This is a modern looking restaurant with open tables but you can't get a reservation for weeks? Our server was very nice and attentive. The food was good but not great and small portions. The best thing we had was the pita and eggplant dip.
Sean
Came here due to recommendation from BJ Lieberman (chef operator in Columbus). Very focused menu, high quality presentation, great flavors and food quality. Service was a little relaxed from what I was expecting but still very good. Ambience was nice but loud to the pint of difficult conversing at a larger table. Feels like a young and very promising restaurant. I will likely be back in the future.
Carl
Wow. Great food and decor. We loved the shareable concept. Drinks were perfect. Very interesting wine selection. Jeremy our server was great. Now we know it was on NY Times favorite restaurant list.
Keri
Charred carrots, Cod Tempura and Lamb shoulder were all delicious! Smoked ice cream was not for me, but others may enjoy the uniqueness of the flavor. It's a bit noisy, making conversation difficult. But the food was amazing and we will be back!!
Pamela
The restaurant is nicely decorated with a minimalist feel. The food is mediocre and overpriced. The noise level is deafening. I travel and have literally dined in every major city in the US and in Europe. This is one of the 50 best restaurants in the US? I think not.
David
We anticipated small plates, but not so small. We ordered 5 plates for 3 people, shared a desert, and left hungry. The food was pretty good, but not nearly the caliber that we expected. For the food that's offered, it's VERY expensive. We tried it because of a very positive review we saw in the Sunday New York Times.
Mark
Rather expensive but very good overall. The chardonnay and Zinfandel wine offerings were delicious as was the moose/pita, smoked carrots and sticky pudding. The only issue we had was with the brisket pastrami which we felt was way too salty so we cannot recommend nor would we order again.
Adrianna
We were excited to try this new restaurant! We walked in and there was a little bit of a smell that was not particularly pleasant? Not sure if we just got used to it by the time we were sat and eating. We had a reservation and were sat in a timely manner. The service was good, the staff were attentive. The food was very good, appreciated the specials and the drink menu looked interesting! (I personally did not have any cocktails but my husband enjoyed his!) I do feel like there was a bit of delay between each round of plates and would have appreciated a shorter wait time. If you are looking for a warm and cozy place, this did not provide that experience for us — big white tiles on the floor, white walls, high ceiling with a lot of hanging lights, (a bit stark?). It was quite noisy in there- I did not notice any sound absorbing pieces. It was also very chilly! Honestly seemed a bit like we were eating in a big cafeteria with nice lighting. Overall, the ambiance was not what I had expected; the food was done well so would consider returning for that (and can only hope that it would be less noisy!).
James
This is a welcome addition to a neighborhood needing development. It suffers from media overhype but is nonetheless worth a visit. Foodies will love it and pay the high prices but we were slightly underwhelmed.
Neil
Some of the best food we've eaten in the last year. Charred Carrots, Mafaldine (pasta), Creekstone Bone-in Ribeye, and two scoops of ice cream. All of it was spectacular. Our waiter was late to serve the ribeye (we waited awhile in between courses) which sat in the kitchen too long and was lukewarm when it came out. Nonetheless, it was amazing. It was generally difficult to catch the attention of our server and, when we did, it was hard to "connect" with him. He walked past us several times with no eye contact, especially as we were waiting on our ribeye. This experience (and restaurant) has the components to be an A+ but they just missed on a few things, perhaps the biggest of which was it felt like we were eating in an igloo... it was FREEZING in the restaurant and, despite multiple requests to our server to do something about it, we gave up. "Everybody's saying that," and he walked off with a shrug. Looking around the dining room, everyone had their hands tucked under their legs or their arms crossed to try to stay warm. It was bad. Overall, it was a B+ dining experience mainly because of the food. This is the part that most places don't get right; in the case of The Aperture, they have the food REALLY right but would do well to improve on the service and listening to their customers.
Celebrating my anniversary. Staff went the extra mile to make the event great. Food was excellent we had the hummus, grits and scallops, charred carrots that ended up being a favorite spaghetti and chocolate pie for dessert. Parking was also easy .
John
Fabulous food and very interesting, if limited menu. We were two older couples celebrating 2 birthdays, we were seated between the bar and host station, a horrible, very load and exposed table. We asked to be switched, but no real attempt to accommodate us. To cap off our dinner, the dessert menu came out, one of our guests asked if there was a dessert for birthday deal, and Jeremy gave us no answer. So we ordered two desserts reluctantly as we were all pretty satisfied and full. Not only did we get charged full price for the desserts, they added two "discounted"(?) scoops of ice cream that we did not ask for and then charged $8. Very weird. No coffee, no valet parking for a joint that is in a dicey spot in Walnut Hills.
Jennifer
Our first time dining here and we were very pleasantly surprised-delicious dips with homemade pita bread, melon feta salad and tartare were light and refreshing. Will definitely be back soon!!
Second time for us. First time was just a few weeks after opening. Everything was delicious then and it's gotten even better. Mediterranean focused but with Asian and New Orleans influences to keep it interesting. It's impossible to pick a favorite from what we had. We had: *chicken liver mousse - great mix of savory, sweet, tart, herbal *fried mushrooms - could easily be mistaken for chicken wings *hamachi collar - don't see this on enough menus *short rib pastrami - never had anything like it
Natalie
We ordered the grits with scallops, hamachi shoulder, and pastrami all to share. Each was served individually and they were all so delicious! Make sure you allow plenty of time - this isn't a place to go before something else. There is a long wait between courses as everything is prepared fresh just for you. Our cocktails were very good. The staff gave us a complimentary dessert since the wait was so long and it was delicious and unusual - chocolate tahini cream pie. We will go back.
