Lucky Mizu — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I'm sorry, but... I do NOT recommend coming to Lucky Mizu. The experience would almost CERTAINLY leave you frustrated and underwhelmed with how much you spent and what you received in return.

RESERVATION: Let's start at the beginning - I made a reservation for their Valentine's Day prix-fixe offering and arrived ten minutes before the reservation time - I then spent the next 15 minutes simply waiting for a hostess to even come up to us.

THE WAIT: Once she finally arrived, we were told that she had checked us in and we could wait in the 'library' space next door until they had space to seat us. So....fifteen minutes passed, then thirty....then forty.... then an hour....

THE RUDE HOSTESS: I then went back to try and find someone and (once again) no one was there, and there was a massive line of people waiting for a host (or anyone) to help them out. She finally showed up and I mentioned the fact that I had been waiting over an hour now despite having a reservation and she snapped back in one of the rudest, most sassy responses that I've ever received from restaurant staff that "I have a lot of people to seat, not just you!" Nice! That's sure to give me a positive taste in my mouth when I'm on a date for Valentine's Day, have already been waiting over an hour for what was supposed to be a reserved time, and still have no prospect of being seated in sight!

I returned a few more times over the following thirty minutes, simply to receive assurances that I'd receive a text when a table was ready. At this point I just stood there and waited until they finally said that some spaces at the counter were being cleaned, and were almost ready to seat me.

FINALLY SEATED: So, at this point, I'm just relieved we finally were able to ACTUALLY get inside the ACTUAL restaurant for our date night - over an hour and a half after the reservation time. Service continued to be VERY slow. Our server was very friendly though, so kudos to him for that one positive aspect of the experience!

The decor inside is creative and fun to look at, which was helpful as we continued to wait for long periods of time for anything to arrive!

One more positive note - the cocktails were creative (and strong), and they brought them out relatively quickly.

THE FOOD: Alright, we've finally gotten to the food! I know, it's been a while! Now, as I've mentioned, we did their prix-fixe menu for Valentine's Day, which was $114 per person, and advertised as "Three Courses". Well.... I guess. There was a decent appetizer with what I believe was yellowfin tuna, an entree with small bites of steak and lobster, and.....literally four tiny little pastry bites to share between us for the third "course". This annoyed me, because people ordering a la carte were given the same tiny dessert plate "on the house". So how was this three courses?! The food itself? For what we received? At $114 per person...? Absolutely NOT worth it at all. Nothing about the food was special or unique. Just decent food for an exorbitant price and an hour and a half wait (with reservation).

ADDING INSULT TO INJURY: So now we've been here 2+ hours, have had hardly any food for over $114 each (pre-tax/gratuities), and now we receive the check. Of course, I should have expected a place with such poor service would charge an auto gratuity of 20%. And to add EVEN more insult to injury, they hand you one of those screens after swiping your card that auto selects 20%+ for an ADDITIONAL gratuity!

FINAL THOUGHTS & RECOMMENDATIONS: At the end of the night, I had a great time. Not because of Lucky Mizu in ANY way, but in spite of them. I had a great time, because I spent it with my partner of the last 9 years and I tried to just focus on appreciating that for Valentine's Day!

So do I recommend Lucky Mizu? Well, I already spoiled it at the beginning of this review, but absolutely NOT.

From one of the worst hostess experiences of ALL TIME, to all around slow service, exorbitant prices, and average food, I would consider it to absolutely NOT be worth...

Lucky Mizu should be renamed to Unlucky Mizu. I have never had such a terrible experience at a restaurant in LA. First, we waited over 40 minutes for a table we already made reservations for. There is no waiting area or offers to sit at the bar while we wait so we basically were just told to stand in a small corner like sardines. The restaurant reeked of a fishy smell and the music was so obnoxiously loud. When we finally were seated, it took several minutes until our server came to take our order. When our order came, they didnt place it on the table but instead handed it to us. I guess we are being put to work! My best friend is highly allergic to seafood and made it very clear to our server. After she ate her veggie roll, she felt immediately sick and her throat was closing up. We realized that her roll has been cross-contaminated with the seafood in the other rolls and our friend took her immediately to the ER. The manager claimed that she had asked the chef that the cutting board and knife were cleaned before sending out the food but with the level of service we were getting we highly doubt it. She also tried to gaslight us by saying my friend might have taken a sip of someone’s drink and had a reaction from that, which is insane as she is very careful about her allergy. After some back and forth, we were able to get an apology from the restaurant and had our meal comped, which is the least they can do. We were really looking forward to having a fun night out at Level 8 but after this, we are never coming back.

Moral of the story, if you don’t want your night to end with a visit to the ER but at least have a somewhat instagrammable posts, then AVOID THIS RESTAURANT...

omg okay this whole experience was so fun?? this was my first time here -- the actual floor "level 8" is so UNIQUE like there's so many different rooms/bars/restaurants to explore?? and a big outside area too, tho i didnt go outside bc it was cold