L.May Eatery — Restaurant in Dubuque

The one word that comes to mind when describing our LMay experience: disastrous.

We chose LMay to celebrate three birthdays in our party of eight adults. The fact that it took several minutes to get the hostess's attention and take us to our table was the first indication that the level of service would be sub-par. However, no one could have foreseen what happened next: not two minutes after being seated and waiting to place our drink orders a bus boy dumped an ENTIRE GLASS OF ICE WATER on my mother's lap. I'm not talking about a small table spill with a little bit of run off - I mean a full glass of icy cold water directly into her lap!

Now, I have enough friends in the service industry to know that accidents happen, and lucky for this bus boy my mother is an extremely even-tempered person. However, the response, or lack thereof, from our server and the management was a joke. The bus boy, horrified, apologized profusely and made a weak attempt to lighten the mood with some ill-timed humor. Meanwhile, our server's solution was to simply dump a pile of napkins on my mother and proceed like nothing happened. In this situation the first thing the bus boy or server should have done was inform management, who should have addressed the incident with my mother personally. Instead, my mother was forced to sit through dinner soaking wet with a pile of napkins beside her. My entire party was left in a state somewhere between dumbfounded and disbelief for the remainder of our meal. We finally said something to our server about it when our check was brought out, and eventually the manager came over, made a somewhat flippant apology, and comp'd my mother's meal.

Besides the ice-water incident, I found the entrees middling in both quality of taste and presentation, did not care for the "communal" side salads, and was wholly unimpressed with our server's lack of attention (especially after being told/acknowledging our request for three checks and then, after lumping everything into one, shrugging and stating that they don't split checks for parties of our size. Why she didn't state that after we made multiple comments regarding who's food/drink was with which party I cannot understand. I ended up splitting it for her since she was so flustered by the end). I think the only redeeming quality was the space itself, which I thought (other than the tacky fake candle light) was beautifully decorated. Maybe Chicago has spoiled me but, drama-aside, I was underwhelmed by the whole experience. I believe the Dubuque/Galena area has other superior options in the same price range.

We will not...

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly?

The GOOD. OK, we ordered the Chicken Crostini: Very generous size, good overall flavors. The fig jam was a bit cloying. House salad: good but not great. “you’re in dubuque” pizza: Really very tasty, decent crust, great sausage. Braised pork shanks: very tasty and well cooked. Good mashed taters. Not great but very good.

The BAD. The service was far from passable. Our sever took our orders just fine but was rarely seen again. Unfortunately my daughters glass tipped over and shattered, our waitress was nowhere to be seen so another gal cleaned it up. Our food was brought again by someone else, again not our server. We waited patiently to be asked about dessert, after 10-15 minutes we just decided to ask someone else, they said they'd get her. Again she never showed up. Finally the hostess grabbed the dessert tray to show us, but by that time we had enough poor service and just asked for the check.

The UGLY? We arrived at 5pm on a Monday, there were maybe 10 people, other than that it was empty. For some reason the hostess, instead of seating us in one of the main front rooms where there were already guests seated but plenty of empty tables, took us all the way to the back of the restaurant. There was a dividing wall there and no other patrons. We thought it was a little unusual but didn't think much on it after that. As we neared 5:30 the place really started to pick up, the seating outside was almost full (we had a window seat), the first front rooms were also very full judging by the sound. Our area had 4 other tables in it, again all behind a partition.........yet no one else was seated there. It was very strange and only added to our disappointment with the service. We had been segregated I guess, but for what reason I couldn't say. I will add that I'm a traditional priest and still wear a cassock (which should not seem so strange in a staunch catholic town like Dubuque), so can only guess maybe this had something to do with it? Needless to say, we felt unwelcome and certainly ill-served.

Decent place and decent food tainted by a bad experience. I doubt we...

I was NOT impressed with L. May Eatery in Dubuque. First the crab cakes… or “croquette” (which they weren’t, not sure they even know what a croquette is) were so unbelievably bland I didn’t even eat the quarter sized one I had… Next was a choice of soup, house salad or Caesar salad. Caesar being my fav I order it. The “Caesar” salad is a spinach salad with no Caesar dressing— some kind of oil and herb dressing instead… typical salad veggies… and cheddar (not Parmesan crisps)… ok this wasn’t described on the menu or by the waitress… so idk what they believe a Caesar salad is…. But if there are no ingredients that are in a Caesar salad in the “Caesar” spinach salad you offer… it’s just a spinach salad. Pushed that to the side… and waited for my entree. $25 risotto— carmalized onions and mushroom risotto…. For $10 more you can add shrimp, I did. THREE SHRIMP! THREE! $35!! For a bowl of rice and THREE shrimp! Mind you we waited over an hour to get this— after watching multiple tables getting their entrees who were sat after us…. and honestly we were getting ready to walk out when our food finally came. I complained. I complained about the “Caesar” salad… because it’s not one. I complained that they were charging $3.34 for ONE PIECE OF SHRIMP. This is ridiculous! Even at the seafood counter at the store it’s not $3.34 a PIECE! The manager comped it— but a meal that was going to come out to over $100… which I am find with paying… should not be that overpriced!! Never again. Glad I ate a gas station chicken sandwich— for less than a piece of shrimp at L. May was— or else I would have starved through the...