French
Lilly’s Lunch Special
Me: “Do you take Reservations for lunch?”
Him (with a French Accent): “No, we do not”
Me: “Are you usually busy?”
Him: “We are always busy, but we will find za place for you…”
After enjoying a $10 lunch special at Lilly’s in Venice, I can see why they are always busy. I am happy to report that they did, in fact, find a great place for us on their covered outdoor patio.
My mom and I were meeting for lunch a little while ago and I was in the mood to try something new. Joe’s, which is a couple doors down, has a $17 lunch special and I considered that. Instead, we went for Lilly’s and I’m glad we did.
Their lunch menu lists 5 choices, plus a daily special. Each choice comes with soup or salad.
The day that we went to Lilly’s the special was a filet of sole served atop a bed of risotto. My mom chose this option and was pleased. The portion was giant and topped with a light lemon sauce.
I chose the steak sandwich off of the menu. I like that they didn’t ask me how I want it cooked. I’m somewhat of the opinion that meat should be cooked how the chef wants to cook it. In this case it came out medium rare (Amreican medium rare, not Frech medium rare, which could be considered seared and bloody).
Starting the meal, I had the soup and my mom had the salad. The soup of the day was watercress soup and it was delicious. The first time I had watercress soup was actually on Abbot Kinney as well, at Axe (pretentiously pronounced Ah-shay).
The patio is a great place to eat. If I was a business person who took a lot of clients to lunch on my own dime, I would definitely pick Lilly’s. The combination of quality, atmosphere and price left this reviewer feeling more than satisfied.
Lilly’s French Cafe & Bar
1031 Abbot Kinney Blvd
Venice, CA 90291
(310) 314-0004
By Jonah (see more of his posts). Jonah is the founder of la.foodblogging and also created Digesty, a food blog aggregator and Cheww.com, a spam free foodblog search engine.
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One of my favorite LA eateries, for dinner as well. The make a *perfect* salad of frisse with poached eggs and lardons.
Like a good european restaurant, I have sat on that back patio with friends drinking wine long after close, but they would never dream of kicking you out…
Good mussels w/ frites. They used to offer the lunch w/ a glass of wine and dessert. Those were the days.
Lily’s is an overall great restaurant! I especially enjoy having dinner there, and the services is sincere and unpretentious. Try the Feuillete de ris de veau aux champignons (appetizer of sweetbread in puff pastry). Well worth the drive!
Had my birthday dinner there last night and it was my first time there. I was curious to try based on the review here and in the LA Times. However, I wish I hadn’t went. The service was so bad I didn’t even bother to stay for dessert. Had to ask twice for bread but the bread never materialized (I was really hoping to dip bread in the white wine sauce from my mussels). Had to ask twice for water glasses to be filled, finally got it on the second time but then the water left the whole water jug at our table like he was too busy or impatient to come back again - which he never did until we had to flag him down for the check. Therwe was only 3 people in my party so it wasn’t like we were high maintenance - water and bread was all I asked for - and the restaurant was half empty when we arrived for our 8pm reservation. I felt like my birthday dinner was totally ruined. Very little incentive for me to go back again.
FYI - Axe is an African word, hence it’s pronunciation.
^ Hmmnn — good to know. Do you know what it means? Is it Swahili?