I will start off by saying that dining out for us is generally difficult when away from home as we have 2 kids under 8 that have to eat gluten free and 1 of those has issues with blood sugar regulation and has to eat something every two hours or his blood sugar drops to the 40s and we have issues.

So on that note we eat at home, stay at places with kitchens when we travel, or do a bunch of gluten free research if we want to go out.

We went to Myrtle Beach and some friends were down there as well. We wanted to get dinner and cooking for 9 in a condo kitchenette let alone having enough space for everyone was not happening.
So my wife does a bunch of looking around and finds this place Lulu’s that is supposed to go above and beyond for allergy folks including those with gluten allergies and has a place for the kids to play and we can walk around and shop while we wait for the table.

So we have 9 people: 4 adults, 5 kids, 2 gluten allergies, and one of those gluten allergies is a blood sugar nightmare.
It is a Thursday night so we get there about 4:40 to put our name in expecting a wait. And now we begin the worst dining experience humanly possible!!

We checked in at 4:45 and were told our wait would be about an hour. No problem to be expected and had planned on that gave the kiddos a snack about 4:00 and planned to hit Ron Jon walk around and let the kids play.

We get back to Lulu’s about an hour later around 5:45 as we were told and asked for a status on the line. We were told that we had FIFTY ONE parties still in front of us. That is not a typo FIFTY ONE PARTIES STILL AHEAD OF US AFTER 1 OF WAITING! I said absolutely not possible, I was told an hour when we put our name in hour ago. The girl asked who told me that it would only be an hour. I pointed out the girl that checked us in, she said yup the computer told me an hour so that is what I told them. I thought the wait estimates were too short and told a couple people but no one wanted to listen to me.

The girl could likely tell by my face I was not happy. She got the manager she came over and apologized said it would only be about 10 minutes that she would take care of it. I thanked her letting her know that we specifically picked out Lulu’s for their gluten allergy care and had a little one that was about to hit his blood sugar crash. We popped him a little snack we brought since we were looking at some more waiting.

20 minutes later still no table. Found the manager again and asked about the table and she said that we had already been taken to our table. We said that was strange because all 9 of us were still standing at the hostess stand and that needed to be remedied. We are stuck because we can’t just go anywhere else and if we could anywhere else is going to be a 1-2 hour wait for sure now.
Or we likely would have left.

We were finally seated about 5 minutes later.
We asked for the gluten free menu and ordered about 15 minutes later, kind of, the regular waitress said she was not allowed to take the allergy orders. So we had to wait about another 15 minutes for the allergy waitress to arrive. She asked what we would like to order, I said we kind of needed to see the menu to be able to order. Ohh, that might help after a couple minutes of browsing the menu we finally got everyone ordered.

Kids are playing and all is grand! 1 hour passes and no food yet give the kids the last of the snacks we brought. Waitress says she’ll check on it comes back a bit later and says sorry they are a little behind. 2 hours later and still no food! Waitress comes out and says a manager is looking into it. Manager comes out sorry, sorry, sorry will be out shortly, 30 minutes later food starts to come to the table. Kids are about to tear the place down as we are out of snacks and they have been having sugary drinks.

Well food began to show up but it was not even close to what most of us ordered. What a gigantic screw up, 1 of the gluten free orders does not arrive at all, the other is clearly not gluten free as it is chicken and has French fries sitting on top of the chicken and we were told they have no gluten free fries, but gluten free orders are all made in a separate kitchen. Clearly not the case. One of our folks ordered the fried shrimp and they brought out fried fish, a bowl of soup that had been ordered never made it either.

Manager returns and asks how everything looked. I informed her we were now having serious problems. I was curious what happened to the special gluten free order that could not even be taken by our waitress as the one order was clearly not gluten free, and the other did not even arrive. Now, I was quite perturbed and I am sure it was very evident. I did not curse or even raise my voice but was quite stern with the manager that our entire visit so far was completely unacceptable. Our waitress was standing next to the manager and was visibly upset, began to cry, and ran off toward the kitchen.
My food is now getting cold as I have to reorder for 3 screw ups. 2 of which were the only 2 orders that the gluten free allergy specific waitress took (not our waitress) the other screw up was on the part of the kitchen and not our waitress.

A few minutes later our waitress came back out and was tending other tables you could tell she was fighting back the tears and even if you did not know what was going on you knew she had been crying. I waved her over and told her that we knew none of the issues were her fault and we were in no way upset with her as she had been great. She burst out in tears again and kept saying she felt so bad but I reassured her we knew none of the issues were her doing.

