Mana G.
Yelp
Wow, when did Lala's become such a terrible dining experience? I used to come here a lot about 18 years ago and it used to be pretty decent. I had a recent experience that left me feeling ripped off and disrespected.
I hadn't been back in ages and wanted to bring my partner on a special night out so I was super excited to come here after so long. Unfortunately, I now have a serious medical condition in which I can't eat certain foods and I need to eat specific foods in a certain order. I thought it should be fine here because steak and vegetables, how hard can it be?
We both ordered the Entraña. It comes with a little salad and a more substantial side, none of which are safe for me to eat. I asked if I could substitute the potatoes for vegetables and they said only with a four dollar upcharge. That was pretty annoying, as already the skirt steak is $36 but fine. I really needed the vegetables and I assumed it would be a good amount of vegetables.
When the meal arrived, there were four total pieces of assorted vegetables, crudely sliced. I bit into them and they were almost entirely raw. They were not seasoned, not flavored, just probably thrown onto the fire for one minute. They were too big of pieces to warrant such little cooking time. I would have considered eating it anyway because I don't like to make a scene but they were not the kind of vegetables that you could just eat cold and raw (like eggplant), nor should you have to at that price.
It took 15 minutes to flag down the waitress and I showed them to the her and said they weren't cooked. she made me give them back, like she took them off my plate, which I thought was a little bit bizarre. Like OK I'm not trying to get steal vegetables from you, calm down. But I thought OK maybe she wants to show them to the kitchen.
I told her that I have a medical condition and that eating out is a rarity for me and I need to eat the vegetables before I eat any other food or else I can't digest. I said they were pretty coarsely chopped and I requested that they be cut a little bit smaller next time so they can be actually cooked through.
I assumed they would just make me another batch of vegetables and bring it out so I could actually finish my meal together. It took another 20 minutes for her to come back with the new vegetables.
THEY GAVE ME BACK MY SAME VEGETABLES!!!
Are you kidding me with this?
I have never ever experienced this. I don't even know if it's allowed under food safety issues to take food that I ate back into the kitchen. cook it again on who knows what pan and then bring it back out. It's four pieces of vegetables why wouldn't you just make a new one? The food cost is pennies to the dollar for the upcharge.
By then I had eaten half of my steak and I was trying to save the other half. My poor partner was eating slowly and her own food was cold too. And she felt bad eating without me.
I flagged down the waiter again (which took another 10-15 minutes) and asked her why they returned my same vegetables to me again undercooked. I directly asked for an actual fresh batch and if they could please bring it out immediately and please for the love of god, cut them so they cook through. She took them back again off the table without saying anything and BROUGHT THE SAME ONES BACK AGAIN! What???
When I asked her what was happening, she shrugged me off and said that the kitchen told her they were fresh. They clearly were not. It was the same vegetables. I wish I had taken a picture, but I did not expect to be gaslit in what is supposed to be considered a nice restaurant.
At this point, the rest of our food was so cold and the entire time at this place was spent chasing down this stupid plate of vegetables. We finished eating and ran across the street to the Trader Joe's to get more food.
As someone with a food related disability, I am disgusted at this experience. In a world where there are so many choices of restaurants in this area, I am livid at having spent $100 to be disrespected like this. At this point, the waitress should've escalated it and comped our checks but she didn't even give us the dignity of acknowledging the situation. This was a horrible dining experience, just by regular restaurant patron standards. But it felt like pouring salt in the wound to someone for whom eating out is a rarity.
Lala's is not hospitality or quality. There are so many places to get a better steak, especially that have front and back house staff that treat you like a person who deserves a good meal that they pay a premium for.
The atmosphere is loud, crowded, with no actual ambiance. The steak is very average. And the hospitality is garbage. There's nothing worth it about this place. Go somewhere else.
