Lulu's On Main — Restaurant in Sylva

My husband and I love the hometown feel of Sylva. We even went on a rainy day to give a few local places some business. We walked in right at opening time and there were customers at only two of the many many empty tables. We're friendly to everyone and the older woman up front asked how she could help us. I replied that we had never been there and looking forward to trying it. She immediately walked away from us to some other "wait staff" and mumbled something. As if she was SO frustrated, she asked us if we had a reservation. I told her that "yes, we made it about ten minutes ago.". She said she didn't see a reservation ... keeping in mind the place is empty. We looked around flummoxed ... and then she went into great detail that they often get large parties last minute. Finally another girl pulled two menus out and said she could seat us .... which she did, by the window. Then she left. My husband and I were left with the menus with dinner items starting around $23 and sky rocketed from there.

Sure ... if I'm going to pay these kind of prices for a meal, it would be nice not to be treated like my business is an inconvenience. We sat there mulling over the items we were prepared to order but just as we expected, no one came to our table to bring water, dinnerware, etc. After a few more moments we folded our menus, slid out chairs back under the table and left. No one apologized or made an excuse. While Lulu's food may be good and the ambiance nice and relaxing, we ended up across the street eating dinner and having a wonderful time at a place that made us feel they were glad to see us instead of an imposition. I gave them two stars just because we got out of the rain for a bit.

Never...

We love Sylva as a town and wanted to try LuLu’s several times and thought today is the day! Unfortunately they were very busy, and we got a table after about a ten min wait. We opted to sit outside. We were seated by the door and because it was so hot we asked to move to a table nearer the fans and the railing to get some air. We thought the people sitting outside had already had their orders taken and boy were we wrong. We waited close to ten min for a beer and two waters, and after the third time our server came out with drinks for everyone else we canceled the beer. I then receive my appetizer with no utensils to eat it with and pretty much every table out on the terrace finally getting their food orders before the server even acknowledged let alone apologized for not bringing me anything to eat my food with. That trend continues until we just decided to tell them if our orders were not fired we will take the appetizer to go and cancel the food. Now I understand a place being busy but not once did our server apologize for anything let alone let us know they were slammed and that the food will probably take a while. She even checked us out and not even a sorry you weren’t happy (or comping the appetizer I couldn’t even eat) just nothing. Had that happened I can forgive almost anything but if you can’t even acknowledge that our service was terrible? Please, Give me a reason to return because your food...

We went to Lulu's on Wednesday 12/12 for dinner. There was a group of 13 at a table across from us and the restaurant was steady. Our server was prompt with her service, however, the kitchen was not. I asked the server what was taking so long and she mentioned the 13 top and said that was the issue. We placed our order around 10-15 minutes before the party of 13. To my left, there was a table with menus on it but no people indicating it was reserved, I guess. The couple came in atleast 20 minutes or so after we did and did not order immediately, however, they received their food before we did. I asked about that as well and my server said that management had a special relationship with them...so there order took precedence over ours. When we received our food my rice was cold, another's chicken was over cooked and another's broccoli was barely warm. I sent my food back, the red snapper was tough and very disappointing. I could have used a knife to "cut" it. All I ate was the asparagus and I asked for the snapper to be taken off my bill and to just be charged for a side of asparagus. The side of asparagus was $12! The meal was priced at $24...that is expensive asparagus and very cheap fish, I'm guessing. I was once a happy, returning customer of Lulu's but I am thinking I will be finding a new, better place to eat where my meal and money is just as good as everyone...