Lu & Carl’s Bar and Grille

I like this place. They have decent prices, good service, and pleasant environment. Parking can be a challenge, but the walk isn’t bad. The streets – if not the lots, are well-​lit.
I enjoyed the acoustic duo (Jimmy and Eric) a lot, but they finished about ten and it became clear it was time to go as the place started to morph into DJ Booty Music as millennials bent on drunken breeding became dominant.
No matter, there are lots of nice places within walking distance and it was an enjoyable three hours.

I can’t speak for the food because the state of the restaurant coupled with the service was so bad we walked out before ordering food. The place is seat yourself for lunch, so we chose a booth looking out the window, and waited for a waitress to come along. We waited 15 minutes before a waitress dropped by to take our drink orders and in that time we had the opportunity to realize how filthy the place is. There were multiple dead flies on the windowsill, crumbs still on the table, and the menus themselves were in atrocious condition. The happy hour menu we got was shredded and had all sorts of food remnants and stains on it. Between all of this and it taking so long for our waitress to come back, we decided there were enough red flags here and consuming any food prepared in such a dirty restaurant would probably not end well.

So small inside. They food is bad. The drinks are okay. Pretty watered down. They only hire young girls with skimpy clothes. No real desire to go back.

My husband talked me in to going in. We were bar hoping and I said I dont care for the place. We sat @ the bar and watched them short a little more every time someone ordered. If they go to the opposite side to make your drink time to leave.

We visited this place on a Saturday during dinner at 7:45pm. We were immediately seated on their patio. Their outdoor seating is next to Grand River Ave (a busy street) so it’s not quite, but we couldn’t pass up the great weather.
We got our food in less than 10 minutes. We both ordered hot dogs (Lu and Carl’s hot dog and the Chicago dog) and they were delicious. They had specials on their house margaritas so I enjoyed one of those as well. Large and diverse drink menu.
Service was prompt and average friendliness.
We’ll definitely return.

I love just about everything on the menu! The bruchetta, nachos, salads, lake perch, flat sandwiches are my top favorites! I miss the coconut chicken but since they have so many other good choices I’ll get over that. The weekend brunch is the best around! The eggs benedict are perfect every time! The service is always great!

Be forewarned, this review is based on brunch. I had the egg’s benedict that was a twist on the traditional and came with a sausage patty and some red pepper (as pictured). The meal was great value and the place is quite divey/​sports bar-​ish so I wasn’t expecting anything amazing but it was actually pretty good. They also have a bloody mary bar that is well stocked but comes at a $ 12 price tag.
We had no problem getting a seat for Sunday brunch at around 11:30. Would return to try other menu items.

I really can’t Say enough about Lu and Carls. It is one of my favorite places to go. Great food, great drinks, daily specials, bloody bar and most importantly a great staff. I have never had a bad time up there. They have a good selection of beer and premium liquor. Burger specials on Wednesday with all beef burgers and fries for under 5 $ It does get a bit on the busy side late Friday and Saturday so make sure to pick the atmosphere that’s best for you and your company. Live music is played on Friday and Saturday evening and has some of the better local artists. Make sure to ask about the special stuff like Trivia they put on.

‚Worst service ever ! my wife and I arrived at 9:30 on New Years Eve and received several hours of good service, until the DJ came on, and we decided to dance. music was crappy and we decided to kiss on the dance floor instead of dance, when we arrived back in our seats the bouncer came to us and told us that we need to turn it down a notch and that we made everybody in the bar uncomfortable because we were the only people in the bar making out. as we turned around the bartender, as we later found out was the manager, rudely slapped our bill in front of our face as if to tell us it is time for us to leave. we were so offended

Mediocre at best. Felt very awkward, lots of waitstaff milling around, yet we waited 10 minutes to have our order taken. Burgers were okay, at least they were hot. Seemed like they were not hand-​formed but pre-​packaged.

Wife and stopped in here for first time ever to have some lunch. WOW! It was great. My burger was excellent and my wife had a salad and the tomato soup which was the equally good. Bartender was personable and the bar is really cool. Will return next time in town.

Just when I thought I would give them another chance…
When my Husband and I moved to the area 9 years ago we tried this place. We were so unimpressed. Salty food, bad service… We moved closer to Lu & Carl’s less than 2 months ago, so thought we would give it another try since we can walk there. We were seated by the hostess and not one person came to our table to take even a drink order or tell us someone would be with us. We waited 15 minutes and all tables around us were served and not one even made eye contact so that we could get there attention. Needless to say, we left. So disappointed. I definitely won’t be giving them a chance in another 9 years. And the hostess just gave my Husband a dumb look when he told her why we were leaving. Never again.

