Lulu's Diner — Restaurant in Springfield

Sharon’s View: So good is this place, we went for breakfast the two days we were in Springfield, Illinois. And I had the same meal both days. What a delight this find turned out to be and a personal discovery for me! The people who work in this place that we came into contact with both days and the food served, is top tier. The service felt like being in the company of old friends after a time apart. As for the food, I didn’t even add any hot sauce and God knows how I chug the stuff on just about anything.

I had the meat skillet which boasted plentiful bacon, flavorful sausage with cheese mixed in and all on top of the best hash browns I’ve had to date. Not even a lick of salt and pepper was added by me. Chef Frankie seasoned it perfectly on his end. Three fried eggs cooked to my liking, atop the lot. A lot to eat and I only ate half and saved the rest for later.

I happened to see the food being delivered to the couple seated a few tables away from us and Cindy sees my head whip up and she comes over to see to me. Before I even ask, she tells me they’re having a club and gyro wrap. I think I’m going to have that next time we visit. The food advertises itself.

That’s the kind of attentiveness this place has. A head raise and a look is all it takes. Even though it’s incredibly busy.

The areas visible to me, the dining area, was every clean and quite tidy and I have to mention the loo was pleasantly shipshape and I like that. It shows the pride in their place encompasses all areas of the diner. What a lovely surprise, when we’re walking to the car and Cindy lightly jogs out to us - I know, because I watched her - to specifically thank us for visiting and wish us a safe journey home. A sincere thank you for coming.

A wonderful feeling. A bit like when you’re given a sweet treat you were eyeing but weren’t expecting to get, from that friend you’ve not seen in a while.

Chase’s View: I am, and have been, on a seemingly endless quest for biscuits and gravy that can come close to the ones that my wonderful grandmother made for me in my childhood.

Now, for me, my experience with Lulu’s Diner and their take on biscuits and gravy, though it wasn’t my grandmother’s, is one that is beyond satisfying. What was missing for me, and this is all a personal perspective, is that the gravy is very lightweight. They don’t combine their sausage grease with the other ingredients and this leaves it lightweight. Now bear in mind that when I do biscuits and gravy, I am not eating them to be heart-healthy and I am not certainly not interested in pros and cons of “too much” grease; it’s a taste journey that is as much a sentimental embrace as it is a ode to my palette and my belly. Just so you know.

Aside from the lightness, the sausage bits are generous and flavorful. Truly. I ordered something called a Horseshoe at Jessica’s suggestion after our short conversation about what I wanted to eat. Jessica, our server, well, her attentiveness was stellar. We talk about haute cuisine, Michelin Star, five-star, nouveau cuisine and all of the seemingly elevated dining experiences, and Jessica ranks right up there with all of them in her willingness to make sure that you having a wonderfully delightful meal. Coffee was hot and I never wanted for more. Food was hot and tasty. And again, the service was top notch.

Day two saw my beloved and I return for breakfast one more time. Yes, that’s how good the food was. And on day two, my wife and I shared a meal. Even with sharing it, it was filling. It was hearty, tasty, delicious, hot and well, downright “hell yeah”. Our server Cindy, just like Jessica from the day before, was stellar 2.0. One more thing. The chef, Frankie, well, gees Louise, a master in the kitchen. Everything that we ate was on point. Nothing was over or under seasoned. As Goldilocks said, it was “just right”.

If you are looking for a place that isn’t interested in dazzling you with decor and instead focuses on your actual enjoyment of your meal, and a place that puts your satisfaction front and center, put Lulu’s Diner...

How had I never been here before?

I grew up 30 minutes away from Lulu's. Like, age six to 20something and I spent a fair amount of time in Springfield and never ever ever went to Lulu's. What is wrong with me?

I live in Wisconsin now; visited Springfield friends over Memorial Day weekend, and we went to Lulu's.

Come on, kids, it's the magic clap.

When you go (and you will, you must), you'll notice that it seems no renovation has happened since whenever it was that they first opened, and that's just dandy to me. The design of the building and the decor are a throwback to an era of charming roadside diners (that era may or may not have been as perfect as our collective Americana-anized memory might insist); the immediate surroundings were uglified by 70s-80s architecture and overall urban-decline governmental incompetence, but none of those things are Lulu's fault.

You arrive, you go in, you get the feeling that must be true, that Lulu was there from the start, and there she shall forever remain.

The service.

Our waiter was charming, prompt, and legitimately funny.

The food.

One of the specials when we went was the gyro horseshoe, and I pounced upon it. If you don't know what a horseshoe is, I feel badly for and envious of you for not having lived in central Illinois.

A horseshoe (known unfortunately to some as a "horseshoe sandwich") is an open-faced, um, sandwich where you start with toast of some sort (Texas sometimes), then you add meat, then you cover the thing with more fries than you could ever eat during the Super Bowl, and then you smother the whole thing with cheese sauce. The horseshoe was invented in Springfield, IL, and the key is the sauce. It has to be house-made. There are cheap imitators out there who try to make these delectably homey delicacies with canned, chemical, artificially orange "cheese" "sauces", and you know the saying about a special place in hell...

Lulu's gyro horseshoe was a mind-bender. Lovely gyro meat, wonderfully crispy fries, a simple but perfect cheese sauce, all garnished with diced tomato, sliced black olives that infused flavor into the overall composition, and the perfect amount of feta crumbles.

The end.

I'm in my 40s now, and we're actively destroying the earth much faster than anyone in previous generations imagined would be possible. Lulu, I'm coming back to you as soon as I...

If i could rate 0 stars i would. These people are so rude. I call up their from a 217 number and they answer and i try to ask if they serve all day breakfast. Well apparently the lady who answered the phone couldnt hear me. So i figured okay maybe its my connection maybe im just in a bad spot of my house. So to avoid any issues i try using my fiances phone which has an out of state area code. The phone rings twice and goes directly to voicemail. Im thinking okay its an out of state number they probably think its someone trying to sell something (understandable) so i call immediately back it rings three times and goes to voicemail. Now im just irritated so i call again hoping someone would be smart enough to realise if it was a prank call or something other then a customer wanting information or to make an order that after three calls back to back they would answer but guess what nope it rang four and a half times and they sent it to voicemail. I will be contacting whoever is in charge and I will make sure everyone knows that if your from out of state your not welcome at LULUS DINER or from most other places here. I hate springfield and a majority of the people...