Café Lily

We have been fans of Café Lily since its beginning. We love the consistently good food and friendly atmosphere. Great for a casual dinner or a special occasion.

Just left the restaurant and it was pretty bad. My sister picked it because she had gone a long time ago and liked it. This time not so much. The falafel was puréed inside, gross. The butternut squash ravioli, was overcooked and tough. The crab cake had no flavor and the yellow lemon type sauce that came with it not only looked bad, but tasted bad. The scallops were decent, but the risotto it came with was flavorless. And my mom got what was on the menu as meatballs, but she got these charred fried hard things that were so bad and not pleasant to even look at. The restaurant was doing business so someone must like it, but overall I would never go back.

Café Lily has always been our go-​to place for special occasions. But something has happened because it’s now quite disappointing. We went there for dinner the past two Saturday evenings (anniversary one week and a friend’s birthday the next). The food was just OK. Lackluster. I think the chef is resting on his laurels and isn’t paying attention. On our first recent visit, I ordered one of the evening’s specials — halibut. The garlic-​lemon mashed potatoes were too tart. My husband ordered the salmon which also came with the same mashed potato side. His tasted fine. This is just too inconsistent.
The second time we went I ordered the salad nicoise. It was just plain blah. It does not help that I am not a fan of raw zucchini; cucumber would have been better, or gently grilled zucchini. My husband ordered the Pasta Puttanesca and was very pleased with it.
The desserts are fabulous. The tiramisu is to die for!

Food was delicious and flavorful, customer service was wonderful! Only complaint I have is the bread was a little burnt and there wasn’t enough meat in my pasta. I would definitely come back though to try the different things on their menu!

We frequently go to Café Lily. The food is good and the waiters friendly and helpful. We seldom are disappointed in the service. Another attraction is that it is close by and parking is usually availabl

Pasta prep disappointing…
Visited Café Lily for romantic Valentines Day dinner last night… We have been here many times for lunch but rarely for dinner. Generally speaking the food and service are always
good here and except for a couple of considerations last night was the same. One major
disconnect for me was the Pasta Puttanesca I ordered. Have recently spent three weeks in
Italy and Sicily I have a new affinity for everything pasta! This dish can vary dramatically as interpreted by each chef… as presented here the dish was well prepared with big fresh tomato taste, complimented by spice from anchovies, capers, olives and great Hawaiian basil.
This being said, the quality and prep of the pasta itself was disappointing. Definitely an off the shelf dried pasta (fettucine I think) but overcooked and falling apart in the dish. One common
trait I noticed throughout Italy was very al dente pasta prep, almost too much so for my taste
and probably for many American tastes. But the quality, mouth feel, and prep time of the pasta is critical to a dish like this. Nothing wrong with buyout pasta but better quality perfectly
cooked al dente is the key… Maybe next time!

Good food, good wine selection, attentive staff. Young hostess was a bit stuffy. Decatur is a friendly place — don’t think she lives here.

Every eating experience here has been delicious and out of the ordinary. I love the frittatas, but yesterday I tried the Greek Lamb and Scrambled Eggs. There are several lamb dishes on the menu. It would be easy for me to choose among a dozen dishes that read ‘delicious’ on the menu. Café Lily has the loveliest teas.

A small group of five of us went to have a post-​holiday brunch here the other day. The menu had great potential, so I was excited to try it out. I ordered the French Toast with sausage… pretty hard to screw that up, right? Wrong. I think my order must’ve sat under a dim heating bulb while the other meals barely cooked — it was cold, not topped with any butter, and it was dry in the middle as if it had barely been dipped in the egg and cream mixture. The tiny sauce container that held the syrup had formed a skin on top, so clearly it had been sitting. The waitress forgot the sausage as well. When the sausage did arrive, it was the most peculiar thing — one small link of what I think was Andouille, but it was sliced lengthwise in about 8 pieces, yet held together by it’s casing. It resembled an open book held together by binding. It was overly char-​grilled, so the casing was extremely hard to cut through with my knife. This one link was $ 5. Another person in my party ordered the French Toast as well and was also disappointed.
Two other people in my party ordered the Frittata Rustica, which sounded great on the menu. When it arrived at the table, I could see how ‘loose’ the casserole was and was relieved that I hadn’t ordered it. Nothing quite like an undercooked, cold runny egg dish. One gal ate about three bites and politely asked for a box. When we got outside I asked her if she was going to take it home and cook it herself. Nope, it was going in the garbage.
It was disappointing. None of us wanted to complain because our boss was treating us. I felt bad that she spent her money on this. If they can’t even cook the basics, I’d be terrified to try anything seafood related.