Of course now my food is completely cold and so is my wife’s as we are trying to get our kids something they can actually eat as we are approaching 4 hours total of waiting now and we can’t just feed them whatever due to the gluten issue which we specifically came to Lulus because of. All the food finally arrived and by that time it was just food and pretty much sucked because we all were just pissed and hungry.

Manager says she’ll get us some deserts for our troubles. Bread pudding and ice cream for the gluten free folks.
Myself and all the adults with us are looking at each other and thinking we Certainly hope they did not think a couple of desserts would make things right. 30 minutes later NO desserts, manager comes out and says they should be out shortly. I found our waitress who was still crying gave her $100 cash and told her that was hers and not to be shared or given to anyone else and we left.

It was hands down the worst dining experience of all time. Not a chance in the world will I return to Lulu’s and if anyone ever mentions the place to me I will pay for them to go somewhere else!

Your situation is complicated given the dietary restrictions of your party so it's not like I can say, "I wouldn't have waited for an hour to eat."

I take it calling ahead to make reservations wasn't an option?

I think it's an after effect of Covid with people making up for lost time in eating out and restaurants finding good people to work so that they're short-staffed.

I won't tell you you should have been more patient; if I go hungry waiting for my food, I get quite irate.

quote:

Is this the place?

LuLu’s in North Myrtle Beach is all about celebrating food, family & FUN! Take a break from life for a little while and soak up all the good vibes of our delicious food, live music, and stunning Intracoastal waterfront view. Everything is better with sand between your toes and a cold drink in your hand while the kids play in the sun. Eat, play, shop- we’ve got something for everyone.

A visit to LuLu’s is a vacation in itself, so treat yourself and your family. The real world can wait.

Ah yes, Myrtle Beach. My wife and I (Florida) met our son, his wife, and their two sons (Ohio) for a long weekend there, a few years ago.

Black described just about every restaurant experience that we had. The worst one, the most memorable, was a place called "Cappy's," which we re-named "Crappy's."

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:
I take it calling ahead to make reservations wasn't an option?

Even making reservations beforehand no longer counts as an actual seating time. Nowadays, restaurants consider a reservation as a check-in time to see if a customer is actually going to show up. After that, they arrange for your table and you begin waiting.

Yikes. That is a mess. Good on you for keeping your cool. Nice handling of your waitress.

Sounds like a shitstorm experience.

quote:

30 minutes later NO desserts, manager comes out and says they should be out shortly. I found our waitress who was still crying gave her $100 cash and told her that was hers and not to be shared or given to anyone else and we left.

So you tipped the server and left without paying the bill? Or am I reading this wrong?

I wouldn't have wanted to pay for anything after such an experience.

I’m glad you asked that question, I thought the same thing.

Call me a curmudgeon but I would never pay full price for that meal and yea, I’m not going to leave a large tip for the server either. In fact reading your post it didn’t sound like any of the staff was any good. Tipping well, in my mind, reinforces bad service. Screw that. It’s not your job to reward the waitress for working at a shitty restaurant. I don’t see decent service by anyone including the crying waitress.

What a terrible experience, alas not an isolated one. We went to Myrtle Beach a few years ago, and it was the worst vacation I've ever had. The condo we got was dirty and did not live up to the pictures. The hot tub and lazy river were both broken and out of use the entire time we were there. The weather was overcast and rainy the entire week (granted this one is not Myrtle Beach's fault). Every single restaurant we ate at was disappointing at best, awful at worst. Seriously, not one positive eating experience the whole week. I'm pretty low maintenance on vacation, but Myrtle Beach was terrible and I won't go back.

My hat’s off to you, keeping your cool. I would have been extremely upset & everyone in the places would have known the story, including the kitchen staff.

We love Myrtle Beach. We tend to stay away from condos and rent houses on the beach. It’s kind of pricy but me and BIL tend to split it so it’s more expensive than condo but way better. Access to beach, your own pool, a kitchen big enough to cook for the brood.

Eating out at any beach town is odious. We tend to pick one night a week and get the all you can eat calabash seafood nonsense. I think it’s mediocre at best but my low brow family loves it so I enjoy the meal. Those are mostly buffet so if you can tolerate the cheesy decor, fake fishing wall hangers and general wtf-ery then it’s a good time.

Eating a sit down meal with kids, allergies, and blood sugar issues means I would never eat out. Lol. Look at houses. Much easier to cook from home. Save you a decent chunk of change not eating out as well.

^^^ This is what we do in the Pan Handle area. We rent a large house on the beach and do most of the cooking from there.

I have a long fuse but I believe they would have reached the end with that service

There had to be other options for a meal . No way I would have endured that nightmare .

