gordo's pub & grill

hidden gem in the hidden gem. overall taste (1-10) "the magic"

10: unassuming place that should be on your map...fantastic!

beef (1-10) quality, juiciness, preparation, size
10: juicy meat, over the top fresh, size of filet mignon (thick and round)...super tall and fat burgers!

bun (1-5) freshness, appearance, texture, taste
5: toasted and gourmet looking, bet from a local bakery

toppings (1-5) variety, freshness, cheese quality

5: oh the creativity! grape compote & goat cheese, roasted pablanos, boursin cheese and roasted pineapple! and all the norms, too.

atmosphere (1-5) cleanliness, service, speed, chairs, music
4: impressive/historic bar, sweet lighting, plasma tvs, but no music & slightly stale air

burger value (1-5) what you get for what you pay
5: $7 to taste 5 star creativity. would have paid $27! :-) great steak fries and awesome ketchup. think it's homemade? something special about the ketchup, folks.

total score (40 perfect)
39.

additional comments:

the best around! jean-robert burger is tasty unique and the gordo burger is my next pic. all theburgerssounded amazing. this place is a hidden gem and to think it's right across from the norwood public library....wow. 45212 is rocking the burgers.

i’ve been wanting to stop by and give gordo’s a try. greeted by a friendly waitress we were seated immediately. inside was a basic pub, with a bar up front and tables towards the back.
they have a great beer menu,but i couldn’t indulge as i was on a work break.
so i can’t tell you if their beer is ice cold as i like it.
i had to try theirburgersas this was the only reason for stopping
i order the korean burger cooked mr. i’ll say it was huge. the ground beef burger was an inch and a half thick.
it was delicious needless to say.
i would recommend ordering mr as any more here it would be much less juicy.
also gave the hot wings a try. equally delicious, no breading just deep fried goodness.
the only negative i have is that it is $$$. i had a $23.00 minus the tip.
can’t do this place every day.

i have been to gordo's several times, and while this is a place i really want to like, it just doesn't make the cut when it comes to the food quality

if you're going to go here and have not been here before, be mindful that it is kinda of hard to spot, in a building that is not very wide in the front, with less than obvious unlit signage.  inside and out, it looks quite a bit more like a dive bar that happens to serve food rather than a restaurant trying to also be a dive bar

they have a random daily soup, some appetizers and salads, some hot and cold sandwiches, and two types of seafood tacos, but the specialty here is the burger menu, and these are in my opinion the best things they make here

theburgers- about a dozen or so configurations - are thick pub style burgers.  they do offer to cook to requested degree of doneness, and to their credit they have hit the right mark in this sense (i prefer mr) 4 out of the 5 times i have ordered a burger here.  i don't know what they cook on - i dont see grill marks so i'd think griddled but then there is a certain backyard-bbq smokiness to theseburgersthat suggests they are cooked over a charcoal or wood grill.   they are very tasty and filling and served on a good quality bun, but my one issue is that they aren't as juicy as they should be for this style of burger, particularly at this price level ($10+)

i've tried several of the sides but none have been worth the 2 dollar upcharge to substitute for the unremarkable steak fries included with every sandwich.  from pictures i have seen online, it looks like they use to broil cheese atop the mac and cheese, but unfortunately they dont do that anymore

several other menu items i have tried that weren't a burger - the baked mushrooms in a thin and bland cream sauce, the pork bbq that wasn't really bbqed, the nanay egg rolls filled with unseasoned (possible boiled) hamburger - were all things i'd steer you away from
 
the one non-burger item that i can sorta kinda get behind is the pork belly nachos.  they use good fresh chips, plenty of cheese, and bonus they toss the dish in a salamander so the top gets melted and even lightly browned, like any good nachos plate should be.  the one failing is the main event - the pork belly.  there just isn't nearly enough of it to make its presence known and what there is is cut into tiny pieces about the size of half of the eraser on a typical brand-new pencil. i dont know if they'll honor a request for extra meat on this dish, but if you order this, i recommend that you at least request it

bottom line - stick with theburgershere

love gordo's!!. we have been here several times and have had great food every time. the mushroom appetizer is fantastic - can't get enough of that cheesy goodness. theburgersare great! sorry for the people who get sucky service, but we have had great service and food each time. their drinks are made well too!

i had ordered the "gordo", and opted for the mac and cheese instead of the fries. let's just say i should've just ordered the mac and cheese. i had asked for my burger to be cooked to medium well, and it was completely raw in the middle. not medium, not rare, but raw. i guess it's hard to cook to order a huge "ball" of meat. after sending it back (my mom sent hers back too, it was also raw), we got our orders back after a good while and they were raw again. it would've been a bit better had the toppings actually been grilled like the menu stated and the buns toasted. the buns weren't even warm. it's a damn shame because the mac and cheese was se of the best i've ever tasted. i edibleburgersand rude servers.

big buns are no fun.burgersare great but the buns are way too large to actually eat.

bad burger and service. there are too many restaurants out there competing for business to put up with this one.

