Restaurant Lola — Restaurant in Bremerton

I've been hearing a lot about this place and how amazing it is so some friends and I went for the 4/20 late night menu. The aesthetic was so cute and cozy inside. They had mocktails which is always great for the non drinkers, and it tasted delicious.

Some of us ordered the "Smash Burgers", Mac and cheese, ribs, carrot cake, banana pudding, chips and onion dip, and oysters.

I'm going to be honest, I wanted to love this place but it was a let down. The Smash Burgers party was about 3/4 inch thick, which really negates the whole "Smash" burger name. And the outside was SO heavily charred that it was definitely more burnt. There was a huge inconsistency with the cook on all of them as well. One was completely grey and hard, the other was perfectly mid in the middle and another was somewhere in-between. However all of them were way too burnt on the outside. They were also way too salty. And the mustard sauce was delicious, the bun was good too, but the cheese tasted like American Cheese and it definitely didn't feel like the burger we were expecting from this type of place or for the price either. Also wish that it came with fries.

The Banana pudding was okay. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't amazing. It didn't stand out in any way. And the presentation felt like a backyard BBQ. The carrot cake was pretty dry and flavorless, but the cream cheese ice cream cake was good.

The onion dip was everyone's favorite part, which while that is good, is a bit disappointing that the favorite dish of them all is a dip.

Overall, I guess we had too high of hopes for this place. I wouldn't be opposed to giving it another shot but for the price it definitely didn't feel like the high end fresh ingredients we were promised.

The service albeit slow was lovely, the servers and everyone we dealt with were super amazing and friendly. But the food just didn't hold up to...

We had been considering going to this restaurant for years since seeing the feature about it on Seattle Refined. We finally went and our experience was unfortunately not good. The space is a gray concrete box with an unfinished, concrete floor, dead, drab, dusty flowers on walls and tables, torn muslin curtains, and a corrugated metal bar. It felt like we were in someone’s garage and we were freezing with our jackets on. We finally had to ask if they would please turn the heat up. The mid century modern chairs were nice and comfortable but just added to the overall shabby chic/grungy/mid-century identity crisis of the decor. The menu selection was a similarly confusing weird identity mash up. The staff were formally attentive which felt awkwardly and out of sync in the contrasting relatively low budget atmosphere. My specialty cocktail was nicely prepared yet, sans the classic garnish. Food service began with an appetizer of homemade, cold, somewhat stale, potato chips and an onion dip appetizer reminiscent of the stuff I made in college 40 years ago with dry soup mix. The raw and Rockefeller oysters were just okay. The salad was very dry with a barely perceptible dressing, rock hard croutons, and a dominant fresh herb (dill?) mixed with the greens that overpowered the experience. For my meal, I ordered the catfish hoping it would be in the chef’s southern wheelhouse and it would be a likely winner. But, I needed a jackhammer to crack open the geode of tough, heavy, coarse, cornmeal batter to get to the catfish interior which was not complimented by the tiny compote side of sour “remoulade” (aka tarter sauce). The challenge and payoff of eating this dish was simply daunting, inedible and not worth the trouble. So, I sent it back. Overall our experience was over-priced and disappointing. The consensus went without saying: we will...

With our 4pm reservation, we stopped by on a Wednesday when they open for dinner. This is a small unassuming fine dining restaurant located in a local strip mall with very good food and excellent service. Although there are only about ten tables in this small restaurant, seating was comfortable and not too crowded. Overall service was excellent and efficient.

Steak Tartare was well-prepared and tasty; however, the “toasted Saboteur Bakery baguette” croutons were super hard and disappointing and detracted from the well-prepared tartare. The Green Salad was excellent – served cold in a chilled bowl and was very fresh and tasty; however, again the crouton cubes were super hard and disappointing and detracted from the well-prepared and tasty green salad.

The Petite Beef Tender was very good and tasty and cooked medium-rare as requested; however, since it was served in an un-heated dinner plate, the meat cooled-off quickly which detracted from the enjoyment of this main dish – beef is always better served hot off the grill.

For desert, the poached Washington anjou pear with red wine reduction and vanilla-orange mascarpone was well-prepared and delicious. The carrot cake was also quite tasty served with a delicious small scoop of home-made ice cream.

Although tableware is the least important thing I pay attention to when eating at a restaurant, I was a bit surprised to find it lacking here due to light and flimsy silverware and chipped serving dishes.

Overall, we were pleased with our experience at this small fine-dining restaurant and with a menu that changes weekly, we may find ourselves returning again in the future. With a few minor changes, the food served would be well aligned with the higher...