mean OBVIOUSLY frozen crab. It almost shredded in my mouth. It wasn’t moist, it was water logged. I don’t know what is so difficult to grasp about if you cannot serve FRESH seafood in your sushi, then don’t serve sushi!

I would go there again, however I'd prefer to go to Sweet Basil.

Jimmy John's

I had heard good things about Jimmy John's but I could never nail down what they did there. I asked a friend the other day who was having a to-go sandwich from there if it was better than Jersey Mike's. She said it was. I decided to give it a try today.
I went to the new location in Kenwood near Half Price Books. It was a pleasant interior. The staff seemed a bit surly but nonetheless I ordered a #5 The Vito. This is a Italian Sub with genoa salami, provolone, capicola, onion, lettuce, tomato and vinaigrette. I added the free hot peppers. If it were not for the peppers, that sandwich would have been tasteless. It was beyond bland. For something that had capicola and salami I was surprised. Their vinaigrette seemed mostly just like oil than a vinagrette. I think it was good enough for the price I paid for it, but I'd rather eat at Penn Station. Or even Jersey Mike's.

Waffle House

What is there to say about Waffle House? If you haven't been by now, you probably are never going to go. If you have been you probably have your own opinion about it. Let me offer you an opinion on one location. This Waffle House is newer. It was rebuilt in the same location as the old WH that was torn down. It's rare in the sense that it is a Waffle House, and it is clean. Seriously, it's above WH standards for cleanliness. My husband and I after learning that it was actually clean have put it in a regular rotation, or as our late night safety restaurant. We have never had an issue with service or with the food. It's what you would come to expect from Waffle House food except it's picture perfect, hot and always delicious.
I am on a patty melt kick with a side biscuit and gravy. My husband gets the steak melt plain. No issues.

What more do you want from Waffle House? All I ever wanted was a clean one, now I have one. Give it a shot if you're in the neighborhood.

Senate

Where to start? The concept of a hot dog restaurant is very appealing to me. I have long been known to eat at Pigall's just as easily as eat a bunch of hot dogs from Speedway. I have very simple standards at times. Senate is a very simple concept. Good food in a good space.

So the fact that I have been to Senate 3 times in the past 2 weeks should tell you at least the hot dogs are good. I have had one each time and it's been delicious.

Right across the street from Lavomatic, which used to dominate the OTR area as the only restaurant in the area. Now there are 2. When you walk up you have a very convenient parking option, its adjacent to the building and the convenience of a Fifth Third ATM also. On warmer days the entire front of the restaurant opens up with a louvered glass window, allowing patrons to sit on the sidewalk without being too far from the action inside.

My only real complaint is the space between the tables and the bar is very narrow. I mean narrow. There's about enough space to wiggle through sideways. I'm a big girl and I can manage if people oblige and move in a tiny bit. But what can you do? They did an excellent job with the space and put a lot of tables into it for service.

When you first arrive on a busy night you go through the whole hostess thing and give your name and all that. We opted to wait around at the bar and peruse the menu. We were seated a mere 5 minutes later when we were told a 30 minute wait. Which means, they don't rush you away at Senate even though they could.

We decided first on the torrentes wine. Pretty tasty and not bad at $7 a glass. We decided to order everything at once. We had:
poutine - appetizer
homemade ricotta/asparagus toast - appetizer
grilled cheese - entree
croque madame - entree
truffle fries - accompanied entree

I will make allowances for all kinds of restaurant errors so here goes. We received the food in this order:
grilled cheese - entree
homemade ricotta/asparagus toast - appetizer
truffle fries - accompanied entree

then the rest came:
poutine - appetizer
croque madame - entree

My friend was a little bummed about this but the rest of the food came out literally 4 minutes later. I'm fine with it since it didn't take that long.

