25 Cincinnati Restaurants That Are Still Worth Writing About After 25 Years

The local food scene has been a cornerstone of CityBeat coverage since the beginning in 1994, albeit originally in slightly more obtuse ways — like we used to discuss the merits of baguettes versus rye and listed restaurant health code violations (a gross but informative early column). It wasn’t until later in 1995 that dining writer Polly Campbell — yes, The Cincinnati Enquirer’s Campbell did a stint as a CityBeat contributor — started regularly featuring and reviewing local restaurants. In that time, we’ve seen many establishments come and go — some good, some really good and some, honestly, kind of bad — and eaten at/written about most of them. Turns out, we’re pretty hungry and pretty opinionated. For our 25th anniversary, we thought we'd take a look at some of restaurants that have stood the test of time, including these favorite Queen City mainstays.