The Chintz Room (Facebook / T: @chintzroom / IG: @thechintzroom)
121 S. High St. (map it!)
Columbus, OH 43215
(614) 456-7239
Open Mon-Wed, 11a-9p; Thurs-Sat, 11a-10p; Sun, 11a-4p (brunch Sat & Sun, 11a-4p)
Back in May we visited the Chintz Room on assignment from the Dispatch (you can read the full review here), and as usual, we wanted to share more of our photos and experiences.
The Dispatch piece has a brief history of the Chintz Room, but in case you didn’t know it: the Chintz Room was once a restaurant on the fifth floor of the Lazarus department store. The original Chintz Room closed before we moved to Columbus, and by the time we got here Lazarus was in its twilight years. I remember stepping foot in Lazarus once, and obviously never visited Chintz Room.
The new restaurant is at street level in the revamped Lazarus building, a long and bright space with the bar on one end. There’s also a small patio on High Street.
As you can imagine, vestiges of Lazarus history adorn the walls of the restaurant, including original decorations, photos, and dioramas.
We visited in the afternoon as the brunch hours waned. There were a few other customers, but otherwise the place was quiet. We started with a beer and a Bloody Mary. The beer selection includes 18 beers on tap and is pretty solid; I sipped Seventh Son’s Wuffles session ale.
The Bloody Mary was nicely done and balanced, not too mild or too spicy.
We sampled our way through four menu items, with mostly good results. Overall, there’s some creativity on the menu, although for our experience things were a little dry and lacking in seasoning. But there are still bright points.
First, the chicken and waffles. Nicely cooked chicken, although a tad dry. The freshly made waffle comes out a little crumbly, but with maple syrup and maple-cayenne butter for topping.
The omelet du jour was one of our favorites, even though it was on the dry side. It featured a rich and earthy mixture of brie, house-made sausage (a real stand-out of the meal), and mushrooms.
The eggs benedict features pieces of breaded and fried chicken cutlet in the place of Canadian bacon. The chicken here, though, was similar to the chicken and waffles: it just needed to be juicier and given an extra punch of seasoning.
That said, the hollandaise is nicely executed and the eggs were good for dipping.
Our boys dug the breakfast pizza, with a simple thin crust, chopped veggies, cheddar, crumbled sausage (which offered the flavor we missed in other dishes), and a dipping egg.
Although there were a few misses on our visit, I think there’s still plenty to recommend Chintz Room’s brunch. The service was very attentive and the space is good for groups. There’s more to the menu as well, including huevos rancheros, lemon & blueberry ricotta pancakes, a bacon mac burger, and a full bar. Brunch is served weekends, with one Sunday a month dedicated to a drag brunch; those brunches have limited seating and a specialized menu. Keep an eye on Facebook for those dates.
This meal was covered by the Dispatch as part of a review. Photos and opinions here are my own.
