Winds Cafe

They offer an ever changing seasonal menu. I haven’t been disappointed in the food or the inventive cocktails they serve. On our most recent visit I tried their pork chop with rhubarb, it was so juicy and the flavor was incredible. Last summer they offered a lavender cocktail that quickly became my new favorite drink. The reason I give them 3 stars is the service is slow and sometimes rude.

Have great memories of this place, I remember my first visit so well because it was such an amazing meal. It was pumpkin squash lasagna. One of the best dining experiences and meals I’ve had. I am a forever fan! xo

I really wanted to like this place, but it was a little bit of a disaster. We arrived for Sunday brunch and we were seated in a nice area and our waiter was sweet, but goodness, it was a terrible experience.
We waited an hour for our food to come out, when it came out, it was cold. We were starving by the time the food came out, so we ate it, and tried to get out of there as soon as possible. My friend ordered pancakes, and they ran out of pancakes. It’s brunch time, and that sucks. I get it. Stuff happens. So she had to reorder her meal, which made the wait longer. But our friend asked them to bring our food out before hers so we wouldn’t have to wait as long. They didn’t listen, they waited to bring all of our meals out together, which means all of our food was cold.
We explained all of these issues to the manager, and he ended up offering a discount, but it was a mess. In the end, we ended up paying about ½ of what it meals cost, but we were just so unhappy with the experience. It was a bummer. Out server was so sweet and attentive. I felt so bad he was dealing with the kitchen issues, because it wasn’t his fault.

Hanger Steak for me and fried egg sandwich for my husband…
Hadn’t been here in a while and figured the distance really isn’t that bad. Food was fabulous, again. Service was attentive and not overbearing.
Remembered why this is one of my favorite restaurants! Will definitely be back soon.

Love this place! Everything is always so amazing. It is our go to romantic date spot.

Love love love the meals and cocktails. The lavender daiquiris, the pumpkin squash lasagna is wonderful (when it’s offered in the fall menu). I also enjoy that it’s seasonal fresh goodies. It’s a treat to go here.

We Have eaten here 3 times, 1 of those times was amazing, the seasonal roasted vegetables were out of this world. The most recent time I ate here was the last, no desire to go back. An artichoke dish that was a expensive and was no where near the description presented, as in missing ingredients that made it sound like something you would want to eat. As a plus, they change their menu often. Vegans will be unhappy here, vegetarians will fare better.

Having looked at the vast (and unsettling) range of reviews of the Winds, I’m happy to say we had a great experience.
We were in town for New Year’s Eve and decided to stop at the Winds to see if they could take two people without a reservation for lunch. It was a little busy, but we were greeted and led to a table quickly. Our server was friendly and attentive, and although she got busy toward the end of our meal, she didn’t seem overly hurried or in a hurry to have us leave.
The lunch menu is a cross-​section of offerings — sandwiches, salads, soups, pasta special of the day, and a few larger entrees. I ordered the fried Brussels sprouts (a weakness, I have it — not for bacon, but for sprouts), which were a warm mass of bacon, mustard, and crunchy sprouts. Paired with their bread basket = naptime!
I ordered the Organic Sandwich Version II, which is a great mix of cheese, pickled red onion, sunflower sprouts and sunflower seeds, topped with green apple salad between two slices of hearty bread. It was crunchy and creamy, tart, sweet and nutty — simple, but excellent. Of course, I mussed up by leaving off the Spanish chips — those were definitely made to be part of the dish, to cut through the flavors and add salt. The spouse had the chips with his steak, so I grabbed a few from him. Nicely cooked steak for lunch, with the Spanish chips — spouse was happy, but wanted chocolate mousse for dessert. The dessert was standard, a balance of chocolate mousse and whipped cream.
Calling this meal a solid 3.5. Well-​satisfied.

We’re new to Yellow Springs and have already eaten at Winds twice. We really like the atmosphere. The host and the servers are wonderful. The cocktails are good and imaginative, and most important, the food is excellent. Winds Café will certainly be a regular spot for us.

