Restaurant Review - Lauro

Lauro (SE Division), Friday December 31st

Lauro is a newer discovery for us.  We live within walking distance (almost 7 years in this neighborhood) yet never went to Lauro until a few months ago.  I could kick myself for not checking it out sooner, but I didn't think there would be many non-meat options.  It turns out that's not true - they've consistently had fish options every time we've gone - some on the menu, some as specials.  And they are amazing.

We went to Lauro most recently on Friday, December 31st.  We didn't have a reservation, and it was more crowded than usual (not surprising since it was New Year's Eve).  We sat at the bar since a table in the corner of the restaurant was opening up.  We noticed the people at this table were there a long time with their coats on - in retrospect a bad sign.  After we finally got sat we had no one appear at our table for a very, very long time.  I wasn't sure who our server was, but we were hungry and had people waiting on us (coming to our place after we were done).  The person we thought was our server glanced our way once in a while, but never came over.  I finally yelled "excuse me" to get his attention.  This didn't work, but I did succeed in startling a woman sitting at the bar.  But it did work to get a woman server to come over. 

Our starters came out quick, the main courses took a little more time.  They have reasonable wine prices ($6 house red, which is a good wine).  I got a beet salad (very good) and Julian got fries with a great garlicy aioli.  My main dish was a fish special - steelhead w/cous cous.  Julian got a pork dish off the menu.  Both of ours were very good.  Mine wasn't all that hot - I think it was sitting for a while before making it to our table.  But the flavor was so good it was easy to overlook. 

Then we had another service issue - no one else appeared to check on us or to give us our check.  I had to start doing what the couple before us did - stand up near my table with my coat on (and cash on the table).  Our server finally came over and offered to comp our meal.  We didn't allow that, we paid because the food was great, even if the service was terrible.

Even after this awful service we'd go back - but we'll never fall for that corner table again!  We've always been sat in the middle and had no problems.  Another other night would be a better choice to go, too.