Frank & Dino's — Restaurant in Lexington

I was raise a very poor, country boy in Sylacauaga, Alabama and have spent the last 50+ years traveling the world and enjoying one favorite hobby… eating delicious food! With such a background, I would like to share my experience and delight in visiting Frank and Dino’s last night in Lexington, Kentucky.

The building architecture and restaurant atmosphere will transport you to a past gone time where elegance and comfort were hallmarks of a Quality of Life that was cherished. You felt welcomed and like you belonged as part of the Frank and Dino’s family… even if I showed up in shorts and a tee shirt like I was going to grandma’s house as a kid.

We were welcomed and seated in a matter of minutes. Then the magic began… the kindest and most knowledgeable of waitstaff began taking drink orders and allowing us to decided on appetizers. We could not settle on a single appetizer; therefore, we chose to try the Antipasto Misto (which was amazing in taste and presentation), a thin sliced meat platter with arugula salad ( please forgive as the proper name alludes me just thinking of the flavors) and the Fried Calamari (this dish is perfect… trust me on this!).

My main course was the sausage and meatballs with rigatoni pared with a Perino beer, which is my go-to-meal to adjudicate a restaurant’s preparation and taste. This dish was an absolute delight on my taste buds and made me want to go hug the chef! The taste of the sausage alone was so exceptional, I wanted to share it with everyone so they could appreciate the excellence!

As I have mentioned… I love food, but it is rare that I will get up in the middle of a meal to go thank the people that suggested and prepared it for me, but I did at Frank and Dino’s. The staff are trained guides on your foody journey… listen to them and trust their knowledge.

Speaking of the staff… if you have the opportunity for Allison to be your guide / server be grateful as she is outstanding in both recommendations and service. She has the kindest personality and is open to helping you have the most exceptional dining experience I have ever had in Kentucky. Also… I must mention the Captain of this ship, Lorenzo! Lorenzo is the Manager and the greatest guy you would ever wish to encounter… meeting and talking with him was like talking to my “Italian cousin”. Lorenzo has trained a wait and kitchen staff that provides World Class service and food… he is my new best friend in Kentucky and I will be back to see him very often. I will make detours to stay over or travel through Lexington just to eat at Frank and Dino’s and see my...

We had a party of 10. Arrived on time and were a pretty low maintenance table. The server initially came to take drinks fairly quickly but after that the service quickly declined. Once everyone was there he stated his annoyance at another table requesting to split their checks. I told him our checks would also be separate, but would be happy to work with him to make it easy. We ordered appetizers, but they took so long to come I had to check in on them. He finally took our orders. Overall the food was ok. It was not stunning, but I’ve had worse. I definitely expected better quality from a place like this though. Eventually he came back and I asked again if he wanted to go over checks. He said no and would wait until the end. Finally he came to do the checks after a lengthy amount of time. He made it very clear that we had ti be patient with him since we were asking to split checks. He made us go through and tell him what we had to eat (not sure why he didn’t know this?). He didn’t return for almost half an hour and the checks were wrong. We were so frustrated that we venomed each other just to prevent him from having to run the checks again. He disappeared for another 15 minutes before returning with our cards. Our entire table was standing because we were so ready to go. He told us he wasn’t supposed to split checks more than 4 ways, it was a restaurant policy, but since we were nice he would do it for us. This was after he ran the bills so it felt very smart elic and pointless. We asked why he didn’t mention that at the beginning or why the restaurant didn’t have it posted. He had no explanation. You had 5 separate couples that would have returned and all were so disappointed with the service we not only won’t be back, but will warn others. It’s frustrating to include a 20% gratuity but not demand better service from your team. It basically felt like because he didn’t have to work for the tip, he just didn’t. We were not demanding or rude at all. There was no excuse for...

I had areservation for my wife’s birthday at 8:45pm on Saturday. Our Uber was late, so I called the restaurant to let them I knew we'd be about 20 minutes late. In the reservation, I noted my wife’s birthday in the notes and reminded the lady who answered the phone that I'd like them to do something special for my wife. I was told that they would make it happen. We arrived shortly after 9 p.m. Upon arrival at the restaurant, I approached the hostess stand, and a blonde-haired young lady greeted us. Standing next to her, I'd assume was the matre’d or restaurant manager. As I told the young lady my name, he looked up and down the without saying a word or greeting me. He was profiling me and I did not appreciate it. Had it not been my wife’s birthday and had her best friend with us, I would have walked out. The hostess walked us over to our table and as we arrived at our table, nothing special was done for my wife’s birthday as I had requested twice and was told they would make it happen. 2nd red flag. Our waiter was nice and pleasant, stated to us during his intro that he had only been there a week or two. We ordered our drinks, my wife had ordered a specialty drink, as her best friend, I ordered a Stagg neat. The drinks took a bit of time to get back to us, not a big deal, restaurant wasn't that busy with a few tables open. Our drinks arrived, my wife tried hers and almost spit it out. Her best friend tried it too and almost spit it out as well. They both said it had way too much lemon juice mixture. Very over powering. We sent it back and waiter also stated to us that it didn't taste right and brought another drink, this time it was great. My wife wanted to get a bottle and asked the waiter, he stated to us that he was new and asked for help. He came back with a great recommendation. Not once during the night did manager come check on us. My filet was bland. Our bill over almost $400 and I tipped 20%. Other table next us had a solo bday performance,...