Mt Lookout Tavern

I come to this bar somewhat frequently — but I recently had their food for the first time. I did like the straight fries but the mozzarella sticks were just average — I don’t think they fried them for long enough. The food to me was just bar food… Nothing bad, but nothing amazing. The reason I am giving 3 stars is because it is DIRTY. There is so much dust in the restrooms… It looks like it hasn’t been cleaned for months (when people get very intoxicated there daily). Our service was also EXTREMELY slow… The waitress came back maybe every twenty minutes & everything was just very slow. I do really love their patio area — it is a fun time. I also enjoy their live music on the weekends… It just really needs some TLC & cleaning!

I’d probably give it 3.5 stars if I could (thanks Unilocal!!). Full disclosure, my husband and I tend to gravitate towards hole-​in-​the-​wall/​dive sort of establishments and this place fits that bill. If you’re looking for something swanky with leather couches and specialty drinks that take 15 minutes to make and cost $ 16, this is not your place.
Food: I’ve had several things on their menu and they make a pretty decent burger and I like the fish tacos. The tacos are nothing fancy but they’re definitely solid. I don’t eat chicken wings (I have a thing about eating meat on a bone– I know it’s weird) but my husband LOVES them! I appreciate that they make some of their sauces (including the tartar sauce) in house because you wouldn’t find that a most bars.
Drinks: They have a good selection of beer and do a lot of business with local breweries which I like a lot. They also have Purple Haze on tap which is awesome! Prices are about what you would expect– they generally have bucket or pitcher specials but they’re not mind blowing.
Service: We’ve always had very friendly service here. We tend to go on Mondays for trivia when it gets very crowded so it can be slow at times but the wait and bar staff are all extremely nice.
Atmosphere: What can I say? It’s a neighborhood bar– sometimes the bathrooms are dirty and sometime you feet stick to the floor. They do have a lot of TVs so it’s ideal if you’re trying to watch more than one game at a time. Friday’s seem to be an unofficial college night there (mostly Xavier). My girlfriend and I stopped up for HH around 5:30 months ago and had to leave as it was being taken over by lots of «bros» by 7. We live nearby though so we stop in during the week regularly and it’s generally much quitter and more relaxing.
Lastly, you can bring your dog to the patio if you like and that’s always worth at least ½ of a star.

I’ll never forget the night I wondered in for Monday Night football and watched the staff attempt to catch a rat as it darted back and forth around the main room in front of the stage… The local «bro» crowd found it humorous and didn’t seem to mind. I left and won’t be going back.

I’ve always passed Mt. Lookout Tavern, but only recently stopped in for a drink with friends after work. They had an impressive beer selection that far exceeded my expectations upon walking in.
We split a few appetizers (I recommend the fried pickles) and sat on the back porch. The porch was awesome; really spacious and welcoming.
As a recent-​graduate, I felt right at home with the college like atmosphere. It could definitely use some sprucing up, however. If you’re looking for a chic spot with great décor, pass. If your crowd is more low key, this is the spot for you.

Sat on the patio on a Sunday, it was nice and quiet. I questioned if there were any servers. But the food was great!

an average tavern, with an above-​average back porch.
+1 for location
–1 for watered-​down drinks
–1 the loudness made me feel like this was a bit more of a college bar than i was hoping for
if we return, it will only be due to convenient location.

We went here for a quick dinner because my wife’s friend recommended it. Don’t bother. My jack and coke was weak and the service was really hit and miss. I ordered nachos. The cheese on top wasn’t even all melted and under it were a few jalapenos and a few banana peppers. She got a BLT but didn’t finish it. If you are doing bar food, it shouldn’t be that hard to make it decent. I would have given it one star but the waiter, without my saying a word about my nachos, took them off the bill. I appreciate him recognizing it. Hopefully, he can go wait tables somewhere with better food in the future and earn some decent tips.

Come here for the atmosphere! Great patio! Awesome service! Dont go to MLT for a nice dinner with the spouse. Come here after dinner to unwind and relax

Had lunch here. The food is just ok eat somewhere else then drink here but the place is a bit run down… Tables are all wobbly. Wouldn’t waste my time coming back.

This spot is awesome. Cheap Drinks, good bands, firepit on the patio with good music. The bar staff is awesome and I heard it changed ownership a while back. You can definitely see the improvements. Trivia is great on Mondays.

I had the smoked wings. Amazing. Some of the best wings i have ever eaten. They smoke them for hours before you get to eat them. Trust me, try them.

Trivia nights here are Monday nights at 8pm. Indoor and outdoor seating provide ample room for the relatively large group that gathers here weekly. The crowd is a steady mix of young 20’s college coeds and those in their mid 20’s. If there’s a Reds game, you’re sure to see it on the big screen. Enjoy a few cold brewskis during the game and trivia questions but do NOT order the wine. They come from those dinky plastic mini bottles and taste like someone poured it out of a shoe! Yikes!
Definitely a nice place to wind down from the manic Mondays.

This is a great neighborhood bar in Cincinnati. If you’re looking for a great dive bar to take some friends, this is the place. The food is ok, the service is great, and the beer is cold.

