L.May Eatery

Reviews 4

DA

Daisy McKinlay

The one word that comes to mind when describing our LMay experience: disastrous. We chose LMay to celebrate three birthdays in our party of eight adults. The fact that it took several minutes to get the hostesss attention and take us to our table was the first indication that the level of service would be sub-par. However, no one could have foreseen what happened next: not two minutes after being seated and waiting to place our drink orders a bus boy dumped an ENTIRE GLASS OF ICE WATER on my mothers lap. Im not talking about a small table spill with a little bit of run off - I mean a full glass of icy cold water directly into her lap! Now, I have enough friends in the service industry to know that accidents happen, and lucky for this bus boy my mother is an extremely even-tempered person. However, the response, or lack thereof, from our server and the management was a joke. The bus boy, horrified, apologized profusely and made a weak attempt to lighten the mood with some ill-timed humor. Meanwhile, our servers solution was to simply dump a pile of napkins on my mother and proceed like nothing happened. In this situation the first thing the bus boy or server should have done was inform management, who should have addressed the incident with my mother personally. Instead, my mother was forced to sit through dinner soaking wet with a pile of napkins beside her. My entire party was left in a state somewhere between dumbfounded and disbelief for the remainder of our meal. We finally said something to our server about it when our check was brought out, and eventually the manager came over, made a somewhat flippant apology, and compd my mothers meal. Besides the ice-water incident, I found the entrees middling in both quality of taste and presentation, did not care for the "communal" side salads, and was wholly unimpressed with our servers lack of attention (especially after being told/acknowledging our request for three checks and then, after lumping everything into one, shrugging and stating that they dont split checks for parties of our size. Why she didnt state that after we made multiple comments regarding whos food/drink was with which party I cannot understand. I ended up splitting it for her since she was so flustered by the end). I think the only redeeming quality was the space itself, which I thought (other than the tacky fake candle light) was beautifully decorated. Maybe Chicago has spoiled me but, drama-aside, I was underwhelmed by the whole experience. I believe the Dubuque/Galena area has other superior options in the same price range. We will not be going back.

FJ

Fj Abraham

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly? The GOOD. OK, we ordered the Chicken Crostini: Very generous size, good overall flavors. The fig jam was a bit cloying. House salad: good but not great. “you’re in dubuque” pizza: Really very tasty, decent crust, great sausage. Braised pork shanks: very tasty and well cooked. Good mashed taters. Not great but very good. The BAD. The service was far from passable. Our sever took our orders just fine but was rarely seen again. Unfortunately my daughters glass tipped over and shattered, our waitress was nowhere to be seen so another gal cleaned it up. Our food was brought again by someone else, again not our server. We waited patiently to be asked about dessert, after 10-15 minutes we just decided to ask someone else, they said theyd get her. Again she never showed up. Finally the hostess grabbed the dessert tray to show us, but by that time we had enough poor service and just asked for the check. The UGLY? We arrived at 5pm on a Monday, there were maybe 10 people, other than that it was empty. For some reason the hostess, instead of seating us in one of the main front rooms where there were already guests seated but plenty of empty tables, took us all the way to the back of the restaurant. There was a dividing wall there and no other patrons. We thought it was a little unusual but didnt think much on it after that. As we neared 5:30 the place really started to pick up, the seating outside was almost full (we had a window seat), the first front rooms were also very full judging by the sound. Our area had 4 other tables in it, again all behind a partition.........yet no one else was seated there. It was very strange and only added to our disappointment with the service. We had been segregated I guess, but for what reason I couldnt say. I will add that Im a traditional priest and still wear a cassock (which should not seem so strange in a staunch catholic town like Dubuque), so can only guess maybe this had something to do with it? Needless to say, we felt unwelcome and certainly ill-served. Decent place and decent food tainted by a bad experience. I doubt we will be back.

A

A Private User

Went to L.May for my 1 year anniversary with my boyfriend...wasnt the first time I had gone there, it has been a decent experience other times I have been there. However I have had an overall "bad" experience with the same waiter each time Ive been there. I have had Chris as a waiter twice, and although at first he comes off as "personable" his service soon decreases. On both occasions my date and I had to prompt him for appetizers or refills on drinks. He was very slow at getting our requests, which I would understand if he were busy, but when we asked for our refills or check he wasnt very busy and had no apparent ability to multitask even under minimal stress conditions. At the end of the meal he didnt even ask us if we wanted a dessert; actually he didnt even get us to that point because by that time he was so slow that someone who I believe to have been the restaurant manager or owner had to come over and not only box our food for us but also ASK him to go get us our check. Once he brought us our check SHE had to come back to get it several minutes later because he never came back to check on us. L.May overall is a nice "concept" of a restaurant but it has some "weak" links. Their food (mostly their pizzas) are different from what most restaurants have, which is refreshing, but the restaurant entrees seem to cater more to seafood enthusiasts. Usually the pizzas are great but on this particular night our pizza was also burnt and left dry tasting. The atmosphere is nice. Nice rooms, and the candles on the table are a romantic touch. I love the idea of the little homey feeling restaurant nestled on main street, but the overall idea needs some fine tuning. Dont get me wrong, I have had some good waiters/waitresses there, but dont expect "exceptional" service every time or you will more than likely be disappointed. Their prices arent good enough to come only for the atmosphere so it would at least be nice if the I didnt have to guess if I were getting a good server or not. Thanks for reading!

JE

Jenn

If youre looking for a place that knows how to cook, and cook well, check out L May Eatery. We had crab cakes for our appetizer which consisted of two large crab cakes. Tender and flaky with great flavor. For entrees, my husband had the filet, which I also tasted. Pure perfection. I ordered the salmon because Im always curious to see how other people prepare salmon. Soft, flaky and moist inside. Our meal also included dessert, and we chose to share the cheesecake. Love fest on a plate. Creamy and flavorful without being too heavy. L May Eatery is a cozy place to dine. The tables are located somewhat close together, so if you prefer more intimate conversation my suggestion would be to sit next to the person youre dining with (vs across from) for a change. L May is always busy, I would imagine because the food is stellar. A bit more attention from our waitress would have been appreciated, for drink refills and a question or two we had. With that inattention, we spent about 25-30 minutes longer in the restaurant than we typically would have. I mention this because if this is an issue for others and management can streamline it, more space would become available for other diners. Just a thought... All of the staff were friendly and personable. We will definitely return to dine at the L May Eatery next time were in Dubuque.