This was cute spot in town — had the squash lasagna, which was good but not great. Friendly staff and nice ambiance.

Worst experience in a restaurant. We had a wonderful day in yellow springs with our family from out of state. We first enjoyed a strenuous & exhilarating hike through the gorge so everyone was famished. We chose this restaurant hoping for a well prepared meal & atmosphere. However we left without eating after waiting over an hour. The brunch menu was limited and 4 of our 6 party ordered the same thing… egg sandwiches! Our server was very apologetic and embarrassed. Sadly she was the only representation that bothered to check on customers. I’m so happy that we left before spending $$. The kitchen needs to get it together.
My advice… don’t wait your precious time.

Good waitstaff, horrible kitchen. We waited over an hour for 4 fried egg sandwiches. We asked for a grilled cheese for our 5 year old and the kitchen said NO. In spite of offering a fried egg sandwich with cheese, evidently they couldn’t leave off the egg and bacon (for $ 11). Then, as punishment it seems, we waited. And waited. And waited. For egg sandwiches and a crêpe, all of which (having worked in the restaurant industry) should have been easily prepared in 15 minutes. Pathetic. We left at 3pm, without receiving our meal. My five year was sobbing from hunger.

First time visiting yellow springs and winds café! I had the best service ever, Sarah was great! Very attentive to my dairy allergy! During the visit I couldn’t help but over hear other customers are they were so rude to her! Certain people shouldn’t be let out of their house …

Visiting from Columbus and stopped in for brunch. Mistake. We’d read the other Unilocal reviews and compared with trip advisor. Should’ve listened to the ticked off Unilocalers on this one.
Food: Ok. I guess. We ordered shrimp and grits, home fries, and coffees. Shrimp and grits were bland. Better with salt and pepper and Tabasco. Would not recommend ordering them. Home fries were good– like most things cooked in a lot of butter. Coffee was also good.
Service: What. The. Hell. Our waiter was slow as sh*t. He never refilled our waters even after moving them to the edge to be more noticeable. He refilled our coffees once and spilled it all over the table– which is fine– BUT he said he’d be right back to clean it up and never returned. A busser eventually came over and cleaned it up after about 5−10min. We got our bill and it had extra things we didn’t order on it. Again, fine, but it shouldn’t take forever to fix. I had to go up to the host station because once again our waiter disappeared.
Atmosphere: sometimes being close to other diners is intimate and nice. Not here. I don’t want a strangers crotch or ass next to my face when I’m trying to eat. Décor is local art which is cute. Menu is the definition of pretentious. I don’t want to read a paragraph about your hike and inspiration before you can tell me what food is actually in the dish.
Overall– hard pass.

I stopped by Winds Café with a friend after hiking at John Bryant State Park just a couple miles down the road. We arrived at the restaurant at 2pm-​ish and had a 5 – 10 minute wait for a patio table. Not too bad a wait for a warm, sunny summer weekend.
My friend and I split the Organic Sandwich Version II and Leo’s Dilemma salad. The bread basket came with about 4 different kinds of bread (foccacia, sourdough, grain/​seed, etc). It was a pleasant surprise to sample a bunch of different kinds of homemade bread before even getting our main entrees. Since we asked to share both dishes, Winds brought out half a veggie sandwich + chips + a side salad on separate plates for each of us (2 thumbs up for this) and then our large Leo’s Dilemma salad on a single plate for us to share.
The Organic Sandwich Version II came with white cheddar cheese, avocado spread, roasted marinated tomato, cucumber slaw, pickled red onion, sunflower sprouts, and sunflower seeds, all on top of some hearty seeded wheat bread. Definitely worth trying… it’s rare to find such a flavorful vegetable sandwich!
The Leo’s Dilemma salad came with mixed greens, local Ohio green beans, pickled carrots, chunks of parmesan cheese, fried chick peas, homemade ricotta, and basil vinaigrette. The fried garbanzo beans had a very interesting texture – crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside. The homemade ricotta was creamy and lightly sweet, very similar to what you’d buy from the grocery store. Overall a good salad with a creative/​good dressing, but nothing super unusual or out of the ordinary about it.
I would definitely recommend going to Winds Café if you are in Yellow Springs. Nice atmosphere, offbeat/​creative/​gourmet dishes, and a great deal! We got 2 entrees for $ 9 each, which seems crazy cheap to me for a sit down restaurant.

