Lightfoot Restaurant — Restaurant in Leesburg

My fiance and I drove out 30 miles in a freak snow storm to visit this place on Valentine's Day. The exterior and interior was gorgeous. Apparently it used to be an old bank from the 1800s that they converted into a restaurant! Pretty neat, right? Unfortunately the food was bizarre and really unappetizing. The waitstaff was very impersonal and indifferent. Our waitress offered us the specials right off, which we ordered, but I will go into that disappointment in just a moment.

As an appetizer we ordered the "winter cheese plate" and muscles. The muscles were gigantic, which meant that they were very chewy and rubbery..they tasted like..well, muscles. The sauce was null and 4 out of the 10 that were plated were closed. Closed muscles mean that they DIED before they were cooked, which also means they were inedible. The chef and line cooks should know that before they plate it.

The cheese plate arrived and was fantastic. Considering that it's almost impossible to mess up cheese, it was the BEST part of the entire meal. If i would recommend anything at Lightfoot, it would be the cheese plate. My only complaint about the plate was that it was paired with Keebler crackers..the rectangular crackers that say "Keebler" on them. Granted, the plate was also served with a couple pieces of toasted bread and what appeared to be ginger snap cookies? Not really sure..

Before our entrées arrived, we ordered two Ceasars salads. The dressing was actually not bad but not good. The romaine leaves were wilted on the very bottom of the salad and they both arrived warm rather than cold..makes me suspect that Lightfoot wasn't properly storing their salad greens and dressing (Hm..could be the culprit as to why were both were ill later that night? More on that at the end of this review!).

So on to the entrées! We ordered the specials..I chose the Chilean sea bass with roasted spaghetti squash and my fiance chose the tbone with purple potato. He commented that the steak was "just Ok", nothing to write home about..but the potato was dry and partially dehydrated by what appeared to be from a microwave.

My sea bass. What they brought out to me was a weird concoction of what could only be left overs from their kitchen. It was sea bass on a bed of mushy, soppy, not roasted spaghetti squash, topped with an odd brown sauce that looked like mashed potato gravy, sesame seeds, 3 tempura shrimp (it suddenly became an Asian fusion dish?), a gross, gigantic heap of warm Japanese sea weed salad on top of the fish with cilantro sprinkled on top of that and four califlower florets arranged around the plate..it was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. The waitress didn't even mention that any of the other stuff was going to be in the dish! My fiance ate a third of his steak, two bites of potato and I picked off all the gross toppings from my fish and ate only the sea bass and left everything else for the garbage disposal. Sea bass is a wonderful fish if you prepare it properly. What was served had no flavor...the best description would be "bland" at best. In terms of size, it was a very tiny filet for the 38.00 price tag (take a deck of cards and cut it down the center and you will get a good idea of the size). The "roasted" spaghetti squash and the fish were about the same texture, except the texture of the fish was that of a boiled peanut.

I don't know why we kept going, but we took our chances and ordered dessert! For dessert I ordered the creme brulee and my fiance got a "classic sunday"..my dessert was watery and his ice cream was freezer burned.

Back to the sea bass.. it was so bizarre and really looked like they just threw what ever they had lying around in the freezer and put it on a plate. Who would think that bland, boiled cauliflower and Japanese sea weed salad and mushy spaghetti squash goes together? With three drinks and our plates, all of that was $220.00..I almost died! LOL

The waitress asked us if we wanted to box our dinners since 97 percent of it was untouched. We politely declined. No questions asked as to why the food...

I have to say my husband and I were beyond disappointed when we dined at Lightfoot the evening of the 29th. We had heard and read amazing reviews, and were celebrating our anniversary so we were very looking forward to a great night. To start with the good, the service really was nice (except for one mishap which I'll detail below) and the building was beautiful. It's a little "old school" in terms of overall ambiance but nice non the less charming.

Now onto the bad. Up first I decided that I'd like to start dinner with a cocktail. There's a classic drink I love called a French 75, and to be fair few places know how to make one, so I specifically asked if they knew how because otherwise I'd happily order something else. I was told with an exuberant, YES, they did! About 5 minutes later he returned and asked me what was in the drink, and I should have just reordered at that point but I explained the ingredients and he went on his way. He returned a few moments later with a blood red drink that tasted like cough syrup, and I said there's no way! I was immediately scolded and told that French 75's ABSOLUTELY have raspberry liquor in them. Funny coming from someone who just asked me how to make this drink, which ABSOLUTELY does not have raspberry liquor in it. Regardless, I sent it back and ordered a glass of wine. But I didn't appreciate the tone that was given to me.

