Lusa Bakery & Cafe

Let me first say that I have enjoyed Lusa. My wife and I used to go to Lusa regularly when it was located off of Jackson Ave. We’ve been twice to their new location off Lamar and both times have been sub-​par.
This most recent visit was this past weekend. I went with a group of 7, a large, but manageable group. We sat at a table that had not been cleaned. No one came to clean the table or wait on us for 45 minutes. After placing our order, we noticed another group of 7 girls seated at another table. They received their food and left 10 minutes later. They complained that they had been there for 2.5 hours, their orders were all wrong, and the food was cold.
This should have been a warning.
Granted, we decided to stay. We were very excited about the breakfast casserole — as it’s probably one of the best things on the menu.
Unfortunately, we did not receive our food for another hour — a total of an hour and 45 minutes from the beginning. At that point, the waitress told us they no longer had breakfast casserole, but had substituted cheese grits for us (without asking).
We were disappointed, but hungry. The food was cold. The grits were clumpy and raw. The orders were wrong.
The food we ordered was not complicated — 6 people ordered breakfast sandwiches — comprised of toast, eggs, and bacon. The other person had a breakfast plate. This is not a difficult breakfast and should not take 2 hours to make. Not to mention that each of our plates cost $ 10+.
A 2 hour wait, wrong food, cold food, and no breakfast casserole. I just can’t justify coming back.

While the baked goods are above average, the service and operation of the front of the house is terrible.
We have visited several times at both locations and watched this business continue to shrink from multiple locations to just one. Every time we have gone in the staff seem to be clueless as to priorities and how to serve. This lies squarely on the shoulders of the owner. They have relocated and now have a bar, in addition to a bakery and good service which all seems to be hapless at best. Please try to get the food operation straight before even attempting to add alcohol service. You guys could have a killer place like the one across the street if you were serious about service. Oxford has way too many unique places to have to put up with this lack of attention.

Worst service ever. We left the restaurant before receiving order, after waiting an hour. Once we spoke to out server about it he was extremely rude and snapped at us.
Don’t waste your time eating here. You are better off going to McDonald’s.

Never experienced worse service. The food was did not meet even substandard expectations. I wish it would be possible to give zero stars because I would.

Went Sunday morning for breakfast. I was immediately and warmly greeted and directed to seats in the cavernous space. The atmosphere is not the intimate café but it worked. They have a long display case filled with various tempting pastries. Drinks were brought promptly and were fresh and good tasting. I had the breakfast platter with scrambled eggs and bacon. It also came with hash brown casserole and a slice of wonderful toast bread (I forgot to ask what type). Everything was served quickly, hot and fresh. The eggs were light and fluffy. Normally I don’t think you can ruin or improve on breakfast. The casserole and bread did improve the experience. To go, we ordered some carrot cake and peanut butter cookies. The spices in the carrot cake were excellent.

A bit bare and sterile, Lusa’s new location on Jackson is good, but not great. The service was excellent, as was the coffee, but there’s something a bit bland in the ambiance, here. We got the croque madame, which was tasty, but it had a massive bay leaf on it. The leaf was blatantly apparent, and honestly a bit unprofessional.

My family and I ordered a cake from here and we were not pleased at all. Aside from being upset with the quality of the cake (the writing on it was very sloppy and the names illegible) the owner Carly is beyond rude while discussing our dissatisfaction with the cake. What began as a polite call by me, resulted in the owner actually hanging up on me! I am baffled that a business professional and owner of an establishment deals with customers in such a manner. I have never experienced this before! Carla should not be the type of person running a business as she doesn’t care one bit about her customers. We did not even ask for a refund or a new cake but simply called to find out what happened. And even for that she was extremely defensive, rude and highly unprofessional.

The food is excellent, but the lack of professional training for the staff ruins the experience. Management is doing a tremendous disservice to the owner and wait staff by not providing them with the basic «how-to’s» of customer service. Every time I’ve been it has seemed that it was the first time the staff had seen customers. My last debacle was over an hour of watching customer after customer leave in disgust after mocking the quality of service to other customers. It’s very sad. The reviews of Lusa seem to be very consistent concerning the sad state of the customer experience. Wake up, Lusa management, you’re too good to be so awful.
I welcome someone from Lusa to contact me and discuss my experience.

I have been here a few times. Bakery items have always been good, but the customer service needs works. I asked is they could do an iced chia tea latte… chia tea with milk. The girl behind the counter looked over there teas and said «sure». She steeped my tea about 30 seconds and added milk. I got watery milk with a hint of chai tea that you couldn’t even taste if you went looking for it. It’s a shame too because this place could be packed with better customer service and employees who cared. Unfortunately, the pastries don’t outweigh the bad service, so I will not be back. Posting photo of my inedible tea.

Food:
Amazing!!! Had delicious egg dish with hashbrown casserole!
Fantastic bakery with traditional and eclectic baked goods.
Service:
On par, was nice and polite
Would definitely go back! Loved it

The food is pretty good, It’s not on my list of favorites. The restuarant is pretty and a good size and service is decent. I had one insident where I was ordering a side fruit which I had gotten previously and was basically chewed out for trying to order and told I could not order it. Since then I haven’t really wanted to eat here.

