Another great night at Lili's
I think this is turning out to be one of the best places in Fort Worth, period. We returned last night and tried a couple of different things. I had the Grilled Halloumi, a cheese from Cyprus lightly grilled and served with focaccia and raspberry sauce. It was quite unlike any cheese I’ve ever had before, and the combination of it with the sauce and focaccia was pure greatness. Steph ordered a new menu item, the Rosemary Polenta Fries. A dish created by newly added chef Heather Hogan, it’s cornmeal fries with red pepper and rosemary served with a Romesco sauce (which is a tomato-almond affair). These were absolutely incredible, flavorful and prepared just right. For dessert, we were lucky to get there early enough to have a piece of the Heaven & Hell Cake, created by combining angel food cake, devil’s food cake, peanut butter mousse and chocolate ganache. You may recall that we wanted to try this last time, but it was sold out; the wait turned out to be more than worth it, as it was easily one of the most potently indulgent desserts I’ve ever had.
Vance’s dishes were already fantastic, and if the polenta fries are any indication of what to expect from chef Heather, Lili’s has one heck of a team in the kitchen.
I’ll say it again – you owe it to yourself to try out Lili’s. Check their web site at lilisbistro.com.
Most disappointing experience for the money.
It started out as a 6:30pm friday dinner where we usually go next door to The Spiral Diner but by a friend’s suggestion we gave this place a try.
To start, they don’t have the usual “going out” foods that we were used to…but since it was pricey, we expected good food…boy did we learn otherwise. Here goes: I wanted a salad, but all they have is iceberg lettuce. My wife ordered a salad for $8. It came with a quarter cut sized of iceberg with some red onions, some tomatoe pieces and dressing. She had to cut it up…also came with some kind of flatbread. Ok, I had ordered the “Fresh from the Farm” for $18. Expected fresh veggies, rice, beans, etc. Well they only have white rice…white rice?? This is a fancy place and no brown or wild rice? So I get the veggies with a red cabbage bean salad with an upgrade of salmon…for another $5. I get the plate and the salmon is the size of a Ding Dong. The veggies have some kind of spice not mentioned in the menu. Now I like hot but it wasn’t what I wanted or expected. The upside is that the bean salad was good. To drink I had water…sadly it was not filtered because I know what Fort Worth water tastes like. There were 8 in our party and a few others were disappointed with their “Brie” dish. Another had ordered a Sprite or 7-Up…not sure which. It came in a can…again, real ritzy place. She had said it smelled moldy and tasted funny. So she looks at the date on the bottom of the can and it was 2007. We are in in 2008 people. Then came dessert, we ordered the banana cake…the Sprite girl got Lemon torte…this salvaged the meal but didn’t save it. My wife and the girl also had the waffle fries with goat cheese and green onions…it was good but then how can you screw up waffle fries?
Anyhow, if you like food that is delivered not as read on the menu, unfiltered water, white rice, iceberg lettuce, and year old Sprite/7-Up…then expect to pay $90 for a party ticket of 4. Bottom line! It sucked!!
Have never, ever had a bad experience at Lili’s so I have no way to account for your experience. I hope you mentioned your problems to Vance or somebody else so they could have a chance to correct whatever went wrong.
I was recently at a higher-end Italian restaurant and had to listen to a couple near our table complain incessantly about there not being lasagna or spaghetti and meatballs on the menu. I’m not sure what Bruno’s idea of “going out” food may be, but his complaint about the iceberg wedge salad is revealing.