The atmosphere is great. The food is always on point. Desserts are excellent. Staff are always friendly. Drinks are wonderful. Try the lamb pinchitos and tiramisu!

We stopped by for a quick bite to eat. All we knew was that this place had good Unilocal reviews and that it serves Mediterranean food. This was the most bland food I’ve ever had. We ordered a few appetizers and a chicken entrée– all lacking the flavor we were hoping for. My husband even said «how can something with no flavor make my mouth taste like garlic?» Our server was nice but the the food was bland and pricey (the cheapest entrée was $ 18) so we won’t be back.

The food was great. We went for lunch, and I had the lamburger, which was really juicy, the tastiest lunch I have had in quite some time. The service was fine as well. Looking forward to returning…

Love it but don’t visits as much as we should. Great food and real service and Great ownership. Amazing example of a successfully run business.

Great atmosphere and attentive service! I didn’t want lamb in my gyro so requested chicken instead. The chicken gyro ended up being mediocre/​bland and overpriced (definitely not worth $ 15). I will give this place another chance for a fair assessment.

Went for brunch.
It was really good. The hostess and waitstaff were amazing (and I think they are sisters or something). They made the experience great.
I love the food here, the atmosphere is great and you got go!

This has been my favorite restaurant for years. Unfortunately in the last 2 months, I have found BURNT FOOD TWICE. I was with a large group with the American Heart Association, my gyro was impossible to eat. Horrible. Last weekend, I went with my family and my mother’s chicken was just horrible. Again, dry, overcooked and pretty much burnt.
What a dissapointment. Service is always good, though. The servers and the table runner (Mexican guy) are always attentive, corteous and knowledgeable.

What can be said about a Decatur classic? Perfect service with a huge wine list. Seafood and fish was fresh and delicious tonight. A straw dry Rose wine after fun beautiful cocktails.
This is a wine lovers restaurant. The cuisine is wide and tempting. Service is casual but perfect.

My boyfriend and I decided to go to this restaurant after reading lots of positive reviews about it and its eclectic food. We went as a date last weekend ⁹⁄₁₁.
The restaurant atmosphere was nice enough. Nice lighting but smallish tables. The walls could have used a new coat of paint but that’s not super important. Our waiter was friendly and checked on us often which I appreciated. However, our bad experience started once we began ordering our food.
FOOD: We started by getting Sangrias which came to us extremely watered down and tasteless. I’ve had sangrias from many places before, so I know what is good. Café Lily’s Sangrias are NOT good at all. We didn’t even want to finish the drinks, which was unfortunate since they both cost $ 7 and change. After that, we ordered the crab cake tapa, the shrimp gemelli
pasta, and the lamb gyro. The crab cake tapa came out first and it was inedible. The crab cake tasted and smelled extremely fishy in a very unappetizing way. It was also soooo salty that after a few small bites I had to send it back to the kitchen. The waiter apologized and brought out another crab cake that was just as bad as the one he brought out before. When the shrimp pasta came out (we ordered the full portion) I was extremely disappointed to find out that it came with mountains of tasteless pasta and only four pieces of shrimp. The gyro my boyfriend ordered had thick chunks of lamb in it that were tough to bite through and bland. He did not enjoy it at all and he usually is pretty easy to please food wise. After a pretty lack luster meal (which was quite expensive btw), we were pretty disappointed and decided that we probably would not be coming back.
We had just paid our check and taken a few steps away from the restaurant when my boyfriend began to feel very sick. He has a stomach of steel trap and very rarely gets sick. However, all of a sudden he began to feel nauseous and had to sit down on a bench before he could walk to the car. I felt fine all the way up until we got home. Suddenly, I started feeling sick too and spent the entire rest of the night throwing up shrimp pasta and pieces of crab cake! It was horrible! It became pretty clear than that our dinner at Café Lily had given us FOOD POISONING! We called the restaurant the next day to tell them what happened and they didn’t seem too concerned.
I will NOT be coming back to Café Lily ever and I am sorry that I even went at all. Please save your money, your taste buds, and your stomach by finding another place to dine in Decatur!
Update ⁹⁄₂₀:
I did get an apology from Café Lily but my only problem with it is that instead of insuating that those who had a negative experience somehow got it wrong, they need to take the criticism graciously and leave it at that. It’s such a turn off for a restaurant when the owner feels the need to try to point out supposed flaws in your review and suggest that you didn’t have the experience you had. I cant speak about what anyone else tasted in the crab cakes, how many times they were purchased, or about any other customers who ate there that night but I can talk about what I experienced and those are the facts of my experience like it or not. As I’ll say again, both my boyfriend and I both got sick from eating the food (him with stomach pains and I was throwing up). He did call in and explain this the next day. Interesting how Café Lily felt the need to point out that he said «he felt fine» because like I said he felt nauseous immediately after eating there. He is a pretty gracious person and never wants to make things too big of a deal, so he’s more likely to underplay his experience than anything else. I just don’t get why a restaurant would get an attitude when I’m the one who spent my hard earned money there. Next time Café Lily should be more humble and less defensive. Let’s see if they’ll take my advice.

