liliana's restaurant

fun atmosphere, but my chicken dinner was served raw (still bloody)...gross! we told the waitress and she replaced the meal.

many regulars at liliana's probably recognize my face, for i was the lead bartender for almost a year. dave fired me on the spot three weeks ago when i started to complain about his corrupt business practices.

what am i talking about? well, lucky for you i'm a writer by trade: dave sleeps with his employees and turns a blind eye to significant drug exchanges that take place under his eyes. he also encourages his underage servers to drink and sample wine, even though he has no bartenders with liquor licenses. his lead server, bryan, consistently hits on underage girls and abuses his coworkers by stealing their tables and lying about it. to give you an idea of how insidious these practices are: bryan arrives before the rest of the servers and manipulates the reservation system by putting "requested bryan" under the reservation tab, even if bryan has never served the table before.

all of this would be of less concern to me if not for the fact that my father (who has parkinson's) and i have struggled to make ends meet the past few weeks. when dave fired me, he also took away my weekly paychecks, and i won't receive any positive income for some time. he also has denied my unemployment claim on the grounds that i wasn't fired (so which is it? was i fired or not?

so, i beg you, in a time of covid19: don't patronize liliana's, and if you liked me as your bartender, perhaps you should ask dave if he has a heart and should compensate me for the two weeks i lost pay because i decided to stand up for myself for a change. dave's response? he called the cops on me and worked to get my hospitalized, claiming that i was making all this up. don't allow local business owners to abuse their employees -- life is hard enough as it is when you work in the service industry.

i went to liliana's with a group of business associates and found that, in my opinion, this restaurant has gone down hill drastically in both food quality and customer service. the menu has changed and they now only offer "small plates". it is now necessary to order 3-4 plated to make a full sized meal. the prices have gone down 30% and the serving sizes has gone down by 50%. the food is not even close to the quality it was at my last visit (over a year ago) i found the service to be very slow even with the place only being 25% full. i ordered the jambalaya that was almost room temperature. when i told the wait staff this their reply was " this is the way it is served" i then tried the chicken and cheddar grits that arrived under cooked ! so i left it uneaten. i finished with the beignets that were fine but 60% of the serving size that were served in the past. after getting home i felt ill and believe it was because of the food served at lilianas. the next day i contacted the madison health department and found that they have given liliana's a very bad health score (see yelp health score rating of 49). please contact the health department yourself for more information. i do not know what made this place get so bad (new ownership) ?? i will never step foot in this restaurant again and would advise everyone to do your research before eating any food here.

the service and ambiance were okay.  the etouffee was really bad, it had a strong vinegar like taste with no heat. my wife's seared scallops and risotto was so-so. the lobster mac and cheese was supposedly good.

great. neat place great foid

over booked over crowded. i have been to liliana's in fitchberg twice. the food is excellent. however, both times they grossly overbooked and we ended up waiting 45 minutes or more despite having reservations. this evening i intended to have a romantic evening with my wife only to find them again overbooked! when we arrived they had more than ten people all who had reservations crammed like sardines in the hallway outside the men's toilet. when i walked up to the hostess podium they had just begun calling up people who had reservations from an hour ago. they told me 30 to 45 minutes, i canceled my reservation, ruined me and my wife's evening. wont be back

just say no to the food, but go hear the jazz tuesday nights. god... really? wi cajun... just say no. bad service. food was cold and unappetizing. the two young girls got their main courses before us, although we were there and placed our orders long before them. salmon overcooked and cold. how nice! worst $100. spent ever. just say no to the food. the jazz was great and the drinks, well- they were drinks...lol

hit and miss. we started with the cheese curds, which were fantastic. the oysters rockefeller were over cooked and had too much filling. the main meals were unremarkable. the beignets were too dense. i really like the atmosphere of the place. however, i don't intend to return.

horrible food & wait staff. overcooked food verging on burned. amazingly snotty & rude wait staff. never, ever again.

it was okay.... i loved the wine. but the food was underwhelming.

delicious. stopped by for dinner with family and a friend. everyone was extremely pleased with our meal, and the service was excellent. the scallops were deliciously seasoned, and my friend (who hates vegetables) scarfed his julienned veggies down and said they were delicious. the atmosphere of liliana's is amazing.

a favorite. we can't wait to come back. the place is owned by a real chef, so the menu is constantly changing and very imaginative. dave heide is obviously constantly thinking about the food. that by itself is a good reason to come back. be sure to check out the cocktail specials! i see in an article in madison magazine that chef dave is from wisconsin (before studying at le cordon bleu and cooking in california for several years). that's the only reason we have somebody like him here in fitchburg. we just plain lucked out on that one.

highly underrated restaurant in madison. delicious food at reasonable prices. chef dave is hilarious and makes everything from scratch. cheese grits are amazing at brunch, but everything is great.

trying hard . . .. the owner is trying hard to build up a steady business. the food is simply okay, with some hits like the crab cakes and some misses like the jambalaya. the service we experience was pretty bad with one of our party actually having to chase down our waitress several times. the crowd was thinner than usual on this saturday night, so our waitress should have been on top of things. she appeared to be more interested in talking to her co-workers and folding napkins than in attending to our needs. we were also seated at a table with a lovely view of the dirty dishes. i could see being seated there if the place was busy, but not when there were so many tables available. we did enjoy the bar staff and the jazz. i hope the owner makes some changes to the service area as the food is okay and different for the madison area. we will come back when we're in the mood for this type of food, but it will not be a favorite until the service is improved.

i really do love liliana's. we always leave feeling they aim for the best service and food. we have only had one hiccup, but it was human error and the owner was out quickly to check on us and remedy the issue. it really shows how much he cares about each person that comes in, and each meal that goes out. also i love when you see his family at the restaurant! it's not a chain and i hope that more restaurants like this pop up around town. love it!!