This is a great spot to grab breakfast at in downtown Cincinnati. I've ended up several times and enjoyed each visit. The atmosphere is clean, modern and chic. Really a nice place to hang out and have a meal. The service has always been friendly and knowledgeable. And then the food is always great. The last time I went I tried the Goetta. It's a unique German based meat that you really don't come across outside of the Cincinnati area. You might like it, you might not. But I'd say it's worth giving a try. The whole "when in Rome" thing. Worth noting is that they are in the heart of Cincinnati and parking will be dicey. You'll either need to be in a deck or on the street if you're planning on driving. Ultimately, it's worth swinging by and checking them out. The next time I'm in Cincinnati I'll drop by again. read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

Sleepy Bee was great! We were in Cincy for a wedding and stayed at the Westin right next door, so we stopped in for breakfast and to knock out a little work. The avocado toast was just okay, but the breakfast burrito more than made up for it, that thing was amazing. And the latte might be one of the best I've ever had. Really solid spot. Would definitely recommend it to anyone staying in town looking for a good breakfast and coffee! read more

I returned with an open mind, but unfortunately, I was disappointed once again. When my meal arrived, I noticed they had changed the style of potatoes served with the dish. However, one thing that has not changed is that they were served cold. I informed the server that the potatoes were ice cold, and they apologized and promptly placed a replacement order, advising it would take about two minutes. When the new potatoes arrived, they were hot and much better. The eggs were good and served warm, but they appeared to have been sitting for a while before being brought to the table. As a solo diner, I often find that I am overlooked when staff are making rounds for water and coffee refills, and this visit was no exception. Larger tables around me received multiple refills before I was ever approached. Additionally, the table directly in front of me remained uncleared for more than 30 minutes, as shown in the photo. It appeared that the table was only cleared when new diners needed to be seated, and the dirty dishes were simply moved to another table. I am genuinely disappointed that, despite a year having passed since my last visit, it seems that little has changed. read more

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Sleepy Bee Cafe in downtown Cincinnati was a lovely spot for a breakfast. We had one of their signature buttermilk pancakes. All the staffs were warm and friendly, and the livery atmosphere left a very good impression. This us a charming place to start the morning. read more

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Mehhhhh. I was expecting something a bit similar to first watch but instead the vibes was closer to a Waffle House. Don't get me wrong, i love Waffle House so no shade here butttttt sleepy bee did not meet my expectations in the slightest. Waffle House is actually better than sleepy bee. The place was not clean... and I can see past a little messiness during a rush but the cups were even dirty, menus were stained and messy as well, and then the restaurant itself didn't look well maintained. The food was below par. I ordered the worker bee which is a traditional breakfast but my sausages were hard as rock.... The eggs were def sitting for 15 minutes before they got to me. &The potato's were okay. I would pass on this restaurant. read more

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Hands-down one of the best breakfast spots I've been to in Cincinnati. The food was delicious, and the atmosphere made the experience even better. I ordered the pancakes and the Worker Bee breakfast plate, with scrambled eggs, bacon, roasted potatoes, and multigrain toast. The menu has a ton of creative options, and you can tell they care about sourcing local, high-quality ingredients. Whitney took care of us and she was excellent, attentive without overdoing it. Service like that makes all the difference. If you're looking for a spot with amazing food, great service, and a cool atmosphere, Sleepy Bee is a must-visit. read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Inside - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

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This place is so cute! We were here a few years ago and liked it so much we came back (we are not local to the area.) Love the cute decor and whimsical atmosphere. I wish they had more merch (t-shirts) for sale, I would buy one, but both times they only had 1 or 2, neither of which were my size. Staff was friendly both times we were here, and food was good. A bit of a wait (about 1/2 hour) on a Sunday about noon. The "waitlist" option on the website was not available. Not sure if that was due to the restaurant or due to the Toast app they use. Would definitely come back! read more

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Yikes. We wait over an hour for our food to arrive ( scrambled eggs, and pancakes ), and it was ice cold. The service was also very bad, our waitress never came by. Definitely recommend trying another place if you're in downtown Cincinnati. read more

Great atmosphere, tasty coffee, and friendly staff, but honestly bland food. I got The Worker Bee and was pretty disappointed. The menu says their pancakes are their specialty, so I'll try that next time instead. read more

The restaurant had a great vibe! It felt exactly like what "Sleepy Bee" in cafe font would be. :) The waiter was very attentive and friendly and the food was good- potatoes were the best. read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Eggs, bacon, toast - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

