Limani — Restaurant in Charlotte

I will first start by saying this is a truly gorgeous restaurant, the ambiance and and atmosphere is gorgeous! The girls and I wanted to love this so much, but there were just too many misses for them to get out the hole.

The service was WAYYYYY over complicated and honestly the miscommunication and the tension between staff was quite uncomfortable. We had a waitress whom we thought was servicing our table for food and drinks (because there was no explanation). She was quite snappy when we asked a question on an appetizer—with a real jazzy tone she stated “she doesn’t handle that, but what would you like to drink.” Ummm okay cool, apparently that’s what your captain is for (they have the chefs jackets on the floor). My friend then asked if they had mock tails and she said yes and wrote it down. Confused because she was just inquiring, she asked what was in it and she stated pineapple and cranberry and something tropical. Lol, this was not the drink we got. We got something so much better it was like a virgin blueberry mule, my friend said it was delicious, but just so odd. We are starting to see some weird vibes.

Our Captain was actually pretty good and didn’t mind correcting a couple drink issues we had as dinner progressed. Funny enough once she corrected a wine issue our waitress seemed to be bothered that we didn’t go through her—the Captain came to check on us. It’s getting tense now and we are awkwardly staring at each other. Now food, I don’t eat seafood, but my entire group does so I of course ordered the chicken. From the reactions of the group in such a seafood heavy restaurant my chicken was the best thing on the table….I’m happy about that, but sad for my friends who picked through their food who lacked flavor. I will say the secondary wait staff was great—there was never a time our water was 2 inches from the rim lol, our cups runneth over.

As we finished our meal the waiter had the water guys clear our plates, but when they didn’t move fast enough she did this whole scolding which was a little startling, we were in no rush and didn’t think it was that serious. Dessert. Our captain handed us menus and honestly we were over it and full from the bottomless water and drinks we ordered. But she remembered we were celebrating 2 birthdays and told us to not worry and took our menus and ordered 2 desserts for us (awesome baklava and a yogurt btw). As we were sitting and waiting the waitress came and brought us menus for dessert and when we told her we already ordered and saw the menu she shut down and just started picking up the menu as if we had frustrated her. We could do nothing but laugh at this point because we just felt this weird vibe. We finished dinner and left our waitress didn’t offer kind words or a thank you.

Here’s where I leave it. We agreed we’d come back and sit at the bar (it’s gorgeous) and have a few cocktails…but as for another dining experience, for the service blunders and a price tag that doesn’t quite match maybe there’s some work that needs to be done to improve. Communication seems to be a...

As a former server, I like writing positive reviews when warranted. When I have not so good food or service, I don’t write a review. However, our experience at Limani was so shockingly bad, I feel a sense of duty to let people know. We were prompt for our 6:30 reservation. The restaurant was understandably pretty empty, and we were placed in a small side room of approximately 12 tables. There were 2 other occupied tables in the room. The server asked us what kind of water we would like, but didn’t offer to take a cocktail order. The waters arrived, and after we had been there for about 20 minutes, we haled him down and asked to order cocktails. It took another 20+ minutes for them to arrive. (In retrospect, we should have asked him about cocktails when he was taking our water order, but since he didn’t ask us if we wanted anything else to drink, we thought that maybe someone else would come do that.)
At 7:30, we couldn’t believe that no one had approached us to take our order. We had planned to order appetizers as we were all pretty hungry, but decided against it because it would add more time before our dinner would come. We asked our waiter if we could order, and he said he couldn’t take the order, someone else in a white coat had to. Meanwhile, the room is full, other tables have ordered and some are getting their appetizers and dinners. The white coated order taker is going to all the other tables, some of them had arrived 45 minutes after us- and is doing an excellent job of ignoring us. Finally, the order taker arrives, and we order. 
Our dinner arrived at about 8:45. While all this was going on, we ordered a few glasses of wine- some taking about 1/2 hour to arrive. 
My tuna was good. My husband’s swordfish was sliced about 1/2” thick, so no surprise that it was dry, tasteless and way overcooked. It was on the menu as including peppers and tomatoes. That was a stretch as there was 1 tomato and one little chunk of pepper.

Our check was over $400, with no appetizers or desserts, and we were there for over 3 hours.

I knew I would be writing a negative review and I didn’t feel that was fair without first talking to the manager and giving him an opportunity to say something- anything- to make a bad situation better. Our server sent the manager over who listened to what we had to say He didn’t say anything to make us feel any better about the situation and we actually felt a little worse for that conversation.

There are a lot of really good restaurants in Charlotte with outstanding food and service. Unfortunately, Limani is not...

I had the pleasure of dinning at this new restaurant for the holidays! I was able to get reservations on the day after Christmas for a party of 3 with no problem.

For reference and ease of locating, the restaurant is located in the same area as Restoration Hardware. They have what appears to be dedicated Parking behind the restaurant.

Walking into the restaurant it is clear that you are in for a treat! You are greeted with the focal point of the restaurant- a beautiful bar. The bar has a very modern edge. The base of the bar is a marble like blue color that appears to have some form of light illumination feature. The chairs are white and gold and the lighting about the bar match the chairs. The center piece of the bar is a tree! The bar is well done!!!

The dinning area does not disappoint. There is a stunning circular chandelier hanging against wooden beams. The chairs keep with the white theme, but have wooden backs. I think that you can tell that I appreciate the decor and overall aesthetic of this restaurant.

Now on to the service: it was stellar for us! We were greeted immediately upon walking in and honestly a staff was at our table often checking in on us. I honestly could not tell you who our dedicated server was because it felt like every staff member assisted us at one point during the evening. In addition to providing great service, the team also appears to be well versed on the menu offerings. I always love when staff can make informed recommendations!

The food: if you don’t order anything else off the menu, I am begging you to try the Limani chips!! The description: Paper thin cut zucchini and eggplant served with lightly fried kefalograviera cheese and tzatziki! The combination of everything noted about works! I am still craving more of these!!! For my meal I opted for the octopus! I am obsessed with Octopus, and the chefs at Limani nailed this dish!! The octopus was seasoned and cooked perfectly!! It’s a dish I would recommend trying! My sister opted for the branzino and my friend had the salmon. Everyone in my party enjoyed their meal! To cap off the night we had to try dessert! We split the Cracked “SPASMENO” Baklava: Caramelized phyllo with a pistachio praline mousse. This was so good! I appreciate that it was light and not too sweet! It’s a great size for sharing!!

I think it’s clear that Limani is a win in my book. I can see this restaurant being a favorite for many Charlotte residents. I will be a returning customer when I am in town!! Job well done to the...