The National Exemplar

I recently visited The National Exemplar for breakfast and I can say that I am a fan for sure! Good service, good, food, and when I checked in on Unilocal there was a deal for free coffee! All in all it was a good dining experience and it was rather crowded. Avoid the the mid-​morning rush by getting in early and beating some of the older demographic for some goetta and eggs.

We like the fireplace and the décor/​ceiling. Reminds us of a New England inn. We had the filet and prime rib dinners. Very good. Great waiter. The hotel is fun too. Mariemont is worth a visit.

My fiancé and I came here for the first time for a New Years Eve dinner and we were sadly disappointed. We each got a bourbon cocktail beforehand at the bar, which was very nice. When we ordered our food, we got the prime rib with a Caesar salad, liver and onions with the mushroom soup, and bread pudding for dessert. The prime rib was ordered medium rare but came out more like medium well, the liver was close to well done, and the bread pudding was extremely dry. The last of which we wouldn’t even eat, but just sent it back. The Boursin whipped potatoes, mushroom soup, and Caesar salad were all wonderful though. We will unfortunately not be returning to The National Exemplar.

We have had brunch and lunch here, and both have been yummy! I really like the squash berry quinoa salad. Their butternut squash soup was delicious too. I got the half salad and soup. I wish the portion was a little bigger. The service was pretty good, and they were busy!

It’s too bad this restaurant has suffered since changing management. The last several times we’ve gone (dinner and lunch) the service has been pretty weak. The food is good and the environment the same as it always has been but basic greetings and follow up by the waiters is just not there.

I have been coming to this restaurant for over 15 years, although I mostly would come here for breakfast, which is always a hit because it is the same as First Watch. However, the other evening we thought we’d try the National Exemplar on a whim.
Service was great. We did not order cocktails, but we did have the bread, and I am happy to see that my favorite, the salted rye, was still in the bread basket! I would rather have plain butter rather than the honey-​sweetened, especially with the salted rye. I know some people like a sweetened butter, but I find a salted, fresh, creamy butter to be so delicious!
Our server was very friendly (although I did have to ask for bread to be brought… not sure why it isn’t just standard to bring it or at least, to offer it) and did entice me with the special: a roasted corn and mushroom risotto with a lovely, buttery sauce and a nice piece of snapper. The mushrooms in the risotto had made the entire risotto a less appealing grey color, and the flavor of the mushrooms was very intense… so much that if you didn’t remember that there were mushrooms in the dish you would have thought it had gone bad. However, the snapper was very good, and I enjoyed the sauce with it.
My son got the grilled branzino, and it was cooked nicely. He also ordered as a side the Brussel Sprouts (a favorite) which looked delicious but were lacking that lovely crispy, browned outside with the tender middle that makes Brussel Sprouts so heavenly. The entire texture of the side dish was soft, as if they had been pre-​cooked and then reheated, especially considering how quickly they came to our table.
We enjoyed our visit, overall, and it was nice to come back to a favorite spot once again.

This is one of my stand-​by breakfast places and have enjoyed everything on the menu so far. I will say that my omelet has been overcooked but there are several tasty options on the menu. The dining room is relaxed and I’ve never felt rushed. I wish they took brunch reservations on the weekend but they do not so go prepared to wait as needed. My only complaint is the waitstaff are sometimes less than stellar. My last visit we asked for water FIVE times before it was finally brought. I checked the bar thinking I could retrieve my own but no one was there at the time. Finally, on the fifth request, we’d asked a different server and then our waiter came a few minutes later with water. Still a good experience but it got to be comical as it seemed the most basic request. Pro tip: the banana crunch pancakes are some of the best around.

