Moerlein Lager House

patpbr

Ohio

4.06/5  rDev -4.5%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.25 | food: 4 | $$$

A prime location in the banks. Ballpark across the street and river in view. When its baseball season this is a great place to grab some good beers before heading into Great American Ballpark. (It can get really crowded right before and right after a game.) Had dinner on the lower level overlooking the Ohio River on a more mild day and both experiences were good.

05-08-2013 22:44:14 | More by patpbr

Oldkentman

Ohio

4.54/5  rDev +6.8%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.75 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.25 | food: 4.25 | $$$

I have been about 5 times now. The food is good, but may be a touch pricey for what you get. The atmosphere is great. Cool building with great views. My service has always been quite good and the servers know what they are talking about when it comes to beer. They are patient, will answer questions, and are willing to go get you some samples to help you make a decision. Overall, this may not be the end-all, but it is a very fun, very nice place with good food and a good beer selection along with a knowledgable staff.

04-19-2013 19:28:18 | More by Oldkentman

meanmutt

Ohio

4.75/5  rDev +11.8%
vibe: 5 | quality: 5 | service: 4 | selection: 5 | food: 5 | $$$

I've visited Moerlein Lager House about a dozen times since it opened in early 2012.

Great location on the edge of downtown Cincinnati, right across the street from Great American Ball Park (home of the Cincinnati Reds) and a few blocks from Paul Brown Stadium (home of the Cincinnati Bengals). Awesome views of the Ohio river!

Two level building with private party rooms for large groups, a patio area that is open to the outdoors in warm weather, and a bar on each level.

The main floor bar features primarily Moerlein beers on tap. The bar on the upper level features the "guest drafts" which I've seen range from everyday stuff like Fat Head's Head Hunter to limited stuff like Great Lakes Barrel Aged Blackout Stout. You can order any beer on the menu from either bar, but expect to wait a bit if you order a guest draft from upstairs while seated at the main level bar as your bartender has to go upstairs to get it. They also offer an extensive bottled beer list, wine, and liquor.

I've had the pleasure of eating several of the menu items, spicy garlic shrimp, meat and cheese board, prime rib, fish and chips, beer can chicken melt, and many other items as well. All are good if not great, definitely not your run of the mill bar food.

Service has generally been very good, but a few of the bartenders are a little slow even when it's not that crowded.

Overall, I love Moerlein Lager House. If you are near dowtown Cincinnati you should definitely check it out.

03-22-2013 14:28:01 | More by meanmutt

metter98

New York

4.33/5  rDev +1.9%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$$

Vibe: The restaurant is located right across the street from Great American Ball Park and is a good spot for pregame food and drinks. I arrived there at about 3 pm before a Reds game and easily got a nice table next to the window with a panoramic view overlooking the Ohio River and Roebling Suspension Bridge. The place seemed well-suited to handle pregame crowds, having two floors, a large bar area and plenty of standing room on the outdoor patios.

Quality: The restaurant combines good food with quality microbrews and seemed to have the best selection of craft beers in the vicinity of the ballpark.

Service: The wait staff was friendly and provided prompt service; it seemed like they were well equipped to handle the onslaught of customers before a ball game.

Selection: The restaurant had about 10 house beers on-tap, another 10 guest beers on-tap and then a bunch of bottled beers. Most of the draft beers were offered in both 17 ounce and 22 ounce sizes; flights were also available.

Food: The quality and presentation of the food was very good. There were a variety of appetizers, burgers, sandwiches and entrees to choose from including German dishes such as soft pretzels with beer cheese and hot mettwurst.

Value: The price of the beer was reasonable and the food was a bit pricey compared to other places in the area (entrees were about $15-25, but were appropriately priced given the quality of the food).

08-17-2012 16:09:42 | More by metter98

rodney4130

Kentucky

3.93/5  rDev -7.5%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4 | food: 4 | $$$

Even if you are not a fan of their bottled beers, you owe it to yourself to drop by and visit the fresh, Cincinnati made product. The brewers really know what they're doing and are tweaking the in house recipes to make some really fine beer. They also have a solid list of guest taps and bottles. Food is tasty, but a bit pricey. The building is beautiful and is in a really lovely part of town. Can't understand why some would say otherwise.

