Boca had excellent reviews and came highly recommended, so I knew I wanted to try it while we were in Cincinnati. This Boca Cincinnati review covers exactly what we ordered, how the menu works, what dinner cost, and whether I think it is worth booking for a date night or special occasion.
By the end of dinner, Boca had easily earned a spot among the top 10 meals we have ever eaten.
Every course brought something different, the service was excellent, and I honestly had a hard time choosing a favorite dish.
If you are planning more of your trip around your dinner reservation, my One Day in Cincinnati Itinerary for First Time Visitors shows how we fit Boca into a full day of sightseeing, food, and skyline views.
Boca is an upscale French and Italian restaurant in downtown Cincinnati with a menu built around seasonal ingredients and French culinary technique.
Chef and owner David Falk first opened Boca in Cincinnati's Northside neighborhood in 2001. The restaurant later moved to Oakley before relocating to its current Sixth Street location in 2013. The building was previously home to Maisonette, a longtime Cincinnati fine-dining restaurant.
Falk graduated from the Culinary Institute of America and worked at restaurants including Spiaggia and Charlie Trotter's in Chicago, as well as restaurants in Rome and Florence. Boca has also received national recognition, including being named among Travel + Leisure's top French restaurants in the United States and appearing on OpenTable's Top 100 Restaurants list.
Boca is located at:
114 East Sixth Street
Cincinnati, Ohio 45202
Current hours are:
Boca is closed Sunday and Monday according to its current posted schedule.
Because it is downtown, Boca works well as part of an evening in central Cincinnati. We had drinks at Ghost Baby earlier in the evening and then headed to Boca for our 7:30 PM dinner reservation.
If you are considering doing the same, read my Ghost Baby Cincinnati Review: Is This Underground Cocktail Lounge Worth Visiting? for what to expect before adding it to your night.
I would absolutely make a reservation in advance, especially if you want to eat here on a Friday or Saturday or are planning dinner around a special occasion.
I booked ours a few months ahead. When we arrived, there was no wait and we were seated right away.
Smart casual worked perfectly.
Everyone was dressed nicely, but the restaurant did not feel overly formal or uncomfortable. I would dress up a little more than I would for a normal dinner, especially if you are going for a date night, anniversary, or celebration.
The dining room felt elegant and romantic without being stiff or intimidating.
Dinner here felt like the main event rather than just another stop in the evening. With several courses and food arriving throughout the meal, it was nice to have plenty of time to enjoy everything without feeling rushed.
Boca's menu is designed so you can order several dishes and build your own tasting-style meal rather than choosing only an appetizer and entrée.
When we visited, the menu included snacks, small plates, pasta, entrées, and desserts. We were told that around three to four plates per person was a good guideline.
A lot of the smaller dishes are easy to share, which is exactly what we did. It allowed us to taste much more of the menu.
Boca changes dishes seasonally, so the exact menu you see during your visit may be different from ours.
If your Cincinnati plans are mostly based around food, my Best Places to Eat in Cincinnati From Breakfast to Dessert includes more of the restaurants and local foods I would add around a Boca reservation.
We ordered:
Yes, we ordered a lot of food. Every course sounded too good to skip.
The bread came from Blue Oven Bakery, which I recognized from Findlay Market, and was served with cultured butter and sea salt.
It was very good, but this is probably the one thing I would leave off our order next time.
There was absolutely nothing wrong with it. As a matter of fact, it was delicious. It’s just that everything that followed felt so much more special, and by the end of dinner I was extremely full. Skipping the bread would have given me a little more room for everything else.
Blue Oven Bakery was also one of the food stops we encountered while exploring Cincinnati, and my Secret Food Tours Cincinnati Review What to Expect explains more about the food tour and how it worked.
The Pommes Soufflés are Boca's version of a classic dish from Maisonette. These were basically the fanciest fries I have ever eaten.
They had the perfect texture: light and crisp, but still filling enough to feel like more than just a small snack. I would order them again.
