Summit

Finally, we have some place other than the Merrick and Malones on the south side! The owners of Portofino have opened another restaurant in the old Emmett's building just past Man-O-War off Tates Creek. The Summit has the same high standards and excellent service that thier sister restaurant, Portofino offers, and offers some lighter menu choices. For appetizers their menu is incredible. We tried the Tuna Carpaccio and it was fabulous. For salads we upgraded to the Pecan Blue Cheese and it was worth the upgrade. For dinner we had the Scallops and the Osso Bucco. Agian, they were wonderful. The scallops were the best I had ever tasted in Lexington. For dessert, we split the French Silk, a divine chocolate mousse with a raspberry coulis- and it was out of this world! Overall we were very pleased and look forward to our next visit. Thank you Wayne Masterman for offering a new fine dining restaurant to the south side.

Every entree on the Summit menu sounded delicious, and I can't wait to go back and try them. But on our first visit we were feeling frugal so I ordered the pizzetta & my boyfriend had the bacon cheeseburger. My pizzetta was tasty, but his burger was out of this world. It's made from filet, strip & ribeye and topped with bacon and white cheddar. Summit was the first restaurant to ever bring out a burger that was actually cooked medium rare, as requested. It was juicy, smoky, amazingly flavorful, and a steal at around $10. The desert of the day was a chocolate cup filled with raspberry mousse. It was a little difficult to eat because the chocolate cup was very thick and hard to break, but well worth the effort. Service was excellent, but it did take a while to get our food.

Wayne Masterman must be adding extra hours to the day in ordser to be the host of his restaurants.

When we entered Summit on a Saturday night, recently, he was at the lobby in under a minute and he seemed to be on his way elsewhere when he stopped and welcomed us.

The staff is very sharp looking and quite attentive. The menu is a nice break from standard steakhouse and local fine dining fare. We just ordered appetizers and wine because we just wanted lots of delicious bites of variety to enjoy. We were very pleased.

The pizzetta is quite wonderful and fun. It is a thin pizza type bread that comes with a slice of carambazola cheese (bleu) and a golden roasted head of garlic for you to squeeze out the candy like cloves. It's rich and decadent...the only addition i would add might be some golden raisins plumped in a gastrique of vinegar and sugar or honey. But no complaints here...the dish works and is easily shared. The server was quite a charmer...very informed and quite personable.

4 out of 5 stars here.