Bravo! Italian Kitchen — Restaurant in Louisville

My fiancé and I had a 7:15pm reservation yesterday for a date night and I knew something wasn’t right when we arrived and there were hardly any vehicles in the parking lot. A Thursday evening and no cars in a restaurants parking lot? Something is definitely off.

So we enter and are greeted by the hostess. She asked us if we wanted a table or a booth. Initially we said a booth but she said we’d have to wait as it would have to be cleaned off. I looked around and there were only two tables that had guests seated. We then said we’ll take a table.

We were escorted to a table and seated. There were at least 4 waiters/waitresses and that booth remained unclean for another 10 minutes.

Our waitress came by and stated she was training someone else and asked us if we wanted a drink/starter. My fiancé got a club soda and I got a ginger ale of which my glass was dirty. We also decided on the lobster bisque and the fried shrimp appetizer.

While seated I noticed a distinct damp/old building smell and noticed several stains on the walls. The kicker was the back large party section having wine glasses that were filthy and cobwebs going all across the tables in that section.

Our starters arrived and the lobster bisque was lumpy and did not have a bisque consistency, which she sent back. The shrimp were ok but the sauce was too acidic so we only ate the ones that didn’t have the sauce on them.

Our waitress then asked if we were going to put in entrees. I got the pepperoni pizza and she got a pasta dish with a fried chicken cutlet.

Our entrees arrived and I go to pick up a slice of the pizza and it folds over completely. I open my silverware so I could cut it because maybe it was too hot and one of the forks were dirty. I used the other fork and knife and began cutting the pizza and it was not really not budging. I was able to get a piece and noticed it wasn’t really warm. I then pulled the cheese back at the center of the pizza and dough was not even cooked.

At this point, my dining experience was horrible and I had lost my appetite.

We told the waitress about our experience and she asked if we needed anything else and we kindly said no. A manager arrived and she asked what the issue was and I told her about everything. She then asked if she could make us something else. I said I’m good, I had lost my appetite and she then says can she do an IOU. I said I’ll never be back so that won’t work.

It’s funny because we watched that same manager get a big plate from the kitchen and it looked like she had a nice steak and either pasta or potatoes and at one point I’m pretty sure she cracked open a bottle of beer when she was seated at the bar enjoying her meal.

I don’t see how this place is still open.

Never again will I step foot into this Bravo...

My fiance and I took my boys and her grandson here for dinner.

We didn't have reservations since it was a last minute idea. It didn't matter, because the place wasn't even half full. We were seated immediately.

The atmosphere: You can tell it had been somewhat impressive at one point, but now is looking tired, dirty, crumbling and rusty. Note to restaurants going with the open ceiling structure painted black: You need to clean this structure on occasion 😉 Our table was a large round table which fit us well. The table featured a white linen tablecloth, but they topped it off with sheets of white paper ( I guess to immolate an Italian eatery?) The papers kept shifting and were not conforming to the table edges. I had to bend and fold them so they weren't messing with food and drinks. We ordered an assortment of items. I and one of my sons had Chicken parm-eroni. The chicken was crisp and tasty. The pasta was cooked properly. That's where it stopped being good. The noodles were tossed with parmigiano and little else it seemed. They topped it with a tomato relish of some sort. It was totally insufficient to complement this Italian staple. I asked for a bowl of marinara to supplement. I and my son added it, but the marinara wasn't tasty itself, so I didn't eat but half. My oldest son ordered a cheese pizza. Can't screw that up right? Oh, yeah they did. It was grossly undercooked and was literally dripping in oil. Grabbing one piece and lifting it the piece just hung like wet drippy cardboard. Couldn't tell you if the taste was good because it was so unappealing nobody would attempt eating it. My fiancé requires gluten free. I asked the waitress twice for a gluten free menu and she finally returned to say "Oh yeah, anything here can be made gluten free but the lasagna. Wrong. The noodles? Perhaps. How about the sauces, the breading etc? No, they couldn't. The others meals were average.

The service: This was awful. I'm not a "Karen". I give wide birth to servers etc because I know things can go crazy in the service industry. She piled the table with drinks. That was her only saving grace. I spent half the meal trying to get proper service. The gluten free menu request was just the beginning. She was not super busy. We observed her walking to and from empty handed and aimlessly.

Added note* There's a big banner out front "Happy Hour...." We were there during the alotted time but we're informed "Sorry that's only for drinks at the bar". The "bar" sits in the middle of the restaurant and was small as well as EMPTY. That told us "We really don't want to do happy hour and we certainly don't want you to order a cocktail. So we didn't.

I would avoid this aging relic of a good...

We visited on Valentines Day & they were short-staffed and poorly managed. We arrived for our 8:15 reservation around 8:00 and there was a line out the door, and everyone had reservations. There was only one host on duty seating customers, helping with delivery orders, and helping clean tables. We finally got to the host stand to check in at 8:17, when the host apologized and asked if we minded her using the restroom before seating us because she hadn’t had a chance in over 4 hours, which we were obviously fine with. I’m pretty sure labor violations were happening. The host was wonderful though despite how much she was being overworked/abused. We were sat by 8:25 without napkins and silverware, but our server Zachary was prompt and amazing, even though he was obviously worn out from the shift. Once utensils were available, he delivered them. The table we were given was in the pathway to the front door and right next to the kitchen, which was a way too busy and noisy area to seat customers. The front-of-house manager was not walking the floor, as he was fully engaged in fulfilling delivery orders (which should not be accepted on one of the two most busy days of the year for restaurants), so the dining room wasn’t being properly managed at all. We ordered drinks, a salad, and our entrees. The drinks and salad arrived within a reasonable time and were tasty, but the entrees never came. Zachary apologized throughout our wait and attended to us the best he could without us having any food yet. At 9:35, we had enough and so we stood up, asked for the check for the drinks, and informed Zachary that we were leaving. He apologized profusely. At that point the front of house manager finally came off the service line to talk with us and apologized, but then blamed the kitchen. Magically at that point our food came up and they boxed it to go. When we got home the food was cold, my medium-rare steak was well-done, and the potatoes were not seasoned. The pasta was disappointing. We used to...