Lu Lu Seafood & Dim Sum — Restaurant in University City

This place is hands down, have the worse restaurant service ever. If I could rate it as a zero star I would. My first visit was with my mom after months away from home for college. We both love dim sum and heard this place was very popular. Our experience through out the morning dim sum was wonderful. The staffs were helpful when each food karts came to our table. In broken English, they tried their best to explain what each item was because both my mom and I doesn't speak the same language as the restaurant. Then after our meal, our bill was expensive for a two people's dim sum meal but we knew this coming in. We didn't mind at all since the food was great and the kart servers was so nice. When the server came back with our debit card, we handed the server a big tip in cash and her that we were very happy with our first experience at the place. As we were walking out the front door, the front desk manager stop us and said "Tip money! You give tip money for meal." In confusion, my mom told the manager that we gave the server cash as tips for the service. The manager didn't believe us and demanded my mom to add a tip to the debit card's receipt. The conversation went back and forth as we tried to explained that we already gave the server tips in cash. After 5 minutes of confusion and us being embarrassed in-front of a large crow of costumers, the server came and told the manager that we were telling the truth. Then instead of apologizing for being rude and loud to us in front of many people, manager demanded the server to hand her the cash that we tip them and rudely waved us out and told us "okay you can go!" On the ride home, both of us were confused, trying to figured out what in the world just happened. Since everything was great before the manager embarrassed us in-front of the whole restaurant, we wanted to believe that it was just a huge miscommunication since we didn't speak the same language as them. We decided to leave it behind us on good terms.

A few months past, I took a friend here, hoping not to get embarrassed again of-course. Hoping to leave the place 100% satisfied and not confused, since the food was so great with our past experience. We made a horrible mistake.As we walk in, the place wasn't busy like the past, no body greeted us at the door. It took them forever to come and greet us. Then a guy that dresses like the manager of the place, rudely showed us to our table. Then spoke to us in his native language. We kept having to reminding him that we don't understand nor speak his language. We were trying to be nice and tried our best to communicate with him; pointing to each picture on the menu to order our foods. After we order, it took forever to even get our appetizer. Instead of bring us everything we ordered, they brought our food to us in single plates. Each was at least 10-15 minutes in between. My friend and I kept sit there and wait for each plates to come out one by one. The food that got sent out was cold and tasted like it was cooked last week and just got heat-up in the microwave. The rice was cold and stale with a funky smell to it. Then the guy came to our table and told us that they ran out of a couple of items that we ordered. Since we couldn't fully understand what the guy was saying, we asked, how many items that we ordered that we're still waiting on. He handed us the notes that he wrote on when he was taking our orders. We reminded him that we don't know his native language and can't read a single word he wrote since it was written in his language. He told us that we still have some items coming out soon and asked us to wait. Then he came back with a female server and started arguing in their native language in-front of my friend and I and keep point to us asking why we were still waiting on items when everything have already been brought out. I tried to keep my cool and replied that we're waiting because we were told by the manager that even though they ran out of some of the items we order, we still have a couple plates left coming out for us. They went back to...

LU LU RUINED MY CHRISTMAS DINNER!!

One of my favorite Chinese restaurants in U City closed earlier this year, so we had to find a new regular alternative. After research Christmas Eve, we selected Lu Lu. There even was a special BOGO on Uber Eats so we thought we would give it a try.

The problems began on Christmas Day. First, the BOGO was suddenly gone. Thought that was weird, but figured because Christmas was busy, maybe they couldn't handle that level of business. I now think it was just pure greed.

We placed an order for a few entrees and apps for pickup on Christmas Day through Uber Eats. We did so because we thought this would be better than delivery on a busy Christmas Day. To make sure there was plenty of advance notice, the order was placed hours in advance with a scheduled 4:00 pickup at the restaurant. Lu Lu accepted and confirmed the order through Uber Eats at 1:00 PM for 4:00 PM pickup.

Ten minutes before scheduled pickup, I get a notification that my order was cancelled. No explanation whatsoever.

I called the restaurant and asked what was going on. Nobody was able to help or provide reason, but the restaurant still had guests.

To do that to someone on Christmas is unacceptable. If they had just not accepted the order initially or let me know an hour or so in advance, that would have been a let down, but we could have managed. To wait until just before making the customer scramble for an alternative at the last minute is foul.

Guess I have to cross this off the list. Will try have to try another Chinese restaurants in this stretch of Olive, as there sure are plenty others to pick from. Too bad some of the good ones had to close in the past few years. Maybe this one is next on the...

DO NOT COME HERE.

If I could leave negative stars, I would. I came here for lunch and while the food smelled good, and the potstickers were excellent, it was, truly, downhill from there.

Our order:

Potstickers Bbq Pork Buns Crab Rangoon Combination Fried Rice Combination Lo Mein Hot Braised Chicken

As you can see, we ordered a LOT of food because we love Chinese food. Like I said earlier, the potstickers were top notch. The crab Rangoon - had an almost sour flavor, which was an immediate turn off. Tried biting into the pork buns (one of my favorite dim sum) only to find that below the pillow soft bun was COLD bbq pork filling. When I told them that it was cold, the waitress took it back to the kitchen and brought the same buns back, including the one that I bit and spat out, only this time it was steaming. I was shocked that they brought the same ones right back, but just decided to overlook it and try another one... hot bun, but this time it was almost gummy (microwaved), cold filling AGAIN.

We tried asking to remove the crab Rangoon and the buns, and were told that "you ordered it, you pay". Tried explaining that the buns were cold again and the Rangoon tasted a bit off and the waitress said "I don't know" and walked off.

Now, we both are sitting here with completely lost appetites, and we're more than willing to pay for what we, actually, ate. But to be told that because it was ordered it must be paid for, although the Rangoon are sour and the buns are cold, and the sheer disrespect and walking off while trying to get an understanding... enough for me to say... DO NOT COME HERE. You'll...