Bar Louie

Sigh.   Bar Louie could probably be a cool spot, but there are just so many things wrong with the place. Before last night, I had visited Bar Louie once and thought the service was absolutely horrendous.  The bartender was not only slow, but she was rude.  After that experience, I have managed to avoid the place.  Until last night.

Eight of us wandered around Power and Light looking for a place where we could all sit and get some drinks and appetizers before watching some professional bull riding at Sprint Center.  After not having any luck at three other places, we got to Bar Louie.  In the back of the place, there was a large table that would fit all of us.  Well a male server informed us that we could not sit there since it was reserved for large parties.  There were eight of us....how many more people did we need to be considered a large party?!  The table had room for twelve...did we need exactly twelve people?  Well we found two other open tables that were right next to each other.  One was a booth and one was a high top so we split up in two groups.  Both of our servers were horrible.  Slow slow slow!  No silverware or napkins were provided at my table.  Finally we got some after asking three or four times.  Since service was sooooooo slow, we were late getting to the Sprint Center and we gave ourselves an hour and a half to eat and grab some drinks.

Things didn't get much better when it came to the food and drinks.  They ran out of Blue Moon, Bud Light, and Coors Light.  How that's possible on a Saturday evening, I don't know.  We ordered cheese quesadillas and got chicken quesadillas.  We also ordered the Hummus, Tabbouleh, and Tzatziki.  Well we got the hummus and what appeared to be Tzatziki, but there was no Tabbouleh on the plate whatsoever.

Here's why I'm giving Bar Louie 2 stars instead of 1.  Some of the food was good.  Even though the quesadillas were chicken instead of cheese, there were still pretty tasty.  The nachos were decent and my friends who got the calamari and meatballs enjoyed those.  The interior is cool....it's not a trashy place.  Booths, high tables, and lots of tvs.  

The potential is there, but I won't be back.  If I ever find myself in this situation again, I rather go to BK Bar and that's not saying much!

Met friends here after an early afternoon movie on a Sunday.  It was about 3:30 p.m. when we walked in and it was not busy.  

The drinks: They had a "monthly beer special" written on the sandwich board as we walked in. I ordered it and was told they were out.  The middle of the month mid afternoon on a Sunday and they were out the "monthly special?" Tall beers were $5.75. Grey Goose martinis were $11.00.

The food. All we had were appetizers. We tried to order the hummus appetizer that was promoted on the menu cards on the table. They were out of it. Ordered the pretzel sticks.  They were tasty but they serve five pretzel sticks with enough toppings for about two dozen.  We also ordered the bruschetta. Same problem there.  It came with about 8 slices of way crispy bread and a giant bowl of tomato topping. The topping was just average (like a chopped up salad of mostly tomato) Probably 3/4 of the topping was thrown out because there simply wasn't enough bread.

The service: Our server was pleasant enough just not particularly attentive.  One of our party even had to go find her once so we could order another round of drinks. Lastly, when our check came, it showed a full round of drinks too many.  Having provided mediocre service at best then put an extra $32 on the tab?  Once again, we had to hunt the server down to correct the mistake.  Her excuse was that she must have hit the key on the computer one too many times. I'm not sure how the computer works but it seems she must have hit the key four times too many since we all had different drinks.  

All in all our group was pretty disappointed.  Not likely to return.

This was my 3rd or 4th time at Bar Louie. The first time, I really liked the spinach & artichoke dip, this time, it was tasteless & so, so watery. We asked for salsa & had to ask for at least 4 more servings as the waitress kept giving us the smallest container of salsa. But, I should start at the beginning. When we arrived, it took a few minutes to get our drinks & my water glass was dirty. Now, it was not filthy, but there was clearly something stuck to the inside of the bottom of the glass. Our waitress got me a new glass, I ordered the appetizer and we waited. It did not take too long, but...see above. Then, we ordered our entrees. The burrito & the burger were not that good. Why? Common theme of tasteless.  I do not think either of us finished our plate.  The waitress tried to push us out, brought our check and kept coming back to see if the card was in it. We were there on a business lunch & had our computers out. We were clearly not ready to leave. I would have felt bad if the place was busy, which it was not.

I asked about dessert - 2 things on the entire dessert menu. So, I asked for decaf. They did not have any. WHAT?? So, I took a regular and asked for sugar. She dropped off my coffee & sugar and left. The spoon was (1) a soup spoon and (2) so disgustingly filthy I gagged a little bit. It had soup or cheese or cheesy soup all caked on it - front & back. HOW DO YOU MISS THAT?? I waited almost 10 minutes before I even saw the waitress to bring it to her attention. She made it sound like it was no big deal.  She brought me a clean spoon and disappeared again. When we were ready to leave, after her trying to push us out, I had to wave down a different waitress to get our bill taken care of.  

I can promise you that there is absolutely no reason on this earth that will get me back inside of Bar Louie.  Sad for them as I do a lot of business lunches in that area.