Lola Bistro & Express

Enjoyed the Sunday brunch. Food was hot and delicious. The salads were fresh and crispy. We went with a large group and lingered awhile. The staff was pleasant and kept refilling the mimosas. Would go again.

1^st time at lolas for Sunday brunch! Ben booked our big party and it was absolutely delicious, awesome variety of food, as well as great customer service. Can’t wait to come back again and enjoy the beautiful outside setting!

Wonderful dinner. Nice variety of foods: burgers, pasta, seafood and beef. Great desserts. Sometimes gets noisy. Fun patio with fire pit.

Awesome Place! Looks fantastic! Food is wonderful and different. We love the Express Lunches on our Breaks.

Very nice, brunch was great, service was on point. Food was good. Wasn’t that packed, we made reservations anyway. Very beautiful décor. Overall very good experience.

Nice looking place. First time here. 9:00 am. The girl that took my order at the counter was nice. For now they have coffee, pastries and a breakfast burrito. I think she said in a week they will have a breakfast menu. I got the breakfast burrito. Asked for no potatoes on mine. From what I tasted it had bacon, egg, cheese and sour cream on a green tortilla. And that’s what it tasted like. Maybe the potatoes had seasoning on them. About $ 5.30. Meh.

Great food, great staff, great experience! Cannot wait to go back. John Surla has another winner!

Superlative service from attentive waiter «Benito» and extraordinary delicious food ! The atmosphere is modern, cozy and upbeat !! We enjoyed all the sincere friendly attentive staff that aim to create the ideal dining experience. The menu features local farm fresh ingredients — large portions so you won’t leave hungry.

The lumpia and lechon were excellent new twists ss on traditional dishes. The pork chop was simply seasoned and cooked properly to moist and tender texture. We also had the ribeye that was cooked just right as well. Service was attentive and prompt and the timing of the appetizers and entrees were just right. Pancetta for dessert” was very good as well. We will certainly return to try other dishes that we saw being served.

I literally just left Lola’s 15 minutes ago and it was AMAZING! It’s a great place.
We went for the Champagne Brunch. We had a party of about 11 (2 young kids). We had a private little area off to the side, which was perfect with the kids. Our waiter Benito was on it!!! Great great service. Always checking on us. Filling up our drinks before we were done. Never had to wait for anything. Very personable and cheerful. It was a very nice atmosphere. The food was great and the service was amazing.
We’re already planning our next trip back!

Classy and not very expensive for its style. Not sure what favorites are the fish and chips were okay. Fries can be ordered with or without garlic.
High rating fir its ambiance.

Review of Express Menu:
It’s be awhile since we had «Chinese Food» in Hilmar and I’m more than pleasantly surprised by Lola’s express Take-​Out. It will get compared to Panda Express because of the style and the two, three, etc entrée plates but that is where the similarities end. This food was definitely not some frozen deep fried nuggets like Panda so if you’re looking for that keep driving. The chicken in their orange chicken is less bread-​y and more cooked from scratch. The Kun Pow chicken was spicy and delicious. I went late in the day (13:45) but the food was still fairly fresh considering. Pricing is in line with other express Chinese places but with the addition of a small soft drink with the combos.
I’m sticking with 4 stars but if the menu changes occasionally I think we’ll have a great lunch option in Hilmar! **Stay tuned kids for my Lola’s sit-​down restaurant review — Coming soon to a Unilocal web server near you**

Great food, excellent ambiance and service with a smile. This is a restaurant you should definitely visit for dinner
Im excited that it will soon open for lunch too.
Bill Mattos

Support this please. I do not want this place to ever close. But selfishly i also don’t want you to come too often so I can still get a table. I want to curse so you know how amazing this is.

Large party: DONT DO IT
We love Surlas in Modesto but only dine there as a couple. Lola’s has a beautiful outdoor patio with rock fire pit that was great. But the service was disappointing. We had to go inside to get our own beer because the staff would come out and just look at us, obviously undertrained and overwhlemed. The menu was reduced for our party due to the size (30) and they ran out of soup at 7:00pm. They were turning customers away at the door due to not having space. I hope they get the kinks ironed out, especially with the staff-​young and flirting more than working.

As Lisa L. Said… I would also love to give this place a good review but the service was not good, very slow. Started with the reservation, we made the reservation for inside and they put us outside. It was pretty cold last night.
Waiter took forever to get drinks and had to ask us multiple times what we ordered and still got some of the orders wrong. We waited over an hour to get our bill, then waited another crazy amount of time to get our change. On top of it all the added gratuity for a party over eight was 25%!!! I have never been to a restaurant where the gratuity was that high!
On a lighter note the food was really good and the drinks were good and the place is really modern and updated. I would wait a couple months before going again, maybe they will have all the kinks ironed out.

I would love to give this a higher rating but we sat for more than an hour and a half for our food on the patio without anyone checking on us. I am not kidding… there was 8 of us !!! We were completely cloaked liked Star Trek!!! Our waitress was great with our alcohol drinks of course, and we felt well full of liquor… but even that was not enough. We left without our food… after complaining to the manager! I have had some bad service but this tops it. So sad because it is quite nice here, the food looked very good, and the drinks were great.

I was very excited to learn that Chef John Surla decided to open a new restaurant. I have been a fan of Surla’s in Modesto, and really enjoy trying new restaurants. Last night a group of friends and I had the pleasure of dining at Lola Bistro and Express, most of us for the first time. The décor is very simple, nothing fancy, and not trendy but pleasing to the eye.
We were seated in a private dining room and our drink orders were immediately taken. I ordered the Velvet Rope (vodka, lemon juice and raspberry purée), which is my kind of cocktail! Very tasty. We ordered the lumpia which was fabulous! For my entrée I ordered the miso glazed salmon and it was amazing!
The chef and owner made several visits to our table to say hello and to thanks for coming. I thought that was a nice touch. I hope to return soon!

Went in for dinner yesterday. Was really impressed with how nice the place is and the food was great. Hilmar has needed a place like this forever and I hope they do well here.
The one issue I had was the table we were sat at which was really tight for a family of 4. Outdoor patio looked like a great place to hang out and have a drink. Will definitely continue to come here as it is the nicest place in Hilmar to eat at. Dinner menu was a little pricey (with exception to the kids menu which was reasonable) but I will gladly pay it as it saves me from having to drive to Turlock to eat at a great restaurant.

Incredible food, service and environment! Chef Surla’s lumpia is amazing. try the Moscow mule!
Hilmar has needed this for a long time!
Congrats on the opening john!