Chef's Kiss Ristorante — Restaurant in Topeka

TL:DR version: I dropped nearly $100 on dinner for 2, featuring food that wasn't particularly good, lousy service, and very weak cocktails, all in the same place where I used to pay $1.69 for a taco. And the tacos were better. Not recommended, won't return.

Longer version: My date and I were hoping for a new restaurant to add to our rotation. We'd heard about Chef's Kiss and tried it with high hopes.

When we walked in, we saw that no expense was spared on remodeling the old Tortilla Jack's. I mean, little expense was SPENT on remodeling. Same booths and tables - with the booths reupholstered and tablecloths over the tables. No other redecorating had been attempted. It felt like TJ's had done a mild update - not like an Italian restaurant that required about $30-50 per person.

Our waiter had no short-term memory. We'd literally order, speaking slowly, and he'd immediately ask to repeat. My date had the salmon with risotto, I ordered the steak toscana, and we both ordered cocktails. After a couple of minutes, our forgetful waiter came back and said that he had forgotten that they were out of the steak (it was early in the evening), so I settled for lasagna. Turns out that this was probably a good thing.

When the drinks came, they were so weak that they could have been mocktails. My bourbon drink was light green in color. I'm pretty sure they were priced at either $10 or $12. They didn't taste awful, but cocktails they really weren't.

The food wasn't great, either. My date's salmon was not fresh (even for Kansas), not well cooked, and the risotto was basically a rice pilaf with a little Italian seasoning, and it had been sitting for a while. She ate very little of it. My lasagna was.....acceptable but not great. At least it was more edible than her meal.

I seldom look closely at the prices on the menu, so that's my fault, but I was shocked to see that the total was over $80 before tip. I was kind to the waiter and tipped 15%, bringing the total to $92. Nothing about this experience justified that kind of cash outlay.

Well, it is Topeka, my dudes. The Italian restaurant offerings in Topeka are actually highlighted by Olive Garden (I've found Paisano's to be less than great, as well, but a little better than Chef's Kiss). A similar meal, done far better, would have been $50 at a number of good restaurants in Kansas City. But, because it's in Topeka, this place might make it. The only reason I gave two stars instead of one is that the lasagna...

We spend a lot of time researching restaurants and menus looking for good dining. Not sure where to start but here it goes… very much enjoyed the decorative touches upon entering. Was kindly greeted by hostess and seated right away at our 5:30 reservation. The live entertainment was a wonderful surprise. Nice to have table cloths and cloth napkins. They didn’t have a wine list but did serve limited wines by the glass….very disappointed to know it was Bota Box wine. Charging $9 for a 5-6 ounce pour is a bit overpriced for box wine!! We wanted to enjoy meeting with our guests so we weren’t in a hurry. We ordered stuff mushrooms and calamari. Calamari was tough but that is not unusual in Kansas. Salads came right away but failed to deliver the soup until we asked. When waiter picked up appetizer plates along with forks no replacement utensils were provided so could not eat the salad. Once I got someone to assist the entrees arrived. We told them we wanted time to eat salad first and they blamed the kitchen for being fast. They just left the food at the table. It is obvious that this was a good effort but not quite a managed and trained staff. Cheap eating utensils, plastic dishes is not representative of the menu prices. Not trying put down the restaurant but has quite way to go. Maybe give it another try in...

I’ll start by saying the service was decent. Our server was very nice. The place unfortunately had an old and moldy smell that almost made you want to leave upon stepping in and waiting to be seated. Now the food…not so great. We started off by trying the calamari which was nothing special, appeared and taste like frozen calamari. For my main dish I ordered the Cajun Chicken and Shrimp Alfredo with fettuccine noodles. The food came out hot which was great, however the chicken was extremely greasy to the point where black grease was running off into the meal. My first bite was to taste the shrimp which was extremely salty. So salty I was unable to taste anything but salt, very sour. I explained to our server that the shrimp was overly salty in which she took it back then came back out and explained that the cook stated the Cajun seasoning they use is extremely salty and offered to make the original Chicken and Shrimp Alfredo without the Cajun seasoning, which I accepted. Once the meal came out again, I once again took a bite of the shrimp just for it to still be extremely salty. I went ahead and took a taste of the Alfredo sauce with the noodles which taste like jar Alfredo sauce not authentic. Overall, I was not impressed with the food and more than likely will not return, but I do wish...