This is a modern looking restaurant with open tables but you can't get a reservation for weeks? Our server was very nice and attentive. The food was good but not great and small portions. The best thing we had was the pita and eggplant dip.
Came here due to recommendation from BJ Lieberman (chef operator in Columbus). Very focused menu, high quality presentation, great flavors and food quality. Service was a little relaxed from what I was expecting but still very good. Ambience was nice but loud to the pint of difficult conversing at a larger table. Feels like a young and very promising restaurant. I will likely be back in the future.
Wow. Great food and decor. We loved the shareable concept. Drinks were perfect. Very interesting wine selection. Jeremy our server was great. Now we know it was on NY Times favorite restaurant list.
Charred carrots, Cod Tempura and Lamb shoulder were all delicious! Smoked ice cream was not for me, but others may enjoy the uniqueness of the flavor. It's a bit noisy, making conversation difficult. But the food was amazing and we will be back!!
The restaurant is nicely decorated with a minimalist feel. The food is mediocre and overpriced. The noise level is deafening. I travel and have literally dined in every major city in the US and in Europe. This is one of the 50 best restaurants in the US? I think not.
We anticipated small plates, but not so small. We ordered 5 plates for 3 people, shared a desert, and left hungry. The food was pretty good, but not nearly the caliber that we expected. For the food that's offered, it's VERY expensive. We tried it because of a very positive review we saw in the Sunday New York Times.
Rather expensive but very good overall. The chardonnay and Zinfandel wine offerings were delicious as was the moose/pita, smoked carrots and sticky pudding. The only issue we had was with the brisket pastrami which we felt was way too salty so we cannot recommend nor would we order again.
We were excited to try this new restaurant! We walked in and there was a little bit of a smell that was not particularly pleasant? Not sure if we just got used to it by the time we were sat and eating. We had a reservation and were sat in a timely manner. The service was good, the staff were attentive. The food was very good, appreciated the specials and the drink menu looked interesting! (I personally did not have any cocktails but my husband enjoyed his!) I do feel like there was a bit of delay between each round of plates and would have appreciated a shorter wait time. If you are looking for a warm and cozy place, this did not provide that experience for us — big white tiles on the floor, white walls, high ceiling with a lot of hanging lights, (a bit stark?). It was quite noisy in there- I did not notice any sound absorbing pieces. It was also very chilly! Honestly seemed a bit like we were eating in a big cafeteria with nice lighting. Overall, the ambiance was not what I had expected; the food was done well so would consider returning for that (and can only hope that it would be less noisy!).
This is a welcome addition to a neighborhood needing development. It suffers from media overhype but is nonetheless worth a visit. Foodies will love it and pay the high prices but we were slightly underwhelmed.
Some of the best food we've eaten in the last year. Charred Carrots, Mafaldine (pasta), Creekstone Bone-in Ribeye, and two scoops of ice cream. All of it was spectacular. Our waiter was late to serve the ribeye (we waited awhile in between courses) which sat in the kitchen too long and was lukewarm when it came out. Nonetheless, it was amazing. It was generally difficult to catch the attention of our server and, when we did, it was hard to "connect" with him. He walked past us several times with no eye contact, especially as we were waiting on our ribeye. This experience (and restaurant) has the components to be an A+ but they just missed on a few things, perhaps the biggest of which was it felt like we were eating in an igloo... it was FREEZING in the restaurant and, despite multiple requests to our server to do something about it, we gave up. "Everybody's saying that," and he walked off with a shrug. Looking around the dining room, everyone had their hands tucked under their legs or their arms crossed to try to stay warm. It was bad. Overall, it was a B+ dining experience mainly because of the food. This is the part that most places don't get right; in the case of The Aperture, they have the food REALLY right but would do well to improve on the service and listening to their customers.
Restaurantji Recommends
Celebrating my anniversary. Staff went the extra mile to make the event great. Food was excellent we had the hummus, grits and scallops, charred carrots that ended up being a favorite spaghetti and chocolate pie for dessert. Parking was also easy .
Fabulous food and very interesting, if limited menu. We were two older couples celebrating 2 birthdays, we were seated between the bar and host station, a horrible, very load and exposed table. We asked to be switched, but no real attempt to accommodate us. To cap off our dinner, the dessert menu came out, one of our guests asked if there was a dessert for birthday deal, and Jeremy gave us no answer. So we ordered two desserts reluctantly as we were all pretty satisfied and full. Not only did we get charged full price for the desserts, they added two "discounted"(?) scoops of ice cream that we did not ask for and then charged $8. Very weird. No coffee, no valet parking for a joint that is in a dicey spot in Walnut Hills.
Our first time dining here and we were very pleasantly surprised-delicious dips with homemade pita bread, melon feta salad and tartare were light and refreshing. Will definitely be back soon!!
Second time for us. First time was just a few weeks after opening. Everything was delicious then and it's gotten even better. Mediterranean focused but with Asian and New Orleans influences to keep it interesting. It's impossible to pick a favorite from what we had. We had: *chicken liver mousse - great mix of savory, sweet, tart, herbal *fried mushrooms - could easily be mistaken for chicken wings *hamachi collar - don't see this on enough menus *short rib pastrami - never had anything like it
We ordered the grits with scallops, hamachi shoulder, and pastrami all to share. Each was served individually and they were all so delicious! Make sure you allow plenty of time - this isn't a place to go before something else. There is a long wait between courses as everything is prepared fresh just for you. Our cocktails were very good. The staff gave us a complimentary dessert since the wait was so long and it was delicious and unusual - chocolate tahini cream pie. We will go back.
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