The experience would've been much worse, had our food not tasted relatively good. Coming from the fact that my friends and I have all worked in the restaurant industry, you know it is bad when we all collectively agree that the service was intentionally horrible. We are pretty dang understanding when it comes to stuff like this. We go to restaurants weekly and have never had issues this bad with the service, as we did at Lulu's. Still, the food wasn't bad.
Upon approaching Lulu's Hot Oven, we see an awesome blow up character that looks a helluva lot like Patrick Star. Except, I think it is supposed to be a slice of pizza. He takes up two parking spots but it is a really cute, inviting touch to the restaurant. We walked in and we were greeted and seated pretty quickly, this was the best experience we had with the service throughout our entire time there. We continued to sit there for probably over 15 minutes while the staff continued to walk by us, stand in the back, or do whatever else. I mean, I completely understand they are still fairly new and trying to work out the kinks, but it just seemed more deliberate than it was a resultant of being busy. Typically, you order drinks and maybe appetizers, and then decide on food later. We knew our entire order by the time someone finally came over to our table.
We ordered waters and bottles of coke for the table. We didn't get all the drinks and needed to wave for another 10-15 minutes to get the rest of them. In addition, we got the loaded fries for our appetizer. I cannot remember what it was called but it was loaded with sausage, cheese, pico, sour cream, and some other stuff. This came out fresh and tasted good. I think some more seasoning on the fries would've helped a little bit. We then got the birra pizza, the sebastian, and the taco pizza. We all had different favorites. I personally liked the birria pizza the most, then the taco pizza, then the sebastian. The birria pizza was delicious--we did get the cauliflower crust and it still tasted great. The crust had a consume flavor to it, there was cheese and birria meat throughout the pizza, and it was topped with cilantro and onions. The taco pizza had all your typical taco ingredients on the pizza. It also tasted really good. The crust was thick and fluffy. The sebastian was very interesting. They used beans instead of sauce and then it was topped with sausage and bacon. I felt like it needed something else, but I really liked the bean approach--I have never had a pizza quite like it! Another important note is that the pizzas do not seem to taste the same once they have cooled off. We all noticed a complete difference in flavor when they weren't hot and melty anymore.
We were dying to try the churros for dessert so we ordered those before closing out. We saw other tables ordering them and they looked amazing. Because of the size of our party, we ordered two of them. Once they arrived at our table, the churros were pretty hot. They are stuffed churros--though, I am not 100% sure what they are stuffed with. They were out of this world good. They were drizzled in chocolate sauce and paired well with the ice cream. The ice cream was a good touch, though I think vanilla bean ice cream instead would make it all the more better.
Throughout our time at Lulu's Hot Oven, we were trying to figure out the vibe of the restaurant. They really didn't stick to a certain theme within the concept. I feel like the atmosphere could be more fun and inviting in some ways. I think they definitely have some kinks to work out with the overall structure of the business--even the menu has kind of an odd layout. Desserts are on the first page and there are pop ups on the table that mention they have birria tacos and wings--but they're not on the menus we were given. It seems a bit scattered right now but I think they're easy fixes that can be worked out as they get more established.
I am on the fence about if I would go back or not. We typically don't have a "rude server" but this one was up there. As I went to pay for our hundred dollar order, I was hoping she would hand me the mobile POS so I could do so. Instead she held it in her hand super tightly, facing her, when I tried to grab it, she was staring at me with a dirty look on her face as it asked for a tip. I feel like this was almost a weird way to try to intimidate me to tip better, but it really had the opposite effect. Throughout our time at the restaurant, we unanimously agreed that she was rude with us and I cannot think of a time in which we have ever said this at another restaurant. As great as the food was, I am not dying to go back to have someone act like that throughout my experience. As for everyone else, I'd still recommend going and trying their awesome menu items, I just hope others have a better experience with the staff. read more