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For this review, we headed back to historic downtown Waynesville and decided to try the Lomo Grill, located on Church street just off Main Street. The entrance to Lomo Grill is so discrete that you can almost drive right by and never even know its there, but certainly don’t make that mistake. The Lomo Grill is now one of our favorite places in the Waynesville area.
The Restaurant
Lomo Grill is owned by Chef Ricardo Fernandez and his wife Suzanne who opened Lomo Grill in 1995 when they moved from South Florida share their supurb culinary skills with Western North Carolina. The array of menu items is a bit hard to describe, so I’ll leave it to the experts at Southern Living who said: “Mediterranean cuisine with an Argentine grill”. If like me you aren’t exactly sure what that means, let me translate: “Delicious“.
I knew where the restaurant was located, an followed the directions for parking from the website which stated “Parking is available across the street”. Turns out, parking isn’t available across the street. The lot across from the reserved is all reserved. Parking is available in a limited amount on the street and also behind the restaurant. Unfortunately for us it was raining, so we got a little wet, but not too bad.
Lomo Grill is a beautiful restaurant. Not overly decorated or ornate, but just right. Solid wood floors, natural brick walls with heavy wood trim and attractive almost Italian like washed walls. The restaurant isn’t overall large, but offers plenty of room. We visited on a Wednesday evening and when we walked in where one of two couples in the restaurant. It was quiet and not busy, which was very nice.
We elected to sit towards the middle of the restaurant, near a wall so that we not only had a little privacy, but a good view of the restaurant as well. Our server arrived and took our drink order while we looked over the menu. Lomo Grill has a full bar and a large assortment of wines by the bottle. They do only offer a small list of choices by the bottle though.
Menu
The menu is chocked full of unique and delicious looking appetizers, salads, and entrees. Now is good to mention their website which is good. The best feature is that it has a current menu online. Why don’t more restaurants do this?
Since you can browse the menu, I won’t go into the details, but as you can see they have something for everyone.
Staff and Service
As our drinks were brought to the table, our server described the 3 different specials for the evening, including a special appetizer of fresh bread warmed with seasoned olive oil. I decided to go with one of the specials: Pork tenderloin scallions with mushroom demo-glaze, a baked potato and asparagus. My wife went with a more traditional rib-eye steak. We also decided to give the fresh bread appetizer a try as well.
Our server hurried off to the kitchen, while we sat, talked, enjoyed our drinks and the nice quiet atmosphere of the restaurant. Speaking of drinks, I ordered the usual Gray Goose Vodka Martini, slightly dirty with 3 olives. It was good, but a little different as I am pretty sure the vermouth was a little sweeter and more of it was used. A decent Martini none the less.
Our bread appetizer arrived a few minutes later, fresh hot and covered with a warm seasoned olive oil. I thought it was heavenly, while my wife thought it was ok, but a little too greasy for her liking. The bread itself was great, hard and crunchy on the outside, soft and warm on the inside.
Our food took longer than I expected to arrive, especially considering we were one of 4 people in the restaurant. While not a concern for us as we were enjoying some time together away from the kiddos, for someone more in a hurry, I can see this being a big issue. I didn’t time how long it took our food to arrive, but if I had to guess I would say a good 20-30 minutes.
Our server was great though. Very friendly and informative about the different items on the menu. He was checked on us, but not so much as to be a bother. I tipped him well and hope to get him when we return.
When our food did finally arrive, it look delicious. The Pork Tenderloin medallions were what I expected, but they were beyond good. It was by far one of the best dishes I have ever had. The pork was tender, the mushroom demi-glaze full of mushrooms with a subtle sweet taste. It was delicious.
My wife’s steak arrived cooked as requested and looked good as well. I’m not a big rib-eye fan personally, but she said it was a good steak. Not great, but good.
We enjoyed our food, and ate way too much. Even as full as we were, we couldn’t turn down the raspberry cheese cake for dessert. It too was excellent.
Family Friendly
While I could be wrong, I wouldn’t say Lomo Grill is a family friendly restaurant, to my standards at least. I didn’t notice a child’s menu nor did I see any high chairs out in the open either. The environment and food prices would tend to imply to me to be more of adult focused restaurant, so keep that in mind if you decide to bring the whole family.
Price
Lomo Grill prices were average for this type of fine dining restaurant. The special I ordered was $22.00 and my wife’s steak was $32. Expensive, but really really good. Average dinner prices range from $14 to upwards of $30. If you’re looking for a cheap eat, Lomo Grill is not the place, but if you’re looking for great food and willing to pay for it, Lomo Grill is the place.
Our Rating
We loved Lomo Grill and will definitely be going back. The fresh and unique food was refreshing. We were growing tired of the same old types of restaurants with the same old types of dishes. Lomo Grill provided us with a delicious and unique dining experience, and we highly recommend you give it a try.
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