Ivo & Lulu
- Nearest Transit:
Spring St-6th Ave (C, E)
Canal-Varick Sts (1)
Canal-Church Sts (A, C, E)
- Hours:
Mon-Sun 6:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m. - Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: No
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: No
- Good for Kids: No
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: No
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: No
- Good for: Dinner
- Alcohol: None
110 Reviews for Ivo & Lulu
BYOB with no corkage fee - great service - REALLY great summer ragout.
try it for yourself.
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LOVED it! so delicious, friendly french owners, reminded me of being back in France! and the BYOB wine is a great deal for those of us who try to drink for less moolah.
i feel like some of these reviews are just looking for something to criticize? i've lived (and eaten) in France and around Europe so i feel pretty qualified to say it was awesome. spices, salt, whatever, it was super tasty!
I really wanted to love this place, but it just didn't do it for me. Flavors were good and bold, but a lot of dishes were over salted and drenched in whatever they marinated it with. I would say the appetizers were better than the mains. My boyfriend really liked the terrine de venison, which I thought was pretty decent... but it was very heavy. After eating that, we were pretty full! The escargots are canned, so I would not get that again.
I think one of the main problems with the mains is lack of variety on the dish. When you ask for Saucisses de lapin -- that's what you get. And a little pile of couscous. No matter how delicious the sausage is (it had an interesting taste that I liked, but my boyfriend found too strange)... It's really difficult to eat three large sausages without any significant form of vegetables or rice... by the end, you're just eating piece after piece of sausage with no diversity. The magret was decent... a little oversalted, but easier to eat without any sides. However, the words "juicy" "succulent" "perfect" never came to mind while eating it. Not even close. Our positive thoughts throughout the dinner was, "this is good value" and that's what this place is. Good value.
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I was so, so, SO ready to like this place. But I just couldn't.
The mussels were totally drowned in a confused medley of too many spices. I can't say it was bad, but it was definitely not good. There was so much seasoning that the mussels themselves could have been rotten and I would never have guessed. I ordered the duck for my entree, and it was good but not the melt-in-your-mouth-deliciousness I was hoping for. The other entries I tried were also mediocre, at best. They messed up on one of our orders and when it finally arrived, the rest of us were done and he had to scarf it down. At least they comped his dessert. The apple tart was good, but nothing special. The coconut flan was probably the only real standout.
Sure, BYOB. Yeah, cute Frenchie service. And affordable and quaint! But I most definitely prefer La Sirene next door.
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So I used to come into NYC as a child and eat at a Caribbean place called Coral Reef. It is gone. That makes me sad. So my dad, trying to help me get over the sadness on this our trip this weekend found Ivo and Lulu to suppress my need for exotic food types.
It is for sure a cute tiny. We were the only people there when we arrived for our reservation. We had attentive service, but not overly in your face. I only had one choice on the entree side- so veggies beware if you don't like squash ragout this may not be a good choice for you. I like squash so I was OK with it. If the only choice was mushrooms, I could have been the aforementioned vomiting girl on the sidewalk. But I digress...
The pear appetizer was AWESOME! And the potatoes were to die for. I like BYOB, I get to cheap out on the drinks. All in all it was a cute good dinner. The staff was all very nice and I know that dad and the step mom really had a good time. I am not sure if I would trek out there again, it was a little off the beaten path, but I am glad to have tried it once.
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I really like Ivo & Lulu but I can't give them more than a three spot. Like many of the others stated, hole - byob (w no corking fee) - and original food.
When the wine bottles are flowing, the noise levels escalate to yelling over your neighbors. The service is what it is but it gets hot in here in the summer. The food is original but heavy so it's a spot I frequent more in the winter. For French Caribbean there's not really any "light" options on the menu so if you go in the summer pick a cool evening.
Enjoy
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Ivo & Lulu offers quite an unfamiliar set of cooking tradition and practice. Ingredients are blended together to create dishes far from what I know. It was however, one of the best I have experienced in NY.
Each dish was small with completely strong flavors. I am going to assume that this type of cooking can and will attract negative reviews.
My reason for enjoying this restaurant so much, is because of its satisfying yet unfamiliar flavors.
Perhaps I am missing out on the real deal elsewhere?
Ivo & Lulu has a quaint essence about it, it must be the Carribbean music, and the ridiculously tight seating, or the flowing wine on everyone's tables.
