Rusty Bucket Restaurant and Tavern

"Our Overall Grade = C- Oh, where to begin? I'd say we have a mixed review on this place. We used to live in the area and we used to come here from time to time. Our favorite thing here was breakfast with Santa but they stopped doing that several years ago. Sadly, post Covid, as with many places, the prices have went up. What differentiates this place from other places however is the dramatic price hikes that seem to be a bit unreasonable. For the type of food, the atmosphere, and the service you receive, the prices just aren't justified. You would think you would be dining in a fine fancy restaurant, but that's not the case. Any entree you are going to pay close to $20 and that for the most part doesn't include a choice of side dishes. The food was decent with some issues out of the kitchen, which, at the price you are paying, you would expect everything to be excellent and perfectly prepared. This is the thing that really irritates us. When you're paying over $100 for a meal and the kitchen and service is careless with the preparation of your food, you would think it's not much to ask to expect everything to be carefully prepared, especially when the restaurant is not busy. Sadly, this happens more often than not these days and is definitely a deal breaker that will cause us not to return to a restaurant. They did have a good selection of kids meals that were not overly priced like some post Covid restaurants however, the offset from the cost of non kid meals reduces the excitement of this. For five of us, two adults and three children our bill came out to be $120 before tip. This includes an appetizer and a couple of adult beverages each as well. We typically average about $70 to $80 for a meal at a moderately priced restaurant, so this was a bit more than what we were expecting for what we were getting. We don't mind spending more money when it was worth it, but this was definitely was not worth the cost. We also had to have several corrections on our bill where they added extra items that we were not supposed to be charged for. Our server was nice and friendly but not necessarily very attentive. She didn't know the menu well and didn't know much about the drinks. We asked a few basic questions about the beers on tap that she could not answer. If you're going to be a server in a restaurant with a bar, you should know the drinks. Our appetizer was delivered to the table and we didn't have any silverware. It took more than 5 minutes for her to come out and check on us to notice that we didn't have any silverware. It was not a finger food appetizer so we needed silverware to eat it. If you read any of our other reviews, you will see that one of our pet peeves is when an appetizer is delivered without silverware, plates or napkins. We had plates and napkins, just no silverware. We ordered the fish tacos which were decent. They were $18 for three small tacos. It also came with a small bowl of street corn salad but no other sides. To add a side dish it would be at least $5 or more depending on what you get. So, to get the fish tacos with a side of your liking would be over $23. We also ordered the combo meal which was a decent amount of food for $15. Kids meals for about $6 each and we had to request that a portion of one be remade because it was burnt to a crisp. Not just slightly burnt, but blackened burnt to the point where it was insulting that they sent it to our table. Overall, the food was okay but not worth the cost we paid for it. They do have happy hours with 50% off apps which might be the way to go. If you're paying full price, you're better off going somewhere else a bit more fancy. Sadly, we probably will not return because of this :("

"Great happy hour specials - half price apps, $12 pizza and $7 burger. Something for everybody. Our server Alexis was phenomenal. She told us about their drink specials and we’ll be back on Sunday for their Bloody Mary special."

"Jo was our server and she was wonderful! We had a big group and she was on top of it. She gave suggestions and made the night fun. Definitely recommend this restaurant."

"We went to the Rusty Bucket on New Years Eve. We were seated promptly and our food and drinks came in a timely manner. I ordered the fried pickle appetizer. These were the best fried pickles I have ever had. The beer batter was perfect and they were very large spears as if they were cut there. Sadly the onion rings didn't have the same batter. They were ok but mostly went uneaten. It group tried many things, I went for the Buffalo chicken sandwich. It was very good but didn't have the standard Buffalo flavor. My husband had the mushroom pizza, he loved it. Our friends had the meatloaf, the salmon salad and beef stroganoff. Good reviews from all. My friend really liked that her salmon was served beside the salad rather than in top. It was noted the meatloaf had a great flavor. Those who had missed drinks enjoyed those as well. All in all great meal."

"We had the create your own pizza and buffalo chicken sandwich. This place is a must stop in the Cincinnati area. Excellent service and good food!"