Walker's Exchange — Restaurant in Louisville

Walker's Exchange left a bad taste in my mouth... I want to apologize to my wife for suggesting this restaurant for this evenings dining experience. We made reservations, don't bother. Friday night dinner rush in a very packed hotel and barely anyone was dining in.

The place is absolutely stunning when you walk in so I was expecting great food and great service. I am very sad to say we got neither. Walker's Exchange came up as a Google recommendation. As of this writing there are around 150 reviews for this location and they are averaging a 3, there's a reason for that.

We entered the lobby and the hostess was very slow welcoming us and getting us seated. We sit down and our server wasn't very good. He brought us water. Water was tepid. I was surprised it wasn't colder especially since they had it in glass bottles like a lot of fine dining establishments use. I ordered a lemonade and my wife ordered an Old Fashioned. We were ready to order but our server was standing by our table taking pictures with his phone. There was an Indian couple that had booked a wedding in the hotel and he was fascinated by them. He took a few pics and then took our order.

Garlic buffalo wings as a starter. Our server asked if I wanted the sauce on our wings. He admitted that most of his customers did not enjoy the wing sauce but I wanted wings as they normally come since we've never eaten here before. My wife said these were "fast food" wings. Think Domino's or Papa John's and he's right the sauce is terrible.

I ordered the Angus Short Rib roast and she ordered the Carolina shrimp and grits with brown gravy and a side of the bacon brussel sprouts.

Let's talk turkey, the food here was average at best. When our entrees came out I looked at my short rib. It looked dry. I tasted the gravy and mashed potatoes. They were just warm. Finally I tasted the short rib. It was dry. I gave a piece to my wife and she knew immediately.

My wife's bacon brussel sprouts were way too salty and when they brought her the shrimp and grits she was surprised they used brown gravy. It does say brown gravy on the menu, just an interesting choice. Shrimp was chewy and overcooked. I could tell when my wife poked her fork at it. The andouille sausage in the gravy was burnt. It comes with fried green tomatoes as part of the entree. They were overcooked as well. Very mushy.

The gravy on my plate and my wife's plate looked exactly the same. In fact, you see a carrot in the picture of my wife's shrimp and grits. She tasted my gravy. Apparently they use the same gravy in a variety of dishes there. I have a shellfish allergy so with the shrimp that's a concern.

The entire time we were eating our server never once offered to get my wife more water or refill our drinks. We saw several employees just standing around talking and hanging out, but to be fair there weren't any customers to wait on. Even saw the manager just hanging out talking to the staff. Our server was showing people the wedding photos he took on his phone. Good for him!

We didn't finish our food. Our server could tell we were not happy. We asked for the check and he walked away. He talked to one of the female staff and we could tell they were talking about us. She started looking over at us. I looked at our server and then he looked away. He brought the check over and asked what was wrong with the meal. My wife listed several things. He offered to remove her entree and brussel sprouts from our check which we appreciated.

When we were leaving we saw a couple that had ordered around the same time we did. I could not help but notice that the wife had stopped eating her food as well...

Based on the other reviews I've read if this place wasn't in the Galt House they would be closed within the year. The menu items are pretty cheap but I see serious room for...

Restaurant was poorly staffed at 8pm. It actually appeared that servers may have been cut from the floor too early. My server was overwhelmed, having to take tables all over the restaurant, and didn’t have any assistance. I was on my own and seated just after 8 along with two other tables: another 1-top and a 5-top. After sitting for about 10 minutes, my server finally came to my table, poured me some water, and took my order. I ordered a Caesar salad as an appetizer and shrimp & grits for my entree. Right at that time, the hosts seated another table for my server: a 4-top I believe. At 8:46, someone from the kitchen brought both items out and told me he had to bring both at once because the restaurant was too busy. I opened my silverware to find debris stuck to the handle of my fork. I waited for a few minutes, and then decided I’d rather pick the debris off and eat instead of wait all night for someone to come around, since the prongs looked clean. The salad was typical, and the cold entree was underwhelming when I got to it. The shrimp looked and tasted like they were just cheap, bulk frozen shrimp. I was hoping to have a cocktail with my entree and dessert after, but my server was running around at the rest of his tables and didn’t get back to me. When he brought my check I informed him that I can’t pay full price for that experience, so he removed the entree from my ticket and apologized. The server was clearly doing what he could, but there was just too much to try to keep up with. I left around 9:20.

Staff your restaurant, support your servers, and don’t seat tables that you don’t have the...

We were initially surprised to see that this restaurant, located in a "legendary hotel," had only a 2.9 rating. However, after having breakfast here three times, we feel the rating should be even lower. We stayed at this hotel for five nights last week while attending a conference and were thoroughly extremely disappointed with our breakfast experiences. The lack of staff, combined with their rude demeanor, made even government services seem way more pleasant in comparison. On Friday, the final day of the conference, we waited approximately 20 minutes to be seated, despite there being many empty tables. This clearly wasn’t due to the restaurant being full, but rather the understaffing. While we were willing to overlook this, it’s surprising that a hotel hosting conferences wouldn’t have adequate staff during busy periods. When we were finally seated, a waitress approached us without a smile and, in a very condescending tone, told us to get the buffet. She said that if we wanted to order from the à la carte menu, we would have to wait 40 minutes. Naturally, the buffet was more expensive than the à la carte options, but it wasn’t about the price—it was the very unpleasant unfriendly attitude and lack of hospitality that left us feeling very disappointed. Hardly what one would expect from a staff member in the hospitality industry.

For the remainder of our stay, we chose to walk a few blocks to other breakfast spot, where we enjoyed better food and, more importantly, a warmer, friendlier and more...