Lulabellesclt — Restaurant in Charlotte

The restaurant came highly recommended, I wanted to patronize a Black owned-establishment in Charlotte. I raved about this being the one place I wanted to start my Birthday weekend. I will explain in detail why I felt that it was necessary to give the ratings that I gave. First, while trying to appeal to all of the senses of an experience that one should receive while choosing to visit, let’s start at the front of house; Upon entering the doors apparently there should only be one door that you enter in and another door that is just there? This I found out because of the rude behavior of the first person you would see if he had been doing what he was supposed to be doing outside as people enter directing them which way to come in and not outside just looking bewildered as to where he was actually at in the moment was work. After you enter at the Hostess stand the man appears again not introducing himself as security just telling you that he needs to check your bag and your ID ( no greeting). After being seated and the waitress comes over I’m placing my order and I wanted to order the Grits flight, the waitress says that “we don’t have any grits or French toast” so I wanted to ask for potatoes to be subbed for the grits I was told I wouldn’t be able to order that. I then choose another menu item and again I can’t order that because it comes with grits. What I was told was there are no substitutions for items because she can’t ring them in. I couldn’t hear the exchange of words coming from the waitress because the music is so loud that the waitress is almost in your mouth trying to tell you that any item that comes with grits can’t be ordered. This is where I’m concerned, because you should be able to order the entree and just give hash browns as a option because you ran out of grits which is the one item that comes with just about every brunch entree. I ordered the Fried Snapper with (substituted) home fries, eggs with cheese and a side of chicken. The eggs came out with the chicken as an appetizer not with my meal which followed 30 minutes later. I wanted to order the Mimosa flight, being that it is rare to be able to order a Mimosa flight (this was also recommended). I was told you can only order the flight if you are sitting at the bar. The Snapper came out burnt tasting my daughter ordered the Steak it was to salty and not cooked to Medium as she ordered. The chicken is good also the eggs and home fries were good. After we are done eating, we’re sipping our Mimosa’s and the man in black comes over to say “Did ya’ll pay for ya’ll food, and gestured with his hands rolling as he went to another table and told them they had to leave again with a gesture. I then asked for him to come back and my daughter asked him what was he saying and he said it’s time to get the f….up or out but f…was in his response. The man in black goes to the table across from us and tells this table of ladies they also need to “drink up” as they reply we’re still drinking he tells them they should have ordered shots guzzle it down. Take all of that in! How this experience should have gone while you’re trying to appeal to all the senses of the restaurant’s experience. Front of house greeting by your well dressed security guard whom introduces himself as that. Hostess greeting asking if it is your first time visiting and welcoming you in and telling you that you will be closing at 5:00 PM to reopen for the dinner service. Upon being seated explaining that every item we are out of today you may order the Entrée but we are happy to substitute grits for an item section of your choice one egg or home fries no ala cart up charge. Music selection to be at a sound that appeals to your guest that are not from the rap era perhaps it’s Sunday do your birthday tribute selection and choose some R&B, Smooth Soul Jazz and mix up some rap in between with nice blends. I would think that Lulabelle wouldn’t want her guest not to be respected in her home by cussing at women and inviting you in for a meal and not having the meal that you’re offering...