Quaint little breakfast joint in Cincy. Nice atmosphere, staff was great (although they seated me all the way in the back, weird, plenty of opens spaces up front, looks?). Service was top notch as well. The food, definitely bland, I had to season it and add hot sauce to it as well to give it some flavor. The smashed potatoes were disappointing, since they give you two tiny little potatoes. read more

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The ambiance is beautiful with the lights and the art on the wall. The food is excellent made to order and fresh!! Everyone is friendly the service is excellent as well. read more

Hey just back here to Sleepy Bee again! We had another wonderful experience for breakfast. Funny story...I wanted to order the Chorizo Scramble but instead, and without thinking I ordered the Forager Scramble. So I expected chorizo and red pepper but got asparagus and goat cheese. Now I'm not too picky, I enjoyed the Forager instead! :) Gives me another reason to come back when staying overnight in Cincy to try the chorizo scramble. My wife enjoyed her breakfast burrito. The Bee Cake was delicious. Made from almond and quinoa flour, I believe. Of course the place was hopping with a positive energy. read more

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Fantastic service !! Breakfast was on point and coffee was amazing. Will be back next time !

This place is super cute. I was excited about their vegetarian meat options, but unfortunately they were all out when I was there, so when I ordered the salad without the chicken they did offer to make it with an egg, which was ok. The honey latte with oat milk was delicious. Service was friendly and efficient. read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

Eh. Food was just ok. Coffee just ok. The pancakes were very good. The avocado toast was more salad than avocado or toast. Was still very hungry after. Thankfully I also ordered the yogurt bowl. Also lacking and not work $15. I also don't feel like it was Greek - it was kind of runny. Service was just ok. Nice people but not worth it IMO read more

Cold toast, cold potato's, horrible service no love minimal care, use to be good... I encourage corporate or the owners to come down and dine here and see why you guys have turned to straight garbage vs 5 years ago... at least you guys kept the good jam read more

My wife and I had our second brunch at Sleepy Bee today. We went the first time a few years ago while in Cincy and had a good meal so we gave it another try. They're a nice stop downtown for breakfast/brunch/lunch. It's basic breakfast stuff but well prepared. My wife likes the pancakes. She had the Nutty cakes, chocolate chip pancakes topped with fresh peanut butter, and suggests getting that on the side. It's a lot! I had a basic breakfast with eggs, goetta, toast and potatoes. Plenty of food. Fresh squeezed OJ. Be prepared to wait a bit if you go on a Sunday morning. But it opened up around 12:45 for immediate seating. The staff did a good job. The decor is Bee-themed and enjoyable to explore. read more

Easily one of our favorite brunch locations in Cinci/NKY. The food and service are consistently good, and we love that they source ingredients locally. Their mocha latte is amazing and I'm a big fan of their apricot Greek yogurt. My husband swears by the Broakley sandwich. If you're planning to go during peak/weekend hours, I recommend using No Wait or arriving early as they are typically quite busy (and for good reason!) read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

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Sleepy Bee is a great breakfast spot. Service is good. Food is fresh and delicious. I had the avo toast with a side of Eclerlins goetta. Both were quite tasty. We had a party of 6 and had no issues with the noise level. Other members of our party had blueberry pancakes and the worker bee. All enjoyed their meals. Definitely recommend. read more

All of the coffee and chai lattes are good!!! The service is also really amazing!!! They are all very nice!!! read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

Cool ambiance, friendly service, and quality fresh ingredients to table food. Good selection of brunch dishes. Kids gets coloring menu page & 2- double side crayons ( super cute). Good price for high quality ingredients read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Cool backsplash - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

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This restaurant deserves the title of "the BEST IN CINCINNATI". Chill and bright atmosphere. Always packed, very popular. Pancakes were huge and fluffy . Even the gluten-free pancakes came out fluffy and very tasty. don't forget the syrup and other sauce they added to the various pancakes. they were delicious to the core and ingredients are all sourced locally. Avo toast were unique, came with so much healthier ingredients. Sandwiches stacked high and yummy. I was full on half of it. Definitely can be shared. We also like the puréed seasonal soup and all the coffee drinks. Service was SUPER ... down to earth attitude, knowledgeable of the items on menu, friendly and efficient. Value: worth every penny. Reasonable for the quality of the ingredients you can get here. read more

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Found our new breakfast spot! The food was delicious and affordable. The inside was super cute and on theme without too much. The waitress was extremely friendly and answered all of our questions! Super excited to go back and keep trying the menu read more

