Lala's In The Lakes — Restaurant in New Franklin

As a local I want this business to succeed. For a long time it was the only place to get a good, non-chain, fancy-ish meal in the lakes. The second to last time I was in the whole place smelled like their septic system failed. It was embarrassing to our out of town guests and was a gross environment to eat in. The last time I came in was for the Fat Tuesday celebration where we spent over $200 as a table. They were out of almost every single item on their special menu and we were some of the first guests that night. We made the most of it and decided to not make a big deal that night as they were so busy and short staffed. When the bill came, our drinks were not discounted as per the special we were informed about at seating. We simply asked for them to be adjusted, and the manager comes out and asks “Who told you that they were half off?!”

Your hostess.

Anyway, after that embarrassment we are all doubly frustrated because when we tried to show grace on an otherwise terrible night, we were questioned further like it was us doing something wrong.

I see a Facebook post showcasing their Fat Tuesday celebration the night after. I post the question “How do YOU think that night went, LaLa’s?” Knowing full well there was no possible way we were the only ones upset. They had no food. Even the server was upset as she had invited her parents in and there was nothing for them to order!

So, the manager reaches out to me personally. We have a great conversation about how embarrassing that night was for her, how apologetic she was, and how she wanted to make it right with gift cards. It was impressive and totally made up for the night.

I did not ask for compensation. Ever.

I send what she asked for to obtain the gift card. Long story short- no gift card ever arrived. I haven’t been back.

You may wonder why this happened in Feb and I’m posting in October. I just received a promotional text from them asking to come in for some other special. I haven’t been back, and until I hear things have improved, I...

awful experience! had reservations, were seated for about 5 minutes, then were told we had to move to another table because a regular sits there every week. Was seated at a different table and another regular came up to us a few minutes after and stated that she sits there every Friday. At that point, we left, hostess and waitress said sorry, but we can still seat you. No thank you, we were made to move twice already. For the prices they charge, it's ridiculous to cause such embarrassment and awkwardness. It was our 30th anniversary btw. We drove 50 minutes away and had a gift card from our daughter, so we decided to place a take out order, which was our second mistake. Our order was incorrect, missing items, missing ingredients, wrong items etc. I didn't even go back in for a second time to let them know that other items were wrong after we tasted them. I received drawn butter instead of spicy garlic sauce in a cup. I received a different risotto and pasta from what I ordered. There were two items missing that I had to wait for them to make again. This was hands down the worst order I've ever picked up from take out, so many mistakes. The food was disgusting. I am not sure how this place is still in business. Oh the icing on the cake is that I ordered cheesecake $11, and it was thrown in an oversized box, plain, no topping, and fell apart due to the excessive size box I left a Facebook review, then someone/manager? decided to call us. She called and apologized and said she would like us to give them another try and said she was sending a gift card. No gift card was ever sent. She didn't even ask for an address to send it to. My reply to the owner: you never sent anything, why would we call to say we didn't receive it. What else should I assume since you didn't bother to reach out to us until I posted a review. Not to mention that you're making comments about me assuming the worst? Are you insinuating that any of this experience...

I was at Lala’s on January 9th,21 with my husband and this was our 1st stop in the new year. We were very disappointed this time, and we have been there many times before. The waiter seemed to be new, I haven’t seen him there before, he seemed clueless and didn’t care much to check on us often. It took at least ten minutes for anyone to come by and take our drink order. When the drinks did arrive we decided to get an appetizer. A new dish( fried mushroom fries) the batter seemed uncooked in the center and was very very greasy. We had place our food order at the time the appetizer arrived and it took an hour to come out, which at that point we were about ready to leave the restaurant as we were super hungry and didn’t feel like we wanted to wait any longer. I asked one of the hostess what was happening and what took so long, she said that they were backed up in the kitchen and she was going to check on our food. No one else came to talk to us or check on us and see if there was anything they could do. We finally got our food and unfortunately my husband’s food wasn’t great at all, very bland. We ate what we could and we asked for our check. We paid the check and left. As we were leaving the hostess asked us if anyone had come to talk to us, I told her no, no one had talked to us about anything. She offered me a gift card and I replied with a “NO” as that shouldn’t be a question, it should just be done if you know that a customer had a bad experience and you understand that they weren’t happy. Unfortunately this visit wasn’t...