Liluma

This place is fine. I guess it doesn’t matter what I say, though, since it’s closing in a few weeks. If you live near here and haven’t ever been, it’s worth giving a try before they close down. The service is a bit spotty, but the food is solid.

I joined a couple others for a «power lunch» at Liluma yesterday. It was pleasantly clean, efficient, and quiet (once they kindly honored our request to turn the music down). I had the spinach salad with grilled chicken. My companions tried the special cold corn soup and enjoyed that. I’d visit again for lunch. The prices were mid-​range (~$ 10/​person) and the service very friendly.

Look, Liluma has great drinks and food, but really, you come here to people watch. At the corner of Maryland Plaza and Euclid, one of the busiest intersections of the CWE, you get to see all kinds of interesting things. If I’m on a date I try to sit with my back to Maryland Plaza so I can just focus on her. If you’re with a friend, maybe you guys can just grab some drinks and food and both face out and judge everyone that passes by. Come on, you know you love doing it.

Had a great meal at Liluma tonight! The weather was optimal as well so we got to sit on the patio and fit in some people watching while eating and drinking.
I ordered the gazpacho and scallops and tasted a few of the mussels. The gazpacho was alright… a little watery and spicy for me, I would have liked it to have a bit more texture and less spice. Onto the scallops though… amazing! I opted for the small portion which came with 2 large, perfectly seared scallops on top of an assortment of mushrooms, pesto, and some sort of oily sauce. It was a tad bit too oily, but all the while delicious! The mussels were also very tasty… they had some sort of crispy topping which was very nice, but these too were a tad oily.
Overall the comments I mentioned on the food is what took my review down a few notches because the combination of the weather and patio ambiance was definitely worth 5 stars!!!

I can’t believe my fiancé has lived within walking distance of Liluma Side Door and it took us this long to discover it! A good friend of ours insisted we must try it, and I’m so glad they did!
Here’s the skinny: Liluma Side Door features a variety of delicious small plates, some of which are staples, some of which are seasonally rotated.
We started off with the Missouri Mushrooms, which were little more than your standard sauteed, seasoned mushrooms. Tasty, but nothing fancy.
Then we moved on to the «Pillows.» No surprise here, but the «Bacon and Egg» Pillow was Fantastic! I’m still trying to figure out how they got the egg in that perfectly cooked ravioli! The yolk and the sauce combine for a delicious flavor in which the bacon fits just right. This is obviously a must try — everyone raves about it!
Other highlights of the meal included the «Meat and Potatoes» snack — a deliciously savory sauce with tender short ribs on hearty mashed potatoes — and the «Doughnut» dessert. The doughnut was freshly baked in-​house so it was crispy and delicious and paired wonderfully with the salted caramel ice cream. Mmmmmm.
Did I mention almost all of their bottles of wine are around $ 15? With a price like that, wine not go for two? =)
Service was also excellent!

We had a reasonably good meal here and service was okay but they did something on the check I have never seen before. We were five people and split the check two ways (3 and 2). Each check had added a 20% tip on an after tax basis. I don’t recall seeing any notice of this policy on the menu and while I usually give a good tip (25%), I find such a practice objectionable in principle.

It’s been a while since I ve been here used to stop in often years ago with my son on Saturdays I always enjoyed the food here the friendly staff and a pretty decent menu for the kids… We always sat on the patio and people watched. I think I am due a visit there this spring. #MOREPEOPLEWATCHING

Had a small work holiday dinner at Lilum’as Side Door that the staff was extremely helpful in working with us based on our tight budget. Party of 10 and everyone had many choices across 4 courses.
I have to mention that on our wine list we intentionally had bottles under $ 15 which for a restaurant is a real bargain. It was not the best wine I have ever had, but for the price I was impressed.
I started with the crispy gnocchi with a center that melted in your mouth accompanied by wonderful roasted brussel sprouts. My next dish was the Bacon and Eggs Pillow and this was the show stopper, seriously if you go get this dish. It is one large ravioli filled with cheese and and egg yolk, covered in a buttery bacon sauce. Amazing! That was a tough act to follow so I don’t know if I was still coveting the egg ravioli or if it was just too much egg, but the Steak and Egg course didn’t wow me. Basically a small piece of ok steak with a fried egg on top, not bad, just nothing special.
I am not sure if it is an intentional theme but the dessert menu seems to be about fooling you. The Sage Blue Cheese and honey come as 3 little cheese balls rather than pieces of blue cheese, the Apple Pie is good, but should not carry the name apple pie because it is not, I would call it more of and apple danish, or apple struddel. its just not a pie. Speaking of things that are not what they appear The most interesting desert is the baked potato. when they bring it out it looks just like a baked potato, I was even fooled into thinking they had put the ice cream into a potato skin, but learned it was just gelato rolled in cocoa, topped with whipped cream, and real bacon. I wanted to take one home to fool my kids!
Overall a good time and a great meal with co workers.

If you’ve followed Gary Vaynerchuck for any period of time, you probably have heard the term QPR, or Quality to Price Ratio. At Liluma’s Side Door that ratio is approaching infinity, i.e. high quality divided by astonishingly low prices. I think I’m pretty good at tracking down some of the most brilliant deals in STL, and when you don’t need a groupon — it feels great! I found out about Side Door yesterday through Sauce, of course. It is totally chill in there — feel comfortable wearing jeans, or shorts in the summer — I probably wouldn’t walk in with a tee-​shirt, though. One of the best things about Side Door, that you will notice when you sit down is that they are offering an awesome selection of vino for max — $ 16 /​bottle!!! You’ll also note that nothing on the menu is over $ 10. This is truly a small plate style service which allows you to try some truly amazing food and a lot of different things all in one sitting.
We tried the crunchy gnocci with brussels sprouts (they melted in my mouth), roasted MO mushrooms which had a brilliant earthy flavor and the ducks in a lake which is a bowl of about 6 raviolis (filled with almost creamy duck confit) floating in a pool of duck broth. Our waiter, without asking, brought us extra bread to dunk in the left over broth — I think the term I used last night was heavenly.
Our second round consisted of the vichyssoice raviolis (everything in the pillows portion of the menu is a ravioli) and the surf n’ turf with scallops and cauliflower. The ravs were creamy as all hell and the scallops went so well with the maple gravy that covered the caramelized cauliflower.
We rounded out our meal with the baked potato — yes, it looks exactly like a baked potato, but it’s vanilla bean ice cream (covered with real bacon)… If you’re unsure about bacon with dessert, I recommend you give it a go — Chef Michael Symon has been doing it for years. It’s bacon! how can you go wrong?! And the doughnut which is actually three pieces of brioche cut out like glazed doughnuts. That whole dish was out-​of-​this-​world.
Bottom line: go here and order what you want. You will fill up, you will drink plenty of wine, and your bill will absolutely surprise you (in a good way). This is one of the best deals in STL and another place I’ll frequent in the CWE.

overpriced overpriced overpriced!!!
pushy staff. food was good but not memorable. went there a few months ago and do not remember eating anything special. waiters were pretentious. spent $ 80 and left hungy. their sample menu is a true gimmick!
NEVER again.

I will preface this by I had just been proposed to so I was on cloud 9. I noticed the fire pits earlier in the night and had commented on how pretty and cozy it looked (yes, it was like 20 outside and I had no intention of sitting by the fire, but it beckoned us to come in). The place was warm at first and then quickly got hot, like I’m sweating hot. Too hot for my wine even. We didn’t stay and explore the menu, but I would like to return. Maybe on a warmed evening.

We stopped in here last night to grab a drink after dinner mainly because of the fire pit that was outside on their patio. No, we did not sit by the fire pit as it was freaking cold out last night, but the fire pit was enough to lure us in.
We sat at the bar and the lady at the door took our coats, which was a nice touch. After being outside in the cold it was nice and toasty warm inside, and after a while it was a little too toasty warm, but I’ll get to that in a minute.
The bartender was nice and friendly and we ordered a glass of pinot. This is where the too toasty warm part became more of a downfall. I know that a red is ideally served at room temperature, but when the temperature if very warm, it makes for a warm glass of wine, which I’m not a big fan of. Had I been here for dinner I would have likely needed to go outside to cool off by the fire pit, but I won’t hold that against them too much.
Didn’t even look at the dinner menu, but I was intrigued and we might have to revisit this place.

I recently, about 3 weeks ago, dined at the patio with a friend and enjoyed the 4 course prix fixe. My friend and I got different dishes for every course so we could try as much as possible. I hate going out with people who always order the same thing!
I started with an heirloom melon salad topped with a bit of white balsalmic and the melons were incredibly cute and juice.
my friends started with an excellent heirloom (orange) and regular beet salad with chevre. the chevre was average goat cheese that i could buy at trader joe’s but the beets had amazing flavor.
my second course was a very nice spinach salad.
my friend had the mixed greens. both were excellent and light
for entrée, I had the scallops, which were very liberally salted. It was a very french take on seasoning LOL. i like to taste my scallops and not salt. The texture was good so I know they were not going bad but I just don’t know why people cover up seafood flavors with too much salt! the celary root purée was excellent.
My friend had a perfectly prepared Mid Rare Strip and it was excellent!
We both tried a different dessert.
I had the amazing, deliciously caloric flourless chocolate torte and it was amazing. perfect in size with some great vanilla bean ice cream.
My friend had an excellent vanilla crème brûlée! it was simple, but why mess with a classic?
I also really liked the service, attentive but not hovering. she always knew when i needed another glass of wine!

Improved experience over the first time… but it has been a year. Maybe I’m just more lenient.
Our birthday girl, her boyfriend, another girlfriend and I came out to Liluma after it started raining and the wait at Brasserie grew two hours after the loss use of their outdoor seating.
It didn’t disappoint. We all got the four course tasting. And it was great. The service was a little slow at the end, but she was always attentive, even when there was a table of eight next to us (full of senior citizens) that probably needed her help more than we did.
Based on the other reviews, it looks as if their service may be hit or miss. I will say I didn’t find it problematic in the least.
I got the local mushrooms with cheese again. Yum. I did, however, redeem my fattiness by getting salmon (and lemon semifreddo).

I really wanted to like Liluma… however it was a disappointing experience. My husband took me here for our anniversary dinner because I had always wanted to try for dinner. We live in CWE and love the outdoor patio. We made reservations for 8pm, however when we showed up, the reservations were only for inside, not out. So we decided to wait the 15 minutes to sit outside. We sat at the bar, which is barely a bar, it is basically an area that is in the way of all the waiters, we were constantly moving out of the way or getting bumped. We also sat here for 15 – 20 minutes with no one actually at the bar serving us. The staff kept looking at us, but did not offer to get us a drink until the last 5 minutes, very rude!
When we were sat, I looked over the menu and thought the 4 course tasting menu looked great, that way I could try so many different things. The first thing the waiter told us was, «i wouldn’t order the tasting menu, it will take at least 1.5 hours to get» okay, well there went that idea. We were served bread to begin with, but told they had no oil or butter to serve with it?
We each ordered a salad, the chopped and the beet, both were okay, nothing great. The main course we ordered scallops and trout. Again, pretty average, but nothing spectacular. The only good thing about this place was the large glasses of wine and the patio.

Had our waitress not been so nice and apologetic I would have been pissed on how long we had to wait on food and drinks. It took FORVER. It was worth the wait. I started with the baby spinach salad and it was fresh and tasty. The steak frites as well as the mushrooms were excellent. The patio made for great people watching. This ended up being a nice way to spend a couple of hours with a bottle of wine. Next time I’m in St. Louis, I could definitely see myself stopping here again.

My boyfriend and I went to Liluma to celebrate our anniversary. The atmosphere was nice, quiet and intimate (although it also happened to be a Monday night, so I’m not sure what typical crowds are like). Perfect for a romantic date.
The bread was so fresh and crispy. We ordered a glass of Mazzoni Toscana Rosso (red) at $ 14 per head. It was really good wine but careful if you are a lightweight because the carafe that it comes with has enough for 2.5 glasses.
Then we ordered a four course menu.
FIRST COURSE
Chopped romaine salad with bacon, tomato, red onion and blue cheese — good salad but not exceptionally different.
Baby spinach salad with pears, goat cheese, bacon and sherry honey vinagrette — nice combination of the sweetness of the pears and the sourness of the vinaigrette.
SECOND COURSE
Both the Gnocchi (butternut squash, pancetta-​pepato, sage and percorgino-​romano) and the Missouri lamb (braised lamb, pappardelle and permigiano-​regiano) were so tender and oh so good.
THIRD COURSE
Scottish salmon (lentils, glazed radishes and honey mustard vinaigrette) — ordered rare, cooked at perfect temperature, vinaigrette provided a good flavor.
Sea scallops (celeriac purée, wild mushrooms, scallions, sherry vinegar) — Initially I was disappointed to see only three scallops on my plate but at this point I’ve already had a lot to eat. The scallops were deliciously tender and the purée was simply amazing! The sherry vinegar drizzled on them was delicious.
FOURTH COURSE
We had some sort of cold, firm, cinnamon custard, which was OK. But the chocolate torte was warm, gooey and chocolatey with ice cream melting on it. A piece of heaven.
All in all — great classy atmosphere, good service and excellent food. It’s pricey of course but if you’re going all out do the four course menu to get the most value. We would go back just for the excellent wine and chocolate torte.

We were starving and stopped here because it was the first place we landed after leaving our hotel.
The patio is a great location for some people and dog watching.
Our server was the sweetest. She had someone searching for our requested wine for about 20 minutes. When she resurfaced she gave us a cabernet and we really wanted chardonnay. She felt so bad but we ended up with a better bottle for the price of the one we wanted and it was great stuff just like she said.
So we finally get our order taken and the bread shows up that we needed 30 minutes prior but it was delish!
The steak frites and roasted mushrooms were about perfect.
After the wait we ended up being there about 2 hours but we were on vacation so didn’t really care.
The food was well worth the wait and we had really good service.

Dear Mr. and Mrs Liluma (if you’re out there) I have to ask you what you think about your front-​of-​house service.
If your service matched the quality of your food, you’d have something great for all of us in the CWE to enjoy.
Bottom line, Liluma’s food quality is high, while the service and ambiance are lacking.
Good luck fellow Unilocalers!

Like Michael Phelps in the 100m fly, Liluma didn’t start out well, but it certainly ended strong.
Liluma’s strong point is obviously the location. So, to bring people indoors, they offer a $ 25 tasting menu. Nice choices too. They didn’t open strong — we had a small spinach salad and some cauliflower purée soup. I know, I should’ve known better with the cauliflower. Next course — fried okra & shrimp scampi ($ 5 up charge, bitches). The okra was fried — solid. Very heavy and crusty, not much flavor. The shrimp really wasn’t worth an extra $ 5, but anything was better than the okra pucks.
Thats when the meal started to take an up-​swing. The main course was salmon & some pork loin thing. Both were PERFECT. soft, buttery and kick you in the teeth flavorful. I felt like the salmon could’ve used some more sides, but the pork had these great fingerling potato slivers & an incredible au jus.
Then came dessert. After Sue got the chocolate tort, I got the panna cotta. Because really, even not knowing what the hell panna cotta is, am I gonna puss out and go with ice cream? Break out your caps-​lock because both were UNREAL.
The panna cotta was this little upside jello thing in the middle of a giant empty plate. I was immediately dissappointed — until I took my first bite. There wasn’t much chewing since the potent little thing just dissolved in your mouth. Coating your tongue with lots of different flavors. The tort was just as spectacular. Tiny scoop of cold vanilla ice cream on top of a molten chocolate pastry. I contemplated licking the plate.
The main downside to the night was having to sit in the kitchen. Well, not in the kitchen, but, like everyone else noted, there’s just this half curtain separating the rich old white people from the clanging & fighting in the kitchen. So classy. Check out the tasting menu, but sit on the side, not in front.