Hazel G.

Review of Laura Lees Design Studio

[Update- 8/19/19: Since I posted my initial review...

[Update- 8/19/19: Since I posted my initial review below, I received a very thoughtful response to my message to the restaurant in response to my most recent visit. I appreciated the professional, thorough effort to get to the bottom of what happened, as well as the willingness to use what transpired as a learning experience. For now, I ve updated my rating (unprompted by Laura Lee s), and I hope to give them another shot in the future.]

I ve been to Laura Lee s twice and had two very different experiences; the second, more recent one is the reason for the two-star rating.

First experience: I came here for my birthday brunch last fall. Good food, amazing cocktails, and excellent service. They were super accommodating since it was snowing and some of my party arrived late or couldn t make it due to the road conditions. Based on that visit, I couldn t recommend this place enough to my friends.

Second experience: I met a friend for brunch last Sunday. It was her first time dining at Laura Lee s, and again, I recommended it based on my experience last year. Unfortunately, this visit left much to be desired and honestly, a bad taste in my mouth. The food and cocktails were fine (the cocktails more so, though), but the service was abysmal. Our server took her sweet time to come to our table - only coming out from the back when another server filled our water glasses and asked if we had been helped (which we hadn t). From there, while she was friendly enough, she was very inattentive, resulting in her other colleagues picking up her slack. Needless to say, my friend and I were very disappointed. I reached out to Laura Lee s afterwards to share my experience and received no response. Just an acknowledgement of my note would have sufficed.

So, my overall recommendation: this is a cute neighborhood spot with decent food and great cocktails. Service is hit or miss, and apparently, management doesn t seem to care either way. I m telling my friends to look elsewhere for their dining needs - and the beauty of RVA is that there are plenty of options from which to choose.