The food, however, was slightly disappointing. I had the scalloped potato appetizer and my dish was more than 50% cheese. I'm not a French food expert but it was so cheesy and rich that I couldn't finish it despite my hunger.
The chocolate dessert was pleasant - though I'm not sure if it was the contrast to the potatoes that made it so tasty.
Ivo and Lulu is amazing. I live in Denver, but whenever I'm in New York, this is definitely a highlight of my trip. It's the greatest place in the world to get a small group of friends together, crack open a bottle of wine, and enjoy a great night of conversation and great food.
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This place is quaint and very authentic! The servers and owner actually speak French. Our party ordered the duck and the boar. Don't get the boar - it just looks like 3 breakfast sausages. The duck, on the other hand, was exquisite! And so cheap for a french place. We also got the dessert, which was disappointing. Next time, I'm going just for the duck and the authenticity!
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When there has been THIS many reviews about a place, what can you do to spice things up a bit?
I know. Talk about underage drinking.
I came here with my cousin Anna D (who offends me by using Yelp for its resources yet never contributing-- but that is neither here nor there) to have a romantic cousinly dinner to celebrate our 20th birthday. She said she didn't want the usual cuisine, she wanted something different. So I did my research, bookmarked this place forever ago, and now it no longer has to be filed under "to try." Because, um, I've tried it.
It took us a while to get here, we may have gotten a little lost on Canal St. and I quickly lost my patience with the random man or woman mumbling "you want handbag?" to which I yelled back,
"BUT YOURS AREN'T REAL! STOP IT!"
We eventually got to Ivo + Lulu, a little sweaty from aggressively running away from the tragedy that is Canal St. (I hope I have not offended anyone). We had reservations, but didn't need it, there were still a couple of tables open on a Saturday evening. So we sat down. But there was a problem.
The wine. I had been carrying it in my purse (in a brown paper bag, a-thank-you) and it was now at a very tasty room temperature. So we ask if they could be so kind as to help us chill it. No problem. No problem at all. We put in our orders for appetizers (me, the roasted pear, her the scalloped potatoes) and patiently wait for the wine to chill while having our way with the bread. Holy hell, it really hit the spot.
Then the pear and potatoes came, and the waiter uncorked the wine for us. Anna took that moment as her cue to announce that we were celebrating our birthday.
Waiter: "Oh really? How old are you two?"
Anna: Twenty...
Me, realizing she's an idiot and Anna realizing she's an idiot..: "One! Twenty one!"
Waiter, laughing: "Ah, I see. Well enjoy your meal"
That we did, but not before I gave her a stern talking to about the intricacies of underage BYOB. The waiter obviously knew we were not of age but was all "whatever man" about it. He was also kind of sexy with his long hair and his French accent. But again, that is neither here nor there.
Holy mother of sweet Hey-sus, that was some good food. Everything was good. The pear was divine, the scalloped potatoes nicely crawled into my arteries, my duck was sick-nasty (but in a good way), Anna's chicken was good (probably the least tasty but still good), and this needs a line of its own:
COCONUT FLAN.
Hey sup, wanna hook up sometime? You can define hooking up however you want, coconut flan, do dirty things to me. Because if loving you is wrong, coconut flan, I don't ever... ever want to be right.
The sexy French long-haired waiter comped our desserts. I didn't even have to offer him sexual favors. He also put candles in our desserts (Anna got an apple souffle which was okay, but the coconut flan was embarrassed to be seen by it, I could tell) and was just awesome.
I gave him a big tip. But only the monetary kind.
I walked out of Ivo and Lulu in a fantastic mood, a little loopy from the wine but with belly full and most importantly...
A giant smile on my face. A fantastic birthday dinner, indeed.
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Decent hole in the wall place near the Holland Tunnel. The restaurant is located off a busy street which is cobble stoned that adds to the restaurant's uniqueness.
I give it a 4 out of 5 stars for what the restaurant is - decent food, BYOB, hole in the wall restaurant.
The place is very small - rather tiny, be prepared to sit on top of each other and strangers to enjoy the very limited menu.
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TERRIBLE!!!
My mom and I went there because the yelp reviews raved about it. However.... it was so dark I literally couldn't see my food (and I have 20/20 vision)- I didn't realize until halfway through that my appetizer was something very different than what I thought. The service was slowwwwwwwwwwww, terribly slow. We asked for our check, and she forgot to bring it. Food took FOREVER to be served. The food was TERRIBLE- the summer squash dish was so gross I took two bites and stopped there. The music in the place was soooo loud it was impossible to have a conversation. The yelp reviews say the duck melts in your mouth but it was so chewy. Maybe it was an off night, I am not sure.
