Lola's Bistro — Restaurant in Chagrin Falls

Our group was excited to join Lola’s in celebrating on opening day. It is a beautifully designed space, but one should perhaps wait a few weeks so they can iron out details. There’s much potential for greatness though!

We began with cocktails and bread service. While our drinks were enjoyable, the bread came out cold, with one of the pieces being rock hard. It was replaced by another plate of bread with the same issue. And while our clams were tasty, the fries they were served with came cold and soggy. Our side of aioli looked as though it had been sitting out for a few hours, a dry crust had developed in the top layer. And all this was after a 30+ minute wait for appetizers.

Our second round of appetizers was thankfully a better experience. The mushroom soup was delicious, although reminiscent of gravy. Steak tartare was pleasant. The onion soup was the only disappointment, I was told it lacked caramelized onions and was instead a bowl of soggy bread and loads of cheese in an onion broth. I decided not to try it.

Main course was a toss up. In our group of 4, 2 ordered the beef stroganoff, one had trout, and one branzino. The trout looked good but was tasteless, as if seasoning had been completely forgotten during preparation. Beef stroganoff was very average. The noodles looked like they’d been out to dry for a little while and were glued together from the starch evaporating out. The sauce had good flavor but the deconstruction of the dish was a bit odd — rather than being a creamy sauce, it came as a beef and mushroom gravy topped with a large dollop of sour cream. It was alright, but I wouldn’t order it again here. The only truly good dish was the branzino, it was cooked and seasoned to perfection.

For dessert, we were excited to try a French-inspired taste tatin but quickly changed our minds upon learning the “seasonal fruit” was just apples. Our second option, the chocolate mousse, was sold out for the evening. At the review of earlier patrons, we chose to skip the pistachio crème brûlée and were forced to settle on profiteroles. They unfortunately did not add to our experience in any meaningful way.

Service was alright, which also did not improve our experience. Our server was nice but looked as though she had been called to fill in last-minute and was unsure of anything. Considering there was a soft opening prior to opening night, and that this is not the owners’ first restaurant endeavor, I would hope such things would be ironed out prior to opening. I hope the sweet girl is given proper training to feel more comfortable in her role going forward.

That said, it was overall a very average experience. Had food or service been spectacular, we would’ve returned the next day with out-of-town friends. Alas, we chose to cancel our second reservation and take our visitors elsewhere. While the ambiance is wonderful, and W design and Cmader studio did exceptionally well on the details, food and service has some ways to go before this new spot can truly shine. Perhaps we’ll revisit in a few months and see if things have improved. The potential is...

My fiancé and I went for a Friday night date night. We got drinks at the bar while we waited for our table to be ready. Didn’t catch the bartenders name, but she was great, even while dealing with some rude customers.

We were seated by the window, and while the restaurant is very cute and looks nice, our experience was not great. We were seated for 23 min before our server came to our table (we were texted when our table was ready and started timing it after the first 15 min of being seated without so much as being given water). He asked us “have you been helped yet?” as if there was another staff member who was supposed to be taking care of our table.

We typically will order a few things from apps and entrees and share them between the two of us. When we started ordering, our waiter made comments about our choices, shaming us for ordering more than one app and saying “wow, you’re ordering so much”. Excuse us for wanting to try multiple things on the menu at a newer place.

We ordered the bread, onion soup, and tuna apps. The tuna was good but small, the bread came out cold, and the soup was okay. The tuna is 5 small pieces of sliced fish, maybe the amount you would get in a single sushi roll, if that. Our waiter told us it was small and not much to it, which was true, but also confused us because he has previously given us a hard time for ordering “so much food”.

We ordered a steak frites entree and the short rib entree, with a shared side of the mushrooms. The mushrooms were great and the best thing we ordered. The steak was a very cheap cut of meat and not cooked well. My fiancé asked for medium rare and it was easily medium well/well done (only the very middle had any semblance of pink). The fries were average and the ketchup served with it had a crust on top, leading us to believe it had been sitting out in the small serving dish for over an hour or two. The bearnaise sauce served with the steak was listed under the “warm” sauces and it was served cold. The short rib was very good and the meat was super tender, and the mashed potatoes that came with it were good too. The carrots and whole potatoes though were not cooked through and were both hard and virtually inedible.

When we asked for our check, our server said “oh are you sure you don’t want more” in a very sarcastic tone, again as if we were hurting someone in ordering more than one app. When he brought my card back he said “my names Russ by the way, if you leave a review, can you mention my name so I get free food?”

Overall, maybe 20% of what we ordered we would order again, but the food was not very good. Russ either has never been a waiter before, or just thinks he’s better than other people because “everyone here orders the steak, but I like salads”. Hope he gets his free meal from this review, but we will not be returning. We love downtown Chagrin Falls for date nights, but Lola’s will never be on our list again of places...

It was the best of times, it was the best of times. I couldn't have said that a month ago. But I knew then as I know now the place had good bones. Had good bones of ownership. Had good bones of management. Had good bones of employees, hired specifically for the purpose of culinary excellence. Were there mess ups my first time? Yes, of course. They're called growing pains, but even through those mess ups you could see they were on to something great. The restaurant itself is a scene out of a Parisian Street.

All of that being said, let's talk about the meal. Our server Laura, was phenomenal. She made us feel at home and she made us feel special while being at home. We ordered a round of drinks and appetizers which included the steak tartare, the bread course, the tuna CRU, and the prawn cocktail. All were delivered together, and all were fantastic as pictured. The next courses were the short rib baguette, the steak, the meunière branzino, ratatouille, and the French omelette. all were expertly prepared, delivered in a timely fashion, and altogether.. If I made wax poetically a little bit, it was if we were the only customers in the place, and they closed the restaurant to specifically serve us and only us. That is the way it felt. And that's the way it should feel at any restaurant you ever enter. This was my second time there. I'm glad I did not write a review for the first time. I would like to mention I've never seen a restaurant pivot so quickly as this restaurant did after its opening. To their credit they've done their due diligence. Will there be missed steps in the future probably every restaurant has that. But they have solved a lot of their issues. And I appreciate every effort they gave us.

And a note: seasoned aficionado's of fine dining read between the lines of inexperienced reviews, and ax grinders from those of us who truly appreciate culinary excellence at every level. Is this place absolutely perfect not yet, but it strives to be that entity. For that and everything else I've said this is excellence...