I'd describe this place as a dive bar with better-than-expected food. The decor is truly old school down to the classic pics of Coney Island that used to be nearby (RIP Coney Island). The service is always top-notch and I still consider it one of the best spots for burgers in the Cincinnati area. I talked my boss and coworker into going since it's not far from the office and I haven't been in a while (I just realized I've reviewed this place before, so consider this an update). My boss hadn't been in a while and my coworker has never been until we went for lunch. Their menu has lots of pub grub options like burgers, sandwiches, salads, wings, seafood, and more. They also have a full bar and a nice beer selection. There's a good amount of indoor seating and a nice patio for outdoor seating too. We started out with pretzel bites with cheese and pickle fries. Both came out pretty fast and were very good especially the pickle fries. As for our mains, my boss got the En Fuego burger, my coworker got the bacon & blue burger, and I got the turkey burger. All their burgers are a la cart so we all got a side of fries too. Again, we didn't wait long at all before everything was ready, and really tasty. My turkey burger was one of the better ones I've had in a while. My coworker was impressed by his burger too especially the amount of blue cheese (you can never have too much blue cheese). My boss enjoyed his burger too butt it wasn't quite as spicy as he expected. I really dig this spot and consider it a but of a hidden gem since it's in a somewhat unexpected location. Great burgers, excellent service, and a classic dive bar feel. read more

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30 years ago we used to take the kids here for dinner on a work night when we didn't feel like making dinner. It was always homey, the servers were so nice, and the food was so delicious. Everybody loved it. Well I'm here to tell you - walking in tonight it is still the SAME!!! The cheese cubes are amazing and the patty melts, onion rings and saratoga chips are GREAT. The martinis were perfect too. Love this place. read more

Will never come here again. I came here with my fiance and golden retriever at 730pm. No one was outside and was dark. Was told by waitress we had to sit in the alleyway to be served because the owner doesn't allow dogs and there were cameras so no exceptions even when the place doesn't have business. Will never be back read more

Swung by with the family on a Sunday afternoon it was very quiet inside, so there was plenty of space for us to spread out and make it known we were there! The waitress (didn't catch her name) was very attentive, friendly and knowledgeable. We got wings, fried pickles, fried mushrooms and a hot dog & chips. Everything was great! My son loved the duck claw machine and the shuffle board table was fun as well. We came home and told our family where we went and they said they also love the place! There's a cute looking patio outside, but it was too hot so we stayed inside. We'll definitely be back! read more

Salem Gardens is great! I love their cheeseburgers & Garren & Nicole are great bartenders. It's a cute little dive bar to hangout at for a nice friendly neighborhood bar/restaurant vibe. read more

Mo and the team make this place rock. Dani DeBest is literally da best chef on the East side pub fare tour, best chef/cook here since 1926's opening night. Dee serves it up with more speed/wit/love and spin than Serena Williams at the US Open in her best year. Dee's flavors are so bright the sun is jealous. Mo you're so sharp I won't let you into a raft. Keep up the great work. You hire and lead like the General Patton of restaurants fighting to build our Battle of the Bulge. Bibi and Andy hit pay-dirt when they hired team players like these guys. read more

Food and service is always great. Don't go as often as I like, but every time I do always something good to eat.

Friendly service, good tavern food and just a nice local joint. Lunch service is fast and inexpensive. read more

Salem Gardens - Exterior - Burgers Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

Three stars because we find the restaurant to just be overall fine. The food is fine. Nothing terrible and nothing craveablel, it just never hits the spot. Well for the adults that is. They have french fries, so my kids are happy. Service usually starts with a fairly upbeat greeting. From there, service is on the slow side. Food is usually slow coming out of the kitchen. On our first visit they did not notice we were out of drinks until bringing out the bill. We were not checked on once the food was dropped off. People from table to table like to walk around talking to eachother. Not the most COVID compliant. If living close by, and craving bar style food, Salem Gardens is easier to get to than some of the restaurants on Beechmont. The parking lot is small. Additional parking may always be found easily enough on Salem and on Beacon St. read more

Food sucks I don't know if there's been changes to the menu and decor. Good bar for sure

Great burger selections and beer- relaxed and super casual atmosphere. Has back outdoor patio when weather is nice

Salem gardens was explained to us by friends as a nice hole in the wall bar with decent bar food. Well that's exactly what it was. Food and drinks were reasonably priced. Place kinda had a musty smell to it. Service was surprisingly slow for only about four tables of customers in there. Our waitress although very friendly spent most of her time talking to the bar tender or going outside to smoke I think. I would say this place would be good for grabbing drinks and maybe an appetizer but not a meal. We dined in for lunch and weren't overly impressed. The thing that stood out most was the pepper jack fried cheese cubes, those were delicious and highly recommended. read more

