Luzia’s

I think everyone who has given this business bad reviews is either incredibly picky, or has no idea what good Spanish food is, or perhaps perhaps went on an off night. I’m completely shocked… I spent my birthday with 10 people at Luiza’s and had a wonderful time. The service was beyond excellent – all our tapas arrived within minutes of ordering. Everything was piping hot. The management was very personable and friendly. The sangria was not watered down and actually tasted authentic and alcoholic, not like Kool-​ade like a lot of other so-​called «sangria» places in town. They even gave us a complementary pitcher for my birthday. I lived in Spain for over a year so I know good tapas when I eat them – this place is not as bad as people are saying. We tried 10 different tapas, including the patatas bravas, bacalao, chicken chicaronnes, tortilla espanola, piquillos, and croquetas. I also had the Pollo al Ajillo entrée. Everyone in my party of 10 loved the tapas and had a great time. Truthfully, I haven’t tried their brunch, but Spain as a country is not known for brunch– its known for tapas and paella, and from what I tried of these things they were great. What are people expecting? Those of you expecting a Sarabeth’s brunch, an all-​American restaurant, shouldn’t confuse your palettes by going to a Spanish restaurant expecting pancakes and eggs. I feel like the people who wrote all these bad reviews are completely unfair and trying to put this very cute neighborhood restaurant out of business! I hope you give it a try based on my experience because it really was great for me and my guests.

I’m a ginormous fan of tapas — anything in small bites with lots of variety is right up my alley. Luzias? Not so much. My friends and I were wandering down Amsterdam and all the other restaurants had long waits, but not Luzias — that should have been clue #1. There were a few people in there so we decided to go in.
The atmosphere is actually really cute — it feels like you’re in someone’s house in Spain or Italy. What should have been clue #2 for us to leave was that they had burgers on the tapas menu but we were already settled in.
We ordered the patatas bravas, one of the most common tapas dishes on the planet, and it came out in some nasty red, spicy sauce that tasted like the sauce you get in sweet and sour pork at a Chinese restaurant. How in the world can you mess up fried/​roasted potatoes?
The gambas al ajillo came out lukewarm and the sauce looked really heavy. I had no idea why it was so thick but didn’t want to gross myself out by thinking about it too much.
Mid way through the meal, I wanted more bread to dip but they had run out of the good ‘real’ bread and gave us half toasted whole wheat slices from the grocery store. Dude, that tops the ghetto meter!!!

I have to think that the owners of this place are paying attention to Unilocal,because I’m hardly certain I went to the same restaurant that everybody else reviewed.
On the other hand, it would explain how we were able to get a table for brunch without waiting. People on the Upper West Side really, really love brunch. They make people in Park Slope look like casual aficionados of brunch. So it might give one pause to see a virtually empty restaurant in the west 80s at brunchtime. Still, after finding 30-​minute-​plus waits at Popover Café, Good Enough to Eat, Fred’s, EJ’s, and Sarabeth’s, we were just thrilled to find a place willing to seat us and feed us immediately.
We didn’t need to worry. The service was prompt and the food was great. Ordering an extra side of potatoes proved to be a good decision, as our omelets came with only a small handful, which I think had been sitting on the plate with the garnish for a little while (thus costing this place an entire star — tsk tsk, Luzia’s). But the side orders of potatoes were warm, garlicky, and delicious.
The very best thing about this place, though, is the jam. It looks like ordinary strawberry jam, but it’s much more than that — it’s velvety smooth with hints of cinnamon and vanilla. I can’t speak to the quality of the bread we were served because it was merely a vessel to be slathered in the awesome jam. After my first piece of toast, I looked away for a minute — perhaps distracted by my impossibly fluffy, super-​fresh omelet — and was massively irritated to see that my boyfriend had taken advantage of my inattention to clean out the jam bowl. Luckily, the waitstaff quickly brought us another one, thus saving the meal and possibly also the relationship.

