Lili's Restaurant and Bar — Restaurant in Wilmington Island

As a lover of delicious food and locally owned businesses, naturally I was a huge supporter of Lilis. I follow them on Facebook and share a lot of their posts. That said, I had a friend in from out of town recently and was excited to take her there for lunch. We had one hour. Now I know that Lilis is NOT fast food; but after arriving and seeing only about 5 people there, I assumed that time wouldn't be an issue. We were immediately seated and our waitress (very pleasant young lady) took our orders. After about 10 minutes of waiting for drinks and watching the bartender on his laptop at the end of the bar, we asked our waitress about our drinks. She went up to the bar and then we saw the bartender get up, go around the bar, and start making drinks. To our surprise, apparently they weren't for us. We then waited another 9 minutes or so before finally getting our drinks. I commented about this experience and their response was to suggest that I call ahead if I would like timely service. That response prompted this review. Call ahead??? #1, I didn't know ahead of time that I would be going. #2, there were 5 people there, not 50. The bartender wasn't swamped making multiple drinks. He seemed quite content to sit at the end of the bar. #3, as I had said in my comment, I love Lilis and have been there multiple times over the years. I never made a "I'm never eating here again" comment. I suggested that if folks are on a timed outing that they not go there because yes. It took 19 minutes to get our 1st drink and that was during a lull. And after we asked about it. Had we not asked, it probably would have been even longer because the bartender never moved until prompted by our waitress. I will still go back, I'm sure. Just not when I'm under time...

We stopped by here for a late lunch, having looked for a convenient restaurant and seeing that Lilli’s menu looked intriguing. When we managed to find it (the restaurant itself is tucked back a bit - I would ask your map app to help make sure you won’t miss it), we had an excellent meal. They were happy to seat us even though we were near the end of lunch hours (2:20) and the food was not at all a disappointment! We had a curry, the fish tacos, and the cheese steak flatbread and all were delicious and very generous in their portion sizes, especially for entree prices below $20. (The tater tots were very tasty, too!) Service was happy to customize a somewhat weird order and that meal came out exactly as intended. The curry had plenty of vegetables, just the way I like it, and the cheesesteak flatbread was heaped high with very good steak - not overcooked or chewy at all. The fish tacos had their diner plotting about making his own later. (Quick note there - they do “off the shelf” come with cilantro, so don’t forget to ask to skip that if you have the soap gene!) My one additional comment is that the food is definitely more sophisticated than the atmosphere/furnishings - much preferable, in my opinion, to the opposite situation! It’s not a dive or anything, but it does have a bit of a “hole in the wall” type feel; it’s a fairly casual place with food that really...

We stopped in for lunch and to plan my wedding dinner here soon. I love the quaintness of Lili's space. The owner Mir has been helpful and is working on a wonderful menu for us we can't wait to go back. So for lunch we tried the crab hush puppies, fried oysters, shrimp, and mushrooms. We enjoyed Beverly bite we would have liked everything fried a little harder but it was all cooked well. I had the shrimp tacos and absolutely loved the sauce on the tacos. My son had the ribeye tacos he didn't care for the sauce on these but said they tasted good. My daughter had the spicy fried chicken which looked terrific she noted chicken could have used more seasoning otherwise it tasted good. My daughter in-law had the margarita flatbread which she loved. The kids meal cheeseburger my grandson devoured it and ordered more fries so they were fresh cut and delicious! My granddaughters grilled cheese was made on flat bread we all took a bite as she's 1 so we knew she wouldn't finish it on her own. I have to admit it's one of the best grilled cheese I've had. I'd highly recommend checking Lili's out for lunch or dinner. More to come after...