Restaurant review: LoLo's Table

My lunch out with Paul on Fridays has turned into a regular soiree. Each Friday we go out to eat somewhere new, usually downtown. We have hit up quite a few establishments, some good, some bad & some great. I should have started reviewing these restaurants months ago.

This Friday we went to LoLo's Table downtown. We saw this place a few weeks ago while on the way to McEwan's & I have been wanting to check it out ever since. Laura is on Spring Break, so she went with us (usually she is at work or school).

LoLo's has been open about a year & has been voted ‘Best New Restaurant’. I think this is from Memphis Magazine. The cuisine is dubbed low-country European. It is a small but cozy place with lots of exposed brick walls & paintings by local artists hanging everywhere with the obligatory Elvis portrait (this IS Memphis, remember). This provided a nice atmosphere for lunch & even for a nice dinner before a night out on the town. I will have to complain about the music selection. You should never let the wait-staff (I am speculating here) put on their choice of music without consulting with management (which was the owner in the case). The volume was fine but the selection of Emo (short for emotional) rock made me want to hang myself from the rafters. The joint was packed with business people, movers & shakers & other people just like us, out enjoying a casual lunch. We went in the middle of lunch rush & the service was quick, courteous & far from overbearing.

The menu had a lot to offer & it all looked good. There was a 'crawfish BLT'
that Paul got that looked great. It had fried mud bug tails, fried green tomatoes & bacon, along with other dressings. It may be a little much for lunch though. Continuing with the bacon on a sandwich theme, there was also a 'BL-Tuna', that looked good too. Laura got a Salmon Salad that was awesome, but I will have to let her comment on that. I had a Dijon Meat-loaf with red wine wild mushroom jus (are portabellas really wild mushrooms?) & Green Olive Mashed Potatoes. It was all good but the potatoes could have used a little more olives. It was hard to tell there were any green olives in them at all. The potatoes were left with the skin on & as far as I am concerned, that is the way to go with mashed potatoes. The meat-loaf was good but not great (Laura's is better of course). It was the jus that stole the show, although I was expecting something other than Portabella's, maybe oyster or morrels, shiitake would have been good too. The meat-loaf was a touch dry but it was loaded with capers that added a nice accent & touch of moisture. I was very satisfied with my lunch as I think Paul & Laura were too. We will go back for sure.

We will also go back for their wine & wine events. LoLo's Table hosts wine dinners every 3rd Tuesday of each month featuring wines from Italy, France, Spain and South Africa. Every Wednesday night is "Wine Wednesday," offering featured wines at $12 per bottle all night. There wine-list was nice too with some wines that you don't usually see on menu's here. I had a fabulous glass of Marsanay Latour Villages Bourgogne Rouge & Laura had a crisp & fruity South African Steen.

With a salad, entree & 2 glasses of wine we got out under $40 & that is with a 20% tip.

One thing that assured me we were going to have a quality dinning experience, was that the owner was there. He was seating people, bussing tables, running food & beverages & making sure his customers were happy. I love seeing this. You can tell running this restaurant is his passion.

Keeping with my 5 point scale I give LoLo's table a 4/5.