Poutine: for those that don't know it's typically a Canadian dish where fries are covered with cheese curds and gravy. Senate has elevated it up to a delicious taste of beef short ribs on top of creamy cheese and gravy. My only qualm is that when I was dining alone the first time I was told you should eat it as a meal or it was big enough to share. You are looking at about a cup and a half/2 cups of food on the plate. My friend and I shared it as an appetizer. I would not have eaten it solely as a meal. The beef spare ribs on it were so tender and moist. They really taste like they have just been simmering in this gravy all day. The fries are large and crisp. The cheese curds already have the time to melt down to a creamy almost sauce like consistency. The flavor that you can taste from them is pretty unexpected and wonderful. $10

Homemade ricotta/asparagus toast: 4 points of a thick fresh grilled toast come out with a wonderfully seasoned salad on top with the tomatoes. When you bite down it is tricky to keep the salad on top or into your mouth but we managed. The ricotta taste was pretty great. I could finish one in 2 bites. There was a great balsamic flavor in there also. I love tomatoes and balsamic! Great to share. $9

Grilled Cheese: My friend ordered this concoction. Sounds simple right? Wrong! Take something simple like grilled cheese which I think we can all admit, we have no real high expectations that it will be great in a restaurant, then make it pretty delicious. The pork belly is very unexpectedly comfortable as an addition in the sandwich. You get that heavenly pork flavor with the onions and the avocado creaminess. Senate boasts that they make their own pickles. For good reason. They are great. $11

Croque Madame: What on earth is it? Well Wikipedia says: croque-monsieur is a hot ham and cheese sandwich grilled and served with a fried egg inside. Croque-madame has the egg on top. Like a lady's hat. Adorable! Senate translates this to a dog by putting black forest ham on the dog and a delicious bechemel sauce and then a poached egg. You would think it's messy, it is. But it's so worth it. The egg yolk and the bechemel sauce make their own kind of hollandaise sauce and are just heavenly. $10

Truffle Fries: What makes these special? Truffles! Well truffle oil at least. A great idea made simpler into a $4 side item. You get these golden brown seasoned with rosemary and salt fries served in a pint glass with paper and a wonderful aioli and add truffle oil to them? You had me at truffles. $4

When ordering pay close attention the "dog of the day" past 2 times I've been there have been latin cuisine themed dogs. On St. Patrick's Day it was the "Erin Go Brat" with Guinness Mustard and sauteed bacon and cabbage. (So good) Who knows what it will be when you go!?!

Don't be afraid to order it to-go! I did that on St. Patrick's day for a work lunch and it was fabulous.

So what would I say about Senate? I'd say I never thought I'd find somewhere that I liked more as a whole than Nada, but I may have found it. I hope they keep up what they're doing.

Not sure when I'll be back. . maybe this week...mmmmmm....

Update - 5/22/10

So yea, I go here whenever I can. I love it. I took Christine who was having a rough week. We arrived after the rush and only had to wait about 15 minutes for a table. We were seated by the front of the house and I was impressed that we had such a short wait on a Saturday night.

The order:



Truffle Fries ($4). I highly recommend. The truffle oil that is on these is so aromatic and delish. I think it goes great with the aioli that they serve with it.



Chicago Hot Dog ($9). I am a huge fan of the Chicago hot dog application. Purists will note the obvious deviation from the traditional poppy seed bun. I'm not upset about that. Their brioche buns are great.The sport peppers on this guy are extra spicy too!



Christine had the Trailer Park ($9) and liked it a lot. How can you go wrong with crushed Grippo's on anything? Cole slaw on a dog topped with crushed Grippo's.



She also got the lobster macaroni and cheese ($8). I tried it and it was very cheesy and lobster-y... is that a word? It is now! The size is deceptive. That pan its served in is easily 9 inches wide.



Ann got the PBJ&F which is Peanut Butter and Jelly with Foie Gras! Hello?!? I have made a tiny vow to myself to eat less foie gras because it is so evil. It is the most delicious evil food I have ever eaten. Anyways she really liked this sandwich but not more than the grilled cheese she got last time.



We also had the chocolate and bourbon bread pudding ($7.50). This stuff is really good. It's all dense and chocolately but not overpowering. I like it more than the BP at Bella Luna.

The only issue we had with service was that we split a check and my card was charged twice for each half by this dude Nathan.



BUT don't be mad at him. The problem was quickly resolved and we were on our way. He was really nice the entire time and had our order out to us really quickly.



After we were stuffed we had more to drink! We tried the Kitten Fizz ($9) which is an adorable name and an even tastier drink.

I'm only reviewing Senate again because I actually took pictures this time and I did not order anything the same as last time I went. If you haven't been - go!