grand finale

for emma's birthday, she wanted to have brunch at her favorite brunch spot... grand finale in glendale. i had been to grand finale before, but just for dessert, so i was excited to try their brunch since i had heard so much about it. many cincinnati natives claim that it is the best brunch in town.

we made a reservation so that we would not have to deal with long wait times. fyi, you can only make a reservation there if you have at least 8 people. this was great for us because when we got there, they were quoting wait times of an hour.

the party crew

the atmosphere and the crowd were exactly the same as my first visit... quirky and old. mostly older people or families, almost everyone was dressed up (but nobody was stylish), and the decoration of the room we were in (and every other room) was flowery, 80s-ish wallpaper, random knickknacks and pastel colored paintings, and lots of curtains/doilies/tablecloths/etc. to me, it's ugly. to emma, it's nostalgic and cute. it's all a matter of perspective.

i don't care how ugly a restaurant looks though as long as the food is good. unfortunately, grand finale was not up to the task. i think a big part of the problem is that their brunch is a buffet. i normally avoid buffets like the plague (except for the amazing brunch at the palm court which you can read about on emily's blog) because food that sits out just is not usually that good.

grand finale's food is just not that good. they have a respectable spread (multiple meats, biscuits and gravy, little quiches, eggs benedict, fruits, lots of desserts, etc.) but nothing really stands out as actually being good. there were sausages floating in vats of lukewarm oil. the eggs benedict were completely cooked to the point of being hard and dried out. the sausage gravy was like thick paste. the crepes filled with various toppings were kind of tough. the cinnamon rolls were dry. you can check out the brunch menu here if you want.

my plate... looks better than it tasted (and it doesn't even look that good)

other things were ok. the bacon was crisp but not overcooked. the cheesy grits were yummy. the potato hash was pretty tasty. the dessert spread was excellent and delicious (little mini tarts and eclairs). fyi, if you want pancakes or waffles, you have to order those to your table. i didn't try any of those and nobody really talked about them making me think they were just ok.

the service was average. our server was nice but clearly had too many tables. we had to wait forever to even order coffee and we had to keep asking to get it and our water glasses refilled.

one good thing about grand finale (if you are into this kind of thing) is that it is very family friendly. we had two babies at our table, which meant that we had to kind of eat in shifts and people kept coming and going and moving around and passing babies. nobody minded this at all, which was nice.

emma's mom, emma's baby, and emma. they love grand finale.

the price? $15.95, which included a glass of juice. coffee was $1 for as much as you wanted and mimosas/bloody marys were $2.50. i had coffee so my total with tax and tip ended up being around $22 i think.

this was too much for a brunch that i did not really enjoy. i don't mind because it was for emma's birthday but i would not go back on my own. it was fun to see my friends and celebrate emma's birthday, but it was not relaxing and the food was not very good. the place felt very chaotic with people getting up and sitting down and servers running around like chickens with their heads cut off. although i still think grand finale has good desserts, i will not go back for brunch (unless someone else is paying of course... haha).