The short moral of the story is to check Unilocal before eating somewhere. Would not recommend going here for food.
Although the reviews of brunch are positive, I would agree with all the reviews on the non-​brunch food.
We only had tapas dishes, but none of them were that good, and most wery pretty bad. In the avocado and shrimp, the avocado had been mixed with some fruit juice, perhaps strawberry, which left a very odd taste. Plantains and chicken — the plantains were rock solid. Portobello mushrooms were ok, as was the grilled squid. Sardines, were just three grilled sardines, on a bed of raw peppers and onions.
In fact the only two things that were good were the mini burgers (not something that you would ordinarily order at a tapas restaurant but lucky we did!), and the bread rolls, which were actually fresh.

Okay, lots of hating going on with Luizia’s. I’m kind of surprised. I went there for brunch for the first time this past Saturday and went back again today… yeah, I admit it, I really liked it. The one server and the busser were like harmony – kind of the restaurant equivalent of the Malone/​Stockton days of yesteryear…
I mean, I will admit that it’s not like foodie heaven, but what the hell, for $ 10.95 for coffee, freshly squeezed OJ, and a simple fritatta, what’s with the fuss? Plus, again, really solid service – which, if you review my review of the god-​awful Pravda – matters to me. Oh, and the jam – F-​ing delicious. I couldn’t get enough.
So, despite the hate infused reviews, I am going to say that if you want a cheap brunch in a cute restaurant on the UWS and not have to wait in line for Sarabeths, give it a shot.
Bön appetit.

The wait for brunch at Sarabeth’s was 30 minutes, so we thought we’d try Luzia’s, just a couple doors down. BIG MISTAKE. The menu looked fine, and on the way in, I said, «Well, it’s pretty hard to screw up breakfast!» I was wrong.
For one thing, they took so long bringing our food that we probably would have eaten sooner had we just waited the 30 minutes at Sarabeth’s. The cheese in my omelet was terrible — I couldn’t tell whether it had been melted and congealed 20 minutes ago or whether it had never been melted in the first place. Either way, it was sort of hard and rubbery. I ended up just taking it out and eating the omelet sans cheese, which was easy, since it was one big solid chunk, sort of like an eraser.
While we were sitting there, we heard 3 other parties complaining about their orders taking too long, and not being correct, etc. This was especially notable since there were only 3 parties with us in the restaurant. They were not busy, so I don’t know what they could possibly have been doing to take so long to get it so wrong.
Skip this place, it sucks.

I write this with a heavy heart because we really wanted to love this place: it sucks. The paella tasted like it was 3 days old. The place is cute, the people are nice, the food is not edible. Sad.

Spanish Brunch. Sounds great right? Not so much!
Tried their version of eggs benedict with their own special sauce. My eggs came out on a singe piece of toast (wtf?) slathered in the ‘sauce’.
I think I have a pretty good idea of what made that sauce special. An éclair filling scene from Van Wilder comes to mind.
My companion ordered a chorizo omelet which was edible, but had a single piece of white american cheese on top of it. Not melted or anything… just sitting there.
I think it was the chef symbolically waiving the white flag of defeat.
On the bright side the potatoes were really delicious. They also make their own strawberry jam which is surprisingly good, but not good enough to give this place another shot.

My only one star rating so far, and that’s bad.
1. Service was slow, if existent.
2. Food was sub-​par, and I’m being generous.
3. Drinks were, «eh.»
4. I can’t believe they’ve been in business this long.

Walking by Luiza’s and then checking the menu, we popped in salivating for some Portuguese tapas and atmosphere. There were people in there which is usually a good sign, especially for a sunday night. Ambiance was not bad, however the food was a disappointment. I wouldn’t call it «bad», but the flavor was definitely lacking and some portions were small. The grilled calamari was too chewy and cold, grilled zucchini was basically one zucchini sliced and grilled, nothing special. Sangria was just okay as well, no kick. I had my hopes up for an authentic experience, took a chance and it didn’t pan out. Idea good, execution poor.

brunch here was not so good. we really wanted to go to sarabeth’s, next door, but of course didn’t want to wait. so we settled… bad idea. there just weren’t that many options on the menu, our food took over 30 minutes to prepare in a not so crowded restaurant, and despite the wait the eggs were underdone and runny.

I perfect halfway mark or landing really, during the first night of the transit strike. Really good service and we both admired the atmoshere. Tapas and cocktails were perfect.