LoLo in Stillwater: Great Reviews Led Us To Expect More

LoLo in Stillwater, MN Disappoints

I was so excited that we had time to go to Lolo in Stillwater tonight.  I've heard so many great things about the food [John: I suggested Victoriano's Pizza in Stillwater.  Linda must have just heard 'Stillwater.'].

Here's the short and sweet. Expectations may have been too high...I came home pretty disappointed [John: I was so disappointed I convinced Linda to stop for a cone on the sad drive home.].

Here's the scoring for LoLo:

Look in the kitchen (not too hard...it's right there):   

• Immediately deduct one point for every obvious food code violation.   4 are obvious, 2 committed by the 'main' cook.    
• The guy who repeatedly wiped his nose with his hand was not counted.  
• I did count the cook who was repeatedly eating off the line while prepping food--but I only took off 1 point for the numerous times he committed the same violation. 

Food:  The 'special' fried asparagus was tasty enough...some onion notes, some citrus notes, some herbs, not overcooked.   If only they had brought it out warm.  The little droplets of 'sauce' had hardened onto the plate.

Then we waited for 40 minutes to get 2 tacos with a side of greens and a separate berry salad.    

• I watched for 30 minutes while essentially no food came out of the kitchen.   
• The guys in the kitchen were joking, shoving each other a little bit (you know, the thing guys do)...but there was  essentially 30 minutes of standing around.  
• The very pleasant server, clearly aware of the long, long wait, twice stopped by and said "The asparagus was good, right!"  

I could have lived with that if what was delivered was outstanding...but it just wasn't. 

• The berries on the berry salad were ready to eat on the weekend...today they should have been blessed and tossed in the compost pile.  
• The cheese on the salad was excellent and added a nice salty note to the vinaigrette that absolutely needed at least the passing of a salt shaker somewhere close to it.  
• The side of greens accompanying the tacos (oh, stuck under the stainless taco holder) was not as good as the side of greens from The Coffee Shop NE when you order a piece a quiche for a few dollars.

The Korean BBQ tacos were perhaps the biggest disappointment (remember, we used to serve K-BBQ tacos as a lunch special at Marianne's Kitchen).   The flour tortillas were cold, the 3 kinds of meat were placed in the taco shell then drowned in a totally salty harsh K-BBQ sauce which was streaming out of the tacos and all over the plate, with some bland white cabbage and some pickled cukes.   There was just not a darn thing that was exceptional about them [John: Linda is being kind.  The salty pork, pork belly and bacon was doused with a heavy, salty Korean sauce.  Bland describes the cabbage and cukes perfectly.  Ever in search of another taco these also lost points for exceptionally blah grocery store tortillas].   I really wanted to like them because I love K-BBQ...but I honestly couldn't.

The 'rosetta' beer was tasty...but they didn't make that.

So, sorry folks, tonight was apparently not the night to eat at Lolo.   

I won't rate it because once you deduct the food code violations, there's not much left to work with.  They would have had to dig themselves out of negative territory, and, in this round, they couldn't pull it off. 

Epilogue:  John:  By the time we arrived home  Linda was not really talking.  Following her into the house after a few minutes I heard her quoting Becca from 'The Bachorette' and talking to the stove saying "Let's do the damn thing."

  Apparently a really lame dinner at LoLo was a good reason to put a duck in the oven at 10 PM.  The next time I suggest 'Stillwater' I'll say "Victoriano's Pizza" much louder.