Wow, where do I begin? First off, I’m new to the area so I’ve just been trying new places. My sister recommended “Lula Belles” to me because she said they have really tasty fried salmon. My mom came in town and we decided to give it a try. We noticed they have a dress code and we were not really trying to do the most so we decided to order to go. We placed our order at 7:50 PM. Around 8:20 PM we received a call that our orders (we had 3) were ready. We waited outside so we go straight in. We are greeted by confused faces and we said we were just picking food up and we had been called and our food was ready. The hostess responded “oh yeah she’s just bagging it up”. Okay? Weird but cool. Fast forward 20 minutes, we’re STILL waiting on our food. By this point my sister has grabbed what I guess was supposed to be a manager and she goes “oh yeah, I’m gonna make sure your food is right” while she is heading to the kitchen, OUT OF THIN AIR appears the hostess with three bags… full of cold food. Wow, we’re super over it now so now we’re just like okay, we would like our food HOT and if you could box the greens separate that’d be super helpful considering we have FRIED food (I mean that seems like common sense, but I guess the key word there is COMMON). We are then greeted by “Ms. P” “Ms. C” or whatever her name is. This is supposed to be the “big” manager. She tells us to “calm down and don’t yell at her” instead of immediately apologizing, because at this point we’ve been here over AN HOUR since we received a call that our orders were ready. She brings us 2 replacement meals about 10 minutes after this and we head home to eat finally. Would yall believe that when we got home that was the DRIEST MOST UNSEASONED FRIED SALMON IVE EVER SEEN and the salmon bites I purchased as well were the same way. I’m telling yall, the salmon wasn’t garnished in the usual parsley, it was over cooked, almost tough to eat. So I said you know what? I’m not eating this or wasting my $46 - YES $46 for a fried salmon dinner and an order of salmon bites. So I said I’ll call them first thing Sunday when they open (12:00 PM) and hopefully things can be straightened. I called at 12:06 PM spoke with again, a “manager” (I think named Ashley) who informed me that “Ms. P” wasn’t in at the moment and that she handles refunds and such. The “manager” took my information, said she should be in by 1:00 PM and that she would give her my number and she’d reach out to me. Fast forward to 2:00 PM, I’ve received no call so once again, I call the “restaurant” and this time “Ms.P” is there but “she just walked in the building and she said she’ll call you in about 30-45 minutes”… like EXCUSE ME? I’m an unsatisfied customer who waited over an hour YESTERDAY so in my customer service-minded mind, I would think I would be priority. I inform them that I am going out of town in a few and I really wanted to get this out the way because in this economy, who has money to waste? They said she said it would be about 30-45 minutes. So I go home and wait until 3:00 and decide to just go up to the restaurant because this is simply ridiculous. Do you all know I was greeted by a fake security guard in cheap clothes and cheap cologne saying “you know she can’t help you right now?” “They told me I can’t let you in” “she’s not gonna help you until after 5, I thought they told you that”.. mind yall no one ever said such a thing, in fact “Ms. P” didn’t even have the decency to follow up with me. I’m still waiting on her to call me, in fact the time is now 7:30 PM and she was supposed to reach out after 5:00. but in the mean time I’d thought I’d share my experience with everyone. I wish I could give them ZERO stars. And it’s sad, because I’m always excited to support black owned businesses. But ghetto is as ghetto does so I guess I had too much faith...

I visited on 3/23 with my mom and friends from out of town. I made a reservation, and though we still had to wait for our table to be cleared we were seated in a reasonable amount of time. My first complaint is the volume of the music, way too loud…now I know what my elders were referring to when they said something was “so loud you couldn’t hear yourself think”, in addition to myself and the others in our party being unable to hear each other when speaking despite sitting right next to each other, we also couldn’t hear the server whom is also the primary reason for this poor review. As soon as she came to the table to take drink orders, I politely complained about the volume and asked if she could ask the DJ to lower it, that request was met with a blank stare and zero acknowledgement “shrugs”, she then returned with our round of TEQUILA shots MINUS the limes…now I was the one with the blank stare. I requested them, and she returned with them some time later. Now to the food…it was brunch and maybe an hour and a half before closing, we were informed that they ran out of grits and chicken, but the waitress implied that any side we got would be a substitute in place of at least the grits. We proceeded to order, I was disappointed about the grits as was the rest of my party but we all made due. Orders arrived after a long while, my Red Snapper was good, eggs were sub par, and my mom’s salmon was meh, we both also got a handful of overcooked home fries and she also got eggs which she DID NOT order. Now comes time to pay the bill, by now I’m already annoyed from the loud music, poor service, and mediocre food so I’m just ready to pay the bill and LEAVE. I paid for the shots and me and my mom’s meals, initially $141 with tip🥴😂😂…I then pointed out that my mom DIDN’T order eggs, the waitress “corrected” it and the bill went up to $143🧐😂😂😂…I asked how removing something could increase the bill, got a flimsy excuse about my mom’s meal “technically being a la carte” to which I replied that they’d lost a customer-she matter of factly responded 🤷🏾‍♀️ok…😂😂.. AFTER PAYING I immediately asked for a manager, was told one wasn’t available😂😂😂…after insisting I speak to someone in a position of authority, she magically produced the owner who was there all along. I voiced my complaint to him, and he phoned the manager whom I repeated the ordeal to-she was apologetic and even confirmed that it was possible to have the music lowered because she often did it when it was too loud. She asked that I consider returning, but after thoughtful consideration I’m cool. Definitely won’t be back, waitress’s nonchalance and poor service put the nail in that coffin, I’ll also be disputing her tip through my bank, I didn’t do it at the time because I was too annoyed to go thru any further back and forth. I’d been here once before and had a good experience, too bad that seems to have been a fluke based on some of the other reviews I’ve read. Hopefully they use the 1 ⭐️ reviews as an opportunity to reevaluate their service model and better train their wait staff. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk folks and remember it’s ok to be mindful where you spend your hard earned...