Showed up to this place on a Saturday evening. We were from out of town. It was very busy and most people appeared to have reservations. We did not and fortunately was seated very fast! The gentleman host was very upbeat and polite! The décor was very unique and partial walls /​rooms in the dining area set a tone for intimate dining. He wait staff were great. The place was packed but you wouldn’t know by how fast the service was. We shared 2 dishes. The figs, pigs, and goat and the cornmeal walleye. Both were absolutely delicious! I’m craving them again today! Servings are on the small side. The price is mid range to high for portion size. All in all this is a very nice place with delicious food! We are not big drinkers, however they also offer a wonderful wine selection! Thank you!

Morning destination for great scones & coffee in Yellow Springs, OH. Not too crowded so nice place to have a conversation with friends before starting your weekend.

This place was a lot of fun. Great bar and great bar tender, Dawn. She was very friendly and fairly attentive. We were going to sit outside on thej patio, but by the time the guy had a table ready for us, we were too intrigued by the bar to move.
I’m a big bourbon fan and they had some real winners. In addition to my all time favorite, Blantons, there were probabably another 12 – 15 on the shelf. I can’t even remember the name of what I had, but it was nothing I had before. My buddy is a bud light fan and couldn’t pronounce any of the craft beers on the menu. Too bad for him, I would have been estatic, but was too preoccupied with the bourbon. He had a vodka tonik.
Between the two of us we ordered 4 small plates: a cheese dip of sorts, grilled asparagus with hazelnuts, the most bizzarre shrimp cocktail you will ever see, and brisket tacos. Everything was very good, although the shrimp cocktail was odd. I can’t even describe it.
After my bourbon I had an Italian margaritta. So ya got tequilla, contreau, and mix, with some italian champaign on top to give it a fizz. The rimmer was a smoked habenro salt, which was crazy good. Olives and bread came before the meal and all was well.
Lots of locals in the place, which tells you how good it is. Our meals were based on their recommendations and they did not disappoint. I’m mad at myself for not taking food pictures, but will make up for it the next time I’m there in 2 weeks.

We are previous saints of this place.
Last 2 experiences have been below stellar and not worth the trip.
Many memorable meals there in past, but last two since Thanksgiving 2013 have been poor.
Food is not amazing or made with love.
Needs some life brought back into. Falling short of standard.
Won’t be back for a long long long time.

Winds just didn’t impress us like we thought. Food was good, but not great. Service the same.
Once in, we were oddly and abruptly asked if we could be helped. Like we walked in holding hat-​wearing goats or something. Booked a birthday dinner through Open Table and it was never addressed. Sure, some restaurants don’t recognize birthdays but it was still disappointing.
Menu focuses heavily on tapas, or «small plates» in this case. Seems the specials feature a special small plate and also an entrée.
Insalata Caprese was fresh; Moroccan Grilled Duck Breast, yet perfectly cooked, was missing flavor in the overall dish; the Grilled Bistro Steak’s smokey ragout was VERY smokey, which is your forewarning. Quality food but just wasn’t great-​missing the mark.
The «spicy» chocolate cake was the best part-​full of flavor and complexity. Could have had a birthday candle in it. COME ON! Oh, and we met Dave Chappelle at the bar. NAME DROP! (super nice guy.)
All-​in-​all I need to try the place again, but not on a birthday. Not bitter, not bitter…