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Staff was so friendly and attentive despite being slammed! My husband and I brought our five month old and her stroller into eat. They sat us at a two top that was out of the way so she could sleep in her stroller. Often the staff would come by just to talk to us about babies. Made us feel so welcomed. I had the seasonal fruit pancake -- lemon curd-- and my husband had the breakfast plate. We ate every bit of our meals. Would definitely recommend to anyone staying in the city! read more

Jumping breakfast spot that had quite a wait time when we arrived on a Saturday morning. The staff was friendly and for as busy as they were, very attentive to us. The inside was easy on the eyes and clean. My son ordered a stack of two classic buttermilk pancakes with chocolate chips $7.75 plus .75 for chocolate chips in each pancake - made from bee-pollinated flours (you can get the pancakes gluten free) - all served with Milligan's maple syrup (local Ohio syrup). He finished just half of the double stack and had to tap out. I had The Worker Bee $12.75 - two eggs any style, choice of bacon, candied bacon, sausage, turkey sausage, goetta (my choice) or vegan goetta, toast (rye) and a side. I would recommend the Roasted Red Skin Potatoes with house-made honey garlic sauce for a side. The sauce was delicious! So goetta .... I thought I would enjoy it, but I thought the oats mixed with the ground pork was bland. I know it's a Cincinnati thing, but on it's own it was meh. If you have a texture issue than the oats will probably bother you. I did find a solution .... hot sauce! Overall, Sleepy Bee Cafe was a good breakfast spot to start our day! read more

Close to our hotel and great reviews so we stopped in for breakfast. Overall mediocre and expensive. $50 for breakfast for two. I got the worker bee- bacon, egg, smashed potatoes and toast. Potatoes were very soft, weird to have mashed potatoes with breakfast. Thought they would be crispier. One was just sluced down the middle so it was a baked potato. Husband got the chorizo scramble. Eggs were very soft and chorizo tasted more like italian sausage than chorizo. He said it was eatable. He complained for him portion sizes were small. He ate my baked potatoes and toast. It was all just ok. Nothing amazing or worth the price. Also they offer a "jam" for the toast that is barely thicker than raspberry water with no sugar and very little flavor. Just not our jam. Ha ha. So dont think we'd go back. Although, our neighbors got a pancake and it looked good. read more

They could serve coffee in ceramic cups for those dining in. They serve coffee in ceramic cups until they run out. The restaurant was only seated at 1/3 capacity According to manager they have been short on coffee mugs for several months. If I wanted to drink coffee out of paper cup I'd get breakfast at McDonalds. Strawberry jam was more like strawberry soup. Watery. read more

I'm disappointment because this place has so many stars on Yelp and it mid to say the least. My food was served cold (potatoes and toast was toasted for like 60secs lol). My omelet was okay but they didn't even cook my spinach with the egg it was a topping. read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Avi Scramble - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

I read great reviews about this place and decided to try it while visiting Cincinnati for the day. Unfortunately, my experience didn't live up to the hype. After being seated, a table that arrived after me was greeted and offered drinks first. I ordered a simple breakfast... eggs, bacon, and asked to substitute the potatoes for a small slice of avocado. I appreciated that the manager approved the substitution at no extra charge, even though it was a very tiny portion. I requested my eggs over medium plus, mentioning specifically that I don't like them super runny. When the food arrived, the egg whites were still runny and the yolks were completely liquid, definitely not medium. The toast was cold, stale and hard, though the bacon was good. The server offered to remake my eggs, and the second attempt was much better, but by the time I got them, the rest of my food was cold. I also never received a coffee refill or too off and had to ask for a coffee to go at the end which was about the only item that was warm in the place. The environment was as nice though, looked clean and quaint. Overall, I felt like just another number. The service was indifferent, and the breakfast was disappointing. I wouldn't recommend this place based on my experience. read more

Pulled Chicken Hash: Smashed potatoes topped with marinated chicken thighs, carrot slaw, ginger pickles, and a hot honey aioli drizzle Kids Pancake: Happy Cake with a fruit smile Both of our meals were delicious! The hash was tastier than I expected and the ginger pickles tied the entire dish together. Thankfully, my kiddo didn't eat her entire pancake so I got to try a few bites. Despite her drenching it in maple syrup, I thought it was delicious. I would recommend Sleepy Bee to friends! The staff was friendly the entire time and I loved the decor and friendly bees throughout. Save the bees! read more

