Lila Mae’s Southern Kitchen & Lounge — Restaurant in Lincoln

My husband and I arrived on a Saturday night at 6:25 and was seated at a dirty table. The waiter didn’t notice and was going to set the menu’s down until I told him that it was dirty. He asked me if I wanted to move to next table over, but that didn’t very either. So he went and got a towel and wiped the table down. The place was packed and only one empty table available. It took over 10 minutes to give our order. My husband ordered a beer and I got a hurricane. We both noticed how warm it was in the restaurant and notice a fan blowing by the front door. We found out that their air conditioning had broke days ago. I wasn’t sweating, but diffidently uncomfortable. We waited to get our food for over an hour! Our Nashville hot chicken & waffles arrived at 7:45. Unacceptable!!! A couple that was at the next table over received their chicken 5 minutes before us and they sat down 15 minutes after us. Not ONCE did Max give us any communication that the kitchen is behind or it’s going to be a long wait to get your food! Not once was there an apology or Anything said to us the whole time waiting! I watched several people walk in and didn’t even get greeted so they left. By the time we finally received our food, my husband was pretty upset. He said something to the female waitress that dropped it off about how the chicken looked and he wasn’t even finished before she interrupted him. In a very condescension manner she said it’s fried and walked away. I had been watching her serve tables while sitting so long and she was not happy about something. Never a smile, but scaling the whole time, like she didn’t want to be there. Not friendly at All. She said something to manager so he came over and talked to my husband. We somewhat understood, but there was NO excuse for poor communication, temperature inside of restaurant and getting your food in a timely manner. Manager stated they ran out of the breaded chicken at lunch, which has never happened. So he was breading the chicken with every order they received. He also stated they only have two fry baskets. If half of your menu is fried, you should not have only one fryer. Your setting yourself up for failure. Manager stated since owner was not in the kitchen cooking it wasn’t running very smoothly and she was at the wing fest. I had been there for lunch previously and only a few people were there. It still took 20 minutes to get my food. I thought oh just fluke. I know now why it takes so long. The chicken was delicious and that’s probably the reason why we waited so long to get it. I was starving by the time I got my food that I ate it way to fast and was ready to get into cooler temperatures. Manager was nice and we appreciated him trying to explain. Max was very friendly and nice, but needs to work on communication. This experience has left my husband very exasperation where I’m not sure we...

We love the food here. It's fantastic. I was beyond disappointed with the service recently. There were about 20 diners in the restaurant at the time of our arrival (7pm), and there were open tables. There was a sign that said Please wait to be seated. It wasn't directly in the walk-way, it was kind of tucked off to the side, but we figured "We'll be greeted, we'll just wait." 5 minutes goes by. We were never acknowledged with a "We'll be right with you" "Hello" nothing... But we continued to wait. A table of 2 finished their meal, got up, left out the door, one of the guests forgot a hat, the server picked up their hat, caught them walking to their vehicle, and walked right past us at the entrance on the way out, and walked right past us once again on the way back into the restaurant. No eye contact, it was like we were ghosts. At this point we had waited 8 minutes standing at the entrance, not acknowledged, but we were really excited about having dinner here! So we went ahead and took a seat at an open table that was clean. Another 10 minutes goes by, we were never greeted. No "Hello". No "We'll be right with you." Nothing... But the staff did have time during this period to refill their own waters, eat their own food they had ordered. We eventually were greeted and received our drink order. We placed an order for food soon thereafter. After ordering our food (7:30 at this point. 30 minutes after arrival to just ordering food. There were open tables when we arrived!) No follow up service on "Can you I get you another drink? Do you need anything else?" I honestly felt like we were an annoyance to the staff. I have worked in the service industry for 17 years in some way shape or form. I'm super understanding if restaurants or staff get busy. I also recognize body language from employees just being plain rude.

Food is great. Phenomenal. Something different that I can't think of anywhere else in town.

The inside is a fun cozy atmosphere. Bathrooms could have been cleaned up.

Service was downright disappointing and did not make us feel like valued guests. Our previous experience, the service was great. We were very happy, it had the homey, part of the family vibe. But this past Tuesday night, the service was just...

My boyfriend and I really wanted to like this place. First time we came here, it was a Sunday for brunch. Food was pretty good once it finally arrived but the service left much to be desired. We gave him the benefit of the doubt as he seemed to be a teenager and this could have been his first job. We had ordered their yogurt parfait but it never came. Had it taken off our bill but the cook came out gave it to us saying that the server forgot to tell us that they had run out of granola and they had to run to the store to get some more. We went back this evening and we ended up having the same server. Their menu is small which is nice but they have no descriptions of the food on there. We looked the menu up online to see descriptions. We ordered and our waiter didn’t come back to us until our food was done which was about 45 minutes later. Our waters were empty and we had to ask to have them refilled. We got our food and it was cold. I had the bacon rancher and the chicken and bacon on the sandwich was cold. Probably didn’t help that our food sat on the counter for about 5 minutes before we got it. Boyfriend got a salad and he wasn’t real impressed said it came with an egg and his did not. We also ordered cornbread. The pieces were big but again mine was cold. We timed how long it was on the counter this time and it was 8 minutes. Our server even moved it out of the way and then walked away to get himself a drink and talk to people in the bar area. Boyfriend got his piece a few minutes later. The bowl was hot and the cornbread was warm at best. We would have asked for butter or more honey but didn’t want to risk staying longer than we needed. Honestly, if it hadn’t been almost 8, we would have left to eat elsewhere. Needless to say, the wait for food wasn’t worth it and we won’t be back.

One last thing to mention is that either the owner or head cook came out and talked to a few tables. He put some gloves on which is fine but then we watched him touch his face, shake hands with someone, and scratch his arm. He then delivers three plates of food to a table and then go back into the kitchen. I don’t know if he took off the gloves once he got back there but honestly I don’t have a lot of faith...