Original Post: 8÷20÷15
I have been here once and will never go back. (It has been some time.) I order their version of a BLT with pancetta. It was disgusting. It took forever for the server to take my order and then for them to cook. This didn’t make since, only one ingredient on the sandwich actually needed to be baked/​cooked. The pancetta when it came out was extremely burnt and black. I asked them to remake the meal and when it came out the second time it was barley any better. When I made the comment that it was still burnt the waitress gave me a snooty remark that «it was suppose to look that way.» I have cooked pancetta myself and eaten it at other places, never has it been this burnt and crispy. I decided to try the sandwich after all and all I could taste was the grease from the meat. I was only able to stomach half of the meal before I became ill while still in the restaurant. When I returned the lady had removed my plate and drink and left the bill on the counter. (I was eating at the bar.) I still had fries, all be it soft cold and soggy, that were on the plate. I was extremely dissatisfied with my service and the food and asked to speak to the manager. After more attitude from the waitress and waiting for 30 mins for someone to come over and talk to me there was no resolution or even an apology. I would never go back here to eat or tell anyone else to go for a meal. This place is horrible. They are rude and inconsiderate.
Update 9÷3÷15
After posting this review with an honest opinion the owner attempted to reached out to me. I attempted a reply to him via the phone app which seems to have not been delivered. After two days the owner then went online and posted a reply to my message stating I am a troll and disclaiming my experience. As stated in the review it had been a long time since I had been to the establishment. When an owner is so quick to be rude to a customer who writes their honest opinion and review and then insults them via media I find it hard to appreciate the establishment. I had consider updating the review to a ²⁄₅ star given his attempted contact, however the lack of professionalism leaves me to leave this as ¹⁄₅. The management proved to be just as rude as the staff was that day. I sat down and went through many places I have visited and wrote a number of reviews this is the only ¹⁄₅ I have given out of 30 reviews. It seems it was well deserved.
Update 9÷4÷15
To say simple I would be careful about patronizing this establishment. If you have a bad experience the owner is quicker to take an offensive position then to offer a solution. He requested that I remove his replied comment to my initial review, however I feel it should stay. It goes to show the character of the proprietor of this establishment. The owner of an establishment can say a lot about the business and employees. He attempted to redirect his original comment and stated he thought I was a disgruntled employee. This would be easily debunked if you had looked at the public profile. I opened this account in 2012 and my name can easily be associated with different pages of social media. He has still yet to offer any apologies for the poor experience or request that I visit the establishment an additional time to provide for rectification of the event. Once again I would express caution before offering patriotism to this location based on the treatment from the owner when presented with a customers dissatisfaction.

Great service, high quality food (a bit too expensive)
It’s a grey hair kind of place, which makes it quiet and polite. Thankfully hipsters (or whatever they are called now) have not embraced this spot.

Have passed by this place a million times — but always considered it to be a little old lady restaurant. When our attempt to go to Pinewood was thrawted, we gave up and tried Café Lilly. Self-​described as eclectic mediterranean fare — which I believe was close to accurate.
The service was attentive. We tried a variety of the craft cocktails and were not disappointed. We selected French Onion Soup (basic) and an order of lamb meatballs (terrific).

