Salerno Wood Fired Pizza & Taphouse — Restaurant in Lexington

This place is great for more than a couple reasons:

(1) The food: The food is fantastic. If you want some good pizza/ pasta/ subs this is the spot. It comes out hot, flavorful and is pure Italian comfort food. Just don't go in expecting a snooty molecular gastronomy experience. It's a good ol' casual family restaurant with food everyone can enjoy. Serving sizes are more than enough for sharing or taking home leftovers (love it!).

(2) The decor/ atmosphere: It's a relaxed restaurant in a college town. The decor includes flatscreen TV's usually tuned to sports. The upper portion of the walls are covered in jerseys and t-shirts for the many local colleges and some more distant ones as well. Casual tables without tablecloths that are easily moved around to accommodate large groups. It's a great place for going with friends or family. At peak times the place is very lively but the owner Kirk doesn't let anybody get rowdy. It's a fun atmosphere when the place is packed for lunch and the kitchen is humming. Bathrooms have always been clean in my experience.

(3) The owner Kirk is an awesome guy. He cares about his patrons and wants to make sure they keep coming back. He's very hands on and brings a personal touch to the restaurant's customer service. The wait staff are generally young kids from the local area or colleges. They are pretty chipper and friendly, but again it's a casual environment so they won't be looming around like a french maitre d'. If you need something you may have to get their attention, so just ask and they will get...

Went in on 10/5 around 1:30pm to get food and a drink with my mom. Poured a bud light for her and we both noticed the color and taste was off. Asked our waitress to double check the kegs we’re hooked up correctly (they were). My mom apologizes and I do too (I work for a brewery and understand hooking up the wrong keg can happen). She assures us the correct keg was hooked up. After our meal, my mom asked me to pour another glass of bud light for her. I checked the glasses because I noticed one of the tasters I had had lipstick left on it from a person before (didn’t say anything because I didn’t want it to seem like I was trying to find something wrong with everything). As I’m pouring the beer I see MOLD YES MOLD go into the glass. I immediately told our server and she showed it to a manger. I asked the server if they knew how/did clean their own draft lines. She said they did not. Draft lines should be cleaned biweekly and in between different beer hookups! They comped our beer and said it was because an outside company cleans their lines. I’m still upset 2 days later because it MADE MY MOTHER SICK! We told them it did NOT taste correct and then mold! I feel bad writing a review like this but this is not acceptable for the beer community or restaurant community. It was not our servers fault because the food and service was flawless but seriously MOLD?! Will never be back. They could have seriously killed someone...

As a local I'd like to support this business, but today I called in an order at 12:02 to pick up in 15 minutes or so. I get there and wait in line for over 20 minutes to pick up my order that is sitting on top of the pizza oven. Needless to say I'm a bit frustrated but I decide to wait it out. Finally get to the counter no one seems to know where or what is going on. They can't find the sub.. well they made it with the wrong bread but graciously because I've now got almost 45 minutes invested I take the sandwich. I get to the car and double check because I SPECIFICALLY asked for NO mustard and had them repeat my order and guess what, it's the wrong bread AND has mustard. So, back in I go to let them know how incompetent they are and get my money back. At this point its 12:53. My next appt is at 1:30.... This place has gone waaay down hill. The store was filthy, lunch meat, pre-sliced sitting in the cooler unwrapped like it is at Subway?? Hmmm same meats possibly. I left my business card and requested a call. My guess is they're salvaging the business with the new nightclub they've opened. I'm so disgusted. The health department needs to get in there and check this place out. It's not the first time they've taken forever and made it wrong but I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt....