The LuBar & Bistro

Always clean, good atmosphere, friendly staff — my go to for any meal!!! I HIGHLY recommend the strawberry chicken salad!

Great lunch at Lubar ! The Reuben sandwich was delicious as was the turkey panini. The homemade chips are great! Top notch staff also.

Been here several times and always happy! Their house salad dressing is amazing! Very nice atmosphere and friendly service.

My go to place to eat in Carlyle! Food always pleases, the strawberry chicken salad is my favorite! And the staff are always friendly and attentive.

Very inexperienced wait staff left us standing at the door for several minutes before finally asking us if we had placed a to go order, no we were dining in. I took note of the «specials» which were exactly the same price in the menu, not really sure what was special. We just got the general vine that this place was exclusive to their locals and they really had no desire to attract new patrons.

Very nice place, the atmosphere is very cozy. We sat downstairs. I have been there before years ago when Lu was still operated the place. The food was really good, although the presentation could use a little help for what you pay for it. We had potato skins appetizer, dinner salads, ribeye dinner, and covered chicken. The service was slow and unorganized, however with more training and attention to detail that issue can be resolved.
Overall the place is good and we will be back. I hope they work on the training aspect of the business… That will go a long way, especially in Carlyle! (I grew up there)

Great concept, but way over priced for what is received. I have been 3 times, with hopes of a better experience each time, and have decided that for a few extra minutes spent in the car to visit St. Rose, IL, my money is much better spent.

I am pretty sure by now that I have had everything that is on the menu, and the menu has a ton of options. From the salmon dinner to the pizza, all awesome. My food has always been cooked to perfection and the service is wonderful. Great quantity, quality, and presentation. Atmosphere is great! Upstairs for family or a nice date, downstairs an excellent and unique bar atmosphere. I visit there frequently and don’t plan to stop. I LOVE LuBar!

We ordered the «Brick Oven Pizza»…This is nothing more than a glorified frozen pizza or sure tasted that way. Some of the toppings were preprocessed meats and it had very little cheese. Skip it. Much better at Caseys. We ordered two appetizers and our main meal came out with no sign of the appetizers. The waitress admitted she forgot to submit the order for them. But to save the day we weren’t charged for the three kids to have gelato. Food seemed to take quite awhile and if I go back I’m sure I would never order the pizza.

Went in on a Sunday morning for breakfast. Everything was very tasty and portions were big. Took advantage of the $ 20 for 10 deal Unilocal was offering. I would Highly reccomend Lubar

A great option for dinner, especially when faced with the usual onslaught of fast food and chains. We were passing through on a cross country adventure and I searched for places on Unilocal where the dinner hour would fall. This was one of our best finds yet! The food was better then average. They have creative dishes as well as the usual burgers. The homemade chips are fantastic. The kids meals were only $ 5 and very generous. The chicken fingers were great. Though the Mac and cheese was boxed, my daughter was thrilled with it. The dinner was good, but the gelato is what sealed the 5 star rating. I felt like I was back in Italy and savored every bite. Even if it’s not time for a meal, stop for the gelato!!!

Great food and drink menu! Cute little place in I suppose «downtown» Carlyle, biggest issue was the service. We sat down about 1 pm and didn’t get drinks til 130, and food til 215. When we did get the food it was good enough, just had to inhale it so we could get to our intended destination on time!

We are traveling across the country in our motorhome and are spending a few days at Carlyle Lake Dam West Campground (beautiful). We chose LuBar and Bistro because of the good Unilocal reviews and were not disappointed!
Great food, reasonable prices, cozy atmosphere, friendly service… really a nice place! Definitely stop by for a meal or dessert if you are in the area!

This was a dinner choice that came to be while visiting my in-​laws. The choice was made by my in-​laws as they had previously been there.
I have driven through Carlyle many times, and now I am happy to know an additional choice exists for dinning/​desert.
After being seated (immediately) with 6 adults, and two kids (on a Saturday night at 7:30 PM) we were greeted by our server. She took our order and our drinks were brought out quickly. While food took a little time to make it out to the table, we all enjoyed the atmosphere and conversation.
Our dinner was as described in the menu and after finishing everyone had a chance to enjoy the Gelato. Everything was priced well for the portions and quality of the food.
When it came time to pay, I pulled out my phone to check in as I had a wonderful experience and time. To my surprise, a deal was available. Pay $ 10 for a $ 20 voucher, redeemable same day. Perhaps this was due to my lack of knowledge about the establishment and it’s history, or perhaps I had an unfair perception of dining choices in the town and what the likelihood of their social media participation. Regardless I was happy to find the savings. This deal was icing on the cake and I know I will be returning. I would recommend you redeem the deals this business posts on Groupon, Living Social, or Unilocal if you are even on the fence.
I would suggest that if you are reading reviews you check out the well organized website. It is important to note that it was current at the time of this review. In my mind, I think this is a great thing considering the length of time the business has been around. I think this speaks to the owner and managements’ involvement.
Final thought, stop by while passing through. If you aren’t passing through make sure to pass through, even if it is only for dinner and desert at this wonderful establishment.

Great food and service. Very clean and warm small town feel. Large selection of menu items and it’s hard to choose. The Reuben was outstanding and was enough really to share. We highly recommend the cappuccino gelato. We will definitely be back and soon!

Great food great value for the quality food and service we received. I will be back next time in town. A real jewel don’t miss this one

My family and I were just passing through this town and wanted to try something different. This LOOKED like a nice, unique place to stop for a bite to eat. Upon opening up the menu, I knew i was wrong. I was instantly disappointed in the fact that their menu looked like a collage of Applebees and Steak & Shakes menus. Nothing really stood out. We started out with basic stuffed mushrooms. Apart from being a tad on the greasy side, they were boiling lava HOT! Our food showed up before the mushrooms cooled enough to be eaten. My husband and I split the Meet Me at the Lubar pizza. It was marginal at best. Nothing too terrible, but nothing inspiring, that’s for sure. I could have probably gotten the same thing at a Little Caesar’s. My kids got the Mac N Cheese and the Ravioli. Here is a direct quote from my 7 year old son, «My macaroni cheese is goopy.» My daughter is 5 and doesn’t care what she eats, but her ravioli was entirely too messy for kids. My kids don’t like a lot of sauce on their noodle dishes to begin with, but regarless of that fact, her ravioli was scalding hot and basically inedible for the duration of lunch. As far as the atmosphere goes, the lighting is terrible, or maybe irritating is a better term. I felt like there should have been accoridan music, smoke and the cheap smell of perfume lingering in that establishment. But hey… at least none of us got food poisioning from the place!

Awesome bruchetta chicken and house salad. Not so good prices and there buffalo chicken sandwich and the chips it comes with sucks! Looks very nice inside!

This was my first visit. I was shocked by the depth and variety of a place that looked so small.
Their house salad comes with proscuitto, feta cheese, iceberg & romaine lettuce, red onion, and their house sweet italian dressing. I didn’t expect much, but I was surprised. I don’t like big watery chunks of iceberg lettuce, but didn’t mind them in this salad.
My only complaint is that we waited 20 minutes for the salad and got our hot food while we were still eating the salad.
I had the chicken parmesan. The meat portion seemed small, but there was a lot of flavor to it. It was sliced thin and a bit dry at the edges. I thought that was a mistake, but it seems that it absorbed a lot of flavor that way. And since it was covered in a delicious onion-​ey marinara sauce, it didn’t matter.