Stella's Kentucky Deli — Restaurant in Lexington

GREAT atmosphere here, unfortunately, there’s not much else to love. Me and my partner stopped by while in town for a conference and we were on a bit of a time crunch. We actually came here twice, two days in a row, and were less impressed the second time around. First day we got two sandwiches- a grilled cheese and BLT with tomato soup. To be fair the food the first day was very good, but took a long time to come out- definitively longer than what’s expected for two things that you’re not really having to cook. The food wasn’t the issue this day though- it was the waitress who served us. We were very polite, communicated expectations that we were on a time crunch, and I tipped largely (on top of the mandatory already included gratuity) despite this- the waitress seemed to be in a bad mood. Either way- people have bad days. Unfortunately, when coming back the second day, there was issue after issue. The waitress was there again, still openly glaring at people, being short with customers, etc- the table next to us even mentioned it despite her not being their waitress. Like what is the issue? When we ordered food, we got another BLT and a burger- be aware that they don’t have things like sliced pickles to put onto burgers (lowkey weird but okay,) and you will get a pink in the middle burger (my order was also made wrong). We had wait time issues with the food again and ended up (after sitting for over 40 minutes) needing to leave the restaurant and get our food to go. The, again, weird thing is that they suddenly had all of our food ready to go when my partner went up to tell them we needed to leave, like it had been ready but our waiter didn’t ever come and grab it. The whole staff was a bit off when we communicated that we had the conference and just had run out of time. I will say that there was a guy wearing a hat who was super nice to us the whole time. I think this is such a cute spot and maybe we caught them on a weird week- they have some good items on the menu, but we sadly didn’t have the...

Service was terribly slow. Not sure if they were understaffed or what, but we had 3 different people as our server before we left. The tomato bisque soup was quite tastey. My sandwich was aweful. I tried to power through the first half of it but couldn't even do that. I had to stop after 3-4 bites in (I think it was the sauce). The server that took our order never came by to check on us at all. When the second person came by to clear my friend's plate, I imformed him of the sandwich and how I couldn't eat it, it was so bad. I had finished my soup, however. He said that was too bad and he was sorry to hear that and bussed my tray as well! Never even offered to get me something else. 15 minutes later, he brought out my friend's dessert (that she had ordered at the same time we ordered lunch). Some incredibly long time later, our first server stopped by and we said we were ready for the checks. She never returned. A third server showed up with a check sometime later but then asked if we wanted it separated. We said yes, and she took it back and dissappeared for 8 to 10 more minutes and came back with our checks. At the check out, it was the third server who rang us up. She asked how everything was. I then informed her about how i hated the sandwich and how I couldn't even eat the first half of it. I hoped that she would discount my food since no one offered to get me something else. Instead, she said "Well thank you for your honesty," and proceeded to ring me up at full price. What is usually a 45 minute lunch took us an hour and a half and I had to pay full price for a cup of soup and maybe a 3rd of a sandwich. I will say this is only my second time to Stella's and my first visit was not nearly this bad, but this was the worst lunch ever.

Come here if you have plenty of time for lunch and love...

Took my two adult children to Stella’s for brunch on Sunday. We were seated given menus and drink orders taken…so far so good. Approximately 10 minutes later a table of 6 was seated by us. Our waitress brought our coffee and took our order. The table of 6 order was taken after our order. It took forever and to our surprise the table of 6 got served before us, go figure. Our waitress never refilled coffee and I finally had to take our mugs to the counter and have them refilled. Our meals were disappointing. The hash browns were gray and gooey and biscuits were cold and hard as rocks. Waitress never checked on us and finally I had to go back to counter and ask for our bill and our waitress acted surprised “oh ya sure”. I was appalled at the 20% automatic tip and when I said something I was told how it helped ALL the employees make $15 per hour!! I don’t care, I want to choose what I give and I would never given her 20%! Your policy has taken the incentive away for your employees to give good service. The entire vibe of the restaurant and staff was lazy, unprofessional and inattentive. We will not be returning and guessing...