Tag Archives: Restaurant

Travinia Italian Kitchen

While in Lexington, Kentucky Saturday, we decided to try Travinia Italian Kitchen.  Travinia is located 3565 Nicholasville Road  at the Fayette Mall.  The Italian Restaurant looks great both inside and outside and has a large number of friendly staff.

Booth at Travinia
Booth at Travinia

When entering an Italian restaurant you are often hit by the rich aroma of herbs and spices which season the Italian food.  Travinia is not that way.

inside Travinia
inside Travinia

To start our meal we ordered crispy calamari.  The dish comes with banana peppers, sweet peppers, pepperoni, garlic butter and scallions.  What we received was uncrispy calamari with pickled banana peppers.  It appeared that the cook did not have the oil hot enough when he or she put the calamari in, but set the timer as if the oil was the proper temperature.

Calamari
Calamari

For our main course, my wife selected Pollo Isabella, which is an oven roasted chicken breast served with sun dried tomatoes, spinach, goat cheese and a lemon basil beurre blanc. The meal was warm, not hot, but the chicken was cooked completely.  The spinach was not cooked or even wilted from having the chicken placed on it.  The temperature of the plating and the food would lead you to believe that the chicken was precooked and reheated in a microwave then placed on spinach.

Pollo Isabella
Pollo Isabella

I ordered the Italian Nachos for my meal.   At Travinia the nachos come with fried chips, Italian sausage, black olives,  banana pepper, scallions, tomatoes, provolone, and asiago cream sauce.  The sever asked if I would like blackened chicken on it, but I felt that the Italian sausage would be enough.  When I received the nachos, I found the chips to be oily.  The cheese sauce was good but not hot.  If anything I would call it luke warm.

As I ate, digging deeper into the stack of chips, I wondered where is the Italian sausage?  I adjusted my glasses and found it.  The sausage was cooked in the cheese sauce.  The size of the sausage was close to a grain of rice.  If the gray particles had ever had any flavor, it had long ago been cooked out of them and then masked by the cheese sauce.

Italian Nachos
Italian Nachos

The meal was very disappointing. We do not plan to go back to this restaurant.  Maybe we went on a bad day, but there are too many great Italian restaurants in Lexington to risk another disappointment.  If the cook at Travinia, who prepared our meal could taste the calamari at Malone’s or the Italian nachos at Johnny Carino’s, they would never microwave again.

Malone’s Steak House at Hamburg

Before going to the University of Kentucky football game, my daughter and I went to Malone’s Steak House for a good meal.  As we do most of the time, we went to the Malone’s at Hamburg.  The address is 1920 Pleasant Ridge Drive, Lexington.  It has a great environment and the staff and management are always friendly and informative.  We started the meal with one of my favorite appetizers, fried Calamari.

The Sweet-n-Spicy Calamari as it is listed on the menu, is made up of calamari, red peppers and banana pepper fried with a lite batter. Malone’s serves them with a sweet and spicy chili sauce.

For our meals we both decided to have the twin filets which come with hot bread a bottomless Lexingtonian salad and one side item. I ordered my filets with a Kentucky Bourbon BBQ sauce and Crispy Onions.  It was one of the best steaks that I have ever eaten.  On my last visit to Malone’s I had the twin filets with Rockefeller Au Gratin.  The Bourbon BBQ is by far the better choice in my opinion.

Twin Filets with Kentucky Bourbon BBQ and Crispy Onions
Twin Filets with Kentucky Bourbon BBQ and Crispy Onions

My daughter ordered the Twin Filets with Blue Cheese Au Gratin.  The Filets were served with the crusted Blue Cheese on the top of them.

Malone's Steak House, Twin Filets with Blue Cheese Au Gratin
Malone’s Steak House, Twin Filets with Blue Cheese Au Gratin

Both of our orders were cooked to Medium Rare as ordered.  The steaks were as always, tender and juicy.  For one of the best steaks in Lexington you must go the Malone’s Steak House.