Lava Louie's Pizza — Restaurant in Oak Harbor

THE WORST OF WHIDBEY!! We heard about the Latino dance nights and decided to go for a farewell dinner for our Colombian friend. Some people backed out when they found out we were going to Lava Louis, and now we understand why. The service was terrible – the waitress took forever to come to our table and was rude. When she finally arrived, one of us didn’t have a menu, so we asked for an extra one, which took another 10 minutes to get, and then she took another 20 minutes to come back and take our order.

We almost walked out. We ordered pizzas and burgers, and it took around 30 more minutes for the food to arrive. When it did, the waitress seemed clueless about who ordered what, so we had to open some of the burgers just to figure it out. One of our friends got a burger that was supposed to come with pineapple and no onions, but it arrived with onions and no pineapple. When she mentioned it to the waitress, she got mad, grabbed the plate, and walked off while my friend was still talking to her. Ten minutes later, someone from the kitchen came out with the same burger and literally asked, “What’s your problem with the burger?” in a rude and hostile way. By then, our friend was fed up and just took the cold same burger back.

Then, when it was time to pay, the waitress ignored our friend with the burger issue, seemingly on purpose. We were paying separately, and she skipped over her as if she wasn’t there, only giving her the check at the very end. It was petty and unprofessional – if you’re working in customer service, you should be able to handle simple requests.

As for the Latin dance night, it was a total disaster . They only played music from El Salvador (guess that’s their version of “Latin”), and when a couple from our group were dancing, they cut the music while they were still on the dance floor. Super rude…

I’d been here once before in January 2024, and the new owner actually came over to introduce himself, saying he had just taken over the place. He was very friendly, and the food was great back then, but with service like this, I won’t be coming back and sure you shouldn’t dinner...

Ok, I rarely write reviews, but I had such high hopes for lava Louie's. We have gone 3 times over the past year or so (wanted to give a fair shot at improvement), but each time we have been met with the same results. Here is my most recent experience since it's fresh in the mind:

Went In for dinner on a Saturday evening they were not crowded (10-15 people at 3 tables). There were 2 bartenders that were both tending bar and waiting tables. Since their attention was split, it took about 15-20 minutes for someone to take our order, a little long for a slow night but not outlandish.

Our order wasn't complicated, a couple burgers and an appetizer of fried pickles, straight off the menu with no substitutions. It took an hour for the food to come out. It may have been ok if the appetizers had come out first, but they did not and since both servers were split between the bar and tables no one came to check up on us for the whole hour.

The burgers were...ok. The patties are mass produced, McDonald's quality, but the toppings were fresh, and the tots were good (Got a whole second star for the toppings and tots). Now I'm no stranger for cheap fast food burgers, but at $18 and over an hour wait, I expect much better.

I want this place to succeed, so here are my recommendations:

-It's not crowded enough to need 2 bartenders or 2 servers, and having them split their attention between bar and tables costs valuable time. To improve speed and service quality, keep one dedicated bartender and one dedicated server.

-give a heads up if the kitchen is busy and food is going to take over an hour. Also, have appetizers come out before the meal, especially if the wait is long.

-I know margins are tight, but I can't justify paying $18 for a fast food quality burger however, I would pay an extra dollar if the meat was fresh and pattied in house.

-Note: I havet tried the pizza, but it looks good from the pictures, so if the passion or margins simply aren't there for some items, consider shrinking the menu to specialize and...

*edited to respond to the owners response: We ordered 2 PIZZAS NOT Calzones. Only 1 of the pizzas had half ricotta. So I have no idea what you are talking about. I clearly stated in my original review what we ordered. Are you telling me you have no records of our pizzas. We ordered exactly what the half off special was and what we were told fell under it. Which yet again was a pizza with pepperoni, sausage and Canadian bacon on one which equals the three toppings. The second one was half green pepper, onion and sausage and the other half extra cheese with ricotta. One half of the first pizza was supposed to be pepperoni with mushroom and ricotta. Instesd it came out wrong. And by your response I can see why our pizzas were wrong in the first place because I already explained this in the original review. Also we came there around 130 in the afternoon. So are you the only person who makes the food?

We came here yesterday (Monday afternoon) with family who were visiting. The place was not busy at all, there were only a few customers. The place was dirty. We sat outside and had to clean up our own table as all of them hadn't been cleaned. Our order came out wrong. Literally the opposite of what we ordered. We wanted a pepperoni mushroom with ricotta, we got a pepperoni, ham and sausage. The pizza was extra sauce not light sauce. The second pizza was half sausage, green pepper and onion the other half was cheese and ricotta. Both pizzas were extremely greasy and had no flavor. When we asked the server for a soda to go she turned and walked away annoyed and didnt acknowledge us. So we had to come inside to talk with her. The music outside was too loud and overall this place was a total disappointment. We also were supposed to get the half off deals and it wasn't. Two pizzas and two drinks...