Moving onto the food I should mention my husband and I are big time foodies and what we ate, I wouldn't have fed to my dogs. The menu sounded amazing so we started off with their fried green tomatoes and their scallops on the sweet potato pancake. The fried green tomatoes literally tasted like they had nacho cheese on top of it. Then to add insult to injury the saddest part was this pathetic, unseasoned, uninspired shrimp sitting on top. I couldn't get through eating it. Moving onto the scallop dish, the scallop was cooked beautifully and it was a shame that is was served with something that tasted like dessert. It completely drowned out the scallop flavor. The sweet potato pancake, while delicious, was much too sweet as was the honey sauce that accompanied it. The pineapple salsa helped balance it somewhat, but this, in my opinion should be moved to a brunch menu. I ended up eating the scallops on their own and leaving half the dish behind.

Finally, the entrees is where we crashed and burned. At this point I was skeptical of what was to come, but I ordered Mussels (from the app menu) for my entree and my husband ordered the duck. I thought, how could you screw up mussels. Well, they did. They were mushy and the sauce was bland. They had potato strings on top that were soggy by the time they got to me. It wasn't worth the pain of sending back so I ate a few and hid the remaining in my broth. My husbands duck, while well flavored was not cooked properly. But it really did have a nice sauce, I have to give it that. We love Brussels sprouts and again, they sounded amazing with goat cheese and bacon. But the sprouts were not properly cooked, which left a very bitter tasting sprout.

I suppose it's all about expectation, and we went into our evening expecting a wonderful food experience and it's just not what we got. We paid and high tailed ourselves to Tuscarora Mill to enjoy a nice beer and two appetizers since we left 90% of our food behind so our night wasn't...

We came here to celebrate a special occasion. We had heard great things about the restaurant so thought this would be a great reason to check it out. When we arrived for our reservation we entered and was just intrigued by the atmosphere and decor. It's apparently an old bank where remnants of the old decor are still visible from the vault door, wood ceiling tiles, and the chandeliers.

There was even a table that caught our eye and we asked if it was possible to be seated there. We were told it wasn't available due to a valid reason. But as we were waiting for our table they actually informed us that they were going to make it happen and get us that table!!! For them to go above and beyond was quite touching as it made our celebration more special ... an extra thank you to the staff for going out of the way!

Food was impeccable!

Appetizers: We started with the honey ham biscuits (total of 4). The biscuits were so fluffy. I thought at first the thickness of the biscuit would overpower the ham, but it was actually a perfect balance of flavors, with the honey being a nice addition to the overall bite. These were so good, we ordered a second order!

Deviled Eggs (total of 4) were good. My first bite was a tad salty but then the pickle it sits atop kicked in and a sweetness took away some of the saltiness.

Crab Bisque - if you like she crab soup, you will enjoy the flavors here. Plus there are a good bit of crab chunks within the soup (which is pretty rare now, especially with increasing costs).

Lobster Bisque (this was a special for the day) - I didn't really try this one but the person who did Loved it and said there were chunks of lobster in the soup.

Entrees: I asked for suggestions from Remi our server, and he stated one of his favorites is the Shrimp & Lobster Pasta Entree. I opted for this one and was not disappointed. It's served with a cream sauce but it wasn't heavy at all, over a bed of angel hair. My first bite provided a burst of flavor that makes my mouth water just thinking of it - one with a light smoky flavor, blended with perfectly cooked shrimp, and the sauce providing a perfect compliment.

Cheeseburger - we were told the ground beef was from the parts of the tenderloin steak they don't use. That was enough to sell us on it. Person loved it!

Tenderloin and Crabcake Special - Tenderloin was tender and cooked perfectly to the medium rare request. Crabcake was full of lump crab. Served with housemade mashed potatoes and asparagus. Another great option.

Dessert: Pumpkin Brownie with vanilla ice cream. The brownie is a generous serving and provides plenty to share.

Bathroom: Bathroom is still the old-school metal stalls. There are a total of three stalls, one being the wheelchair accessible. I don't recall a changing station but perhaps it's in the larger stall. It was also a nice addition that they offer different lotions - especially nice during the cold winter days.

Highly suggest when you're looking for a nice place to celebrate a...