Lulu Kitchen — Restaurant in Hilton Head Island

Sad to say, my meal at Lulu's 2 Saturday nights ago, was literally unedible. Unfortunately I have to say the same for 3 other friends I was with. Still 2 more people left. One ate hers, but did not like it. The other friend, making up our party of 6 said his meal was ok. In 4 years of living in Bluffton and eating out minimally 1 time a week, but usually more, my eating experience at Lulu's was my most disappointing. Lulu's prices are comparable to the very good and pricey, but worthy of their prices, restaurants on the Island or Bluffton. Their staffs are professional and very accomodating. And - they are knowledgeable about their complete menus. Lulu's server was far from that, although we did not interact with him much. I believe he came to our table 1 time after the food was delivered. Others helped out, but I believe they were management, not servers for sure. 3 of us could not find anything we really wanted to order from the menu so we ordered "house type salads" with a piece of salmon on top. First the salads came out with small portions of salmon, but all raw. They took it back of course, but returned with totally well done salmon, not the medium temp we asked for. The base salads had no dressing on them, although we were told they did. Why would we not be truthful about something so trivial? They brought each of us a small mini cup with salad dressing. We wound up returning the salads partially eaten, and they were not large to begin with. The 4th in our party of 6 returned her whole meal as she just could not eat it. She let management know and they did say they were sorry. They saw the lobster roll or rolls in the meal were totally soggy from butter. You would think management would ask if there was anything they could do to help in any way with these meals or offer some desert. Nope. The finishing touch. I received my bill which only had the price for the salad and salmon and a diet coke. Two things to add up and add tax to. They charged $4 too much. At least they agreed to deduct the $4. So that was our experience at Lulu's - the last for...

I was anticipating my first trip to Lulu’s all week and finally made it there on Friday with my wife for an early dinner (4pm).

I personally was excited about the Bouillabaisse for me and the Short Rib dinner for my wife. I was also looking forward to trying the Butter Bread that everyone raves about.

Our server, Scoti, was very personal and attentive and the restaurant had a very nice ambience about it. The Butter Bread came out first and we were a bit disappointed with it. I bake a lot at home, including all types of breads, and we felt like we were served day-old bread that didn’t represent what the regular customers look forward to day after day. Bummer but hey, here comes our entrees!

My entree was a proper fish stew with an abundant amount of protein (lobster, shrimp, monkfish, and mussels) in a spicy tomato broth. It was everything I had hoped for and more and well worth the price ($41). A perfect 5 in my book and I could eat it over and over again.

We unfortunately couldn’t say the same about my wife’s short ribs. She had a delicious short rib at another restaurant on the island the week before and I was certain that this short rib would be every bit as good as that one and probably even better because it was served over polenta. The polenta was nice and creamy but the short rib was very dry - as if it was leftover from the day before and reheated. I had to scoop some of my bouillabaisse sauce out so she could bathe her short rib in it. A real disappointment and my gut says this too isn’t what most customers get when they come to Lulu’s.

We took a slice of key lime pie home with us and it was delicious.

So a mixed bag for us but we’re willing to give Lulu’s another shot before we leave the island and we hope that both of our dishes represent the meals I think Lulu’s produces on a regular basis. I’ll...

Our first experience here was brunch which was wonderful. The French toast is great and the crab cake benedict was fantastic as well. We have returned twice for their dessert though. They're made in-house and the best on the island! Their key lime pie is my favorite. My daughter chooses the chocolate souffle, which is definitely worth the wait, and my husband usually opts for the white chocolate raspberry cheesecake. I'm not a huge fan of cheesecake typically, but they make a macadamia crust that is unparalleled. I also tried their espresso martini on our last trip which was just as amazing as I expected based on our experiences with everything else.

Also, a couple came in while we were having dessert and shared that they'd just had their reservation cancelled for their accommodations for the coming week with their family of 14. The staff started calling friends in the hospitality industry trying to find them a new spot and searched Google for another option when that came up empty. They even offered to let them use the laptop to search and book new accommodations so that it would be easier than trying to do it from their phones. We were very impressed by the food, but even more so with the way they went above and beyond to serve their customers! I'd give 10...