Comments on: News: Seny closed (!), Mokka moves

By: Lesley

Lesley — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 21:23:39 +0000

I lived in Spain for a while, and what they were serving at Seny were simply not Spanish tapas. Fancy small bites of food, yes, but not Spanish tapas.
Add to that the fact that the chef had a pretty bad reputation for trash talking other very well known (and kind) chefs in the city, the restaurant had bad service and the food was sometimes good, sometimes not…I’m not really surprised it closed.

By: 5chw4r7z

5chw4r7z — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 14:39:56 +0000

Our eating worlds do intersect here and there.
I know your tastes so I can make judgments from there.

By: julie

julie — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:32:31 +0000

Bob, you LOVE Lavomatic. I love Lavomatic. What gives there?

By: 5chw4r7z

5chw4r7z — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 15:28:50 +0000

I need to rely on friends and bloggers who share my tastes, you know what I’m talking about with my food tastes, I can almost tell if I’ll like a place by how much it gets bashed by reviewers. For instance, I love Nada but think Izzy’s is disgusting, the one time I went to Izzy’s I took two bites of my burger, pushed it away and never finished it.

By: kid-cincy

kid-cincy — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:50:51 +0000

This may sound silly, but I’ve always thought it was a bad idea to have a name for a restaurant that most people can’t pronounce correctly. I’m still not sure how Seny was pronounced, but I know it’s not like sane-ee, which is what you would think just by looking at it. If people can’t pronounce it they can’t really talk about it much.

Remember the old LaCaDie or whatever it was in Hyde Park? I’m still convinced it was doomed by the unusual name.

I went to Simones a number of times before it closed, and thought it was terrific. Great atmosphere, one of the few restaurants in Cincy with a mixed crowd, good jazz music. Seny never seemed to me to have the same buzz about it.

By: lauren

lauren — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 16:10:24 +0000

Sooooo sad about Seny. I’ve had spotty service experiences but the food always rocks. Oh patatas bravas, how I’ll miss thee.

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 07:41:29 +0000

I can’t believe that both the owner and the chef responded in the comment section of the online review. Their responses turned me off way more than the actual review. Bad reviews can be hard to take but online foot stomping and “how dare you, we work so hard” type of replies indicate to either a lack of experience and/or professionalism. Which might account for the mixed dining experiences at the Iron Horse Inn.

Polly Campbell keeps a blog and has an entry about the controversy. It’s easiest to access from cinweekly.com. I’d link directly but the Enquirer online universe is one of the least user friendly sites ever.

By: dick

dick — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:27:23 +0000

I would not pay too much attention to restaurant reviews. It reminds me of when I first moved to NYC and was looking to take a friend to dinner. The restaurant reviewer was talking about how boring the food was at a restaurant, nothing original at all, and he was talking about Beef Wellington which is something I had never tasted in my life. What they find boring and their whole frame of reference is so far out of the picture to what I am interested in that there is really little reason to go on.

What I am looking for in a restaurant is trying the food I have only read about and would never make at home. What the critics are looking for is beyond me, certainly not the same experience I am looking for. All too often they are into it for the gotcha POV.

By: julie

julie — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 04:16:29 +0000

Evan– I wonder if they’ll work with the new concept? I have a few gift certificates for Seny as well.

Jaime– Thanks for further clarification! I’d head the same. I’m also glad to hear that you had good service at TTC!

Amy– don’t fret too much. It might open after the first of the year– we’ll see.

Alex(andra)– I’m lucky in that most of my friends are foodies like I am.

Liz– There were definite service problems (as noted by many in the original review) and it’s no, say, Jaleo (yumm…) but my experiences were that it was a nice addition to the Cincinnati restaurant community. We’ll see what they come up with next. I’m hoping they get rid of the soccer jerseys.

And you know I agree on the blogs thing, though I love reading critics like Reichl, who are such wonderful wordsmiths as well as experienced eaters.

By: liz

liz — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 03:37:43 +0000

that’s interesting re: seny. i had one mediocre and one horrible experience there (b/c of the service… the server was straight up rude the entire night), so i’m not surprised. i did like certain of their items, esp the garlic shrimp, but i thought it was very overpriced and also not really authentic to the true spanish tapas experience.

re: blogs vs. critics, i personally prefer blogs b/c i feel like other bloggers are getting the same experience i would get (in terms of service), and also i feel like i know many bloggers’ tastes from their blogs and know who i want to go to for what info. critics can be hit or miss in terms of their tastes.