Lulu’s Wine Garden — Restaurant in Washington

Good food and atmosphere but overpriced for level of service. lulu’s wine garden on U & 11th streets in NW DC is a nice place but the value proposition doesn’t make sense.

We were a party of 4 with 6:30 pm reservation on a Thursday night. Got seated immediately on back patio. Place is clean, well designed and host staff are friendly. There was water at the table.

They use an annoying QR code menu system and have taken that to a new low with in app ordering and payment. No server to greet you, tell you about the specials, ask questions, etc. no server to come over to check that everything arrived and was correct and to ask if you needed anything else. servers are now just food runners. Please note- all the food runners were very nice, friendly and efficient.

The level of service is more like fast casual. That’s OK if you’re paying fast casual prices. Instead, a bottle of not exotic sparking wine and the short rib entree were about $60 each. Another entree was 35 and some sides and starters were 15-20 each. Total out the door tab for 4 was almost $400. Not complaining about spending $400- just the mismatch between cost and level of service.

Food was very good. Well seasoned and presented. Appropriate temperature. Portions fair. Came out in a good amount of time. All good in the food department.

The wines were good but price was really a gouge. I price checked the 2 wines we had — the mark up over retail price was 4x on one of them.

There is also a 4% surcharge “to offset rising prices…” . I personally think that’s a junk fee that restaurants slip in and hope we don’t notice. Just raise the menu price which should be simple to do using the low service QR code system.

All in all- despite the excellent food- I wouldn’t go back because of the service model / value proposition, price gouge on the wine and...

I have been to Lulu's twice because it has a lot to offer during the pandemic with a large patio and heaters. Food is ordered via the app and payment is made after each order is placed, so pay after each round of drinks etc... Servers just come out and drop off the food and leave. The first time we went was in November and my crew thought the hostess was unfriendly because of how strict she was when explaining the rules, but I wrote it off to early stages of cold weather pandemic, so just cautious. I went this month with 2 friends and same structure and I think the same hostess. They have a 2 hour dining limit and they warn you 20 minutes before your time is up. We had a 6pm-8pm reservation and she approached us at 7:50pm and said "I need you to leave the table now" because she seated the first person at 5:50pm. We left what food was on our plate and half full glasses of wine. When I approached her on the way out that we still had 10 minutes and could have finished our food and wine she stuck to her rule that 2 hours started at 5:5pm and gave a flippant sorry and would you like to us pour your wine back in the bottle and take it with you. She then turned towards the bar and rolled her eyes. We probably spent $200 and walked out pretty ticked off that we couldn't finish the wine and she wouldn't reseat us at one of the other patio tables that were empty.

Food is pretty good, but not enough to warrant the treatment from the hostess. That type of treatment of customers can only be achieved at the best...

This is for a Lulu’s wine event. We paid $72 per person per ticket, including all the fees. The event was marketed as unlimited tasting and bottomless breakfast tacos. I would not say it was either. It was very difficult to get a taste of either! In part, I think the space (which as aesthetic) was too small for the number of tickets sold, so it was difficult to reach the different wine booths. I maybe had a total of half a glass of wine from the tasting. We ended up just buying a bottle from the event for $18 so that we could at least drink something but then they charged us a $15 corking fee. It was a white, and they didn’t even have cold ones stocked. There were barely any tacos put out on the serving table and they came out very slowly - maybe 8 at a time. Attendees were swarming the server the second he appeared with the plate. I was in a group of six and with very vigilantly watching the tacos come out, we averaged to snag 1.5 tacos per person. Lulu’s sells 2 tacos for $17. The tacos were good, when you could get your hands on them. You’re definitely better off not going to an event and instead just doing a regular brunch. It would’ve been cheaper and less frustrating. Definitely disappointed in the event and wouldn’t try...