yolo restaurant + lounge

refused serviced. walked in at 4 and the place was empty. was told by the host that therestaurantwas booked until 8 at night. almost positive they looked at our baby with us and refused us service.

birthday dinner. i was so excited to go to yolo, not because of it's unfortunate choice of name, or location (far out on transit road), but because of it's extensive gluten free menu.
i ordered the gf calamari as an appetizer as well as the bbq. the calamari was so rubbery, it was inedible. the menu states it is cooked in a butter sauce. it came in a moat of brownish liquid with no flavor. it was so bad, we had to send it back...something we try to never do. a few minutes later, the owner came out and apologized for our experience, and said he'd take it off the check, without us having to ask which was pleasant.
a little later, the rest of our food was delivered, the scallops and my husband had wings with fries. the scallops were only seared on one side! if they were seared on the other side, you couldn't tell as it did not have the nice, lightly browned, caramelized hue of being seared!
it seems as though the chef was trying to under cook the scallops because i said the calamari was overcooked, although i don't know this for sure, only that it wasn't seared on one side!
the manager did come back, as did the waitress to ask how the rest of our meal went, we just said "good" because there wasn't a whole lot to say and we didn't want to be rude.

on another note, my husband says the fries were very good and extra crispy, but i'd bet you wouldn't travel to arestaurantwhich is advertised as up-scale just to get "crispy" fries at a premium price. i cannot recommend yolo. such a shame because there are aren't an abundance of restaurants which cater to the gf population. i hope the chef takes this review and tries to better their methods. as a graduate of the culinary institute, i would have expected better.

been here about 5 times. twice for food and three times just for drinks. it has never been my first choice and probably never will be.

food: a few diamonds in the rough. strawberry spinach salad with steak was a nice surprise. however, their "filet" was clearly not a filet, nor was it well cooked.

service: not memorable, but i am not paying for that level of attention at a place like this.

drinks/bar: interesting scene on the weekends. some pretty good beers in bottle and draft format. bartender was no knowledgable about how to make certain drinks which surprised me.

overall: like i said, not likely to be a first choice but not a bad place for a drink. i think therestaurantoverall is trying to be something it is not. would pick dinner in the back room at rocco's for a similar experience/price

it worth to go. pros: service, cesar salad, lava cake
not so con: tuscan steak roulad

today, we were looking to go to arestaurantthat we never visited to celebrate my wife's birthday. it was around 7:00pm on arestaurantweek and i was expecting for a line, but thanks god we didn't get one. the hosts were very nice people and direct us very quickly to the table.

the waitress service was very good too and the food did not take so much time to arrive to us. even to refill the drinks, she was very efficient too. because it was arestaurantweek, i tried the special menu that they prepared for these days. i asked for a cesar salad, tuscan steak roulad and a lava cake.

overall, the quality of the food was very good with the exception of the vegetables and the mashed potatoes. the vegetables presentation was not very good and the mashed potatoes were blend. but i am willing to try again therestaurantbecause it i liked the experience at all.

remark from ashley. i like yolo, it is different from the typical east amherst/ williamsville restaurants and has a new vibe about it. service was great for being a newrestaurantand we liked the food, had a cool twist. i think the comment from "ashley" sounds jilted! why shouldn't friends and family comment, it is called being supportive. from what i am to understand about the owners, they opened yolo completely on their own, with no help from their "restaurant" family. it takes anyrestauranta good 6 months just to work out the kinks, makes no difference who you are or how long you have been in therestaurantbusiness. i can name a list of restaurants that had issues when they first opened and their service and food was horrible, but are still going strong today and rated in the top 20 restaurants in this area.

so i give yolo 2 thumbs up and unlike "ashley" hope they are around for a long long time! this area needs something different, young and fun and is not located downtown!