lili's bistro on magnolia

went to lili’s for dinner with friends and ordered appetizers, dinner, wine, and dessert. food was good and we had a nice time. then, theowner(wearing a white coat with vance on it) came in a belligerent huff and told us he needed the table and that we had been “hogging” it for 45 mins. just full on accusatory, guns blazing, all angry and aggressive. we had just finished paying only a few minutes earlier and immediately got up and left. no one had told us they needed the table, and we had paid for a $300-plus bill. we were shocked. on the way out, one of our group told him that the food was good but that he would not be back. vance then followed us outside and belligerently told us we did not own the table and that we had stayed long after finishing our meal. we had not. he then proceeded to yell at us, followed us down the sidewalk, jabbed his finger in one person’s face, and slapped the cell phone out of another’s hands. his behavior was completely unprofessional and beyond rude. after pointing out to him that he was following us down the sidewalk, he then asked us why we were walking away as if he truly wanted to fight. i am aghast at his behavior and should have called the police on the spot. jabbing your fingers in the face of someone else and slapping the phone out of someone’s hand is assault. it is most definitely not the behavior of a professional. we will never return.

poor professionalism. i have had the worst experience with lili’s catering and owner.

due to the lackadaisical attitude i received trying to book a rehearsal dinner at lili’s bistro, i sent the following abbreviated message to theownervance martin. “lili's bistro is one of my favorite restaurants and was our first pick for a rehearsal dinner location, unfortunately working with lilipads has been extremely unsatisfying. i found the entire process very unprofessional. i have worked with several other restaurants in fort worth and have not experiences anything like it...”
after sending this message i posted the identical statement to trip advisor reviews, which i believe is an honest recap of my experience. after posting i received this message from the owner: “ it was my intention to find a way to try to smooth this over even though you had booked with someone else, but after reading your spiteful and mean spirited attack on tripadvisor.com, i really don’t have much to say to you. you’ve said it all. i often wonder if people like you would be as brazen if they too had a target on their back and could have their jobs critiqued by the public. i doubt it. enjoy your miserable life.”
i have never experienced such a lack of professionalism from an owner, i honestly wonder how he stays in business. after my experience i went back and read several poor reviews on trip advisor which had very similar experiences. vance himself even committed on some of the experiences with as much hostility as i received.
i am a small business supported, but this is one i refuse to support. i truly hope you do not experience the same disrespect as i have.

eh...ok. went there tonight on a date night with my wife. it started out hopefully with the gorgonzola fries which were decent. but, that where it ends. i had the manny's steak which looked appetizing, but when i bit into it it had a weird, almost mexican like taste. the steak was not the best of quality which was covered by the weird array of sauces. the mashed potatoes underneath were not half bad. my wife got the calamari fettuccine which was also ok... probably better than my steak.
it was kind of a shame as we were expecting a lot more. very limited menu and probably over-priced. i am not a food smug in any way but i think i could cook a better steak than they put out for me. the chef did come by and asked me how everything was. i didn't want to tell her the complete truth so i said "it was great." i think i may have lied on that one.
i am interested in what theownercould do to get me back in there. i am not sure we would ever go back.

lili's bistro - fort worth. had 7:30 reservations, arrived 5 minutes early, checked in, was told our table would be ready in about 5 minutes. fine. 35 minutes later we were still waiting for our table.
it took 3 trips to the hostess to inquire and the same "stock answer" your table will be ready in 5 minutes. finally, approaced theownerwho seems to be very cordial to those people he knew. when a table did clear and we thought that would be our table was told he needed that table for 5 people (there were only 3 of us) and the 5 had a reservation at a later time than our time.
theownerdid; however, offer us two choices one table in a noisier part of the restaurant or wait(another 30 minutes) for a quieter place. we opted for the noiser location. the waiteress seemed to be in a hurry to get our drink order, took awhile for her to come take the dinner order, once it came we never saw the waitperson again till it was time to order dessert. the dessert menu was sort just thrown to us on the table. the restaurant is suppose to have good food; but more importantly in today's world it should also be a people business. theownernever came by to apologize for our long, past due reservation time, never came by to see how our food was, though did notice he was very congenial with the people at the bar (guess bar drinks have more profit than food). having grown up in fort worth with very few eating establishments it is now coming into its own. however, eating establishments come and go when the reservations are not acknowleged, wait staff is rude and the food is mediocre. theownercould take some lessons in running a first rate place with a little more awareness to promptness and/or how to accept reservations. fort worth is hungry for new restaurants; but people will not stand for rudness and lack of concern for their patrons. would i go back not after my experience, nor would i tell my friends to try it. there are too many other restaurants...they need to take a lesson from their competitor down the street ellerbe restaurant where theownerruns the place beautifully, that is why you cannot get a reservation there for over a week in advance. take notice lili's...if you treat all of your customers (whether you know them or not)like we were treated
you will be out of business.

