Varanese Restaurant — Restaurant in Louisville

With the expectation of divinity, for the 4 course meal I had planned to eat, there was but one thing of my 3 courses that left me wanting more. The pearl onion jam!! This came on the cheese & hummus board. Not only did the board lack flavor, it also lacked variety. For $15 you can have a couple slices of “pickled carrot” which realistically taste as if they dipped raw carrots in vinegar for a brief second & then plated them. A few slices of fried green tomatoes, which I was shocked to discover also had no taste. One mustn’t serve such a comfort food, that provides little to no comfort. S+P go a long way, but even after seasoning them at the table, I felt like I was eating cardboard. This plate also came with warm pimento cheese. Surprisingly good, but it would take a lot more than the 2 TSP of pimento cheese & the 4 small slivers of Gouda that came on the plate, to cover up the taste of the burnt crostini’s they served me. Bc let’s be honest, the white bean hummus was absolutely not doing the trick. Aside from the carrots, this was the worst thing on the plate. Both the texture & the taste were just so many versions of wrong. All this to say, the 2 bites of pimento cheese alongside the onion jam carried this entire dish.

But of course my 4 bites of edible food were certainly not enough to fill me up, so we move on to the salad. I ordered the pistachio crusted goat cheese salad. & it was…. fine. The goat cheese itself was spectacular. I really enjoyed the flavors together. However, I was excited to learn that the salad came with bread sticks. unfortunately, for all bread lovers, these were the most deceiving part of the experience - since their appearance was giving buttery, garlic & herb but their taste was giving cardboard box. Again, I experience beautiful presentation with the taste of disappointment.

As I moved on to the main entree. I am still holding out hope that either this or the bread pudding all the reviews raved about, would make up for everything the previous offerings lacked. The restaurant offers a daily chefs vegetarian special. On Fri night it was a medley of cooked vegetables over my choice of grain. this was 1/2 of their vegetarian offerings. The other, being a veggie pasta. I opted for the pasta. A monstrosity of a mistake, but I didn’t know it yet. After a singular bite of the pasta, I knew it was best to just immediately surrender & hightail it out of there (bread pudding-less) this SPAGHETTI (it was literally spaghetti w some undercooked vegetables) I was served, was the worst thing I have ever tasted. After the many things in my mouth before this, it’s difficult to know if the pasta was supposed to taste that way or if the sauce was burnt and just served anyway. That’s what it tasted like. Burnt spaghetti with a side of cardboard bread sticks.

Aside from the food, I did have a wonderful waiter. He was attentive and helpful with questions as I placed my orders. He was even quick to recognize that I was not enjoying my entree & took it away from the table as well as removed it from the bill without any hassle. It was so streamlined, it was almost like he had done this before…… it left me wondering how often he’s had this same experience… and if the pork chop really is the only good thing on the menu.

Confrontation makes me incredibly uncomfortable, so it was nice that the waiter was great about making right a very very wrong. at least that was until the manager made his presence at our table to figure out why I sent back “their best pasta dish of over 15 years”. This man literally tried to gaslight me by not only telling me this pasta has been on their menu for this long bc it is a fan favorite, but that he, himself has had this dish over and over & enjoyed it every single time. It was as if he were trying to convince me, that I was wrong & that I’m the one who lacks tastebuds? This was so incredibly uncomfortable & confusing. At this point, the bill couldn’t have come fast enough.

So, If you must try varanese for yourself, maybe get the pork chop. Orrr maybe don’t bother...

With love, from Savvy and Steve

OMG!!!! Our dinner last night...to die for......🦀🐠🍸🍷🥃🍨🍣🌶Stuffed Crab Avocado-(Lump crab stuffed fried avocado with pico de gallo and a roasted jalapeño créme fraiche) Caramelized Orange Bourbon Salmon-(Grilled salmon smothered in a caramelized mandarin orange bourbon sauce served over cream cheese lobster grits) Seared steak (served with an infused mushroom and parmesan risotto finished with Chef John's V-12 sauce.) Bread Pudding-(Toffee-marshmallow bread pudding and bourbon caramel sauce served with caramel sea salt ice cream) Cappuccino (with a shot of Grand Mariner )

Little about this awesome place....It seems like every week there’s a new restaurant or bar opening in Louisville.

With those openings, we tend to get a lot of detail from the people behind the establishments about how tough it is to find the right space, train employees and generally get up and running.

Opening a restaurant is tough, but it’s arguably much more difficult to keep a restaurant operating for an extended period of time.

So when I sat down with John Varanese, chef and owner at Varanese restaurant on Frankfort Avenue, I asked him what drove his success. Varanese Restaurant has been around for 10 years now.

The secret isn’t one or two big things, he told me.

“It’s a million little things — all the way down to the tablecloths to our live music to the ambiance to great food and service,” he said.

Of those million little things, Varanese highlighted the importance of having a good staff.

“When the staff feels comfortable and are really proud of what they do, it really shows to the customers,” he said.

He said building loyalty with the staff is one of the major lessons he’s learned in the last 10 years. Eleven of the 32 employees at Varanese Restaurant has been there for more than six years.

Having that experience on his staff has allowed him to branch out and open a few new concepts. In 2016, he opened River House Restaurant and Raw Bar and the attached Levee at River House. Both of those are located at 3015 River Road, right beside KingFish. For that project, Varanese and his partners spent about $4 million to transform a former...

SUMMARY: Food, good. Service this evening, really bad.

I wanted to take my wife out for a special meal, and it had been a while since we had been to Varanese, so I made a reservation for 6:30 p.m. on a Saturday evening.

Amongst other tables, our server had a table of 8 right next to us. We had to wait for her to go around the entire table before we could place our appetizer order. We were empathetic though - I even commented that she had her work cut out for her with that large table this evening. I got a vibe that she was pretty green.

Our appetizers were very tasty, once received.

But then we waited and waited for her to reappear so we could place our entree order. By now, it was 7:30. 🕢

The server came by at long last, asked if there was anything else that we wanted. We said yes, we wanted to order our entrees! I got a feeling of absolute lack of control of her assigned tables. We also asked (for the second time, we asked this when we ordered our appetizers) if she could please light the candle at our table. Never happened.

She brought some breadsticks to the table. We goshed on those and again waited and waited for our entrees. One of the bussers stopped at our table and asked if we needed anything and my wife said, "Yes, our food!" It was now 8:05. There was a table of four behind us who arrived at the same time, and that table had already turned. 🙄

We flagged down the manager, and said we just wanted our check. He apologized, and offered to box up our entrees to go. He did not charge us for the entrees, and when we ate them at home, we both agreed, they were delicious. But the service this evening made for a very unpleasant dining experience.

I don't think this all should hinge upon the server. Someone at a management level should have noticed this couple sitting and obviously waiting, and done what they could to facilitate proper service. Admittedly, I should have been more vocal earlier on, but I really shouldn't have...