Chop Suey Carry Out
Chop Suey Carry Out is another option for Chinese food in the Kettering area. While there are plenty of options within a very close area, this one seems to be the one that caters mostly to carry-out customers. It does have space to dine in, but nobody seems to be doing that. While the convenience factor is impossible to ignore, and the speed with which they get the food out is insane. But in the end I just didn’t taste anything that I liked.
Dragon City
Dragon City is a neighborhood Chinese food option in the heart of Kettering, and so it can serve much of south Dayton with its delivery and pickup service. There’s about no online presence, but the menu is just about the same as every similar-looking place in town. There’s a definite convenience factor here, in that they deliver, but I don’t suggest the place if you have a choice.
Win Wok
A community Chinese food place serving the Blue Ash area of northeastern Cincinnati, Win Wok is a pretty simple place with a pretty simple menu of items intended primarily for takeout. There’s also a lunch buffet on weekdays for cheap. It’s a community Chinese place that is probably patronized by locals exclusively, but if you’re just dropping by I would say this isn’t going to be the kind of place you’ll want to try. There’s plenty of competition around here, and I’d say in both dine-in and take-out options, Win Wok is thoroughly out-competed.
Dingle House Pub & Grub
Here in West Chester seems to rest the crux of Cincinnati’s growth. With new shops, developments and homes springing up in every direction, new bars like the Dingle House Pub & Grub have an opportunity for success. This bar has a definitively Irish feel; it’s got a sleek, modern and spacious interior, the wait staff, including the men, wear kilts. Really, you’d think you can’t go wrong with that kind of fun. I’ll say I did enjoy the atmosphere. I liked the beer selection. But I was really not sold on the food.
South Bend Chocolate Company
Right along the Indiana Toll Road corridor, this chain of South Bend-based chocolate and coffee shops brings to the table a variety of candies and coffee beans which can be found in 20 corporate- or franchise-owned shops, as well as a number of other local markets and grocers. Founded in 1991 making chocolates under a license from the University of Notre Dame, this brand has expanded substantially to specialty chocolate stores and quick-stop coffee shops alike. For its range of products, though, I wonder if it needs to re-evaluate that stance.
Fricker’s
Fricker’s is an Ohio-based chain of sports bars, with 19 locations roughly situated around the Interstate 75 corridor of western Ohio. Many a Dayton and Toledo neighborhood have one alongside all the major chain places, which according to the Fricker’s website is “an riginal concept.” I can certainly say there are a lot of things about this chain that I’ve never encountered before in my visits. I cannot, say, however, that it’s an “apropos” place for a return visit.
Bourbon Street Grill
Opened in 2010, Bourbon Street Grill is now one of two distinctly Asian-themed flavors to try in the Kenwood Towne Center’s food court. Northeastern Cincinnati, much inundated with delicious restaurants and interesting shops to try, needs convenient walk-up places like this strategically placed around commercial centers for shoppers on the go. Bourbon Street has a lot of competition in this area, and unfortunately it really falls flat on its execution. The food is generic, expensive, and salty, and there’s practically nothing worth stopping in to try.
Jimmy’s Italian Kitchen
Right at the crux of Woodman and Dorothy Lane, at the site of a former tex-mex chain, Jimmy’s Italian Kitchen has a suburban charm to it; the tiny restaurant has a variety of customers young and old who come through for dinner. Owner Jimmy Troni espouses 35+ years in business on his website, and the reviews on other websites generally note a good place to eat. Maybe I just have dumb luck, maybe I picked the wrong things to try, but three dishes later I’m not convinced, unfortunately. While I do like the atmosphere, the food itself really fails to deliver.
Linh’s Restaurant (CLOSED)
If I was here only to tell you about food, I would tell you how Linh’s is a good Vietnamese food place with potential and a definite niche market.
Unfortunately, I don’t just talk about food. Instead, I have to relate to you the unfortunate downside of a restaurant with poor service, poor environment and inefficiencies which are quite simply running it into the ground in a very slow, painful and embarrassing way. Linh’s has its food down. Unfortunately, its shortcomings really diminish the importance of that fact.
Wok & Roll
Nestled in the Jeffersonville Tanger Outlet Mall off Interstate 71′s remote exit 65, Wok and Roll is the only Chinese food place you’ll see in a very long time.
It’s part of a food court in a mall I that is successful by some means I don’t understand. The town of 1,200 has literally nothing in it except the outlet mall, and there’s literally no reason for an outlet mall to be there. But it does well with such stores as Coach, Aeropostale and Ann Taylor. And then there are cornfields about a hundred miles in all directions. I think it’s halfway between Columbus and Cincinnati? And State Route 35 is there? Also Washington Court House is close? Anyway, I digress.