But I will definately not be returning.....
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A decent hole-in-the-wall joint off Soho, closer to Holland Tunnel entrance on Varick Street. This place is REALLY small, I had to squeeze myself into the bench against the wall and I swear the gap between tables was only 6" apart. It was only after we left the place that we realized there was another dining area two doors away (weird, it's not directly next door and there's no access from one to the other, so the waitress had to bring food from the kitchen, out to the street, and into the other space). The ambiance next door appeared a lot nicer, with lots of soft candle lights everywhere. We were sitting near the kitchen, nothing much to say about the decoration here.
Anyhoo, my friends and I tried the following:
Escargots Sautes - sauteed snails, pernod, cayenne-curry sauce
(I found the cayenne-curry sauce to be slightly bitter.)
Avocat Grille - grilled avocado, spinach and veggie mousse with a sesame shitake mushroom vinaigrette
(Interesting. Didn't eat much because I'm allergic to avocado.)
Terrine De Faisant - faisant pate, truffle oil, cognac, brie crust
(Very good, wish it was bigger so that I could hog all of it, hahaha.)
Magret - smoked duck breast in a tangerine and peppercorn reduction
(The duck was a wee fatty, but I scarfed it all down anyway. I loved the tangerine sauce.)
Saucisses De Sanglier - boar and sage sausages, blueberry sauce
(I can't get over the sauce, it was tasty, sorta like barbecue sauce with evident blueberry flavour).
I think the fusion of French and Carribean flavours is definitely interesting and I enjoyed my meal here. Didn't stay for dessert though, and it wasn't because I was full. *shrug* Just wasn't in a dessert mood that evening.
CONCLUSION: Affordable, unpretentious, but I wouldn't say it's the most delicious place I've eaten at.
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very disappointing....and i've had this restauarant on my list for a few months. the byob/byow (wine) is great. i did not mind buying a $28 bottle of santa margherita white and a $21 Rose wine. for three people, app an entree each-dinner was $89. thank goodness, as the food quality was horrible.
grilled avocado - we were curious so we tried it and we had one bite and almost hurled. hot avocado? it tasted rotten. the sauce was very suspect.
grilled pear w/ blue cheese was nice...good enough...nice sweetness with the cheese melted and a light balsamic sauce.
mussels - were drowned with too much seasoning. spicy jerk seasoning, all you could taste was the seasoning and tiny mussels.
meanwhile - the group behind us were clearly a very young group. 3 guys, that gave each other high fives throughout dinner. classy.
the group of girls beside them - was having fun....so much fun because the entire restaurant was clearly under the age of 21.
so come here to drink and play with the food. i can't even talk about the entrees.
we had the poullet, boar sausage, duck.
very small portions which is fine...but the chicken was overcooked, the boar sausage was fine - but too garlicky, and the duck was good enough. all the sauces were very amateur. no clear direction in taste.
as i walked by the kitchen it's clear that it's all cooked before hand and they just put a sauce on top and every dish gets a 1/4 cup of cous cous.
that's it kids...have fun drinking here....did i mention the Wine was excellent?
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WOW. wow. This place is so yummy! I mean so yummy! and it's BYOB so you can grab a bottle of your favorite wine and save a little coin. Not that it matters, since this place is priced so well, in fact, I was a little shocked it was so cheap. Decor was very cool, chill and had a French flair to it. Nice for casual dates and dinners for two - not recommended for groups...unless you book the whole place (it's tiny) and in that case, I bet it'd be fun! I'd say 2-4 if perfect.
Grilled Artichoke - Must have, the sauce is also great for dipping their fresh bread in
Scalloped Potatoes - Holy Begeezus, this was unreal! There was a crispy salty layer in top that cracked open into gruyere goodness...
Duck with Balsamic Reduction - Perfect portion, super moist and yum-my
Do it.
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Whoa - I dont now that I ever ate at such a divisive place before in my life. It really seems to be 1's or 5's out there. My wife and I had a fabulous dinner there. The price just can't be beat, Seems like the menu doesnt change though, it would be nice if they at least had specials.
