Lulu

Sept 28, 2007 - My good friend had just gotten into the city from Arizona. She was visiting for the weekend so get ready for this barrage of posts.

Our first stop was Lulu's in SOMA (Folsom/4th). I had driven by this place a few times before and for some reason the name was pretty catchy to me so I've been wanting to check it out. We were there pretty early, right after work, around 6pm. It was a nice space. There were high interesting ceilings and the central dining area was open and had a nice airy feeling to it.

We were promptly seated and dove straight into the wine list. My wine glass was pretty dirty so I asked for another and that one was fine. We got ourselves a nice, refreshing bottle of Pinot Grigio and ordered an antipasti and a pizza.

The wine was good and now I wish I remembered what it was called. But the food was only OK. The antipasti was a choice of 3 things so we got the following: 1) cucumber, fennel, salmon; 2) cantaloupe with prosciutto; 3) heirloom tomato with cucumber salad. It didn't look nice. They just put the 3 items on a long plate. It was kinda boring and nothing was really spectacular about it. But I think it was almost $15. Hmph.

The pizza was not great either. For almost $18 you would expect something pretty special but really it wasn't that much better than a pizza you might find at CPK. I like CPK pizzas so I liked this one, but CPK pizzas cost around $12. I wondered what the other $6 were for. Ambiance perhaps? It was really loud in there though. There were plenty of families and large groups which gave the place a little more warmth. But it still managed to keep an upscale look so they were able to charge according to that look.

Service was fine. They were very attentive with the water, which my friend drinks a lot of, but the waiter was not constantly interrupting or annoying us. He visited us just the right amount but was not overly friendly. It was fine.

Oh, dessert! How could I forget? We got chocolate cake. It was a rich chocolate with the melty, oozy fudge in the middle. It was yummy. But nothing to get too excited for.

Overall it was a fine experience. I don't have plans to return though. Nothing spectacular and overpriced for just ok food. Still, we had a nice time and nothing was horrible. Ah well, they can't all be spectacular.