Melini Cucina

Good Food there and How the chefs make it the food look good and not a complete failure

I’d give this place ½ a star if it were possible. This is the 3^rd time I’ve eaten at this restaurant and now it finally gets the review it so richly deserves.
This place is terrible. I forget the name but I ordered a chicken dish with penne and it was supposed to be cooked with white wine and the chicken looked like they boiled it in water…
Gigantic pieces of green pepper and tomatoes were thrown in there with a few pieces of mushroom, penne pasta, and the ‘boiled’ chicken…
It was utterly disgusting. My wife ordered spaghetti and meatballs and the pasta was mushy, overcooked. The meatballs were tasteless and dry. The service was pitifully slow and half rude.
I don’t understand how this place stays in business because, frankly, their food is tasteless, not AT ALL authentic, and they can’t even correctly cook spaghetti.
Don’t waste your money dining (ha, that’s a joke) in this establishment. There’s a SUBWAY down the street with a sub that’s more Italian than any of the 3 dishes I tried here and the sub tasted about ten times better than this crap.
Yes, I’m being a little rough on Melini Cucina because they’ve basically robbed me 3 times out of my hard earned money. The bottom line is their food is either disgusting or tasteless.

I consider myself a pretty straight forward guy. I don’t normally adjust my scale for any reason. I have standards. In the case of this restaurant you pretty much have to on the fact that you are in Mt. Sterling Kentucky. I meant that with absolutely no disrespect to this wonder small town. I live in Lexington but I work here.
Bare with me and I will tie that long intro into a rating very soon. Warning I will periodically use the phrase «for mt. Sterling» several times during this review. So with the disclaimer out the way lets get down to business.
Service: the service wasn’t bad. I was the very first person in the restaurant so it wasn’t anyone at the front to greet me. I notice the hostess was in the other section with her back to the entrance on her phone I think. No biggie at all. Pretty sure if there was a bell or chime device she would’ve heard me. Once I pretended to read an old advertisements paper and flipping pages very loudly she came over. The hostess was very nice and friendly for mt sterling (another story. McDonald’s review coming soon). So far so good
Food: food wasn’t bad for an Italian restaurant in mt sterling Kentucky. This is when I have to adjust my scale a little. Seriously people do you think I had my mind set on five star Italian cuisine mid day in mt sterling Kentucky. Did I think that Mario Batali was in a kitchen on a Monday in mt sterling Kentucky serving pasta. Heck no I went to this place expecting tomato sauce and some generically shape noodles. Exactly what I got but with a some store purchases Italian sausage. Exactly what I would’ve made at home but with a styrofoam to go box.
The point of the story is that I bonded with a new friend at a local restaurant. What was special about this place was the regulars that knew the hostess by name. The way they laughed while joking about last Wednesday when she spilled sweet tea. Thats the real take away from this place. This is the type of place that the not so well off go when they get tax return money just to make the kids feel special. Just make them feel like the «other half» for one day.
Today I learn to stop rating small town local restaurants base on my big city taste.

Stopped in here for lunch. Awesome calzone for like 7 bucks. You can’t beat it. My buddy had a large piece of pepperoni pizza that was huge. Highly suggest this place.

Stopped here with my wife, sister and brother inlaw. The waiter asked why we would like to drink, my sister and brother asked for water and my wife asked what kind of wine they had, the waiter asked if she wanted to see the wine list and we never saw him again. After waiting five minutes for him to return we got up, walked past a manager and two hostess, who didn’t bother to ask if anything was wrong, and out the door. After reading reviews, I’m glad we did not stay.

This was the worst Italian food I’ve ever had. I first ordered the chicken ravioli and the server told me that the company they buy it from no longer carries it. (In retrospect, this should have been a huge red flag because it obviously means that THEY DON’T MAKE THEIR OWN FOOD IN HOUSE) so I ordered the veal paccata. It arrived and I took a bite of the veal and it was dry and tough. I don’t pay $ 14.99 for veal that tastes like they bought it frozen and threw it in the microwave. It was disgusting. Had to chew that one bite for 5 minutes just to get it down. The pasta was sitting in what can only be described as a «grease sauce». It was orange and left a greasy residue on the plate wherever it touched. It was likewise disgusting. The server came by and asked if there was anything wrong with it. I told her that it was disgusting. So she left the plate on the table and brought me my bill. I paid $ 14.99 for one bite of the worst, frozen and microwaved Italian food I’ve ever had. I’ve never had a restaurant charge me when you don’t eat the food because it’s horrible. Amazing. Do yourself a favor and just walk into the Kroger nearby and buy some frozen Italian. You’ll save money and it’ll taste a lot better.

Yummy Italian, even in Kentucky.