Cute place downtown Cincinnati. Parking garage on the backside is the best option. Mocha and buttermilk pancakes are to die for. Omelette and smashed red skin potatoes were also stellar. Great brunch spot but gets busy so join the waitlist. read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Egg white Avi omelette - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

Cute place, but I think we came in a bad day. They ran out of eggs, fruit, potato. Service was nice, but it took a while for things to come out. The bee cake was good. It was a gluten free pancake. The soup was also a good substitute since they ran out of stuff- it was a curry sweet potato soup. read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Breakfast burrito - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

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While looking for a breakfast/brunch spot close to where I was staying, I found Sleepy Bee was close by and had great reviews. Me and a couple of my coworkers decided to come here. It wasn't too busy and we were seated right away. Everything sounded really good from the menu and looked really good from all the photos online. I got eggs, bacon, and chose to do a chocolate chip pancake on the side instead of toast. It was really good and the bacon had a sweet taste that made it so much better. Our server was nice and friendly. She gave us recommendations. The price was really good (we're coming from CA so comparing it to that). I'll definitely be back next time I'm in town. read more

Good, no-frills place for breakfast. Tasty meal and good value for what you're getting--exactly what you'd expect. We had pancakes and the steak Philly omelet. Chloe, our server, took great care of us. read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Goetta - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

Sleepy Bee is a quaint little place for breakfast, brunch & lunch. Everything is geared toward locally naturally sourced fresh healthy ingredients. Even all the decor and lighting is centered around bees lives! Madison gave me a warm welcome and sat me at a nice end table. Anastaisha was a really nice server and was able to help me decide from the lunch menu. She checked on me several times and made sure I had everything I needed. My Bee Chop Salad was made with crispy local mixed greens, raw beets, broccoli, celery, avocado, carrots and Sleepy Bee seed mix topped with hot honey vinegarette. It was generously portioned and had a really nice healthy fresh taste. They have many unique healthy items on their menu that you won't find at other places. read more

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Awesome! Downtown gem! We walked from our hotel & were immediately seated at a hightop by the front window. Hubby's coffee was very good! In fact, our awesome waitress brought him a to go cup as we left. I had the Avi scrambler with fruit & it was delicious! Scrambled eggs with mushrooms & spinach etc. & incredibly taste toast! The slice of avocado was pretty & added to the dish! Hubby's Worker Bee was totally enjoyable. He had goetta which is a Cincy thing & he enjoyed it. It has a positive mod vibe & was pretty busy for a Monday morning! Clean, bright & and a happy atmosphere to boot! We loved it. You will too! read more

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I found the Sleepy Bee because it was so highly rated, and for good reason! It is a popular spot worthy of checking out. This cafe puts a lot of effort into sustainability and consciousness around their ingredients and supplies. It is well-run and the service staff are buzzing (sorry) around, keeping all of the patrons happy. The menu has quite a few unique and delicious items. I opted for the avocado toast with roasted sweet potatoes. The flavors were great with the golden raisins elevating the whole meal. My partner got the blueberry pancakes and turkey sausage with lesser results. They ended up a bit tough, though I think it was due to using 99% fat free ground turkey (only a guess based on cooking with it before). The environment is cute, artsy, and inviting. Check it out! read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Avo toast and roasted sweet potatoes - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio

I was really disappointed. I used to love Sleepy Bee in Oakley. I had pancakes and sausage and the syrup was the runniest most flavorless syrup ever. It had the viscosity of water. I also didn't like the sausage but I'm really picky about sausage. read more

Before arriving in Cincinnati, I spent some time on Reddit and Yelp looking for locals favorite breakfast joints. The Sleepy Bee Café was always towards the top of the list. Unfortunately, I did not have a great experience. First, parking downtown is tough. Every lot wanted to charge me $20 (game day parking (Reds)). I finally found hourly parking and was at the café right about the time they opened. I sat at the island/bar and proceeded to chat with waitstaff. Everyone I interacted with was friendly, and willing to give advice on their city (particularly coffee shop advice). My waitress was also kind enough to explain what goetta is...I'd never heard of it. I opted for the meat scramble with the goetta. The food came out barely warm. The potatoes were particularly cool (the temp, not the vibe). The scramble was watery and under seasoned. Best part of my experience were, by far, the people I met behind the counter. Ultimately, my review: I'm a sorry I wasted an out of town breakfast here. read more

Sleepy Bee Cafe - Downtown - Breakfast & Brunch Near Me - Cincinnati, Ohio