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I went to Ivo & Lulu last night for the first and last time. The atmosphere is cute; small, cozy and dark. The food is TERRIBLE. Between my friend and I, we ordered 3 starters and 1 entree. All four dishes were no good. For starters we had baked avocado--which was just a hot, mushy mess. Then we ordered mussels that came out of the shells and in a thick, jerk paste. Our entree was chicken with goat cheese which normally would be great--who doesn't love goat cheese. But the cheese was melted so much that it was just liquid fused with fruit. The cheese lost all of it's wonderful cheese flavor and just tasted bad, smelly and dirty. The only decent dish we had was the gratin. But how can you mess up potato, cheese and cream. It wasn't great but by far the best option.
With all of the wonderful places to eat in NYC, do not go here.
To add insult to injury, the service was bad too.
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So inconspicuous you are, Ivo & Lulu, but yet so unforgettable. Easily missed, I&L can almost appear to be another hole-in-the-wall. But it's not. Oh no, it is so far from that. It's everything you would want in a great French/Caribbean meal, minus the glitz and the glam that some restaurants try to fluff you with.
The biggest attraction here: the food. Okay, duh, it's a restaurant. But there's not much else to distract your attention from the amazing-ness that they cook up in them kitchens there. I like this. I don't want to be distracted by awful music or by loud decor while eating a meal (well, not usually, anyways). It's quaint and comforting, but it is a tad crowded. In order for me to get into my seat, the table had to be pulled out. That's fine with me.
The menu isn't extensive, but quality, not quantity, seems to be the main theme here. I chose the chicken (poulet) and the one who sits across from me chose the duck (confit). The chicken was so tender and soft, and came in easy-to-eat strips. I like it when I don't have to gnaw my food off a bone. The sauce it came in was plum flavored, I believe, and with the first bite I was taken aback a little (it's a distinct taste) but by the second bite, I was sold. I tried a bite of the duck: perfection. The skin, crispy, the inside, soft. The side of couscous wasn't my favorite part, but it was still good, none the less.
Every other minute one of us would mutter, "Wow, this is so good." or "No, really. This is really good." Like clockwork. Because it was. Really good. And then came the dessert. We split the chocolate mousse, recommended to us by our adorable French waitress who gave us a quick lesson in french and was kind enough to notice that our shaky table needed to be propped (hint: great service). It was creamy and smooth, everything chocolate mousse should be. We thought, now this is the perfect way to end a meal.
We quickly realized that we were wrong, when the check came out to a measly $37 bucks. Now THAT'S the perfect way to end a meal.
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I love everything about Ivo & Lulu. It is my favorite restaurant in Manhattan. I have had countless wonderful meals here to the tune of French hip hop. You will fall in love with your date. There is something magical about this place.
Incredibly well priced with a really interesting and delightful menu. I had red pears covered with melted gorgonzola as an appetizer (AMAZING), the duck which was cooked perfectly (i think it was also about $13 - delicious duck for 13 bucks? yes please!). It's super tiny inside and it helps to have a reservation if you're going to get there on the later side. the hostess and wait staff were charming. BYOB and cash only, so plan accordingly.
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I can't relate to any of the negative reviews about the service here. Yea, the place is tiny, but privacy is overrated. Two of us were there around 730 on a Friday and there was plenty of space (we had a reservation) but by 8 it was starting to fill up.
We ordered the escorgot as an appetizer, but for some reason the adorable waitress heard mussels. She apologized, they were on the house, and then sent us the escargot. Turns out the mussels were way better anyway. The sauce was addicting, whereas the sauce for the escargot was overpowering and salty.
Our delicious bread was refilled for us. The waitress uncorked our byo wine- no corkage fee, how can you not love that.
The smoked duck was perfection with a smokey, bacon tasting skin, tender meat, and well balanced sauce.
Cute that they have a Yelp sticker in the window.
I'd like to give this a 3.5 - I like that it's a tiny hole in the wall, that it's a BYOB, and that the servers and entire atmosphere are unpretentious. It seems like it'd be a great neighborhood go-to restaurant.
The food was on the good side, but nothing really stood out. All the reviews say that this place is romantic but the night I went, a group of about 5 women were so loud that had I been on a date, it would have been completely ruined. The place is so tiny that it only takes one table to ruin your meal, so if it's a first date, I probably wouldn't chance it.
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Awesome little place. BYOB and very rich, delicious French food.