After a less-​than-​stellar experience the last time I had dinner at The National Exemplar, the management contacted me and asked me to return. I LOVE it when businesses actually pay attention to their customers and receive their feedback graciously, so of course I came back again for dinner.
My experience with dinner this time was much better!
Justin and I came here on Saturday at 4:30pm because we had accidentally skipped lunch and were HUNGRY. We just strolled right on in, and when I walked in I immediately realized that they weren’t open yet (oops!). The manager was nice enough to let us grab a table and a drink, while we waited for the kitchen to open at 5pm. I thought that was very nice hospitality to seat us rather than turning us away.
So, like I said, we were super hungry, so we ordered basically one of everything that sounded good. haha We got the squid ink lobster pasta, the potato gnocchi, the filet, a side of brussel sprouts, and the caesar salad to start (YES, I KNOW we are piggies).
You get a salad or soup when you order an entrée, and let me just take a moment to recommend the Caesar salad. This was by far the most flavorful Caesar I have ever had. If you enjoy salty, briney, cheesy flavors, this is for you! A traditional caesar salad has anchovies, garlic, lemon, dijon mustard, egg yolks, and parmesan. This one was definitely traditional, and for added saltiness they put extra anchovies right in the salad. It was amazing! My fiancé was kind of thrown off by the anchovies, but I ate his, so he was all good. haha I’m a true Caesar salad fan, and I’m glad to see this place is making them the old-​fashioned way!
As far as the pastas, they were good, not great considering the price. I think the squid ink pasta was VERY good, and had a lot of lobster in it. I could have just eaten that pasta for my meal with a Caesar salad. The gnocchi was kind of bland… All I tasted was tomato, and it needed basil or salt/​pepper/​garlic to make it more well-​rounded. Overall, I think the pasta here wasn’t as good as other restaurants in Cincinnati (i.e. Sotto, Boca, etc.).
The steak was very good and cooked perfectly, but the sides that were served with it were boring and flavorless. The brussel sprouts weren’t as crispy as I normally like them, but they were seasoned well.
Overall, our service was very good, but we paid $ 100 for our meal (with two beers), and I felt like I could have paid the same amount at other restaurants and gotten better food. I will be coming back for brunch though, and for that Caesar salad with the squid ink pasta!

The service is amazing, and the staff do a phenomenal job of making you feel like you’re a celeb. I love the star treatment minus the paparazzi. LoL. Amazing place!!!

The food was excellent as always. The service was very good but just a tad bit unfriendly. The rose for moms for Mothers day was a very nice touch! I had the bacado omelet which was just perfect.

What a bummer. What used to be my go-​to restaurant for brunch has started to eek downhill.
We arrived about 45 minutes until they closed breakfast, and were seated outside in what must have been Cincinnati’s local breeding ground for bees. Literally. We were swarmed by no less than 30 bees at any given time. As I drank my coffee I had to be cautious of one sneaking in while I wasn’t paying attention. I would only knock a star off if this was the only problem.
The biggest problems came from the uninspired food and drink (whose cost has risen btw) and the lethargic service. How hard is it to cook an omelette? I’ve ran into so many bad omelette’s recently, it pains my heart. This one in particular was dry, burnt, cold, and bland. The potatoes on the side were cold. Everything was just meh, really. The fruit was good, I guess. The Bloody Mary had to just be tomato juice and nothing else.
The service was what really stood out as lacking. Considering the time we were in there and the emptiness of the restaurant, I would have expected timelier service. Our waitress was nice as could be but she just wasn’t ever around. It took a good 30 minutes to receive some syrup for the pancakes, which became cold as well in this time frame.
I’m willing to go back because of the great first experience we had here but I’ll be cautious not to order the omelette again and make sure to ask for everything I need for the meal well ahead of time. The saving grace is the historic building it’s in, and the nice staff. Oh, and the free coffee through a Unilocal deal.

It’s a good place to have breakfast if you are in the Mariemont area. The atmosphere is nice (they have a patio for summertime) and the service has always been great but it’s basically the same food you can get at First Watch. I love First Watch, but there are more convenient locations for me to have their food so I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat here for breakfast unless I was already in the area. A good place to stop if you are in Mariemont though!

We’ve had mixed experiences here before at dinner, but I had breakfast at the National Exemplar again last week and I have to say it was a great meal, topped off with nice level of service. The comfortable ambiance lifts the Exemplar up to 4-​star level but I want to try again with wife to see if the food remains excellent. Breakfast tip: try the banana & granola crunch pancakes. They were excellent.
BTW Really, really old people love this place, so it must be the combination of price, value, and atmosphere that is the key. I think if we lived anywhere close to Mariemont, we’d be spending our money weekly at the Exemplar.

The music here is just too loud. And the music selection is terrible.
I chose the National Exemplar as the restaurant for a special dinner with my parents on Thanksgiving Eve. My wife and I are both in our thirties and live in Brooklyn, and were visiting Cincinnati to see my family for Thanksgiving.
At the restaurant, we were assaulted by WEBN-​style hits from the 1990’s, like Soundgarden’s «Black Hole Sun.» it was so loud, we could barely hear each other. I will never return until the music issue is dealt with.
We asked the staff to turn down the music five times. Each time, the staff barely lowed the volume. They said they couldn’t lower it much. When some horrible pop song with a thumping beat and shrieking vocals overwhelmed our conversation for the 10^th time, I finally got up and asked for the manager. I was told she was on her way, but she never came. It was 9pm, and most of the people (two tables) in the restaurant were older. No one would have cared had the music been turned down to a reasonable level.
It’s a shame because the Prime Rib was one of the best I’ve had, and the rest of the food was quite good.
Other issues: There’s no liquor list with prices. The waiter gave me his tattered list of available spirits from his waiter book. There is no cocktail list.
Overall, the service was pleasant and responsive but the waiters barely checked in on us in the last hour of our meal.
Overall, it feels like the dining and bar staff need some adult supervision. It could be a really awesome restaurant, in a great location, and compete with bars and restaurants downtown. But they need to get a different consultant to advise on how to do that… preferably someone with better audio/​atmospheric sensibilities and tastes.

