Lews Restaurant — Restaurant in Virginia

Food is decent. (See bottom paragraph if you want the short version of this review.) My husband and I thought the pizza tasted pretty good out of the places we've tried in Roanoke. I give it two stars because we've come to realize that the cooks and staff don't care about the customers at all.

Our personal preference is to have pizza cut into triangles. It isn't a big deal, just what we prefer. So, after we realized that their common practice is to cut squares, we asked them to cut triangles instead of squares when we ordered our food over the phone for takeout during our second Lews experience. Well, they didn't do it. They claimed that whomever took my order just forgot to include it on the ticket when they sent it to the back. They were busy, so I let it slide. (sidenote - on this same order, they forgot to add the bacon to our bacon cheese fries. We didn't realize until we got home, but again we let it slide because we saw they were swamped that day.)

Well, it happened AGAIN. This time I ordered online so that our request would DEFINITELY be on the ticket. Well, I arrived and the girl read the ticket back to me and checked my order and said, "Oh, these aren't triangles. I don't know what to do." I just stared at her and waited. She eventually asked another worker (maybe a manager?) and he rolled his eyes and walked over after finishing wrapping something. He told me that cutting pizzas into squares is just the way they do it in the back. I replied, "Even if we request triangles, you can't do them?" He said they could but that the cooks probably just got busy and forgot. He added that they could cut them into triangles now, but it'd just be cutting it into tiny pieces. He asked me if I wanted that. I said no. His tone was extremely rude and it was very clear that he wasn't concerned about me at all. The girl at the counter offered to have them remake the pizza (which is why I'm giving this 2 stars and not one), but I didn't have time to wait.

SO, we will sadly not be returning to Lews due to the rude man (maybe a manager - I hope not) and their inability to satisfy an EXTREMELY simple request on multiple occasions. I never realized that cutting pizza into triangles would be so problematic. It's just a small detail about a pizza, but when we pay almost $40 for two large pizzas, I want them done the way I requested. Their food is decent, but it isn't worth rude employees and complete disregard for customer's simple requests on...

The decor is...interesting. It reminds me of a basement that someone is trying to decorate with whatever they find at garage/yard sales and thrift stores. The booth didn't really fit against the wall and they had a nice TV but it was kind of tucked away awkwardly in the corner. It wasn't terrible, but seemed to be "under construction."

As for the menu, it looked to be typical American/Sports Bar food. They offered burgers, sandwiches, salads, pizzas, and a few entrees. We ordered a plate of Beer Fries for the table and I ordered a Deluxe Pizza as my meal. The Beer Fries arrived before the rest of the food and I thought these were the highlight. A bit on the greasy side, but crispy and had good flavor. My pizza was more on the underwhelming side. As a Deluxe Pizza, it was topped with pepperoni, sausage, ham, mushrooms, peppers, & onions. I would have liked it more had they put the veggies on while the pizza was in the oven, but those were thrown on after the pizza had already cooked. The sauce wasn't particularly good and the crust was nothing memorable. It wasn't disastrous, but not worth getting again. Actually, that reflects my thoughts on the entire experience.

I'm not sure I understand the appeal of Lew's. The service was okay, but we had to wait a while before anyone noticed our table. I wouldn't consider returning based on the flavor of the food. And the atmosphere certainly leaves a lot...

I moved to the Hollins area about a year ago with my girlfriend and had heard about Lew's from family and friends. Since then we have been to Lew's almost weekly and I can't not say enough good things about this place. If you are looking for fancy fine dinning, you're barking up the wrong tree. However, if you are looking for FANTASTIC food, beer assortment (on tap and bottles), atmosphere and friendly service, this is your spot. The inside it decorated in what I've always thought reminded me of a less cluttered Macado's and has tons of Roanoke themed artwork and decor. The food is very reasonably priced and did I mention the great assortment of beers? They have a chalk board that often rotates what they offer and often specials local breweries which I love. There's usually great music playing and I still have yet to have a bad experience. I've seen a few reviews on here that stated poor service or the food not coming out to expectations.... If you're looking for fine dinning, go to Franky's downtown. If you are looking for anything else, try Lew's. You won't regret it! Also, during warm month's, they have a large outside patio with umbrella covered tables and good tunes playing. We have friends from the NRV that come up on the weekends just to go to Lew's for a few beers and watch he sunset.... great ending to a rough...