We tried to get reservations or even call ahead seating and so did the concierge at our resort but they do not do it in peak tourist season.
That is why we got there when we did and a big reason we picked where we did because we could shop and play while we waited.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
I’m glad you asked that question, I thought the same thing.

Call me a curmudgeon but I would never pay full price for that meal and yea, I’m not going to leave a large tip for the server either. In fact reading your post it didn’t sound like any of the staff was any good. Tipping well, in my mind, reinforces bad service. Screw that. It’s not your job to reward the waitress for working at a shitty restaurant. I don’t see decent service by anyone including the crying waitress.

I may not have made it clear but our actual waitress was top notch.
She was quick to take drink orders upon our arrival, they were always filled, she took our orders that she was allowed to take quickly, she got the manager numerous times without our asking.
She did everything right and nothing she could have done outside of going to the kitchen and making the food herself would have changed the situation.
She was put in a complete shit show situation by everyone around her at no fault of her own.
This is why we tipped her well and specifically told her to share it with no one because they were not deserving.

quote:

Originally posted by pedropcola:
Eating a sit down meal with kids, allergies, and blood sugar issues means I would never eat out. Lol. Look at houses. Much easier to cook from home. Save you a decent chunk of change not eating out as well.

Yes, we rent a place big enough for us with a kitchen and eat 95% of our meals there.
This instance we met up for a meal with friends that happened to be down there with us (they did not travel with us) so we found a place that was supposed to be great for allergies, arrived early expecting a wait, and had a place for the kids to play while we waited.
Checked all the boxes on paper but that was it sadly.

quote:

Originally posted by selogic:
There had to be other options for a meal . No way I would have endured that nightmare .

If it were that easy we certainly would have done as much.
We expected an hour or so wait so we arrived much earlier than we wanted to eat.
We were hot in the middle of tourist season so anywhere would be an hour wait or so for a party of 9.
By the time the fiasco was realized, wife would have had to figure out which gluten free place was the closest to our location, would have had to load everyone up in the cars, drive to the new place to wait another 1-2 hours and not have a place for the kids to play while waiting.

Having kids that have to eat gluten free is one of the worst nightmares of all time.
The kids can’t eat pizza with their friends, or cake, or cupcakes, or cookies.
Trying to find good places to eat absolutely sucks.

wife is GF and has been for many many years

we are fortunate, there are a ton of foodie joints around here that cater to food allergies,

even a few of the chains do as well, and do not need a allergy waitress

the exception being Maggiano's , they used to have a 'chef' come out and talk to you about the options,

not sure if they still do


you would think a place billed as GF/Allergy friendly would be able to step up and help you out

We were in Myrtle back in late May. They were hurting for workers. Restaurants half filled but still had a wait.

When they stop paying people to stay home maybe things will change

I have not been to Myrtle Beach in eons.
Years ago, we went to North Myrtle Beach, and
when we ate out, would go to Myrtle for the seafood.
The last time we went, all the older seafood places had been demolished for some park or such.

From what I understand from people I know who have vacationed at MB the last 5 years, it has declined.
Even before Covid. Biker gangs, and people who trash have ruined the image.

I just read MB picked up 53 tons of Trash after the July 4th melee.

This is true worst time to go to Myrtle, tourist season and the traffic might as well be me Los angeles, next time go to the marsh walk in Merrills inlet. About 15 miles south , much nicer and less crime too

We have been to a number of beach/resort areas over the years, and the only two I can recall with good food and good service were the Dells, Wisconsin and Destin, Florida. Destin is kind of a stretch, because we enjoyed a seafood buffet there with little service but great, cheap food.

Wonder if they're related to the Lulu's in Gulf Shores, AL? If so that's Lulu Buffett, Jimmy's sister.

When we called about reservations this summer, we were told they don't take them, but you COULD go online and get on the wait list without having to drive over. We did so, and the website gave us a link to check in on our status. Looked at it and found out that we were number 146 in the queue. We went and played mini golf and goofed off, since we weren't really hungry at that time and had heard the wait times were ridiculous. Arrived when we were 15th or so in line, shopped for T shirts, and were seated shortly.

Food and service were both good, TONS of food on the seafood platter. Of course, nothing diet related to restrict me from eating everything in sight....

Anyhow, I'd throw in that we ate there once when they first opened (years ago) and they sucked. I only went back because the kids wanted the experience, and I'm glad I gave them another shot. I'd eat there again.

What a nightmare. It's really frustrating when you plan something out with room for error and things go sideways for reasons outside of your control.