Been here a couple of times. They have an ongoing offer of a free coffee with your purchase of anything else as long as you check in on Unilocal while you’re there. The coffee and the brunch are good. I’ve tried most of the things on the brunch menu which are all good. I’ll definitely be back at some point. I have friends that are nuts about National Exemplar and swear that this is the best brunch in Cincinnati. Maybe it is the best in Cincinnati, but I’ve definitely had better many other places around the US. Still, it has a fun, rustic atmosphere and the location on Mariemont Square is great.

It is with a heavy heart that I must downgrade The National Exemplar from 5 stars down to 3, and even that I feel is being extremely kind based on the service and experience we had yesterday.
We decided to return for brunch yesterday afternoon around 1:00pm on one of the nicest days of the year. We sat outside on the gorgeous patio (which I still stand by as one of the nicest and most beautiful in the city). Problem #1: Bees. I know this is not really in the restaurants complete control, but it got to the point where there were at least ten bees swarming around just our table at one time. Our server opened a package of jelly and they attacked that for a while and then got bored and returned. I normally wouldn’t bring this up, but like I said it was excessive and clearly a problem for us and both of the tables next to us. It made for a very unpleasant experience.
I ordered the Bacado omelette which was a bacon, avocado and cheese omelette. Problem #2: Quality control. On my last visit my omelette was delicious, and fresh. This time around, I could not believe my eyes when my server sat the plate down with a moldy avocado on top of my omelette. I cut into the omelette and there was very little bacon in most parts no bacon at all. The avocado inside was brown in some parts black and mushy. The texture was completely off putting. I dug around to see if any of it was worth saving and then gave up. My boyfriend who will eat almost anything did not even eat it. Despite the lack of fresh ingredients it was severely overcooked. Looking back, I probably should have sent this back and I was really questioning whoever sent this out of the kitchen to begin with.
We got the BLT which on the menu sounded incredible: brioche bun with home made basil aioli — yum! What we got was just okay. The lettuce was old, the bacon was mediocre and all together I just felt like I could have thrown this together at home.
Side note: I ordered a Bloody Mary and it tasted like water and tomato juice. There was no spice or seasoning to it at all. Also they changed the prices from $ 4.95 to $ 6.95.
Problem #3: Service. Just because we are at the tail end of brunch does not mean that we do not deserve the same quality service as the 10am crowd. Our server was almost non-​existent.
I have been a huge advocate for this place and have been telling everyone I know to come here and right now my heart aches because of how disappointing our meal was. If one of these things occurred, sure, okay. But the service, quality of food, and the crazy bee situation together made for a really awful start to our day. I don’t think I will be running back here anytime soon.

Love the friendly and accommodating service here. We brought akoya to breakfast and they quickly offered to let us sit outside with her. Aside from the outdoor area being polluted with the car noise, our dining experience was EXEMPLAR! Today is our 2^nd time dining and i think we wont hesitate to dine here again.
Freshly squeezed oj is quenching. And i personally love their half turkey sandwich with aioli and soup/​salad.

Solid brunch location! The National Exemplar is set in Mariemont with plenty of seating inside and a small but gorgeous outside patio. We have been here twice for brunch. Both times, I’ve had the bacado — bacon, avocado and Monterey cheese omelette with home fries and an English muffin. The omelette is great! My only complaint is that it is served with sour cream and salsa, but the salsa is rather bland and pretty much just tastes like tomato juice. My boyfriend enjoys the bacon and onion hash served with eggs and an English muffin.
They have many choices, all reasonably priced around $ 9 or $ 10. We also tried the mimosas, which are large, well-​balanced and only $ 5.5! There has been a small wait both times we have visited, but you can walk to the Mariemont theatre nearby for tickets or relax and drink complimentary coffee they serve during the wait. I gave them four stars instead of five because the home fries were slightly undercooked last time.

I wasn’t all that impressed with this place. I came for brunch and had the French toast because I was told it was amazing… and I can say I’ve had better. The bacon I had was cooked really well and was way to hard. Just not exactly what I was expecting.
I will say the ambiance is nice and the presentation is great! Love the look and feel of the restaurant itself. I kind of forgot I was in Cincinnati.

Tim is one if the best restauranteurs in the region. You can study this business for how to run a successful place.
The breakfast is Cincinnati’s best.
The lunch is solid and the rooms and tables of any size make it a top echelon spot for a meeting whether private or semi private.
You won’t be disappointed.