Went in on a Tuesday night because I wanted to check it out as a possible future happy hour spot. This place is small and couldn’t really accommodate our group of 30 during the winter months, but with the addition of their very nice patio in the summer it would be a great spot.
Had their buffalo chicken salad– It was excellent and reasonably priced. Bartender was friendly and the drinks were good.
There isn’t really anything that makes this bar standout and I hear that the crowd is very young on the weekends, so that’s why four starts. But it definitely was a decent place to have food and drink during the week.

I’ve went here a few times for their trivia night on Mondays. Every time I’ve attended people are always cheating when playing the game, using their cell phones to find answers. I do applaud the people that run the trivia bc they will call you out if you are trying to cheat but it doesn’t always stop people. What ever happened to people just being honest and especially since the reward is money it would be nice if people would keep the game fair.
Drinks are cheap but not a great draft selection. never tried the food. Like the other reviews say younger atmosphere and drunk girls being loud and obnoxious.

Funny story — I lived in the area for 3 years in college and never went… just went recently and man did I feel old. The crowd is early 20s (I got hit on by a pretty hot 21 year old so that totally made me feel good about myself hehe)
They had a band playing which is cool (I didn’t pay a cover… maybe because we got there really late?)
The bar itself isn’t anything to rave about — cheap drinks though. I like the patio (but it was cold so they should have had the heat lamps on — there’s a bar on the patio too which gives this place a half a star bump)
Anyway… I’m out of this scene and wouldn’t go out of my way to go here (I was in the area), but it’s fun for the college crowd!

I like MLT for the trivia on Monday nights and that’s about it. They have a good happy hour where you can get cheap drinks and bar food, and the trivia is fun.
On the weekends, however, I can’t stand this place. The environment is hard to explain but it seems like the kind of place where recent college grads go to act like they’re still partying on a college campus/​at a frat. I always feel like someone is about 10 seconds from puking on me and anytime I try to socialize with someone outside of my party, it’s all sass and drama. Maybe this is just my experience, but from reading other reviews I feel that this is a mutual feeling. Definitely a place I’ll only frequent on weeknights.

Okay, see, I feel a little bad giving this place two stars, because I know what it is when I go there, and I go there anyway.
It’s basically a dumpy dive bar for college kids, or those who have recently graduated from college. It has all the ambiance and charm of a place where people puke all over the bathroom floor or in a corner and try to hide it. I go here, however, because CSL gives away a pitcher of beer here after my kickball game, and my devotion to free beer is stronger than my dislike of a place where I’d encounter a pukey pre-​frat boy.
The staff is normally pretty decent, and the food’s okay, so it’s definitely not without its redeeming qualities. Actually, the back porch is not bad either when it’s warm enough to be out there and it’s not packed to the gills. I actually had some fun there on St. Patrick’s Day later in the evening.
From what I remember, there are sometimes good bands playing inside, but it gets crowded quickly on weeknights, even though they charge a cover, which to me, is kind of unforgiveable– charging a cover to get into a dive bar.
The ladies’ bathroom is by far the absolute worst part of this place. Whoever designed this restroom fails at architecture. The hand dryer is on the wall right next to the door, which will open and hit you while you are trying to dry your hands. God forbid that this is all going on and someone is trying to get out of the first stall because both the person opening the door and the person trying to get out of the stall will smash you.
Really, ladies? Stay safe and dry your hands on your pants.

MLT’s has a lot of negatives in my opinion, but still serves a purpose in Mt. Lookout. There are not many bar choices in the area so I have ended up there several times during a night of drinking.
They often charge cover on the weekends, which is a big no-​no for me. The atmosphere feels like a college sports bar at times, especially when all of the creepy guys hit on you non-​stop. There are often bands playing but I have never been too impressed. They have a large patio in the back, complete with a separate bar, that is pretty cool.
My last visit was on Monday night and I left annoyed. Trivia was already going on and looked like a lot of fun. When I went to order a beer I asked the bartender if they had any craft beers, he asked me what I meant. After giving him several examples (Stone, Rivertown, Left Hand), he said that I could get a Bud Select. Bud Select is not craft!!! When I said no thanks, the guy next to me at the bar began to act rude to me and then the bartender joined in. This was after being hit on incessantly by the older men sitting at the bar. Yuck. I was quite annoyed by this point but happy when the bartender said they had bottles of Hudepohl Summer Ale. I told him I’d take 2. He handed me 1 Hudepohl Summer Ale and 1 Leinenkugel Summer Shandy (the bottles did not even look similar). I was so frustrated I didn’t even care and took the incorrect beer, paid and left. It is such a shame to me that MLT’s would hire someone who had no idea what they were doing, limited knowledge of their products, and thinks it’s okay to gang up on a customer. But hey, it’s a funny story now at least.
If you’re a beer snob like me, you may leave MLT’s with a headache. If you just want a drink (nothing special) and to enjoy the weather on the patio, it may be worth your time. However, it’s never worth the cover charge.

Cheap drinks, friendly bartenders.
I honestly never thought I would step foot in there, and when I did I was greeted with a very strong smell of vomit… Seriously. But somehow I made it to the bar, where they were serving up buckets of beer for $ 10. I am a fan of that. I also had mixed drinks later in the night. At $ 4, they were very strong. The jukebox has a good selection.
Back to the bartenders– our friend decided he needed to «ice» our two other friends– and the bartenders devised a really funny way to do it, and were really fun the whole night. Good bartenders are what bumped up MLT from 2 to 3 stars.
It’s a good place to meet up with a lot of friends.