Make sure if you get a reservation to stay in the main room, we
got seated in the next room they have for overflow... not half as
lively. But the service and the food were totally exceptional and
made up for it.
Would suggest trying : beet salad w/cheese, escargot (tried it
for the first time), boar sausage with blueberries, and duck breast
dish - oh yeah, and dessert: we got the coconut flan and chocolate
cake/mousse (wow!! we totally indulged!!)
Go, eat, enjoy -- not good for anyone watching their weight, everything
is too good to pass up.
My absolutely favorite BYOB in the city, hands down.
I was introduced to Ivo & Lulu by my bf at the time. Appparently this was THE place he took all the girls. I should have known that things weren't going to work out. But I got a great restaurant recommendation out of it, so it wasn't a total loss. And I have since introduced Ivo & Lulu to my extended social circle...and now we all rub elbows, exes, bf's, gf's, best friends, enemies, frenemies, second cousins. One big happy family.
Sebastian who used to run this place has since move to Grenada, I believe. His spirit is sorely missed from this place. It's still perfectly charming, serving amazing organic food from a tiny tiny kitchen. If you ever want to impress a date, come here. Things may not work out between the two of you, but you'll always have fond memories of Ivo & Lulu to look back upon. And if you hit it off and get married...name your first kid "ivo" and the second one "lulu". :P
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I live in a West Indian neighborhood and have had a good share of West Indian cuising. I wouldn't say that I a connoisseur, but French/Caribbean fusion, cuisine is a great mix and a mouth-full.
Try the Saucisses De Sanglier - boar and sage sausages, blueberry sauce. It's fantastic.
The staff was cool, but the patrons were a weird mix of "I" banker, frat doods and a sprinkle of arsty peeps. There was a long wait, but the prices are decent and the food is worth it.
Cute, with a limited but interesting menu, with items such as the creamy, flavorful (but greasy) pheasant terrine and venison terrine, and the boar sausage and rabbit sausage, which combine the gamey flavors of boar or rabbit with a sweet, fruity sauce. Service was a little spotty. They didn't seem to really listen to us when we were ordering. When we ordered dessert, they forgot one of our orders and when we asked about it they said they didn't put the order in, and tried to rush us when we finally got it.
I was looking forward to dining at Ivo & Lulu for some time. After going however, I thought this restaurant was very overrated and was disappointed. There seems to be the tendency that any small and cozy restaurant serving "unique" / seasonal cusine is always a hit. Wrong. The food wasn't horrible, but it wasn't memorable. I typically love tiny establishments that exude warmth and intimacy but this place was very small, narrow, and the interior just wasn't welcoming at all. Avoid sitting in the table next to the wall by the counter/cashier with views into the "kitchen"--not a very pleasant view.
The menu is very limited...they had one lamb dish that was pretty good. The meat was falling off the bones and was very tender, but it was on the sweet side. I had a pork tenderloin dish that was dry and overcooked. Also on the dry side. The portions here are also small.
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This is the first time I have ever given a rating below three stars, and that's saying something.
I know. The place is hot. And when I called them at 1 pm on Friday afternoon to see what time I should get there if I wanted to avoid an uberlong wait, it would have been nice if they had told me I should just make a reservation, which you apparently CAN do, contrary to previous Yelp findings. Instead, he told me to come in around 7.
Running late as usual, I lugged my wine there around 7:45 and the GM told our party of four he didn't know how long the wait would be.
8:00 I ask how long we can expect to wait. GM says 15-20 min. 2 tables for 4 clear out, another party is seated before ours.
8:30 We ask if we can sit at the empty table for four, which has been empty since 8. He says no, there is a 9 pm reservation and he has to keep the table available for them. RESERVATION?!? Why didn't he say so when I called and asked when I should come in? Yes, my fault, too for not asking but you'd think if someone says they wanna come in that night for dinner, you would suggest a reservation. Am I crazy?
9:00 We ask when our table might be ready. He says 20 minutes. We ask for a corkscrew and glasses. We break open our bottle of wine and start drinking. The wait is becoming tedious.
9:30 The table for 4 is still empty. We could have eaten and left by now. We ask again. He tells us another 20 minutes.
9:45 They seat a 9:30 reservation at the table we've been eying since 8.