Both vegetable dishes had so much flavor.
The salads were perfectly dressed, and neither felt heavy or overdone. They were a good reminder that vegetables can still end up being some of the most memorable dishes on the table when they are prepared properly.
Save this for later on Pinterest so you don’t forget it.
Both pasta dishes were insane. The Sweet Corn Agnolotti came with jalapeño, cotija, and piment d'Espelette. The English Pea Cappellacci was served with butter-poached lobster and lemon.
They were rich and carefully balanced but tasted completely different from each other, which made ordering both worthwhile. I would get both again without hesitation if they were available.
Because Boca's menu changes seasonally, you may not see these exact pastas during your visit.
The Beef Wellington was tender perfection.
It was made with prosciutto, mushroom duxelles, and sauce Périgourdine. The beef was cooked beautifully, and the pastry and filling complemented it without covering up the flavor of the meat.
After several smaller courses, this felt like the centerpiece of dinner.
We ordered two desserts because Brad loves chocolate, while I usually go for something fruity.
Brad ordered the Candy Bar 3.0 with chocolate, nougat, brownie, rocher, and hazelnut ice cream.
Basically, imagine a very high-end Snickers bar.
The chocolate was incredibly creamy and practically melted in your mouth. His dessert was so good—and, as you know, I ate some of his too.
I ordered the Exotic Ris Au Lait with coconut, passion fruit, and makrut lime.
Mine was much lighter, with a little crunch and a fresh flavor. It was creamy, sweet, tangy, and exactly the type of dessert I normally love.
The desserts could not have been more different, which made ordering one of each the right decision.
Individual dishes may not look huge when they arrive, but several courses add up quickly. The snacks and smaller plates are easy to share, which gives you the chance to try more without ordering a full portion of everything.
We ordered a lot and were completely full by the end. The restaurant recommends around three to four plates per person, which felt about right depending on how rich or filling your choices are.
The service was top-notch. We did not even make it halfway through a glass of water before someone filled it again.
The staff explained the menu extremely well and helped us understand how ordering several courses worked. The chefs were also very nice, and the entire experience felt polished but fun.
Boca is expensive, and your total can vary considerably depending on how many courses you order.
We ordered much more food than many couples probably would. I would plan on roughly $150 to $300 for two people, depending on your dishes, drinks, and desserts. Ordering the Beef Wellington will push the total higher.
For us, the food, service, and overall experience matched the price. It did not feel like we were paying more simply because the restaurant was fancy. Every dish felt carefully considered.
Boca is a great choice for date nights, anniversaries, special occasions, food-focused travelers, and couples who enjoy sharing several courses. It probably is not the best fit if you want a quick dinner, large traditional portions, or a lower-cost meal.
I would absolutely eat here again. I would honestly order almost the exact same meal if those dishes were available. The only thing I might skip is the bread, and that is purely because I want more room for the Pommes Soufflés, pasta, Beef Wellington, and dessert.
For a Cincinnati date night where the food itself is the reason you are going out, Boca would be very high on my list.
If you end up booking anything for your trip, using my affiliate links helps support my blog at no extra cost to you. I spend a lot of time researching and writing these guides, so I really appreciate the support.
Compare Cincinnati hotel options through Booking.com.
If you are staying in Columbus and planning Cincinnati as a day trip, my The Best Day Trips from Columbus, Ohio includes Cincinnati along with several other easy trips from the city.
Browse Cincinnati tours and activities through Viator.
If a food tour sounds like a good way to explore the city, you can also book directly through Secret Food Tours.
Read Devou Park Guide Best Cincinnati Skyline Views if you want to add one of my favorite Cincinnati skyline views to your trip.
Use Best Cincinnati Murals You Should Not Miss to find some of the murals and public art around the city.
If you like destination dining and want another Ohio fine-dining experience, read Agni Columbus Review: One of the Best Fine Dining Experiences in Columbus.