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A Mt. Washington staple. Food is always great for a great price. Service is always friendly and attentive. Good place for kids as well with games! read more

This place. Neighborhood bar. We've been here one other time ago really not sure why we haven't been more often. Always a great experience. Burgers are excellent. The cook is very personable. An old timer that takes pride in the food he's serving. I watched him walk around to everyone making sure their food was cooked to their liking. They have an old shuffle board table that is pretty beat up but we had fun for the afternoon. read more

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Great local place. Stick with the type of food they are best with. Burgers, salads, fried food. I had a taco salad and the zesty ranch dressing was soooo good. Good friendly service. Nothing fancy just a good townie type place. read more

Great burgers. Fresh food and lots of beer choices . Old fashioned bar and outdoor seating

Double cheeseburger and fries for $9.25? Shuffleboard? Cold beers? Check, check, check. This is a quintessential neighborhood burger joint and bar. A couple of different rooms provide different seating options and atmosphere, and anyone is welcome in any room. Hit this place for the first night of burger week and was not disappointed. The burger is big an filling. The bun might be a bit oversized, but easy enough to cut off. Staff was super friendly - we had lots of requests and all were fulfilled. To give a sense of how slowly things change in this neighborhood mainstay, the printed menu still brags about how Salem Gardens was featured on AOL City Guide! It's a classic. read more

Food was delicious. Staff is very friendly. Cute place, could use some updates inside. Outside is very nice.

Great food at reasonable prices. Cool retro joint. Locally owned and operated Family friendly. Outdoor patios read more

Decent, unpretentious local watering hole with full bar and kitchen. The beer selection is not vast, but they usually have a couple beers for the more sophisticated beer pallet. This place is elevated above the level of dive bar due to its large back dining room(often where post-game softballers congregate, or little leaguers and their parents) and nice outdoor patio seating area and table service inside and out. The food is pretty average pub grub. Burgers, sandwiches, fried stuff, and pretty good chicken wings. Each day of the week there are different specials, whether it's on wings, or beer, it changes daily, and these specials are scrawled out on the mirrors behind the bar. There is shuffle-puck and juke-box and TVs for sports. Really just a good neighborhood bar. Worst thing is the bathroom always stinks, and I've been going there for probably 15 years or so and they still haven't replaced the knobs on the faucets in the bathroom that someone swiped decades ago. read more

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Long time customer. Salem Gardens is a cool old bar that has good food and great drinks. Very consistent. Really good hamburgers. Good specialsGood bartenders and nice beer selection. Also nice for families. Recommend. Our first venture to a sit down led us to one of our old favorites Salem Gardens. The outdoor seating was full as pulled into the parking lot on a beautifully Friday. With no room outside, we went inside where there was no one. Great! Booths had been removed for social distancing. Clear directions were visible. Our server wearing a mask gave us paper disposable menus. Ordered a burger, fries and cole slaw along with a lovely draft beer. What a treat! Real bar food again. Seemed odd after all the take out. Thanks Salem Gardens! read more

Bar and grill type food. Food was fresh. Two people in our party had the Charley O'Burger which they enjoyed very much; came with fries and cole slaw. Another person had tomato soup. She said it was flavorful and tasted homemade... I wanted a burger, but watching what I'm eating so had the taco salad in the shell. It was tasty, the lettuce was fresh, and you'd think the tomatoes were just picked off the vine, but it's winter! Personally, I wouldn't waste my calories on the onion rings. read more

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If you like a great burger, awesome pours on drinks. You'll love this place. I love the spicy cheese bites and the burgers are always sooo good. read more

Great service as always and friendly for family environment!Buffalo Chicken Wrap is my favorite!

