Haywood's Restaurant — Restaurant in Lexington

Let me start by saying that the staff was not rude, the atmosphere was nice, and the food was not terrible. Now, let's recap the evening. As we were waiting for our meal. We noticed that other tables had delicious looking bread, but we had none. We asked the server for bread, and about 10 minutes later it arrived. The presentation of the food was artistic, however the pork special this evening had such a tough exterior that it was difficult to eat(I was afraid that my vigorous sawing would result in assaulting the guest across from me with charred pork remnants). The filet was butterflied, which was surprising, the salmon and risotto was, by all appearances, orzo, entrees were not brought out at the same time, AND the food was mildly warm at best. We were all drinking only water, and for a table of 4, we went with empty glasses 3 times while we searched for our server to get refills of what ended up being room temperature tap water. Meanwhile, the table of 5 next to us had a lovely carafe of ice water. In addition, the table next to us we're seated 10 minutes after us, but received their food much faster AND at the same time. While we were dining, two of us needed to use the facilities. The first assisted by refilling the toilet paper, and the second chipped in and refilled the hand towels. You're welcome. In the midst of our dining, we asked for utensils twice, and only once received the requested implement. Finally, at the end of our meal, we decided to end with dessert and coffee. Unfortunately you were out of the chocolate cake, which I was looking forward to since I saw it as I walking in the door, but we instead ordered two blueberry cobblers, cheesecake, and cookies and milk. The blueberry cobblers came out, but the other two desserts were nowhere to be found. We discovered that they were given to the guests at the table next to us (surprise). We waited, and a few minutes later the cheesecake was tossed on the table in front of us, and my milk and cookies arrived shortly after. I was extremely disappointed. My "warm cookies and milk" were cold! And the coffee was luke warm at best. We also noticed that other tables were asked how the dining experience was, and we were left in the corner to fend for ourselves. Based on the reviews and reputation, we were hoping for a 5-star experience. Did I mention we are typically very generous tippers? We will walk a little further up the...

I've been visiting Lexington for years but for some reason or another never made it to Haywood's until last night (1-08-21) though I've always intended to, and this visit was actually on a whim. My date (a Lexington resident) had mentioned to me that she had also never been, and she found that there was a reservation open, so we grabbed it. Haywood's calls itself a piano bar (at least on the cocktail napkins) but it's really an upscale eatery that features live piano, and the music had apparently began just before our arrival at six. While we're on the subject, I'm not sure if the pianist (who was obviously talented) was playing from a fake book or from more detailed arrangements, but the tunes seemed to all be in the same upbeat jazz style, even though some of the standards could have used more lush and languid arrangements when it came to the ballads. On to the food: we started with the cheese and charcuterie plate that featured their pickles (made in-house), a Wensleydale lemon cheese (unusual and nice) a balsamic Bellavitano, a unique kiwi and lime jam also prepared in-house, and three cured meats, all beautifully arranged. Our entrees: for her, the mushroom tagliatelle which she loved and looked terrific and for myself, the grilled bone-in pork chop served with braised red cabbage, German spätzle, and finished off at the table by our server with a pork jus from a carafe. Everything in my dish was perfect and the cut was substantial. (We actually had to pack up part of our entrees for home as we were foundered on the cheese course.) We also had an a la carte order of their phenomenal roasted Brussel sprouts, so, of course there was no room for dessert. Overall an excellent first impression from an establishment that we'll be getting back to sooner than later now that we know what we've...

We went here for brunch with reservations at 11am which is their earliest brunch time.

Pros: We were sat quickly and our server Taylor was attentive and lovely. Our drinks were wonderful. My wife got a Bellini and I got a Bloody Mary. The food came out pretty quickly and was hot and well made. My wife got Eggs Benedict and I got Steak and Eggs. Both sides for my dish were good. The fingerling potatoes were well seasoned and the greens had a tasty dressing that was light and not overbearing. The atmosphere was relaxing with light music playing but not so loud you couldn't have a conversation.

The Cons: We were one of the first seated parties of the day and yet we still had to brush crumbs off our seat. We saw multiple other parties have to do the same which to me suggests the night staff didn't do a great job cleaning. While my bloody Mary was very good, $15 felt a little high. My steak and eggs were also very good but the steak preparation was a little weird to me, chopped up fine with onions almost like bulgogi meat. Again, was very tasty but an odd choice that left me wanting more, especially for $26.

Overall a decent experience but I think unless I was staying at the George's (we stayed at the Abigail Inn) and wanted a conveniently decent meal nearby, I don't know that I'd return for brunch. I would have to try dinner to be conclusive of the...