Service was fine, but the server didn't know anything about what he was selling (He offered a Creme Brulee stout by someone called "Imperial Brewing"? I thought Southern Tier made that....). But that doesn't matter a lot of you know your beer anyway. Had the beer can chicken melt along with a house made dunkel and an IPA. Food was very good, but not mind blowingly so. The dunkel was great, and while the IPA wasn't necessarily to my taste, it was really well made.

07-29-2012 14:48:44 | More by rodney4130

bmantravel

3.63/5  rDev -14.6%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 2.5 | selection: 4 | food: 3.5 | $$$

Visited after a Reds game a few weeks ago. I thought it would be a huge wait as we walked over after an afternoon baseball game. No wait at all.

The biggest surprise was the guest beer list. They have 4-5 bottles in each major beer category, around 50 in total. Someone who really knows beer selected them - most were the best known global or USA regional brewers in a category (Bells, Youngs, a few Belgiums), but some I had not tried before. We went through six different bottles - none skunked, but we did find two missing in our ordering. The bottle selection alone makes this one of the top five beer bars in Cincinnati. Add in view it is well worth a visit, even if you do not care for the Moerlein options. The servers know very little about beer, so do not expect any help.

From my review on Trip Advisor...

Positives:
- Best view of the River in town. The dinning rooms overlook the Roebling Bridge. Better view than the Boathouse. It will get better as they develop the new park area by the river.
- Easy walk from the Reds Stadium - it is really next door (It took 10 minutes to get out of the stadium and around from the east, but if you exit the stadium on the west side, it is a less than 1 minute walk)
- Great Beer List - They have all their products (6 Moerlein beers on tap) - $5 per pint. Legacy Cincinnati Beers (I think Hudi in cans was $3). And they had a very great bottle list from other breweries. I know beer and they had some of the best beers by style on their list of about 40-50 bottles. Only thing missing was guest kegs....maybe in the future.

OK
-Food is upscale pub grub. Well executed, but not memorable.
- Service was OK. No mistakes, but some wait for check, refills. While not packed, it was a very busy place after the game.
- The place is very large. Two floors of dinning rooms, some private dinning rooms, two bar areas, and a nice outdoor seating area. They could easily seat 400+ people.
- The place is well decorated (shiny and new). It has huge windows overlooking the river. Lots of wood details. Pictures celebrating Cincinnati & Moerlein brewing history around the restaurant.
- Price - It is a bit expense compared to a local sports bar in the suburbs (burger plater $10), beers $5 per pint. But cheaper than the stadium next door ($5 Moerlein versus $8 Bud)

Overall, I recommend it.

Visited May 2012

06-29-2012 10:40:15 | More by bmantravel

tARsh

4/5  rDev -5.9%
vibe: 4 | quality: 4 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

As long as you aren't ordering anything by moerlein house brewers you won't regret coming.
Despite being in well; not the nicest area of Cinci this taphouse did not let me down. And frankly, I wanted it to.
Smaller yet very solid "guest" compilation of revolving taps. Certainly worth a look; one of the best ambiances in the area for having some pints.
Will be returning and to eat be posting an updated review on their fodder when I can.
Frankly though I have heard good things about their food, even if it is a bit over priced.

05-31-2012 06:19:49 | More by tARsh

buschbeer

Ohio

4.28/5  rDev +0.7%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$

I visited the Lager House last Sunday before a Reds game. First of all it is great to actually see bars on the Ohio side FINALLY. I love the fact that it is right by the GABP. I walked in and was met with a very modern looking interior, probably because it is a new building. There was a lot of stonework with plenty of windows to look out at the Ohio River. The dining area had a wait but we managed to squeeze in at the bar on the beer garden side. The beer garden didn't open until noon. I thought that was odd on a game day with a 1:10 start.