lili's bistro great find on magnolia. magnolia street is an "artsy" street on the south side of ft. worth, tx with a number of interesting & quaint eating establishment, one being lili's bistro on magnolia. we got there early around 11am since we had an appointment just after noon, good thing because the bistro filled up fast by noon. needless to say the food, service & theownerwere outstanding, we will go again. fyi, the name lili is the name of the owner's daughter, a very nice man i failed to get his name. their website is http://lilisbistro.com/ the bistro consists of two eating areas, one having the bar & a piano, piano music in the afternoon & evenings. there is parking in the rear with a rear entrance to the bistro fyi. we'll see you there some day, "do drop in", you won't be disappointed *ü*

just ate there with my girlfriend last friday, can't think of a better place for a date night. in fact, she insists that all future date nights be at this establishment. the petite beef wellington is incredible, as is the service and atmosphere. my girlfriend had the macaroon flounder, also wonderful. theowneractually chatted us up for a few minutes and made us feel very welcome. in the words of my girl friend "vance is just a doll!" he spoke to many of his patrons, and if anyone wasn't his friend, i couldn't tell. he's a gracious host and kind of added to the small restaurant's charming ambiance. oh, and in response to anna's review, he was wearing a shirt and not lustfully staring at my date. thanks for a great experience, lilis.

horrible food. arrogantownerwho has no class or humility. worst choice on magnolia.

not the best seafood.... after waiting for 30 minutes for our reservation, my husband and i were served sub-par shrimp scampi and rubbery scallops. we tried back a few weeks later, hoping for better food. the eggplant bruschetta was pretty good, but we waited way too long for it. when we asked our server about it, she got theownerfor us. he was rude and short with us. we will not be returning to lili's. ever. under any circumstances.

"best service possible"?. i will start off by saying that the food is good and they have a unique selection, and these are the reasons that my co workers i became regulars here in the early months of the lili's opening.

however, my last time there was an experience that has kept me away since. i ordered a cheese buger which i discovered still had the paper wrapping on the cheese, after i had eatin half of it. my co workers joked around and gave me a hard time about eating wax paper and what it was doing to my insides. the waiter asked us what happened and they explained that the chef had left the cheese wrapper on my burger. he then apologized and said that he would take care of it. so, we assumed he would take off a percentage of my bill or offer me a dessert as a peace offering. nothing happened and we got our bills, to which they asked me if they had taken anything off and i said no. they went on about how that was crap and that lili's should do something, but since i am what people would refer to as an avoider, i told my friends it was ok. however, they did not feel that same way and told the waiter to tell the manager that they would like to see something done in the form of an apology. the waiter returned and said that the manager did not want to make a big deal out of it. they asked the waiter to inform the manager that we would not return if he did not want to make this right. the waiter came back with the same response. i felt as if i should at least get some sort of effort/apology since we had become fairly regular customers.

instead, this is what i got. i was filling out one of those comment cards to let them know that i thought the situation could have been handled better. but before i could start, the manager, vance, came out and said that he "would save me some time". and there, he lectured and complained to me for a good five minutes about why i expected something because i ate some waxed paper. overall, i was pissed at the fact that my co workers were the ones asking for a reasonable form of an apology and i was the one who got bombarded verbally by someone who claims they provide the "best service possible". i realize theownermay have been going through a tough time, but he has a business to run and i simply expected more from a place i was growing to really like. we emailed back and forth but vance stood by his original rant until he had received emails from our friends and then he offered us a gift card in hopes that we would return. however, with the amount of good food in fort worth, i never felt like returning to a place that treated me so poorly.

sorry for the long review and to any one who has had to suffer through my complaining, i normally only have good things to say about places and rarely complain but this one pissed me off. i hope you have a more enjoyable experience than i did.

lili's bistro on magnolia, fw. i have never had any problems with the owner, the food, or the service at lili's. food is great!owneris running his wheels off and doing that very, very graciously every time i've been around him - with not even a hint of anything non pc and certainly never "racist". this is a very, very fine place to dine - try it; you'll like it! crab cakes and escargot are to die for! sitting outside under the umbrellas is a delight, too!

the charm of fairmont. this restaurant is one of the reasons the fairmont area of south fort worth went from ghetto to fine living. i am shocked to read such a poor review from my predecessor here. obviously there must have been a personality conflict as several couples and myself have had nothing but fine dining and fine treatment. theowner"vance martin" is a direct man who takes his food serious. i find it amazing that someone would consider the man a racist. i am among a group of diverse friends who are black, white, hispanic, asian, middle eastern, and one enchanting friend from the dominican. we have never been treated anything less than respectful at lili's. i remember when my dominican friend was not happy with a dish and asked to have it sent back for another. my friend received another dish that was more than pleasant (in his words). my guess once again is that there must have been an obvious personality conflict with you and vance or you were looking for a free meal. my only suggestion is try the salvation army for those free meals, because dining at lili's is a true luxury.