Neighborhood #2 - East Walnut Hills

East Walnut Hills is an up and coming neighborhood seeing a lot of revitalization just minutes north from downtown Cincinnati as well as our apartment, is always a great place to hang out! With the up-and-coming DeSales Corner business district and an eclectic mix of people, it's one of my (Paige's) favorite places to grab a cup of coffee (check out Cafe Moca, on DeSales Corner next time you're looking for a caffeine fix!)

A couple weeks ago, Kevin and I decided to target East Walnut Hills for our date night. We began by enjoying time together in Eden Park, on the southern edge of the neighborhood. The park overlooks the river and has pathways winding through woods and grassy knolls. The park also features a pretty cool brick water tower from the 1890s as well as the Krohn Conservatory, the Cincinnati Art Museum, and the Playhouse in the Park.

After we worked up an appetite from walking around, we headed back north to East Walnut Hills. We had planned on eating at The Skinny Pig (check out a review from CityBeat here), a relatively new restaurant in the community that is operated by the same group that runs Mayberry, another up and coming restaurant downtown (although we have never been there before either. Gotta add it to the list!). Unfortunately, their UrbanSpoon page incorrectly said they were open on Mondays. So instead, we checked out Suzy Wong's Asian Eats, on Madison Road. They offer free off-street parking (amazing how exciting this is when you live in the city!) and provided great customer service! Suzy Wong's has an incredibly modern, yet comfortable, feel to it, and the wall of windows facing Madison Road allow those dining to do some serious people watching while waiting. (Don't be fooled by all the empty seats either, since it was a Monday night)

We ended up ordering edemame and cold thai peanut noodles as appetizers. I ordered mandarin orange chicken and Kevin ordered Japanese udon noodles with chicken. They had great selection of all kinds of Asian foods! We went on a Wednesday night, so we got a table right away. I have a feeling the service is good regardless of the wait time though. Our total bill for both meals and two apps plus tip was about $36. Not bad. Team McNally gives Suzy Wong's Asian Eats an overall thumbs up!

As Kevin stated in the last post, if you know of a delicious place in East Walnut Hills that we missed out on, or if you have a recommendation for our next official date, leave some feedback! We would love to hear about your favorite neighborhood or favorite date spot!

And since it's getting close to Halloween, another fun place to check out if you are around Cincinnati is Iron's Fruit Farm, just north of Cincinnati in Lebanon, Ohio. They have some great fall activities to check out including a corn maze, hay ride, pumpkin patch, kids activities, and a great little store where you can buy some great treats (fresh apple cider, pumpkin doughnuts, or apple cider doughnuts anyone?!). We went there a couple weeks ago with our friends Drew and Amanda and had a great time (even if it was a balmy 80 degrees in October)!