Anywho, I had a flight. I couldn't choose the beers. It came with four 4oz samples. Meh. My buddies and I shared a bucket of Little Kings, which were delicious, and got a free maibock from an order snafu. I had a tuna burger to eat, awesome! The tuna came with homemade chips, but they were sweet potato chips. I am not a fan of sweet potato fries, but the chips were good. My friends each had a reuben sandwich. Neither complained nor raved about the cuisine.

Christian Moerlein had 8 house beers on tap as well as their bottled and canned selections. They also had a nice selection of guest taps that I found out that they served at the upstairs bar, which I did not venture up to due to time restrictions. The service was adequate for as busy as they were. It is going to be a regular pre/post game stop for Reds games. Great atmoshere and food.

05-06-2012 17:26:15 | More by buschbeer

Yetiman420

Ohio

4.43/5  rDev +4.2%
vibe: 5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4 | selection: 4.5 | food: 4.5 | $$$

Stop # 338 on my world brewery tour.

Full disclosure - I am a Cincinnatian of 6 years and confessed Morelerin hater. I'm not of the opinion that history and tradition make industrial pre-prohibition macro lagers any better. Cincinnati needs more good beer, not more reviving of said lagers.

With that being said, the Moerlein Lager House is awesome.

It's second only to the Stone World Bistro & Gardens in terms of jaw-dropping architecture and presence. Right on the banks of the Ohio river between the baseball and football stadium and overlooking a small park you could not ask for a location with a better view. Tall glass walls allow you to easily take in the sights. Large wrap-around decks make it even better when weather cooperates.

We knew it was busy so we went for an early lunch on Saturday (11:10). By the time we left, it was packed.

Two floors with dining and a long bar on each.

The good news for non-Moerlein drinkers like me is the great (not-world class) guest taps...

Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale - 13 oz $6
Chimay Tripel 13 oz $10
Duchesse de BOurgogne 13 oz $12
Founders Breakfast Stout 13 oz $8
The following were all 16 oz $6 22 oz $7.50...
Dogfish My Antonia
Left Hand Milk Stout
Rogue Dead Guy
Smuttynose Big A IPA
Bell's Pale Ale
Rivertown Hop Bomber Pale Ale
Paulaner Salvatore BOck
Weihenstephaner Hefe
Youngs Double chocolate
Fullers London Pride

Duchesse for $12 is a bit steep but as we were drinking it, we realized it was the price for such an awesome venue and view.

The server sputtered a bit on beer-related stuff. Would be nice if they were better educated on beer for such a beer centric place.

Also had Moerlein drafts and Cincinnati "heritage brews" on draft. You could do flights of these but not the guest taps.

Roughly 70 high quality bottled beers presented by category.

Food was excellent. I went with fish tacos. The group split the home made sausages as an appetizer and we splurged on dessert. My wife didn't think too highly of her burger though. Four people split the bill in half and is was $80 per couple (for lunch with booze).

Highly recommend and will return. Maybe someday I'll sample the house beers to see if they're getting any better.

04-22-2012 14:42:01 | More by Yetiman420

chilidog

Ohio

4.55/5  rDev +7.1%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | food: 5 | $$

We drove down from northwest ohio just to eat, drink and see the Moerlein Lager house on only its 2nd saturday open. We broght our teens so we went mid-afternoon. Mild crowd, we got rite in.

The Lager House sits next-door to Reds stadium. We parked in the new parking garage under the house for $4 bucks.

The House is three levels, three bars plus a beer garden. With great views of the Ohio River. Its new construction thats modern yet hand painted murals take you back in time.
The brewing tanks are in glass as you enter as is a brew musium and a small gift shop. Only odd thing was beer to go wasn't available yet.

The food was great quality homemade, chef made to order even down to house made sweet potato chips.

The beer was good and cold, 8 Moerleins on tap with 12 guest taps and a nice 75 bottled brews to pick or share a bomber.

Expect this place to be Real busy come game days though worth the try to get in. Several tv's, you wont miss a play.

I'll be back for sure.

03-20-2012 17:25:34 | More by chilidog