REVIEW EDITED.
Since Lusa’s owners have closed down two of the three restaurants they opened around town (Thacker Loop Rd. & N. Lamar locations), the service and food has greatly improved compelling me to revise my original review (which is below the asterisked fold).
When I went back after a bit of a hiatus, I was pleasantly surprised by the speed, accuracy, and congeniality of the staff. The food was good. I ordered the chorizo eggs, which were during my previous visit downright awful. This time they were not runny, had plenty of chorizo, and came with a piece of toast that wouldn’t pass as a slab of concrete. I was quite pleased with the food I ordered and with the service I received.
Those who left Lusa because they didn’t receive the best service or the best food should try again!
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Lusa, what’s happened here? The addition of the Jackson Ave location has seemingly taken away from the great ambience and good, reliable service I had come to expect from my weekly visit.
I regularly went to Lusa in 2011 – 2012 following meeting one of Lusa’s employees at a local tavern. Now, I can’t bear to go there. Service is terrible. Food is mediocre. I’m so disappointed.
On a positive note, this is a recent development after Lusa attempted to open two new locations. One failed (the Thacker Loop Road location). The other location seems to be barely hanging on (the West Jackson Avenue location). So, I’m hoping that as they massage out the kinks of expanding their business they can recover.
The last time I was in Lusa was Mother’s Day on Jackson Ave and what a terrible time I had. When we arrived, there were no menus available. The line was nearly out the door, and my wife and I waited nearly thirty minutes for our food to arrive after we had ordered and paid.
I can’t bear to go back and be so disappointed by one of my favorite breakfast places to go.

** EDIT **
I’ve been back twice since ive written this review. Both times I picked up pastries to go, so service was better. They are still hiring new people, so the transition is not completely there yet. Cappuccino was HORRIBLE, but it was made by someone on her very first day, so I’m sure that had something to do with it. LOVE the coconut buns and cherry strudels!
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Note: This is actually for their new location over on West Jackson Avenue near Newks and Toyo sushi!
This place came highly recommended by a bunch of friends, so needless to say, when I got invited to Sunday brunch by a friend (who is a Lusa fan) and my boyfriend, I was beyond excited to check this place out!
This location over on Jackson Avenue is a great size! You walk up to the counter to order after browsing through their large displays of pastries (YUM!) and taking a look at their menu which is located at the front. I ordered the Chorizo Eggs breakfast platter with a chocolate connoli and fresh squeezed orange juice, my boyfriend ordered a ham and cheese croissant, the Chorizo Eggs Breakfast Platter and water, and my friend ordered a turkey and cheese croissant, Pastel de nata and fresh squeezed orange juice. Like many other restaurants such as Newks or McAllisters, you are given a number to place at your table in order for the server to bring you your food.
We received our pastries first (obviously, thats the quickest thing to get out) and I was definitely surprised about how good the cannoli was! My friend is a regular at Lusa, so she of course knew that she would love her pastry. about 15 minutes later, a server brings over two bottles of minute maid orange juice. We tell him that we had actually ordered fresh squeezed orange juice, and he informs us that they are out of oranges (Uh, why weren’t we told this when we ordered? Oh well, it was the same price anyways.) We received the Chorizo Eggs platters first, which were served on some sort of plastic plate (Not a big deal, since the prices are awesome). The scrambled eggs with Chorizo were great! A little runny, but not gross… Just delicious! The toast was a little too dry for my taste though. However, boyfriend actually found egg shells in his food… Totally bummer on his order. About 30 minutes later (after the breakfast platters were finished and we sat patiently waiting on the croissant orders), my friend calls over a server and asks him about the two croissant orders. He tells us that he will check on it and quickly walks off (presumably to check on the order, but we never heard back from him). Frustrated, my boyfriend walks up to the counter and politely asks that our croissant orders be changed to «To-​go.» Someone behind the counter very nicely apologizes for the delay, and quickly pulls out a turkey and cheese croissant and a ham and cheese croissant out of the display case and places it in a bag for us (Wait, WHAT?! Why couldn’t anyone have done this earlier? Though fresh would have been better. But still…)
Needless to say, my first experience at the Lusa on Jackson Avenue was not what I expected. However, the pastries and eggs were good. This location is new and they seem short-​staffed, so I will definitely remember to give them another try!

It’s disappointing that, after two years, their service doesn’t improve. The food is quite good, and the pastries are excellent. But the service is just incredibly mediocre or worse.
On our last visit, we went and it was full, but not busy and no line. We sat at a dirty table for more than five minutes before anyone bussed it away (and only because I flagged someone down, twice). Then, we waited more than 10 minutes for menus, or even just someone to come to our table to greet us. After I complained, we waited another several minutes. The table next to us had been there since we arrived as we had, and had only just gotten their drink orders. Finally, we just left. Basically, we were there, seated at a table for 20 minutes, without anyone coming by even to say «hello.»
This used to be a great option for Sunday brunch, but the service gets worse over time, not better. We may give it one more chance. But there are lots of other options in town. And because this is a «foodie» town, several are excellent brunch alternatives.
If its not busy at all, it’s probably fine and you’ll get some very good food. But if its a weekend or at all busy, you’re better off going elsewhere.