Ohio, in the food­ie world, is best known for its Choco­late Peanut But­ter can­dies called Buck­eyes. These are named after the state nut — which is poi­so­nous, by the way. We do, how­ev­er, have a lot more food to offer! 

If you’re vis­it­ing Ohio, even if you’re just pass­ing through on a road trip, use this guide to eat some­thing bet­ter than fast food. I lit­er­al­ly wrote the book on Ohio food, so let me intro­duce you to my favorite foods, those you can only get in the Buck­eye state. 

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Best Grilled Cheese in Ohio

Melt Bar and Grilled is a statewide, gourmet grilled cheese sand­wich chain. Melt has a very diverse and large menu, includ­ing a great kids menu and a selec­tion for veg­e­tar­i­ans. They also have a huge drink menu, which includes plen­ty of fun, non-alco­holic options too! Don’t let the word “bar” scare you. I always see kids din­ing there when I go. Melt offers many great sea­son­al sand­wich­es, so you’ll want to vis­it more than once if you get the chance! It’s worth not­ing, the sand­wich­es at melt are huge! My sis­ter and I can eas­i­ly split one. 

This is my favorite Melt sand­wich, the Pota­to Bacon Bomb. It’s sev­er­al types of pota­toes, cheese, bacon, and a sour cream sauce. Sad­ly, it’s only avail­able in Jan­u­ary and Feb­ru­ary. Hon­est­ly, though, that’s prob­a­bly a good thing for my cho­les­terol levels.

Best Cincinnati Style Chili in Ohio

Cincin­nati Style Chili is chili spooned over spaghet­ti, and some­times topped with onions and cheese. In 2013, the Smith­son­ian named it one of the “Most Icon­ic Foods in Amer­i­ca.” Cincin­nati style chili is almost nev­er served by the bowl. It’s real­ly a top­ping. Call­ing the dish “chili” is a bit of a mis­nomer because it’s not like the soupy style chili you’re think­ing. Instead, think of it as more of a spiced meat sauce. The most famous is Sky­line Chili, but you can try the dish in most of the din­ers around the area. The order­ing sys­tem is based on “Ways” — which is how it will be served. Such as Two Way: Spaghet­ti topped with Chili; Three Way: Spaghet­ti, Chili and Cheese; Four Way: Spaghet­ti, Chili, Cheese and Onions or Beans; Five Way: Spaghet­ti, Chili, Beans, Onions, and Cheese

Best Ice Cream in Ohio

Ohioans love Ice Cream! Each of our major cities has its own favorite ice cream com­pa­ny. Mitchells and Hon­ey Hut is in Cleve­land, Jeni’s in Colum­bus, Han­del’s in Youngstown, and Graeters in Cincin­nati. I’m par­tial to Hon­ey Hut, espe­cial­ly since they car­ry my favorite fla­vor, Banana, year-round. But all of them are excel­lent! Why did a state where it’s below freez­ing at least 5 months of the year inspire at least 5 dif­fer­ent major ice cream brands? Let me know if you find out. 

I have always enjoyed watch­ing the ice cream mak­ing process at Mitchel­l’s, it’s def­i­nite­ly not some­thing you see every day. Pho­to cour­tesy of DJ John­son via Unsplash.

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Best Ohio Valley Style Pizza

Did you know that Ohio has its own style of piz­za?  Ohio Val­ley Style Piz­za is made by pil­ing cold cheese onto a thick but soft crust with hot toma­to sauce (usu­al­ly with cold pep­per­oni) and then cut into squares. Order it with extra cheese, trust me.  DiCar­lo’s in Steubenville invent­ed it, so there is no bet­ter place to give it a try.

A piece of DiCar­los piz­za, acci­den­tal­ly ordered with­out extra cheese, A tragedy really.