Sat out on the patio on a beautiful June day for some drinks.
What I loved: Steak bites and ahi tuna app were both really good. Cute little patio. Plenty of drink options.
What I didn’t love: Gross bathrooms (1 toilet was clogged and messy). Service wasn’t awful, but not the best – the server asked us to pay our bill so she could get her tip and leave. Super awkward.

I guess who can say Lus is a local
Watering hole for me. Overall it’s a nice place. They have good food (BBQ flats are my fav) and it gets lively around 10 thur-​sat.
There are a few drawbacks:
1). They have some guy that sings and plays the guitar before the disc jockey comes. He’s not bad, but they insist on playing him so loud that you cannot hear the person next to you. He plays the same cover songs and it’s not exactly dancing music.
2) the staff is hit or miss. There seems to be a high turn over rate of the staff. Many of nights it seems like someone will take your order, a different waitress will bring your food and then yet another brings the bill?!?
Many times I have had to go find my waitress for the essentials of pop refill, ketchup, silverware etc.
If they had a well trained efficient staff it would’ve been a ⁵⁄₅

Cannot comment on the food, because we never received the food we ordered. The service was extremely poor. We had two waitresses come by and take our drink order. Apparently, one was covering for the other and it was very confusing.
We ordered some food and after about 35 minutes (during which time no one checked on us) we asked about the food. The waitress then said she’d «put it in» for us. Turns out, the order was never placed. No apology, no comped drinks, no explanation.
Will not be returning to this place.

LOVED IT! My family and I stopped in after leaving from Detroit on our way back to Grand Rapids. Our server was very attentive and nice. The ambiance was great as we all adore dogs and there’s pictures of dogs everywhere. The food was really good. I had fish n chips and the fish was full and meaty, I also tried the mac n cheese and wow! So good! I’d go back absolutely for sure! Wish we had a Lu and Carls here in Grand Rapids!

Went with a friend from Brighton, she said «it used to be good there» I can’t see it. Terrible «world’s greatest nachos» (burnt chips, both beef and chicken lacking), terrible spinach artichoke dip, awful desert (not even sure what the heck that was), waitress who was clueless and a manager who clearly did not care when our table and the table next to us brought the issues to her attention.

First things first: The food was good. Everyone at my table enjoyed their meals.
HOWEVER.
The service here is GOD AWFUL. Firstly, there was no hostess, so we didn’t know whether we should seat ourselves or just stand and wait so we chose waiting. After 5 minutes or so of servers walking past us and not saying anything, a girl comes over and tells us we can sit wherever we like. Alright, cool.
We sit for another few minutes before we are even greeted. Our server was really nice and got our drinks pretty fast. We put in our order and the food comes out. After she drops it off, she tells us they’re doing shift change and so we are going to be transferred to another server. Firstly, what restaurant does that? Secondly, she’s the one who did the work and I really wanted her to get the tip. But, I digress.
So, we never see a server again. NOT ONCE. Nobody came to ask how the food was or if everything looked correct (thankfully it did or we would have sat there for who knows how long waiting to get it fixed). Seriously, NOBODY came by our table and spoke a word to us. Finally, after we’re all done eating, I went up to the bar hoping to at least get the bill so we could get out of there and I STILL GOT IGNORED BY THE BARTENDER because she was standing there texting and talking to the other servers. Wtf? Horrible. EVENTUALLY, another person in my party went up and asked for the check and she finally decided to acknowledge us and bring us our check. Glad I didn’t need anything else while I was dining or I would have been completely in the dark. I live out of town so THANKFULLY I will never have to come to this place again.

Even without a major sports game on TV, this place was jammed at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon. It was happening for good reason, nice beer list, great service, and good food. The server warned us that the portions would be big and to hold off ordering until we had our appetizer. She was right. The yummy Mexican pizza was almost enough for our lunch (two people). We each ordered a bowl of chili too. My husband thought the chili was perfect and scarfed up every drop. I thought it was too spicy.
It was fun watching the drivers that had to stop at the traffic light. Most of the drivers seemed to look at the place with longing. We understood why. It is a great place to relax, catch up, and lunch.

I visited Lu & Carl’s on a Saturday at noon during football season. The seats were comfortable, and the televisions were well spaced so that no matter where you sat you were able to take in the game.
The wait staff were friendly and efficient for my visit which impressed me greatly compared to other bars. I ordered a mushroom and Swiss burger, and my father ordered the French toast. The meat on the burger was well cooked and tasty yet the mushrooms were too large, and the cheese was not as well melted as I would prefer. Overall, the burger did taste quite good. The French toast was uninspired and the syrup came from single-​use packets lending to an entirely forgettable dish.
The beer selection was rather good and the prices for both the beer and the food were reasonable and combined with the service redeemed the otherwise average bar food.