LOLA — Restaurant in City of Kingston

Disappointed, can use improvements.

Food: The homemade gemelli pasta with eggplant was soggy and tasteless (far from authentic), the arancini very mediocre, do not order - could not finish either dish. The pizza is the only exception. We ordered the Parma Pizza, ingredients fresh and dough was good (2 stars because of the pizza otherwise much lower).

Staff service: The hostess provided poor communication and was unwelcoming, a real turnoff. It look a lot not to walkout —this should have been a red flag for us.

The kitchen was about to close for lunch when we arrived and the hostess told us that we could not be served until diner, 5pm (approx 1-1/2 hour later). We said okay, we will wait, walk around the town and return. Before leaving we asked if we needed to make reservations. She said no there was flexibility especially with outdoor seating. We returned at 5ish after being rained on, walking around for over an hour. With the high humidity we asked for an indoor table for two, she looked at her seating chart on the tablet for what seemed a long time (I saw one green two seat table available on the chart) she proceeded to tell us that she was fully booked (the indoor was empty with maybe two occupied tables). The only availability was the outdoors with the high humidity and drizzle. Ultimately we opted for the bar. In hindsight we should have walked out and saved our money for a better meal and service.

The exception to my comments above is the bartender who provide exceptional service and the pizza. That is all this place has going on right now—is it worth it?

Not sure it is with so many options. There is a standard level of quality that is inconsistent with both the staff and food. They have the potential to turn things around. Let me know when they do, do not intend to return anytime soon or...

I’m not one to ever leave a bad review but my experience at lola was truly horrendous. It began when I gasp went to the wrong door. After standing there a bit confused for a moment the waitress barely looked at me twice before rudely mouthing “go around the corner”. Oh I’m sorry that the door with the “LOLA” sticker right on it is not the correct entrance? My bad. So I walk around and enter through the bar and again unsure of where to go wander around to what appears to be the entrance of the kitchen/employee hangout spot. After standing there for a moment with employees rushing past me and completely ignoring my obvious confusion a younger gentleman finally showed me the correct place to check in. Why out of so many great potential check in spots in this decent sized restaurant would the check in desk be allll the way at the back in the most random little spot. I finally got to the appropriate place to grab my to-go order and when I arrived there was no one there to greet me and the other 6 people waiting behind me who were equally as confused. Despite the pizza having decently good flavor, after all of that running around, confusion, and utter rudeness the pizza was cold. If you’re looking for good food around this area try Silvia, if you’re looking for a hassle, poor service, and overpriced mediocre food Lola is the...

So we read the reviews before arriving but heard from friends it was great so wanted to see for ourselves. The space itself is large and beautiful - there are 4 sections - bar, cafe, and back patio, and dining area, all well decorated and modern (cafe has a slightly adjusted menu but dinner is similar enough)

The menu is excellent - lots of options for everyone with unique flavors but also some classics. The food itself is also very good - we’ve had the carbonara twice, the tiger paw pizza, the stracciatella, and the classic Caesar. Tiger paw was great, carbonara was a little inconsistent over the two times we had it but still delicious both times, classic Caesar was made very well and not dry or drowned which we loved, and the stracciatella was chef’s kiss loved it.

Now, for the service. This was one weird for us because the reviews of service weren’t the best but we found it was great. We were served quickly and the staff was super nice. They were pretty attentive considering it was busy and we didn’t feel rushed at all and felt take care of. So would say take the service reviews with a grain of salt because it always depends on the day and time for some places

Overall would definitely recommend for any kind of lunch or dinner and will definitely...