Gluten Free Upper East Side | Lumi

Have you ever gone somewhere you really wanted to like but just really didn't like it? You know, where the place is cute, there is a dedicated gluten free menu which good options, the food is good, but the service is just so astonishingly bad you know you'll never bring yourself to go back? 

Yep, that was Lumi for me.

I went last weekend as a belated Valentine's Dinner with my hubby. The restaurant itself is quite lovely, nice big windows so you can people watch as you dine. Nice decor, feels a bit posh. However, at half eight on a Friday night it was half dead (a terrible sign on this island). Upon seating we were brought water right away, promptly after receiving menus our waiter was back to take a drink order (I hadn't even gotten to look at the menu yet), but it was down hill from there.

Buffalo Caprese with my hubby's mojito and
my cocobrise

We ordered drinks, which were good (I had the cocobrise pictured left). To start we ordered the insalate caprese to share. Unfortunately they had taken my utensils away when clearing extra place settings at our table. We asked for utensils none came. We asked our waiter. He was very apologetic and said he would get some right away. Then loitered at the bar for a few minutes before he did. No harm though I suppose as it was a cold dish. But still annoying. 

My pasta, it was actually really good.

For my main I had rich spaghetti with spicy sausage and peas. It sounds odd as I've never had pasta with peas but it was actually really nice. However, once I was done eating, it sat in front of me for 15 minutes before I finally was able to flag someone to pack up the rest for me. Then they didn't actually bring it to me. When we had a waiter bring the bill we had to ask for it. Complete fail. We would have had dessert but their gluten free dessert options are really limited, and at that point I decided I would rather go elsewhere for a treat than order something I didn't really fancy and suffer slow/spotty service any longer. 

If you are on the Upper East Side, this is an option. I would order a deliver from here as the food itself was good. But if you choose to go and dine, just be prepared for the spotty service, and know that even as a gluten bigot you have many other good options in the city.