Lucy's 51 - (818) 763-5200

The plus at Lucy's: The drinks. The key lime pie martini is out of the world. The bar staff knows how to make any kind of drink you can dream up and they're moderately priced. The negative: The service. I went with a group of 10 for apps and drinks. We all placed our orders and about half receieved their food, not including me. We asked the waitress where the rest was and she said she had forgotten to place them. About twenty minutes later 3 more dishes appeared but mine was still AWOL. An hour later she appeared with the fries that were ice cold. When I told her that we couldn't eat them, she shrugged, took them away and still charged us. That's only after spilling my drink, handing me a dirty towel to clean it up and walking away. If I go back I'm only sitting at the bar. And that's a big if.

A family member recommended this place for his birthday and considering I value his opinion, we were excited to experience Lucy's 51. However, the managers have zero customer appreciation as they allowed our car to be illegally towed. Their neighbor (another store owner) was given allowance to park in their "Lucy's 51 Private Parking" area - we guess because of a festival which had been going on that day December 4, 2009. Our car was double-parked behind this other store owner's car (as were many others around us, leading us to assume this was ok - in addition, there was no sign posted stating otherwise). Our car was then towed not more than an hour after our arrival following little to no attempt made to find us. The manager could have easily muted the music for 1 minute to make an announcement to me and I would have gladly moved it. Instead, the manager argued with me about how it was my fault for parking behind the store owner even though there were no signs posted saying I could not park there. The only sign posted said the lot was where I was supposed to park. How is someone supposed to go out to enjoy a few drinks with friends without being worried about having their car illegally towed? The manager proceeded to do nothing to help me and refused to reimburse me for my troubles. I will never go to this establishment again. The lack of customer appreciation is appalling. By the way, the food is overpriced, the decor tacky, and the service mediocre.

Went for the first time today at lunch. Had the calamari appetizer and the turkey club. The calamari was perfect. Nice and crispy with more of a deep fried texture than a tempura. Nice amount of herbs and spices. It came with 2 sauces and both were good. The sandwich was nice and large with large slices of avocado and smoked bacon. TONS of very thin cut crisp fries came with it. The bartender mentioned that they hired a new chief a few months back and I have to say it was a nice move! The wait staff was really nice as was the bartender, D. They also had a DJ quietly doing an internet radio show which the dining crowd got a kick out of. They were playing the stream in the restaurant. I think it was martini in the morning or something... Pretty good jazz and big band stuff... 4.5 stars for sure I will be back