Lucille's American Cafe — Restaurant in Weston

10/31/24 update: I like everything about the place. I like sitting outside with the lake in the background. I went to 5 stars. 05/11/2023 update: went back and had a good meal. Im going up one star.The service is extremely good. The wait staff know and explain the menu in detail. They use a device that sends the orders to the kitchen and can also take credit cards which make their process efficient. Besides the server asking if you are enjoying the meal a manager stops by and is genuinely concerned about the diners experience. The indoor choice has interesting murals of famous structures such as bridges and photos of famous people from the 50s to 70s. The outside area overlooks a beautiful lake. There is a machine that sells food to feed the turtles. The menu has a lot of comfort food such as macaroni and cheese. I like their choice of salads. My favorite item is the turkey dinner. I run a meetup bicycle group and the riders enjoy the restaurant very much. With all of the positive information you may be wondering why I only gave it 3 of 5 stars. Yesterday I went with my mother and had the $6 Monday special hamburger. It requires purchasing any beverage that is prices at an average price. For $9.00 it could be a good deal on its own. Its not enough food so we added sweet potato fries. One bowl and one cup of soup. The fries and soup tasted great. I wasn't paying attention to prices and the check went from $9 to double. Well we ordered more product so it makes sense but it felt like in total it is no longer a good value. It was now just an average meal price. The burgers always look attractive. They have a charcoal taste and are cooked accurately to the requested wellness. This time the burgers looked and smelled fantastic but as soon as I took a bite I recognized that the delicious taste was included but it was covered by a strong taste that reminds me of a cleaning chemical. Perhaps amonia? We had a friendly discussion with the manager and server about it. They explained that the food source and everything was exactly the same as in the past. They said that we are the first people to mention it. I know the place well and know they are honest about it. I am a QA software tester and have had cases where a users software was documented to work incorrectly when thousands or millions of people never encounter the defect. It is because they ran into a specific set of conditions. It seems like the same situation. Maybe we used a different brand of toothpaste or ate some food earlier in the day that reacts with the burger's flavor. I was paying the check on the portable machine. I saw the accurate bill total and felt that the side items boosted the price so much. I kept drinking iced tea to get rid of the lingering taste. Then I got annoyed at programming on the machine that gave tip recommendations starting at 20% and went higher. I tipped at 20% but felt the suggestions should start at 15%. It had a choice to enter a custom tip and it would require extra steps. My bicycle group will want to go there so I will have a different meal and I'll change the rating...

I hesitate to write this review. Not because I don't want to give credit where credit is due, and not because I don't want this business to thrive, because I do on both counts. However, when you find a restaurant in South Florida that is this good and yet you can still get seated without a wait--on a Saturday night--you sort of want to keep it to yourself. I had the chicken pot pie, a cup of tomato blue cheese soup and the carrot cake for dessert. I think what I liked most about Lucille's, was that each dish didn't try to be a spin on what the dish was, it was just an excellent representation of itself. The chicken pot pie was just that, chicken pot pie. But, sometimes a dish doesn't need to be masqueraded as something to be absolutely delicious. Let me give you an example: green bean casserole. You can dress up a green bean casserole however you wish, but at the end of the day, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to improve on a green bean casserole. The authenticity of the dish itself, just like Lucille's chicken pot pie, is the magic by which the dish is to be measured. However, the tomato blue cheese soup on the other hand was a beautiful play on a hard to beat classic. Not overpowering like I expected, but just enough blue cheese to play nicely with the creamy acidity of the tomatoes, but not so much as to hide the flavor that one is seeking when ordering a tomato soup. The carrot cake (which in my book is a wonderful vehicle to transport copious amounts of cream cheese frosting into my face) was, in and of itself, delicious making the frosting a side note (albeit a delicious one). The carrot cake was moist and dense, like a good banana bread, but with the necessary spice and flavor that made it a delicious stand alone dessert. A dessert highlighted, but in no way overshadowed by the equally delicious cream cheese frosting. Other dishes our table included the mahi sandwich, fries, baked potatoes, salads; all of which didn't fail to please. The fish was moist and cooked perfectly. The loaded baked potatoes were picture perfect. The fries crispy on the outside yet creamy on the inside. The salads were crispy and satisfying. We, collectively, couldn't have asked for a better dining experience. Our server was Nick; attentive, friendly, knowledgeable, and prompt. The atmosphere is that of a diner, but with a coziness of a cafe, and with just a touch of hipness that lends itself to Lucille's own brand of authenticity--one that doesn't need to seek acceptance and makes zero appologies for what it is. I can't wait to go back and try the chicken...

Quite the worst service we've had in a LONG time - the waitress took our order (fish and chips for one person, soup and half a sandwich combo for the other)... a good 30 minutes later and she hadn't come back to the table, but when she did, she looked at us and said something about gosh, your food isn't there? I mean really, SHE was our waitress, without HER bringing the food to us, how did she expect it to get to us? Levitate and shimmy over by itself from the kitchen? Anyway, she went off and a little bit later she came back, the tomato blue cheese soup was LOVELY - the half a tuna sandwich was very underwhelming - literally lettuce, a slice of tomato and a chunk of tuna salad squished between two dry pieces of wholewheat toast - nothing wrong with it, but nothing great either. The soup WAS excellent. HOWEVER, the fish and chips was poor - the fish is clearly not made in house but bought in a bag - two pieces on a plate. Fries in a dessert bowl were plunked down on the table, and she came back in a couple of minutes later with the "potato planks" that we'd ordered and the cole slaw. SHe said something about they'd made a mistake by giving us the fries - but no biggie. She never once came back to the table, she and the other wait staff were hovering around a 4-top table - maybe family or friends - ALL their attention was lavished on that table, and the other couple of tables that had occupants (the restaurant was nearly empty), were pretty much invisible. SHe NEVER asked how the meal was, and absolutely ignored us for the rest of the evening. We took a slice of cake to go, but I couldn't wait to get out of there. THe place itself is very very nice - comfy booth, lovely wide tables - nice atmosphere - it's been on our list of places to go to for ages - thinking how nice and welcoming it looks. Boy were we wrong. Whoever our waitress was (actually, it was Wendy), she really let Lucille down in a big way. Won't be going back. If I want to be ignored, I'll stay home and talk to my...