Grimaldi's Pizzeria — Restaurant in Lexington

2 stars instead of 1 because the pizza was solid. But that is where anything good stops. The restaurant was less than half full on the Friday night we dined, they seemed to be fully staffed, but the service was pitiful. We walked in and wanted to sit at the bar area. There were 4 to 6 seats open, but all of them were extremely dirty. The host said he would get them cleaned. We walked over and waited behind the seats. Unfortunately after 5 minutes we were still waiting and nothing had been cleaned. Meanwhile, the host had returned to the stand to play on his phone. Finally, the bartender asked why we were waiting. We asked that the seats and bar top be cleaned so we could eat there. It should be noted, that it appeared the area had been uncleaned for awhile. Not sure what that bartender was doing since the restaurant was so slow. When the bartender came over to get our drink orders, she just stood there writing in her notebook then looked at us. She did not say a word. We assumed she wanted drink orders??? We placed our food order at that time as well. After waiting 20 plus minutes for our food, we saw the bartender back cutting our pizza in the kitchen. That seemed odd...pretty sure the job description for a bartender is to Tend Bar, not slice pizza. We finally receive our food...it is very good. I ask to change the channel on the tv to NBC (olympics) and the bartender starts asking what channel it is. How am I supposed to know, it is their tv with their service provider. As we eat we notice employees openly talking, playing on there phones, and the bartender taking her sweet time to do anything while chatting with co-workers. Once we have the check, I promptly put my credit card in the book and wait. The bartender comes by does not get the card or book to cash us out, but just grabs our plates and she goes back to talk to co workers. 10 minutes later she returns to cash us out. Overall, there seemed to be no care by management. Lack of attention or care by employees all stems from lazy and poor management. This place has potential, but with the unprofessional, untrained staff and lazy, apathetic management, there is risk for a loss of business which in turn will result in more oversights and worse experiences...

Usually I have a great experience at Grimaldis. Food is always great, service is USUALLY great. However, my family who was visiting from out of town and I arrived there around 8. We were told that because we had 7 people we would have to wait 30 minutes to be seated even though there were tons of empty tables. After being seated, finally, we were greeted very rudely by our server (not sure names but stated he had only been there 2 months) he immediately got frustrated just when taking our drink order because it was too fast and said "I will dictate when you order". We had no plates or menus for 30 minutes sitting there. When we finally asked he was frustrated, we then ordered and had a wrong order brought to our table, when we told him, he argued and got very angry about a SALAD. In my experience, you would NOT argue with a customer and politely bring them a new item even if you thought they wanted something else. He explained that they were short staffed and slammed the salad in front of me on the table. We were taken back and confused, when yet another worker (the host) rudely shoved a menu in my stepmothers face and told her to "figure out what you want". I have never written a review for ANYTHING but was extremely disappointed given we are repeat customers and have never had a bad experience. The worker was argumentative, aggressive, and should not hold a position as a server if he can't handle a tough night on the job. We understand being short staffed and we were completely respectful and willing to accommodate longer wait time. We witnessed him treat multiple tables this way and this could be an indication of why the restaurant was so...

We were in town for UK Graduation, over the last 4 years we have eaten at Grimaldi’s for every trip to Kentucky and love the Pizza. We went online (assuming it could be busy grad weekend) right at lunchtime to see if we could make reservations (which was not an option) it had a link to join waitlist which said “no wait - come on in”. When we arrived there were multiple open tables inside and out and were told it would be 30 minutes to be seated. No problem, the hostess just walked off didn’t ask for a name, nothing. Another lady walked over asked if we needed help and said she had no idea why she said 30 minutes it would be at least an hour. When I asked if we could sit at the empty tables outside she gave no answer - she said seating was not the issue but the kitchen was backed up only one person working. And they had multiple reservations. I advised they should update their website which has no mention of reservations as an option and a waitlist that tells you there is no wait, come on in. I showed her their website and what their customers see online. She just stared at me, never received any definitive answer whether we could be seated and wait, take our names and we come back it was like a standoff. Frustrated we left went to another restaurant in the area who were glad to accommodate our group. Great pizza but won’t be back on any future trips due to the lack of customer service. Staff obviously not trained on how to handle the “people” side...