13 creek crossings, a canyon that keeps closing in around you, and a hike I’d genuinely put back on my itinerary, West Fork Trail was the one.
We got to Call of the Canyon at 7:15am and the lot was barely a quarter full. By 12:30 it was 85% full, so if there’s one tip that matters most, it’s this: go early.
The maintained trail is 6.6 miles round trip, mostly flat, mostly shaded, but I kept my regular tennis shoes dry the whole way by hopping across the rocks at each crossing. It’s rated moderate, and honestly that’s about the distance, not the terrain.
Here’s what nobody tells you though ✨ the maintained trail isn’t the end. We changed into water shoes at the official endpoint and kept going another mile straight through the creek, canyon walls narrowing around us the whole time. That extra mile ended up being my favorite part of the entire hike.
5/5 for me. I’d bring the water shoes again in a heartbeat.
Link in bio for the full guide parking, timing, what to pack, and everything I wish I knew before I went 🥾
Two hours, zero regrets. The Pink Jeep Broken Arrow Tour is hands down one of the most fun things we did in Sedona.
Open-air Jeeps crawling over slickrock, backcountry views you can’t reach on your own, and the famous Road of No Return, steep, thrilling, and somehow completely safe the whole way down.
If you’re picking one paid activity in Sedona, make it this one.
You have to do @pinkjeeptours 🌵🚙 Link in bio for the full review.
Dinner beside Oak Creek at Cress, and yes, it’s a splurge, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat.🤍
Candlelit tables under the trees, the creek running right beside us, a menu that mixes Arizona ingredients with French technique. We ordered a little of everything: the squash and beet salad, milk rolls with three different butters, sweet potato gnocchi that somehow felt light instead of heavy. Then two desserts because we couldn’t decide. The Vanilla Crème Caramel with Manchego cheese completely stole the show, salty and sweet in a way that sounds strange until you taste it.
Plan on $100–250 for two depending on what you order, and this isn’t the spot for a quick casual dinner, it’s slow, intentional, and worth every minute. Book ahead and ask for a creekside table if you can.
If you’re looking for one unforgettable meal in Sedona, this is it. Link in bio for the full review 🍽️
Sky Ranch Lodge, Sedona. Booked it for the location, stayed for the sunsets.
This is not a five-star resort with ten restaurants and a spa menu the length of a novel. It’s a family-owned boutique hotel on Airport Mesa that knows exactly what it’s good at: red rock views from basically everywhere and one of the best sunset spots in town, private, with maybe four other couples instead of a crowd.
We booked a Premier Rim Room and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. Watched the sunset from our own patio one night and it’s still one of my favorite moments of the whole trip.
✨ Six acres of botanical gardens to wander morning and evening
✨ Pool + hot tub that hit exactly right after a day of hiking
✨ On-site food truck for easy breakfasts and lazy room service nights
✨ Complimentary shuttle so you’re not fighting Sedona parking
✨ Robes, slippers, and a staff that felt genuinely happy to help
Two stays in and I’d book it again without a second thought. This is where to stay in Sedona if you want it to actually feel like Sedona.
Thank you to @skyranchlodge for having us, link in bio for the full review 🌵
Four hours on a train through a canyon you can’t reach by car — such a fun experience! We picked the indoor seats with unlimited access to the open-air viewing car, which honestly felt like the only right call. You’re not stuck in an assigned seat the whole time we bounced between the two, snacks in hand, chasing the best light.
The scenery is the whole point. Red rock cliffs, the Verde River, a 734-foot tunnel, historic trestle bridges views most people visiting Sedona never see, because you literally can’t drive to them.
The charcuterie box that comes with your ticket is shockingly filling ✨ so skip lunch at the Copper Spike Café beforehand, save your appetite for dinner back in Sedona.
Four hours with no stops did start to feel long by the end, but the trade-off for scenery like this? Worth it.
Would I ride it again? Yes. Would I buy lunch first again? No.
Link in bio for the full review cost breakdown, what to pack, and exactly how early to arrive 🚂
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