Tony Packo’s

Tony Pack­o’s is arguably the most famous restau­rant in all of Ohio. That’s because Cor­po­ral Max Klinger, from the TV show MASH, por­trayed by Tole­do’s own Jamie Farr, missed it and talked about it a lot on the show. If you find your­self in Tole­do,  stop in and try a “great Hun­gar­i­an hot dog, with chili pep­pers, and a cold beer” which was Klin­gler’s favorite! In 1972, Burt Reynolds stopped by for a bite and when asked for his auto­graph, he grabbed the clos­est thing, a hot dog bun! Since then, hun­dreds of celebri­ties, pres­i­dents, and astro­nauts have signed  buns, which are proud­ly dis­played at the restaurant.

The buns are actu­al­ly plas­tic and you can buy one at the gift store if you want to join in the fun. Pho­to Cour­tesy of Jacob Pea­cock via Wikimedia

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Best Fish Frys 

In the spring, you can find Lake Erie Perch being sold at just about every Catholic Church in Ohio! Since Catholics tra­di­tion­al­ly skip meat on Fri­days dur­ing lent, many church­es decid­ed to do fish frys to fill the demand for fish and as a fundrais­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty. There are many seafood restau­rants along Lake Erie where you can also get a Lake Erie Perch sand­wich — if you don’t find your­self here dur­ing lent. If you’re in the Mentor/Grand Riv­er Ohio area, I’m par­tic­u­lar­ly fond of Pick­le Bil­l’s. As a kid, I was fas­ci­nat­ed by all the cool dec­o­ra­tions. As an adult, I love the out­door din­ing right on the lake. All sum­mer long, fresh Lake Erie fish find their way into sand­wich­es, plat­ters, and even tacos. 

Best Micro-Brewery

Pos­si­bly the most famous of Ohio’s micro­brew­eries, Great Lakes Brew­ing Com­pa­ny makes a lot of great spe­cial­ty beers. The most famous is their Christ­mas Ale, which fea­tures cin­na­mon and spices. It’s a heav­ier beer, per­fect for win­ter. It’s worth not­ing, they only brew Christ­mas Ale once a year, at Christ­mas time. Some­times, I will see Christ­mas Ale for sale in July, but since they do not brew it that month, you know it’s old beer. I would­n’t rec­om­mend try­ing it then, it’s just not the same. 

They also make a brew named after Elliot Ness, a famous pro­hi­bi­tion agent who served in Cleve­land. They named a brew after him because, famous­ly, there is an actu­al bul­let hole from him in the bar area of the restau­rant. Elliot Ness is an amber lager, it’s a pret­ty dark beer. 

They also named a beer after Com­modore Per­ry, who led Navy ships in near­by Lake Erie dur­ing the war of 1812. Com­modore Per­ry is an IPA. You can take a tour of the brew­ery and learn about how beer is made. Don’t have a lot of time? You can pick up their beer at most gro­cery stores in Ohio. 

So remem­ber, no fast food when you’re in Ohio! There are so many great places around the state to eat! Ohioans are obnox­ious­ly friend­ly, we can’t help it. I could­n’t pos­si­bly cov­er every town in Ohio, so if you find your­self in a small town, just stop by any local gas sta­tion and ask some­one where to eat. They will be more than hap­py to brag about their secret local spot in town. I promise. You might even end up with a new friend. 

When You Go

There are sev­er­al dai­ly flights to Ohio but the only non-stop is into Cleve­land Hop­kins Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (CLE), which takes about 4 hours from Los Ange­les Inter­na­tion­al Air­port (LAX).  We like to shop for the best deals when we trav­el but find­ing time for a bunch of research is challenging.

We use TripAdvisor.com to find and com­pare the cheap­est flights and Booking.com below for the best deal on hotels where we want to stay.

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Emi­ly House­hold­er Stacey is a trav­el agent and writer based in Sun­ny Cleve­land Ohio. When she isn’t writ­ing or book­ing trav­el for her clients, you’ll find her try­ing out new restau­rants with her hus­band or chas­ing her tod­dler because he does not want to go to bed.