My wife and I stopped by Café’ Lily for lunch after taking one of our dogs to the vet.
I must say that the staff here is extremely kind and accommodating, as one of the waitresses brought out a doggy bowl filled with water for our dog while we were sitting on the outside patio.
We ordered the flash fried (sautéed) calamari to start. It was served on a sizzle platter and while the calamari was sizzling, the waitress squeezed fresh lemon all over it at our table.
The calamari had a nice flavor to it; the garlic, white wine, fresh scallions and butter merged together very well to create a consistent (not too thin or not too thick) sauce.
Although The calamari was tasty, the consistency might throw you off; it was very slippery and soft (NOT breaded and fried), as they basically sautéed the calamari for a minute or two with all of the seasonings and white wine before serving it. I enjoyed it, but my wife did not like the «texture» at all. Also, the portion size was very small for the price; we normally get more calamari for a similar price at other establishments.
For my entrée, I had the salmon steak, which was served with a cup of soup (minestrone) and a salad (insalata mista).
The salmon was a very small portion; looked like 4 ounces. However, it was cooked and seasoned well.
The minestrone soup was not served hot, but rather lukewarm. The minestrone tasted good, but nothing spectacular here.
The insalata mista salad was tasty, but it was not served with croutons (as stated in the menu) and there was only «one» roman tomato slice, whereas the menu states roman «tomatoes.»
Overall, the food tasted good but was average. The prices are also a bit high for the portion sizes they serve. The area that Café’ Lily is very strong in… is their customer service. I give them a solid 3 stars.
Happy eating!
–Tom

Went to brunch on Sunday while in town for business and so visited some family. My cousin and I were looking for a brunch spot and I saw Lily’s Café in an article called Boozy Brunch spots. I was really hoping for the bottomless mimosas that I read about but was surprised when I arrived and they were $ 5 per glass. The food was good. I was just bummed about the lack of mimosa flow.

Eh, the food here is mediocre and a tad overpriced. We ordered the lamb burger which was poorly seasoned. The kibbeh was yummy but it was presented on a bed of wilted, brownish lettuce. The goat cheese ravioli was overly moist and the parking was a nightmare here. Honestly not sure I’ll be coming back. It’s a classic case of above average service overcompensating for lackluster food. Not a good combination. Rather disingenuous.
The vibe in the restaurant is decent so there’s that… If you’re into kitschy poshlost. Standby.

My mom wanted to try Café Lily for brunch one day. Overall, it was an OK experience. They get super busy for brunch, and it almost seemed that there wasn’t enough wait staff for the floor. Our server was trying her best, but some areas were lacking. The drinks took a super long time to show up (we ordered our meal and the drinks still hadn’t shown up). I had ordered a hot chocolate since it was cold out. The coffee came out super quick and the hot chocolate came out with the cocktails. It was unfortunately cold. The server was notified and she rectified the issue ASAP, but ASAP meant I finally got a hot chocolate once our entrees came out.
I ordered the crab cake benedict (Beignets de Crabe ‘Benedict’) as my meal. The potatoes on the side were very good, but the benedict had a weird flavor. The Hollandaise had almost a chalky flavor to it that was pretty unpleasant and it kind of killed the whole dish. I had tried the other dishes (Saucisse Fumée and Pinchitos) and those were way better than my dish. I had wished I had ordered different because the people in our group that didn’t order anything with Hollandaise were happy.
We finished with dessert and split the Lemon-​Sponge Custard and Tiramisu. These were definitely the highlight of the meal. The custard was airy with a delicious lemon flavor. The tiramisu is HUGE so be prepared to share.

I love Café Lily. Yes parking is annoying, but come on people, I think you can walk 50 feet.
I rotate my orders between 3 entrees, the Salmon Steak, Pinchitos (lamb tenderloin with a spicy, salsa-​like garnish), & Butternut Squash Ravioli. All three of these are always phenomenal. For an appetizer I always get the Calamari a la Plancha. Our service has always been great, despite other peoples reviews. If I had to nitpick about something it would be that it was really dark inside (thus why I have no pictures).

I feel another bullet-​point review is in order here…
Pros:
— Not too far from public transport and the Decatur square area
— Truly fresh (and delicious) seafood
— Inventive cocktails («George Clooney’s Fiancé» was wonderful!)
— Intimate– great date location
— Bread– mmmmm, their bread and oil was good.
Cons:
— The waiter was impatient and short with us– then at the end, he almost refused to split our checks (c’mon man, get with it!!!)
— Not good for big groups– seven us were very cramped in the space and it was too dark to see the person down the table
— Bang for the buck– small plates, big $$$ (except the salads seemed enormous!)
— Buggy… there was a cockroach on the wall by our table (it climbed up high so we just ignored it as to not create a scene, but the fact remains)
In short… the food is really good, service is hit or miss, and be weary of the size group you are bringing.