Lo & Behold Bar + Kitchen — Restaurant in Healdsburg

My husband and I spent two nights in Healdsburg celebrating our wedding anniversary. When I say that I researched the heck out of the restaurant scene there, Im not exaggerating. Google, Reddit, Facebook and TripAdvisor had a lot to say about this place. Mostly amazing things. So we were excited about going to Lo and Behold on our first night in Sonoma. Wow. I feel like we were punked or something. We arrived for our reservation and we were immediately seated at the high top we requested. We looked around. Huh. Looks like the pub we go to regularly back home. Nothing special. Kinda bland. Cheap stuff on the walls. Oh well....that didn't matter...because we were going to have some awesome food, weren't we? That's what we were there for! Our server took our drink order....I ordered some kind of riff on a Moscow Mule, my husband got a glass of red. My was awful. So I sent it back and got a glass of the red my husband got. It was good. We ordered the Ahi Tuna Tostada, the Korean Baby Back Riblets, the Borscht and the "Almost Famous Chicken Tendies". The Ahi was okay. Chunks of tuna with some kind of salsa drizzled over it on top of one tostada shell. This was sitting on top of a pile of fresia, cabbage and other greens. The ribs did not quite make it to delicious. They could have been, but they were shy of anything giving it flavor. Just little pieces of pork with a tasteless sauce and some sesame seeds thrown over. This was sitting on a pile of freesia, cabbage and some other greens which I assumed was the "pear salad" it was supposed to be served on. The Borscht had good flavor. It's too bad that the minimal amount of beets (Maybe 12 pieces a little bit bigger than an eraser on a pencil) left us wanting more. The creme fraiche was a nice touch but once again, this was served over a bunch of greens. And finally, the infamous chicken Tendies. I, for the life of me, don't understand why restaurants think that serving chicken tenders with that huge crusty shell on them where there is more crusty shell than chicken think that its good. Its not. The crusty shell on this chicken fell away from the meat and left a chunk of overcooked, dry white meat that we choked down. TENDERS, people, TENDERS. Not huge chunks of meat!! They were awful. I've had better chicken tenders at--well, anywhere. We always say we don't mind AT ALL paying a lot of money for a delicious meal, but it pisses us off to pay a lot and have every dish suck. This was supposed to be a special and fun night for us, but we walked out of Lo and Behold extremely bummed and disappointed. As for the 4 and 5 star ratings they received? I mean, maybe we hit a bad night? ...

We were returning home to Marin after a hiking weekend in Eureka. On the way, we stopped in this city for dinner and chose this restaurant because I had seen duck confit in their photos. But lo and behold, when the waiter arrived, he didn’t greet us. Instead, he loudly placed a bottle of water on the table, popped it open, and said he would be back in a moment. When he returned, we asked if the duck confit could be served without the sauce. The waiter rolled his eyes and said, “That’s a big part of the dish.” We kindly explained that we have food sensitivities and that a particular ingredient in the sauce could make us sick. We asked if he could check with the chef to see if the dish could be served plain. His response? He dramatically said he wouldn’t even dare to ask the cook such a thing, and rudely told us we should probably order something else—then walked off without another word. Wow. We were baffled. Not even les serveurs parisiens gave us attitude when we ordered confit de canard in 🇫🇷.

Maybe it was our hiking clothes that threw him off (clearly he doesn’t know how expensive every layer of technical gear is), or maybe it was the color of my skin (which, ironically, was the same as his).

We were there on Memorial Day 2025, around 8 p.m. Our encounter with this employee was the only downside of an otherwise wonderful weekend. Everywhere else, we were treated with dignity and courtesy.

Needless to say, we left and found another restaurant just down the street; one with kinder, more compassionate, and respectful staff who gladly earned...

Homophobia to a T. Told us our “body language” made them not want to serve us. We were enjoying a nice time drinking disturbed by pretty offensive behavior by the sever. Would not recommend.

Response:

LO AND BEHOLD the true colors come out. This response is not at all surprising given the treatment our group received and just further supports my review and the review of others about the appalling treatment at your “inviting” restaurant. Definitely not the word I would use to describe it.

It not only was the incredibly rude remarks but also the complete lack of service - no water refills, refusal to take food orders. We had two bottles of wine between 9 women.. cut off? From water? From baseline respect? And then to top it off with saying you don’t like our body language? How dare anyone comment on someone else’s body or body language not even directed at them. Obviously the approach you take in person and via the web is the same… it’s grotesque. Why don’t you take accountability for being incredibly offensive to people who just wanted to have fun and feel safe. And I know it’s not a rare or that I’m alone in this - many other reviews shared the same feedback of your rude behavior.

And stop hiding behind your pride flags like they mean something if you are out to be this offensive- in person and over the internet. It’s actually more offensive you have them up and say that in a comment when you’re this disrespectful. Tell it to your therapist, not to the comments, because as two queer women I would urge you...