Columbia Steak House

I've been a patron of Columbia's forever! First off Versailles rd. and then downtown as a kid. I followed to Richmond Rd. I've only been dissatisfied a couple of times out of 100's. My parents took me to the one on Versailles Rd location for my high school graduation (boy that was an adventure!). So other than forgetting to put in dressings or small requests, it's been a pleasurable experience every time. In fact , Jerry (my hubby) brought us The Nighthawk Special a couple nights ago. I love the steaks! So tender, no fat. I love most of their sides too! Dinner Rolls and cinnamon butter are

This is the worst steak house I have eaten in my life. My tenderloin steak had no flavor ( butter or garlic) it tasted old. Steak fries are not what I expected. Other customers are very loud eating. It looks like a 70s restored restaurant. I wish I did nor ho here.

While visiting my hometown of Lexington Kentucky I gave Columbia Steak House a try. I walked in the place and it was very dark. It smelled like some over powering bathroom cleaner through the restaurant. I went to the bar to eat. A friendly lady came to greet me and take my drink order. I had a beer I think. The bar itself had some sticky substance on it. I went to the bathroom and they smelled and was dirty. I was thinking at this point of leaving but I stayed. Wanting some fried green tomatoes I ordered those. The tomatoes were mushy and over battered and lacked seasonings. You get a nice size order (5) but I could only eat one because my entry came out right after. Now I'm sitting there with all this food in my face including the rolls they brought me when I arrived. I had a rib-eye steak and bake potato with butter and sour cream, again I received a nice size portion. The steak was cooked a perfect medium but it was bland and had a lot of fat. The bake potato was ok. I got my bill and was floored how much I had to pay, very expensive and the meal was not worth it at all. Their are a lot of steak houses in the area of Columbia, I recommend going elsewhere.

Our first stop in Lexington, I was looking for a regional type food or beverage to sample.Did no one else ever ask "What are Lamb Fries?" I've never heard of them before and as far as I know this is the only place around you can order them. They say they taste like chicken livers. But to me - they are not as chewy Just for fun, don't ask what they are, order a few - eight come with the appetizer. And then after, ask what they are. You'll have a great story to tell your friends.The Nighthawk and catfish were great. So were the fresh-baked rolls.Friendly people, good food, nice atmosphere, they invited me back, so I'm sure to return.Yay, I'm a fan

Been a customer for several years, and even tho I'm not a fan of management here.. they have one of the best steaks I've ever had. But! With that being said, the side items are mediocre. Everything tastes like it comes out of a can... but man the steak is to die for!

It is indeed all about the NIghthawk special. The tasty, wonderful steak towering above a plate of fries. No matter where you go or what you accomplish in life, this is a meal you can always appreciate.I actually like the salad. It's innovative and tasty, if you like celery. If you don't like celery then you definitely won't want to eat a bite.

Consistently best steak in Lexington is the Nighthawk special. I've been eating them since the 70s and they're still great. Anymore I as for the garlic butter on the side, but the steak is still wonderful. I prefer the baked potato to the fries myself, but both are good and made from potatoes that could double as footballs in an emergency.I like the 'diego' salad, but I'm not a fan of the normal garden salad so your milage may vary.I also prefer the old school downtown location on Limestone. The decor is horribly dated, but then now, so am I.One thing you'll notice is that when Keeneland is running, Columbia's will usually be busy. Also anytime there's an event downtown like basketball there will usually be a crowd, sometimes after daytime football games as well.And, the lamb fries. They're fried pig guts as I understand it. Like deep fried chitlins. I've not been brave enough to try them myself yet. My neighbor who's a WW2 vet gets them every time he goes there though.

I went on a busy night, which the waitress explained was why they couldn't give us just a 1/2 order of the lamb fries. Well, no worries, I understood not wanting to mess with it, so we ordered the mushrooms and our entrees. The two Nighthawks were average. Swimming in butter, but mediocre quality beef. Both were ordered medium rare, but one was super rare and one was medium. The Diego salad was just a wet celery-salted mess and not very tasty, even though I kinda like celery. The prime rib one in our party ordered was the butt end and tasted only of smoke. We sent that back for a ribeye that was below average but edible. Our mushrooms never showed up, a knife knocked on the floor (by a server) was not replaced by the server...though she didn't check back on us for over 20 minutes so it took a long time to ask a second time for one. The veggie medley side was also missing and again, it took so long between server visits that she couldn't remedy that. She never sent the manager over, but did subtract the missing mushrooms, side item, and sent-back prime rib from the bill, while still charging us for the ribeye. The steak fries arrived cold and were meh at best.It was a disastrous dinner, really. The rolls weren't refreshed, the butter tasted off, the other tables were having similar experiences around us...all in all I wondered if anyone from management had paid any attention to this place in 10 years. It looked and felt like walking into a steakhouse from 1970, but without the tasty food. I cannot imagine how many calories there are in a Nighthawk, but I don't think I'll go back to attempt a second round with the butter-doused beef to ask. If Lexington really does pass an ordinance that restaurants have to put calorie counts on their food, I bet this place often has folks fainting at the table!

This was horrible. Front door was sticky, bathroom was sticky stinky and dirty. Restaurant was dark dirty. Took us 1.5 hours to get food then it was cold and others steaks weren't medium but well done. Waitress was rude when asked for another. Broccoli casserole was ice cold and a greasy mess. Way too expensive

Just got home from having dinner there for my mother's birthday. Our experience was way less than average. The steaks were served cold and over cooked, the salads were limp and grossly salted -- why order a salad if it's just covered in a salt? Gross. -- and our vegetables were cold and bland. We ordered an appetizer of whole sauteed mushrooms and our waitress brought us a side of chopped mushrooms, like the kind that you'd put on a steak. When we pointed this out, she pretended that was how they came instead of admitting she had made a mistake and amending it. So, we tried to eat chopped mushrooms for an appetizer, without any sort of spoon or serving utensil. On top of that, they were really unpleasant tasting with a foul aftertaste. When we asked for a spoon to serve these sliced, probably canned mushrooms, our waitress replied really curtly and sourly.The meal ended up costing us around $100, for food that tasted about on par with the Waffle House next door. The atmosphere was casual -- to the point that the place was covered in wires and had visible vacuum tubes hanging out of the fireplace. It just felt like they'd absolutely given up on making the place presentable. I would never recommend this restaurant to anyone. It was like a hillbilly's idea of a steakhouse.