Fine dining at the mall? Why this Lexington restaurant is the talk of the town
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The Best Thing I Ate This Week
Join Brian Simms and the LexGo Eat team as they search local menus for the best food at Lexington restaurants.
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Ever so often, a new restaurant opens in Lexington that gets local foodies buzzing.
It happened with Tony’s of Lexington and Jeff Ruby’s Steakhouse, both in high-profile downtown locations and each deserving of the hype.
But talk to anyone who’s a connoisseur of the local dining scene these days and the first thing they will ask you is, “Have you been to Mileta yet?”
And if you haven’t heard of Mileta, it might be because this contemporary Italian-inspired restaurant with its handmade pastas and award-winning decor is located in a place one would not expect to find a Culinary Institute of America-trained chef: Fayette Mall, right next door to The Cheesecake Factory.
With a dinner party theme and an ever-changing menu of shareable plates using seasonal ingredients, Mileta has proven it can stand with — and also out from — the “it” restaurants of Lexington, like Coles 735 Main, Epping’s on Eastside, Tony’s and Jeff Ruby’s.
“We’re different than every other restaurant in town,” said Executive Chef and Partner Alex Green. “And I think a lot of people were just hesitant, thinking Lexington didn’t want something like that, but we’re proving that they do.”
What makes Mileta different from other local restaurants?
Proprietor and Managing Partner Dallas Rose and Green created a worldly influenced restaurant using fresh, local and international flavors, when they opened Mileta Nov. 9, 2024. While the menu might be what you find at a fine-dining establishment, what you won’t see are white table cloths and a dress code. And that, along with the upbeat music and diners freely sharing what they ordered, helps with the dinner party feel.
“I think we throw the best party in the city every night,” said Rose. “We have a blast.”
That was evident on my recent visit. There was a nearby table of 12 celebrating an engagement, a group of women reminiscing about their college days, and not one, but two 50th wedding anniversaries.
And while you’ll feel right at home at an intimate table for two, which was the case for me, Mileta wants to have the feel of a dinner party at a friend’s house. It’s not an in-and-out dining experience, but the way to truly experience the atmosphere and menu is a party of four or more where there’s a lot of nibbling and passing of plates around the table.
“We’ve seen a lot of people turned on to dishes and ingredients that they may not have been familiar with or into because of peer pressure,” said Rose. “That’s one of the more fun parts: watching people eat in the dining room the things that they didn’t know that they love.”
What’s on Mileta’s menu?
Fitting with the “let me try that” dinner party theme, the menu has more for the table features than the second course of pasta and third course entrees. Our waitress said most tables of two order two appetizers, two pastas and one entree, sharing each dish after each course is finished.
The menu changes frequently depending on what they can get fresh. It might be several dishes swapping out this week or as simple as wherever fresh herbs are available. Locally-sourced suppliers include Jake’s Country Sausage, Wendell Berry’s Berry Beef, Black Hawk Farms and the local farmers market.
“It’s fun for me, kind of a little hamster wheel of creative juices,” said Green, a Kentucky native who has a background in Italian and Southern cuisine from time spent in New Orleans and Memphis. “We want it every time you come in, for you to be able to get something new.”
The ever-changing menu of about 13 starters for the table are priced from $8 (homemade focaccia) to $26 (ceviche) but one is so popular it will never come off the menu, Green says.
The crispy potato bites with cultured cream and hackleback sturgeon caviar ($25) are a three-day process of creamy starchy goodness inside, encased by crunchiness and pillowed by the perfect amount of saltiness — that is, if you opt in for the caviar topping.
“It looks dark — that’s just the cream. It browns, but they don’t taste bitter or anything like that,” said Green. “They’re super rich.”
All of the restaurant’s pasta is handmade during dinner service in a glass-walled, private room that can seat 10. There are two sittings, at 5 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Rose says for weekend reservations, you’d better call weeks in advance.
“People love sitting in there,” he said.
Rose and Green say they want to be known for more than pasta, but they saw a void they could fill with homemade pasta prepared in a unique way.
There are six pasta dishes on the menu, including tagliolini with creamy Gorgonzola dolce sauce with honeyed sunflower seed pangrattato & rosemary ($25) and lumache tossed with Jake’s Country Sausage, calabrian peppers and Parmigiano Reggiano ($24).
For the tomato-infused mafaldine corte, Rose and Green say they tried about 17 different tomatoes for the dish before landing on one that is sold only commercially and known for its freshness due to its canning.
There are five entrees on the menu, and so fa,r diners have tagged the steak and pork chop the most popular. The bone-in pork chop ($40) had such an inviting smell from the black garlic-fig jus as it approached our table that it had to be cut into first.
Another standout for our table was the gently poached halibut with a miso glaze, farmer’s market vegetables, poaching nage and soft herbs ($56). The fish came fresh from Sitka, Alaska, 36 hours earlier.
Desserts are something not to pass up, especially the ice cream sundae ($15).
“People love the Parmesan ice cream,” said Rose. “That’s kind of become a cult hit.”
Another three-day preparation process brings this Parmesan soft serve with balsamic caramel, olive oil and thyme meringue “sprinkles” to cap off a perfect meal with friends. It’s the perfect blend of sweet and salty, and then you get the crunch from the meringue with the unexpected hints of thyme.
Green takes used Parmesan rinds, steeping or soaking them in warm milk to get the flavor out of the cheese. From there, they use it to make their own ice cream base.
Another popular dessert is the chocolate tart ($15) with hazelnut praline, amaro montenegro ganache and giaduja mouse. The ribbons of chocolate and hazelnut on top add to the elegance of the dish.
Mileta’s design, atmosphere wins award
The focal point of the dining room is a quartzite bar that sits at the center of the room. There, craft cocktails change almost as much as the dinner menu.
“A lot of chefs cook seasonally, and the bar menu is kind of reflecting that too,” said Rose, noting they take pride in their bar program from the many different glassware down to the three different shapes of ice.
Rose designed the restaurant with his wife, Courtney, and his sister, Sagan. Their renovation of the former Par 6 Social sports bar and restaurant has already won a fine dining interior design award.
The mid-century modern look with bohemian influences has touches of Rose’s international travels in the finance world and his native Lexington. The Pasta Room and private dining Rose Room both have imported marble while parts of dining room feature rich greens and brass in a tip of the cap to Keeneland.
Hints of Lexington are sprinkled throughout the decor, including paintings from local artist Spencer Reinhard, one of the four students involved in the 2004 Transylvania University book heist. All around the restaurant there is an attention to detail you don’t see often, from the flossers and feminine products in the bathrooms to the actual votive candles at each table. And when the sun goes down, the mood, look and feel take on a whole new light.
“If you looked at this restaurant in a vacuum and didn’t know what was outside the front door, you’d probably expect it to be in some downtown, high-profile, sexy location,” said Rose. “And I think we do a good job of transporting you there, and you forget you’re at the mall very quickly.”
Mileta
Where: 3565 Nicholasville Rd. Suite 932, outide the entrance to Fayette Mall, next door to The Cheesecake Factory
Hours: Lunch: 11 a.m.- 2p.m. Wed.-Sun.; Dinner: 5 p.m.-midnight Wed.-Sun.
Online reservations: https://www.miletarestaurant.com/reservations
This story was originally published July 17, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
