Graze Market and Café
1 Fork = I would rather eat dog food.
2 Forks = I would eat there if I was starving.
3 Forks = Not bad; someplace I would occasionally consider eating.
4 Forks = A good place to eat; I will put it into my rotation of places I dine frequently.
5 Forks = One of my all time favorites!
One caveat to note – I am allergic to fish and seafood, so if you are looking for those recommendations, you will have to consult someone else.
Because I have a daughter-in-law with Celiac and a really good friend who is Vegetarian, I will try to point out whether those options are present when I review a restaurant.
October 23, 2015 - Dinner
Graze Market and Café
150 Combs Ferry Rd.
Winchester, KY 40391
859-745-0990
Graze is another one of the ever popular country road market-turned-café restaurants that are cropping up all over Central KY. Graze has been in business for a year or so and judging by the car traffic on Combs Ferry Rd, their location is spot-on. I can’t say as much for the rest of their operation though as noted by my review score.
The occasion was dinner with another foodie friend. We are trying to get together once a month and dine at the newer restaurants in the Lexington area. We made reservations, but my friend texted at the last minute to say she was unavoidably detained with a client. So…not wanting to lose our reservation, I went ahead to wait for her. I was shown to our table, which was about as comfortable as sitting on a wooden picnic table bench. The tables were also very close together and I was self-conscious about looking around, fearing that I was encroaching on the privacy of the diners next to me. If my friend had not showed up, I fear they would have found my cold dead body in the corner several days later. I was given a glass of mostly ice (tea) and then abandoned - no menu, no mention of any specials, no offer or bread or appetizers while I waited. I finally asked, about something to munch on and was told there wasn’t anything. A better place would have gone in the back and rustled up some crackers and carrots or something – especially a “fine dining” establishment as Graze purports itself to be.
Graze is all about local products and thus, the menu changes daily. I get that. The four entrees: burger, lamb, fish, curry were written on a blackboard. That’s it. No mention of how they are prepared, what comes with, how much they cost – nothing. As a big foodie, and one who has several food allergies, the devil is in the details for me and maybe others as well. The wine list was written on a tiny dry erase board at the table with a marker that did not lend itself to anyone reading it except a seeing eye dog. Really – it is not very expensive to hand someone a paper copy of a daily menu or a wine list – especially with all the recycling efforts that abound in our community.
When my friend arrived, our server decided that the critical mass of two persons was worthy of a little more attention and we were finally told what the menu entailed. My friend chose the rockfish which had some fancy sauce on it and appeared to be accompanied by asparagus. I chose the burger which was topped with barbecued pork belly and cheese and a side of oven roasted potatoes. The burger was done to my liking and was a high quality, juicy beef. I gave the pork belly the heave-ho – although later I tasted a bite and it was mostly like a barbecued pork chop. I guess I missed the verbal part of the description from the server that mentioned the cheese topping included habanero peppers. Holy cow – was that burger hot! I managed to eat most of it – it was a very large burger. The oven roasted potatoes that accompanied the burger were nothing special. Both our entrees came with a house salad which was literally spinach from a bag, topped with a few sliced strawberries and some balsamic - again, nothing special. My friend liked her fish entrée probably better than I liked my selection. She also had a cup of coffee after the meal which she pronounced delicious. There were only a couple store bought options for desserts as all the homemade desserts were sold out by the time we finished our meal.
The restaurant was relatively busy while we were there, but as I mentioned before, service was extremely shoddy for a fine dining experience. Their competitor down the road (Herbe – click here to see review) was much more friendly, accommodating, comfortable, better food, and more choices.
I have no idea how much the check was – my friend bought dinner as her apology for being so late. Whatever it was, it wasn’t worth it IMHO. For more information about Graze including hours of operation and directions, check out their website at: http://grazelex.com/. Note that there is no posted menu on their website or their Facebook page.
Gluten Free Options – none advertised.
Vegetarian Options – none advertised.
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