Best Seasonal Restaurants in Cincinnati

Our annual Christmas dinner to Rubys was a great success as always. Truly a great night. The ambiance of the restaurant pairs so well with the holidays. Tony was our waiter as he has been for the last decade plus and does such a perfect job. Best waiter in town!!! Lupe his assistant was also great. Started out with oysters and two sushi rolls. All excellent. The oysters were really outstanding. For steaks Tony convinced me to try the Wagyu Ribeye gap. It’s not cheap, but it was one of the best steaks I have EVER had. Such an amazing flavor profile and great crust. Although it could have been a little more done to a true Med Rare. It was a great steak!!! Everyone’s else’s steak was made to perfection as we expect from Rubys. Finished with a slice of buttered pie. An outstanding meal and great Christmas tradition!!!

Always on point at Seasons 52! You cannot go wrong here. The service, food, atmosphere are always top notch. Also, the prices are affordable, but the restaurant feels luxurious. This is my go to place for romantic or evening out with friends. Thank you for a wonderful restaurant.

Ambiance, service and food is praise-worthy. Comfortable banquette seating is available, quieter, and offers grand views of a busy kitchen and lively dining room. Christine and Heather attended to our requests. Both engaging and knowledgeable, their pacing of our 5 course meal was perfection! Kudos to the kitchen, in that regard, as well! An order - or two - of Pommes Soufflées IS A MUST for every table. Truffle season delights. Chicken with truffled risotto was very good, but the gnocchi with shaved black truffle was the winner overall.

My husband and I enjoyed a fabulous pre-Christmas date night at The Aperature. I have been wanting to dine here since they opened but hadn’t yet been able to make it in. Our food was fabulous and our server, Sam, was perfectly friendly and attentive. In fact the entire staff was friendly and welcoming. We enjoyed sharing the small plates. We had the garlic & eggplant hummus, the sweet potato with feta, the kale pesto spaghetti, and the ribeye. Literally every single bite was delicious. We split the toffee pudding for dessert. We felt the food quality was as good or better than another local small plates restaurant we visited this time last year and The Aperature bill was HALF of what it was at the other place.

This was our first visit, and it was wonderful, if a bit dark! We needed our flashlight to read the menu. We were not familiar with Ukranian dishes. The server described each of the dishes and wines; she was spot on. We had the borscht which had the right amount of beef and sweet beets with a hint of sauerkraut which was also in the rye perogies. The bit of apple butter with the perogies was a lovely bit of sweetness. The Kvasolya (beans with feta) was flavorful but some of the beans were a bit undercooked. The tomato sauce on the cabbage rolls was neither sweet or acidic which in my opinion is hard to find in Cincinnati. All the dishes were large enough that we had leftovers. We splurged on the cake, Medovik, a layer cake with very light apple-cardamon cream between the layers.