Friendly neighborhood place to grab essential bar food and/or catch the game... get the loaded tots, in fact, get two orders. Wings are okay, but the burgers are better. Fries are traditional but dang good... but... the tots... I mentioned the loaded tots, right? Parking can be tricky... there is a front and back lot but often times the way to the back from the front is blocked bc folks think it's a parking place... BUT you can enter the back parking lot from from the side. Overall, the location is nice and away from the fuss that is Beechmont Ave but not far enough to be a nuisance. You can be there from nky in 20 mins via 275. read more

Burgers are still the Best! Cooked the way you ask for it! Moe sure pours a great cocktail! read more

Hard working staff, food is hot, good quality, and fair prices. Classic neighborhood bar where all are welcome - clientele is families, and neighborhood folks. read more

Staff was terrific, everything was reasonably priced, and food was delicious. Although the burger was probably too big, it was still very good. read more

I liked it. In the front it's a bar. In the middle was indoor seating, and out the back is the patio. I had the turkey and Swiss on wheat toast and my firmed got the taco salad. One was good and my friends taco salad was huge! Great service. I would love to go back again. read more

Apparently this place has been open since 1926 and you can tell! It's a down home kinda place, no frills, comfort food, and friendly service. This review is just for the bar area which was surprisingly full after work on a Tuesday evening. It seems like everyone in the neighborhood was there and they all knew one another on a first name basis. The bartender knew everyones names and as the chef would walk in and out he would wave and say, "Hey Chuck, how ya doin?" like he sees him every day. Also, I must have heard the weather update from the locals at least 5-6 times during my visit. Positives: the patio is gem! Nice seating and landscaping which was shocking because the inside is very divey. They also have a shuffleboard table which I can always appreciate. The only thing you should know going in is that this is a very locals-only kind of spot (not a place to get rowdy) and the clientele is very polarizing either kiddos or much older folks. Not my cup of tea but still, this is a nice family place, worth checking out. read more

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Very nice lunch experience here with three of my coworkers. Excellent, friendly service and pleasant neighborhood bar type atmosphere. Comfortably dive-y but completely unpretentious. This is the real deal dive as opposed to the new places that try to manufacture dive. It's the kind of homey dive feel that I have never experienced in any place near where I live in Carmel. It was a light lunchtime crowd and everyone besides us seemed to be regulars. Food was very good to excellent. Between the four of us we had sandwiches, a burger, a large salad and several sides which we shared. Cole slaw was really tasty, not too sweet and just the way I like it. The fries were hot, crispy and terrific. I instantly felt right at home here even though we were just traveling through for work. I would definitely stop here again when in the area. And if I lived nearby I would be a regular. read more

Crinkle cut fries were perfectly crispy and hot. The burger was juicy and plenty big. It could have used more onion and mushrooms though. The place is the quintessential neighborhood mom n pop spot. Waitress Nina was great. We didn't have to wait for refills which I appreciate. read more

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Stopped by for lunch when I was in the area. Great food and friendly service. Looking forward to stopping in again!

Friendly servers. Mediocre food. Neighborhood tavern vibe. Reasonable prices. If you go, stick with the burgers They're pretty good.

Let me start off by saying don't judge a book by its cover. This is a throw back dive bar. One thing that shocked us is that the draft beers were all craft beers. Domestic beer is available in bottles only. The wings are very good but not alot of flavor I'd recommend having them spun in the sauce. Wasn't crazy about the fancy sauces but the buffalo was good. The Cole slaw has very good flavor with horseradish but it's not made here so nothing original. The burgers are the classic bar burger with very good flavor!!! The place is very dated, but worth the adventure. read more

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I went to Salem Gardens with my sister-in-law. I had a cheeseburger and two beers. We also had potato skins which were very good I will go back. read more

The food is mediocre, but the drinks are cheap and the staff are friendly. There is a nice outdoor fireplace and heaters for outdoor dining, too! read more

Wow! I had been here probably 13 years ago and stopped in last night for burger week. Amazing! We can't wait to go back. The burger was huge and so, so good. The french fries were super hot and a generous serving as well. We sat at the bar and the service was efficient and friendly. They only have about 6 beers on tap, but plenty of bottles. We will be back to try the chicken wings for sure! read more

First time we stopped there was Monday night. We ordered the fried pickles there's an appetizer. Some of the best fried pickles that I've ever had they are very large and juicy and wedges. They are very large pickles and very juicy. We also ordered a Swiss cheeseburger. Was very tasty. Me and the wife will definitely return there for some other dinner entrees. For service they are also is very excellent the girl we had right on top of everything constantly getting this refills on our drinks made sure that we were always well taken care of. I would recommend stopping in and trying it out we will be back read more

This place is miserable. Got a patty melt, meat was underseasoned, fries (while of the vastly superior crinkle variety) were cold and also unseasoned. I salted them but it was as fruitless an attempt as resisting a Borg cube if you're 7's parents. Onion rings weren't very good either. My dining companion ordered the cowboy burg which had bbq sauce. Said sauce was requested on the side. We got charged extra for it. Mozzarella sticks were good. Go for the ranch (which they'll also charge you for); their marinara sauce is packaged. read more