10:00 We put our coats on to leave. The GM finally realizes we exist and tells us he has a table ready for us. He escorts us to the other room. We realize he is actually leading us to the bar and there is actually no free table. As we turn to leave, he assures us that he will tell the table that has already paid that he needs them to leave to open up the table. As he approaches the table, he stops and says something briefly, which definitely was too short to be a polite suggestion that they leave, and walks out.
He flat out lied to us. Pretty much all night. I was very patient. I have absolutely no qualms about waiting to eat when I know how long I should expect to wait, but I do take issue when someone blatantly misrepresents the wait when he has every intention of serving all of the reservations first. If that's the case, just tell us we don't have an ice cube's chance in hell of getting a table, and we'll leave and come back another time bc we won't be so angry about being strung along for over 2 hours.
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Extremely delicious and very romantic. Its amazing how much they can do in such a tiny kitchen!
They food was extremely well prepared the service was friendly and attentive and the price was very reasonable.
I hope to be back again soon.
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"This is so good." That was about 90% of our dinner conversation. I wanted to talk about something else, but after each bite all that I could say was "this is so good".
I would highly recommend both the mussels and the baked pear. I don't even normally like mussels but my plate was bone-dry when I was finished with it. We had to ask for more bread so we could clean up all the sauce the mussels came in. The baked pear with blue cheese was such an awesome surprise. I thought it sounded a bit weird, but loved every bite of it.
The service was great. We showed up about 20 minutes early for our reservation and were seated promptly. Everyone was friendly and helpful with questions about the menu.
It is a very small place, and unfortunately for us the drunk chick two tables away was very, very loud. I guess that is what happens with BYOB! Overall, I would highly recommend Ivo & Lulu. I am looking forward to going back again!
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Ivo & Lulu is an fantastic, heavenly place, if you come with the right expectations. Yes, the space is crowded. If you need more than 2 inches between your table and your neighbor's, this is probably not the best restaurant for you. The good news is that Ivo & Lulu turned the neighboring organic beer bar into an extension of the restaurant, so there it now has three times the seating capacity and a much shorter wait. I now may even be able to bring a group larger than 4 people there.
The service is always friendly and attentive. It feels like a French family is serving you their special family recipes. Great dishes include: the poached pear with blue cheese, the mussels in spicy sauce, the chicken with goat cheese and papaya sauce (my fav), the duck in orange sauce (it seriously tastes like steak), and the acorn squash soup. One appetizer and one entree per person is plenty to fill you up, and the prices can't be beat. Do keep in mind though that the menu rarely changes, and it is cash only. Last but not least, the BYOB is always clutch.
Great little and i mean little place for a cozy and satisfying meal. We ordered the squash,the duck marget ,the avacado and the pear.
The service was great . This is a very cute restaurant. If u are down in Soho u should definatley check this out.
Look for the red star in the window.
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Love this place. Unpretentious, great service. Incredible food + BYOB policy. The escargot here is to die for. Unfortunately, they had run out of desserts by the time we got to it. Will definitely have to go back.
Wouldn't suggest this place for more than 4 people. And really, it's probably best with just 2. We got lucky. We were the only couple waiting for a table and got seated immediately. Groups who had been waiting before we even arrived were still waiting by the time we were done.
Cash only here - and ATMs are hard to find around this place so come prepared.
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Ivo & Lulu is aborable and positively chic without trying too hard. The menu is short and sweet full of esoteric items. We started with the famous mussels with a chili-cilantro sauce. YUM. The portion was a bit small to share, but boy was that sauce incredibly flavorful and reminiscent of my mother's fabulous indian curries.
I then had the boar and duck sausages, my dinner companion ordered the duck in tangerine sauce. We both agreed the sausage was an overall more successful and flavorful dish, however the duck was great too. The tangerine sauce was a little weird I think.
Deducting one star for the weak dessert options. We ordered the apple souffle (more like a light apple cake than a souffle) which was dry and had clearly been made earlier than night, and the chocolate mousse - nothing special.
Love the BYOB aspect, the closest wine shop is on Spring & Sullivan (1 ave block + a few street blocks over).
The main dining room is impossibly small, but I think they've purchased a space two doors down with additional seating which is nice. The poor bus boy had to constantly run plates of food from the kitchen to the other dining area though.
Be prepped to wriggle in and out of tight spaces if you eat here but overall I&L is a fantastic gem of a restaurant!!
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Got there at 9:30 on a Friday. The waitress/hostess asked us if we had a reservation, as to which I replied that I didn't know they took reservations. she informed me they'd been taking reservations for about two years.
