Lui Lui — Restaurant in Lebanon

I was very disappointed with the service I received here. I was interested in coming here for a birthday dinner with a decently sized group of friends. Was told they don't take reservations unless it's 10 or more, I had 7. Like, what? Alright.

Call day of, get told it's not busy today and there's no wait for a table, even for my group size. Head in and I see people waiting to be seated so I get a bit nervous that me and my group that showed up from an hour outside of town are gonna have to wait. Get seated in a pretty solid booth and we all get ready to sit and chit chat only to be immediately told that we have to move to a different table but not to worry, because the other table was "just as good."

The other table was a cramped booth where I felt we were stashed away in a corner and it barely fit the 7 of us, I was essentially sitting on the windowsill. The girl who was waiting on us was very nice and I genuinely have nothing against her, but I felt like our larger group might have been a bit much for her and someone else would have been better suited, she forgot some drinks, rarely checked in on us, forgot her notebook to write down the orders at one point, and it just felt like she didn't really wanna help us out with anything. It wasn't that busy either.

The appetizers we got were burnt, like VISIBLY so, we were all shocked that someone okay'd charcoal looking bread to be sent out to a table, but they did. The pizza was alright, but the prices were a little steep for what they were. One of my friends ordered a salad and it was forgotten about for over 20 minutes. It was soggy and terrible. The cocktail I received was alright, but I never had a chance to ask and see if I could have had it made with a bit less tonic water, because our waitress didn't seem to ever be around our table, but helped other tables in her section that were seated way after us.

Nothing was comp'd for our meal, not that I expected my drink to be even though it was my birthday but I just felt like a nuisance for wanting not burnt appetizers and not to have the whole process be a headache from the beginning. I've been here a couple of times before and had great service and decent food, so I was pretty upset given the amount of money I spent and how much I was looking forward to having a nice dinner with my friends.

Overall, I guess if you're more than two people, avoid this place since they seem to do everything in their power to make you feel like you...

Used to be out go to place when we went to Hanover/Lebanon area but after this visit we will be looking for other places. This always seemed a step above similar chains like Chili's or Applebee's. First of the front end personnel seemed discombobulated. After a twenty minute wait (told 10) the manager finally realized that several others that had come in after us had been seated and he found us a table. The menus have changed and a few of our favorites are now missing. Not their fault I know but...... The table we were at was downstairs and the waitress was hit with not only is but 2 other couples and a party of what looked like 25 so she was slammed. Food took awhile (to be expected,) and was lukewarm when we got it. The waitress did the best she could but service was just meh. Seconds visit in a row that was just ok not the quality it used to be. If things had been better and the food had been hot I would leave an extra star but have to ding it one due to this bring the second time in a row.

Edit: after I posted this review a manager reached out to me to discuss why I was dissatisfied with our last two visits... After explaining she apologized and asked for another chance. Things happen so with customer service that prompt and the fact she was so nice we will go back. Thanks Katie.

New visit a year later to the one in West Lebanon...2 weeks after state of emergency lifted etc.... Place is still discombobulated... Told 10 min wait ended up being 20 (yes I understand it is hard to find workers post covid and I'm sure the college being closed doesn't help BUT) our waiter only had 3 tables and seemed like he had 10, I had the sampler as I wasn't super hungry, meatballs were lukewarm and dry, Tuscan chicken was perfect, fried ravioli was slightly undercooked and the mozzarella moons were done perfect but cool and chewy. Wife's chicken picatta was bland and instead of a brown crust it was white and mushy. Waiter only came back one time to ask how things were and by this time my water was 3/4 gone but he made no offer to refill not did he. However he asked the table of 5 behind us no less than 3 times how their drinks were. So we tried.... But sadly it's time to look elsewhere when...

Ok, I've been ignoring the prompt from my phone to do this review for a few weeks now, as I don't generally like to be a jerk. That said, Google was being surprisingly insistent, so I'll share my thoughts.

I've been to this Lui Lui location a few times in past years for large (20+ folks) dinners, and always had positive experiences. Generally had their pizza and salad offerings, which I thought were done well, and I was a happy camper. I might have had their pasta offerings in the past, but I don't recall them, specifically.

My most recent Lui Lui dining experience was different. Just my wife and I, and we sat at the bar to avoid a 20 minute wait for a table (it was Friday night, after all). I appreciate that a bartender is not waitstaff, but this kid seemed inexperienced. The woman beside me was not happy with her drink (thought she was getting a Moscow Mule, but got something with more ginger beer, and no copper mug). Instead of just making the woman a Moscow Mule, he spends a few minutes convincing her that she'll like it. This is good for the establishment's bottom line, but less so for the patron. My wife and I ordered an app (spinach artichoke dip), and a pasta entree (gnocchi something-or-other, I don't see it on their online menu, maybe it was a special?) to split. The artichoke dip was OK, but really heavy on the salt. The pasta was, just not great. The Gnocchi itself was cooked OK, I guess, but the sauce was just kinda gloopy, and again, over salted. It seemed like something that a teenager would churn out after opening up a jar of sauce from the store. Oh, the woman on the other side of us at the bar sent her pasta dish back, as she felt the marinara sauce was too salty (she ended up getting a chicken picatta instead, I think). I dunno. Maybe they just had an off night? Maybe I was just in a bad mood? Regardless, I felt it was a mediocre experience, and for sure did not meet my expectations, based on my past dinners there.

If I'm in West Lebanon looking for a meal, I might try again to see if I caught them on a bad night, or maybe stick...