my friend and i went for dinner before the theatre as she said theburgerswere good. on this night, however, we were served very pink, practically rawburgerswhich we sent back. they returned several minutes later, but no better. neither one of us felt it was safe (nor appetizing) to eat them. i think we would have chalked it up to just one bad cook night had there been any acknowledgment. we were not offered anything for the inconvenience or even an apology. we both were charged for our one beer and an order of green beans (not the dinner we were hoping for). when i asked to speak with a manager so i could share my disappointment (the waitress clearly did not care), she informed me there wasn't one. the only way she could change my bill was to try to call someone. no thanks! i didn't care as much about the bill as i did my missed chance at dinner and their clear disinterest in us. we both agreed we would not return.
bad news: no dinner and bad service
good news: i saved some calories, the play was awesome.

went here with my husband for some drinks and appetizers. the beer here is always good, nice selection. theburgersare very good as well. this time we had the wings, nachos, and spring rolls. the wings and nachos were very good but the spring rolls were not. and the dipping sauce was inedible. it tasted like old frying oil. service is not great either. the girls working basically seat you, take your order and you never see them again. i watched a guy sit with his burger in front of him for 10 min waiting for someone to cone around to flag them down so he could tell them his order was wrong. i feel like the waitresses are trying to ignore you so that they aren't bothered. they spend all their time standing at the bar.
i like the food for the most part and the beer is great, but the service needs major improvement.

great forburgers& beer. i went with a group before going to a xu basketball game. we ordered a few rounds of beer, and the beer selection was great. we shared the loaded cheese fries appetizer, and it was pretty good. i ordered the sunrise burger, and it was great. it had a fried egg and pork belly. i was really impressed.

i'll definitely go back again.

gordos was pretty good when i went the first few times and ever since it's been very inconsistent. theburgerstend to be absolute raw and when you send it back the burger comes right back the same way you sent it.

service is another issue. it just feels like the waiters/waitresses don't care about the customer or the food. the inconsistency of this place is more than enough to keep me from coming back.

and oh yeah, skip the fries and get mac n cheese. always.


-----02 mar, 2013-----

theirburgersare definitely unique! the actual patty is like a meatball-dense and seasoned - it's good but if your not expecting it can be scary ;) i had the burger with grape compote and goat cheese and haven't tried anything different because i love it! although, i did have a bite if the gordo, which is mild and zesty all at once. love it or leave it you have to try this place!

delicious little hole-in-the-wall. fun, comfortable dining area. worth checking out for their deliciousburgersin a comfortable, casual, no frills setting.

horrible service (stacy). okay here are my comments about the time/money i wasted at gordos. i went expecting a nice evening with friends for a going away dinner and came away aggravated with the service. we had a large party (about 12 people), but the place was dead when we walked in so we didn’t think this was going to be an issue. stacy our bartender/waitress was the only person in the front of the house and there was one guy in the kitchen. she brought out our drinks in a timely manner, but the food was another story. our table was clearly above her competency level. our soups trickled onto the tables no earlier than half an hour later, but she forgot three orders. ourburgerscame another hour after that. the fries were cold and soggy by that time. once we got our food stacy didn’t come back once. we felt like we were bothering her conversation with the greasy guy in the kitchen to ask for refills. here’s the worst part!!!!!!! my friend tried to explain how the check should be split up when we were finishing, but she said threw the bill at her and said you guys figure this out! after sitting there with a pen and paper for 20 minutes we got it all straightened out (or so we thought) a girl from my party had to physically go behind the bar to ring it to where no one had to front a $250 bill by themselves. after a half hour of guiding stacy through her computer program like a blind mule we discovered she did the exact same thing with all the drinks so we had to do the same process over again! everyone was so frustrated at this girl’s rude unhelpful attitude. i felt like since she already added the gratuity she didn’t care that her service was subpar to say it nicely. she told us when everything was done and over she made an expectation for us because they were so dead, and that next we’d all have to sit at different tables to get split checks. thanks but i will not be returning to the place and stacy needs a course in customer service or a different career path. it was so hard to remain calm when we were getting nothing, but nasty attitude thrown in our face for spending our money at their establishment. we spent half the night trying to fix stacy’s mistakes when all we really wanted was a night dedicated to our friend who was leaving. this place just lost 12 potential return customers because of the horrible service.

first time i went it was very good, but then.......... i decided to tell a number of people about this place and the group of us went. not only did it take over an hour to get three mediumburgers(it was 1:30 & not busy) but the fries were ice cold. at this point they offered to give us fresh ones which was the least they could do. now i was looking forward to my burger since the last time i got the same thing and it was quite good. to my dismay it was so over done, dry and flavorless that i simply put it down and was done. what's worse is that the people i brought hadburgersthat were worse than mine. three, collective bites taken and no fries eaten and all after waiting over an hour and they didn't offer to take anything off of the bill. after this experience neither myself or anyone from our firehouse will ever return to gordo's.

my favorite restaurant in cincy! it doesn't look like much from the outside but it surprises you on the inside. great atmosphere and service. nice back patio. one of the best, if not the best, beer selections in town, and theburgersare phenomenal! the fries leave something to be desired, but substitute them for the saratoga chips and you're alright. it's kid friendly, too!