Had lunch here with a friend. She made a reservation. From the moment we arrived, we had friendly service and a truly excellent waitress who was extremely knowledgeable about the wine menu.
My friend got a sangria. I had a white wine by the glass. The white wine by the glass menu is on the pricey side, topping out at $23. Just fyi.
My friend had a salad to start, which I have to say blew me away with the way the flavors combined. Apples, persimmons, goat cheese and endive, drizzled with honey. More than the sum of its part, this salad.
I had the Scottish salmon. It was incredibly moist, just like I like. I detest dry fish and I find LA restos tend to overcook it. The skin was perfectly fried to a nice crisp, just the way I like!
I haven’t been in a few years. It was my friend’s birthday, and I made reservations, letting the restaurant know. When we showed up, all the empty booths were “reserved”. Our four people got two two-tops pushed together in the middle of the room, while two guys sat in a corner booth and got drunk and bellowed at each other all night.
We ordered cocktails, and they wanted the whole order put in, including the wine we would have with dinner. They brought the cocktails and appetizers, then crowded in salads five minutes later, together with the white wine AND the red wine for our entrees. Whatever. We went outside for a few minutes and we came back to a tableful of entrees and the bottle of red already poured, bottle gone (also gone, half-full glasses of white and our salads which we’d barely gotten to.)
We asked why they didn’t wait until we came back to serve the entrees, and they said “the hallway between the kitchen and dining room is long” and they didn’t want to carry the food back and forth, it would get cold. Lamb was gristly, the fish well-cooked, the food wasn’t special enough to make up for bad service.
Servers were robots and manager was sour. Whatever.
We want to Jar for dessert and had a great time, much better than dinner. We’ve been to Jar many times since, never again to Lucques.
This was three years ago, sounds like they have improved or maybe we hit them at a bad stretch, but you know the old saying, “There are so many other good restaurants in L.A.”
wow that sounds like a horrible experience and total amateur hour by the FOH. I would have been pissed. Did they comp anything?
I’ve been several times and have always had a pleasant meal, but it’s been probably 8 years since I’ve been back. Too many other more interesting restaurants constantly opening up.
Sounds like a horrible experience. I understand that people can have a bad day, but experiences like this indicate that the management is part of the problem. Bad service like that, regardless of food, is enough to keep me from going back, to high-end restaurants at least, because the service is such a large part of fine dining.
Every meal I have ever had has been outstanding. Service has also been outstanding. We would go more often if it were closer to home and didn’t have to deal with traffic. Sunday Supper is easier to get to and the food has always been outstanding. I like that they post the menu for the sunday supper on their website on Thursdays or email you . For several years the price was $45 pp. Recently, the price increased to $52. One of the staff told me that this was first price increase in 7 years and reflected higher costs.
