Lupo — Restaurant in Upper Arlington

Easily one of the least satisfactory dining experiences I have had in a while. The two of us showed up at 6:30 to a lightly populated restaurant without a reservation, which we were graciously told was no problem, and were seated on the patio by request. It went downhill from there. We sat for nearly 10 minutes before we were even acknowledged. People who arrived after us not only had water,but drinks served as well. Finally, the man who brought us to our table stopped and said he would bring water, which he did several minutes later. Then he said that he guessed he would be taking care of us and took our drink orders. Meanwhile, the singularly joyless server of the other tables continued to pass by without ever making eye contact and muttering expletives under his breath. After some time our drinks arrived, and they were good. A little bit later we were introduced to the server-in-training and our food orders were taken. The soup and starter were brought out at a leisurely pace, which was ok. A short time after they were consumed, my partner’s dinner selection was delivered. After a few minutes I told her to go ahead and eat while it was hot. At least 15 minutes later…after her dish was finished with my help, our server noticed that my dish had not been brought out and said he would be right back. During all of this time everyone on the patio had been served and when our server walked by us again without serving us, I grabbed his attention and asked him to cancel my order and bring us the check. In the lengthy time it took for someone who appeared to be the manager to bring it, there were no apologies or expressions of concern. Even the mgr merely grumbled, sorry about your tacos, and that was it. I do not know what was going on at Lupos tonight, but in a city with lots of fabulous restaurants, we won’t be hurrying back. Although we want to like and support this restaurant in the heart of UA, we do not...

For years, Lupo was one of our favorite places. I recommended it to everyone. Reliably excellent tapas, creative cocktail specials, friendly and knowledgeable servers, and a chill atmosphere. Sadly, I doubt if we’ll ever be back, at least no time soon.

The first warning sign was an unpleasant odor in the main dining room. I didn’t stay inside long enough to put my finger on it, but I’d speculate perhaps mildew. The floors looked dirty. Our table outside had a dead cockroach under it.

The food quality has taken a sharp nosedive. I gather they have a new chef who’s moving the menu from Spanish to Mexican, which seems to mean dumping poblanos and avocado on the Caesar salad and featuring a lot of guacamole where one wouldn’t think it belongs. My wife’s enchiladas were bordering on inedibly spicy, even after scraping off a thick layer of hot pepper (there was no particular indication of the spice level on the menu, but this was way, way beyond what you’d expect in a typical Mexican place). My smash burger was bland and unremarkable. I expect more for $32 — that figure includes the add-on charge for a side of “rosemary potatoes,” which were cooked well but had no discernible rosemary.

The cocktails were fine, but we missed the rotating specials that had been a staple here.

Nas was fine as a waiter, if not particularly engaging. I will say it’s a little disappointing when a guest scrapes the hot sauce off their meal, take only a couple of bites of it before giving up, turns down an offer of a box, and the server seems indifferent. I’ve had much friendlier servers here...

This was our first time to this place. The restaurant is located in an old bank. The decor inside isn’t very interesting and the bathrooms were honestly pretty disgusting, but the outside patio where we ate was actually pretty nice. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but they had fans and the area was blocked from direct sun and they have an overhead cover.

The service was a little off. The host was quite young and a little awkward with communication and setting expectations. We arrived 2 minutes late to our reservation and told us someone was still sitting at our table and they had 10 more minutes until they would ask them to vacate. We stood around for awhile waiting. Not a great start.

Nas was our server and actually did a great job. Very professional and set expectations that the kitchen was running behind. And it was.. took awhile to get our food but the meal was paced out well despite taking a long time.

The food was good. We started with a salad and the burrata both were very good. My partner had the steak and I had the chicken. I thought the chicken was well prepared, the steak had a sweet corn sauce that was very sweet. We didn’t get dessert.

Overall I don’t think we will return unless we found ourselves in the area for some reason. It was...