DG
Daxton Givan
Jan 3, 2026
Let me start by saying I normally don't leave poor reviews, unless they are truly warranted.
My family and I went to this Lazy Dog location for lunch, since we had heard they had good food, but we were not impressed by the staff. To start, we had called ahead to try and get allergen information before coming in (as my wife and Ihave a food allergy), but the person who answered the phone ghosted us and left us on hold for 10 minutes seemingly attempting to get a manager. When the second person picked up the line, it wasn't a manager but instead a different employee who told us to just come in and find out. We asked if there was an allergen menu online, and they responded that they didn't know, but probably not, just to come in. (There is one online, but not on their website. There is a pirated PDF you can get of it via Amazon Web Service search though.)
When we arrived, we had to wait for a bit to be seated. That's all fine, they were fairly full up. Our waiter came by to take our orders, and he must've been tense or very stressed, because he was incredibly short with us. Finally, my wife and I explained we had a food allergy, and requested to speak with someone who could walk us through whether it was a good idea to eat there. He denied, saying everything we could possibly need to know is on the allergen menu. He promptly left, coming back after about 10 more minutes with our additional menus.
At this point (since we had already seen these), and since there are various forms of potential cross contamination among several allergens, not just the ones that affected us due to the menu items' wildly irregular origins and influence, we asked a few simple questions about said cross contamination and how the kitchen handles and accommodates for this. Our waiter then explained to us how the allergen menu worked, somewhat snarkily. These questions, to us, are not only important, but also incredibly routine for restaurants to be asked, so we were taken aback by how unprofessional the waiter was being. We asked again to speak with someone to better grasp how the kitchen handles food, as every area seemed to have at least one item with each allergen, and some ingredients were shared and prepared cross-kitchen. We explained that it was our first time at that restaurant, and the waiter replied, with a very sarcastically-surprised voice, "oh, it's your first time eating out?"
Obviously getting nowhere, we let him go and we poured over the allergen menu, scanning not only the columns with the "little exes" that tell us what to stay away from, but also cross referencing preparation styles described in the normal menu to ensure that what we ordered couldn't possibly share a dish, surface, or zone of the kitchen with another dangerous item. Mind you, this cross referencing was largely blind, since we had to trust the kitchen actually prepared the dishes the way the menu described since no one could walk us through or assure us of it. Luckily, we had plenty of time to do this since our waiter didn't return to take our allergen-friendly order for another 23 minutes.
When he finally returned, one of our other family member's dish was already out of the kitchen and at our table. He took the order, everything then proceeded as normal for a restaurant.
The food itself was okay, and with a better experience and atmosphere, I would even consider it to be good (hence the 2-star overall score, despite the abysmal service). If you want to expand your food horizons, this is certainly the place to be for mediocre yet interestingly inspired food. If you have any food stipulations, however, avoid this place like the plague, at least until they are more confident in how to run a diverse kitchen.
As someone who has worked in restaurant management and was a server for several years prior to my management experience, when I go to a new restaurant, I go for the all over experience. I gave this 3 stars for the food as we enjoyed the flavor and variety. Our drinks from the bar were also flavorful and as described in the menu. The only thing that prevented this from being a 4 or maybe even 5 stars was the service itself. Not just from our server, but from the overall staff.
This place needs a customer service facelift. My dish was served cold, my husband’s meal was wrong, no one acknowledged us before and during our meal, or even asked us how we were doing. Our server was MIA for the majority of the meal, and when we finally did get her (without having to ask someone to find her for us), she asked us if we were ready for the check (which we still ended up waiting for that). All in all, I expected much more from the Lazy Dog and was pretty disappointed.
To the server, we are a pretty decent family when it comes to tips (25%-35%) since both my spouse and myself have both worked in restaurant management. Tonight, I could not even disagree with my husband when he refused to leave more than 15%. Stop stereotyping your tables and treat all tables with the best service you can. We would’ve been happy to have made your start of the shift grand and something to keep you motivated throughout the rest of your shift. Happy holidays!