LuLu's Destin — Restaurant in Miramar Beach

I wish I could rate this 2.5 stars- the atmosphere/location is on point. The area is open, colorful (including the whale paintings on the marina next door) and has decent parking. You are right on the water with a mini beach and live music with one of best gift shops I’ve seen for a restaurant. With just those phenomenal aspects I would rate it a 4…. However, we got there at 6pm on a Tuesday evening and were told 30 to 40 min wait. After waiting a little past an hour we asked how much longer and there were 9 tables still ahead of us and they couldn’t guesstimate. We were told to keep waiting or eat at the bar - we had teenagers and didn’t want to (even if we did there wasn’t space). At an hour and 20 minutes I got in line for the bar to just get water because it was hot and we were really thirsty. While waiting 10 minutes in line at the bar (1 hr 30 min from reservation) the buzzer went off. We were taken to a table by the hostess and at least 8 minutes went by before a waitress came. We asked for waters and tried to order 1/2 lb peel and eat shrimp for an app but they were out. We tried to order fast but had to take longer to pick something else as they were also out of Mahi mahi (why wouldn’t anyone say what they are out of when handing out the menus?) The second time we tried to order we were on person #1 and the waitress just walked away from the table to grab a receipt that printed and walk to another table. We were shocked! Once she handed the other table their reciept, she was there several minutes because that table was not happy about one of their meals. The waitress came back over to our table to continue the ordering process, we asked for waters again (we were all basically empty). Another 12 minutes had passed and still no waitress or water so I snagged a waiter walking by, he went to find said waitress. 10 min after that we got a refill but only half way because she ran out of water from her pitcher. We finally got our food (8:40 pm) and tried to eat quick. The grouper was too salty to eat, the fries were limp noodle/not warm, the grilled shrimp was crunchy and dry and the cole slaw was like soup. We left at 9 pm. 3 hours later, hot, sweaty, thirsty, hungry and VERY FRUSTRATED. We just wanted to leave. Our last evening of vacation we were so excited to experience dinner on the beach with a view of the water turned into a miserable disaster. Had it not have been the talented live singer with great song choice and the fact that it got late and we were hungry, we would have just walked out. No manager in site, no one walking around to ask customers how things are going or how their food is. Some tables are picnic tables and a group of 12 was put there and that looked uncomfortable! That group asked our waitress when she was at our table for chairs to put at the ends because they couldn’t move their elbows and one dude could only fit one cheek on the seat. Some people were tired of waiting and just asked to be served their food sitting on the beach. (No chairs left as everything was taken). Too much need for improvement to ever go back. I didn’t get a picture of all of our meals because my family was too hungry and irritated at that point. Pricing is too expensive for what you get. Note to chefs you don’t need the much salt and seasoning if you...

I have traveled to the destin area every year for over 20 years. Never have I ever had a worse experience at a restaurant here than I did at Lulu’s tonight. First of all, it took 20 minutes after being seated to just get a high chair for our very busy 17 month old. Service was terribly slow. When our waiter finally came to our table, we placed orders for cocktails, waters, apps and meals. We followed recommendations of our waiter and just about every recommendation turned out as less than favorable in terms of taste and quality. First, let’s start with the cocktails. Our drinks did not arrive until after our meal was completed, yet we were still expected to accept the drinks far later than would be appropriate. We knew we would not be drinking them as we were paying the bill and getting ready to leave at the time. I want to add that the drinks were the worst tasting beverages I have ever had at a restaurant. The margarita was miserable to even take a few sips of. We did not make a fuss because we arent typically people who send things back. The Caesar salad was very bland and the crazy sister crab dip was mediocre. The chips it was served with were really good! Here is the real kicker… we ordered the seafood platter with blackened grouper and fried shrimp. The grouper was served to us raw, translucent, and slimy. It was putrid. We did send this dish back as we felt concerned for contamination and food safety. Grouper is not typically served in a sushi preparation and we did not want to chance it. The waiter took away the entire plate of the sides and fish, and we quickly grabbed the 5 pieces of shrimp off the plate as we knew our children wouldn’t last long enough to get a replacement sent out. The waiter informed us this is a recurring issue of raw grouper being sent out (GROSS!!) and the manager only discounted our entree instead of taking it off the bill completely, which would have absolutely been the right thing to do. We are very non-confrontational people so we did not push back as we probably should have. An hour after leaving the restaurant and feeling totally taken advantage of, my husband called to speak with the manager, Eric. In looking at this experience in hindsight, there are very black and white/right and wrong issues that shouldn’t have been acceptable nor should have resulted in penalty to the customers. Eric offered zero help other than offering to “take care of us” if we ever come back. I’m honestly disgusted and cannot fathom how anyone would be expected to return after those conditions. The drinks were not consumed as they were served as we were paying the bill and the main entree was served raw. Everything else was just disappointing, but those two things were very clearly wrong yet we still had to pay for them. So...

As a local I had never eaten here, so we decided to give it a chance. Needless to say we WON’T be going back!! We went around 12:15 and it was pretty empty. It was great because we got sat right away. That and the view were probably the only good thing about our experience. We ordered chips and queso/salsa as an appetizer and a couple margaritas. We also had water and a Diet Coke. Our water and Diet Coke took about 10 mins to get and came way after the kitchen food runner brought our appetizer. After about 20 mins we still hadn’t gotten our margaritas and despite the fact that our waitress walked by about 6x she never addressed our table or refilled the Diet Coke which was empty for over 10 mins. The chips were super nasty and stale and the queso dip was so watery with no flavor. After not receiving our drinks and 30 mins of no communication we finally called it. We had to ask the hostess walking by to get our check. Then when paying the waitress literally was like OMG you never got your drinks I guess I will take them off and not charge you for them(said in a very sarcastic and rude manner). She then proceeded to stand right next to me looking at the tablet that is used tableside to pay the bill while I was paying by card and it was super uncomfortable because I knew she was watching for my tip. When I hit no tip (I always try and tip in cash and am a big tipper because I worked my way through college as a server and bartender) she got an attitude. Our total bill was $19 for chips we didn’t eat and a Diet Coke. I am not one to not tip so even though she was a horrible server we still left $2. We left and went to Bitterroot for an amazing lunch with awesome service and which ended up costing us less than we likely would’ve spent here for subpar food (I.e the tacos and unicorn fish sandwich are more than farm to fresh chef cooked food at other places (think Boshamps or Edge pricing with food and service no where near the quality). Now I can seee why locals stay far away. If you have kids it’s nice because they can play at the beach but get ready for mediocre food and crappy service while you pay an...