SO, DESPITE WHAT IS SAID ABOVE, IVO AND LULU DOES INDEED ACCEPT RESERVATIONS.
She told us to wait until 10 and then we could be seated. Not too bad considering we had brought two bottles of wine, so we decided to open one and proceeded to drink while waiting outside. The weather was a bit chilly so the cabernet warmed us up.
10:30 rolls around, still not seated, a bit buzzed and getting a bit more annoyed. the manager informs us that we will have to sit at the bar when a private party is going on. Now, normally this would be unacceptable, but considering we were all starving and had our buzz going, we decided that this would work.
The private party was for a girl's 30th bday so as we walked in the entire room looked at us with expressions on their faces that said, "Do we know you?". I mean, yes it was a bit awkward. The bday girl's ipod was pumping through the sound system for god's sake. Nevertheless we sat down at the bar and ordered. Our apps came and they were good. I recommend the potato whatever dip thingy and the mussels were great. People were taking Jello shots and Patron shots around us (yes byob is not limited to wine) so i instructed one of our party members to run down the street to the liquor store and pick up a bottle of grey goose. She did. We were all pretty sloppy by the time the waitress told us that we could sit in the other room if we wanted. We did want to, our necks were beginning to hurt from not facing one another.
We sat down at our table, it was 11:15 and took more vodka shots.
Our food came and we were disappointed.
Let me stop for a moment.
Picture this: waiting for almost 2 hours, piss drunk, and awaiting a home cooked french meal...we REALLY didn't need great food to impress us. To be honest, in our states, if they gave us a few dollar menu items we would have been pleased. If they threw in honey mustard sauce this would have been a 5 star review despite the long wait. However, no such luck. Instead of Wendy's deliciousness we got duck and chicken. Neither of them were too good, both over cooked and prepared poorly.
They gave my friend a wine glass of whiskey on the house. Looking back on it, where did they get that whiskey?
It looks like a lot of fun for a private party, but unless long waits and eccentric (not good eccentric) food is your style, I wouldn't recommend this place.
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Apparently my friend Jennifer and I enjoyed this place more than the woman who was puking her guts outside when we left.
It's a pretty tight squeeze in there - I think the man sitting next to me was unknowingly fondling my knee, I wasn't quite sure. My attention was solely drawn upon my rabbit sausage, made up of the tenderest parts of ground up baby bunnies. In the words of Colonel Sanders, "finger lickin' good."
Jennifer had the duck, which was cooked in a light cherry sauce, so delectable in fact, that when Jennifer had finished and the waiter was about to clear the dishes, I almost smacked his hand away so I could suck on the bones for a few minutes longer.
Mango Mousse made me cream my pants - making walking out of the restaurant kind of tricky. When we got outside, I pointed and exclaimed, "would you look at all that puke!" Failing to notice that the puker was still there crouched over her own puke, looking up at me like a wounded animal, wanting to denounce me as a cruel, heartless bastard, but too caught up between gasping breaths.
I bet you it was the escargot. Only escargot would induce such violent projectile vomit, covering the side of the restaurant and the sidewalk. I refuse to go near the stuff. Growing up in rainy Washington State, my brother and I salted legions of slugs and snails on our way to school, watching them burn and bubble in their own acid in morbid fascination. The escargot must have been burning and bubbling in her stomach until it exploded like a Chinese fireworks factory. Kabloooey! Escargot = BLECK.
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If you're looking for something a little bit different, this is definitely the place! Ivo & Lulu's fuses classic French technique and preparation with sunny Carribean flavors for a delicious and enlightening adventure.
The grilled avocado appetizer is surprising and decadent. A whole, ripe avocado is split in half and seeded, topped with some sort of creamy and flavorful avocado mixture, and then grilled. I'd never had warm avocado before --only chilled in a dip or smoothie-- and the addition of heat and smokiness, along with a bright sesame vinaigrette, brought this mundane fruit to a whole new level.
The duck confit was equally amazing. Underneath a thin layer of meltingly crisp skin was meat tender almost to the point of falling off the bone. The meat alone was delicious, but the mango sauce it came in really put it over the top. I'm not a huge fan of duck, but I know that this will be one of those dishes that I'll be craving!
Just come with an open mind -- be prepared to squeeze into a tiny, quaint space, don't expect beef on the menu, and bring cash to pay for your meal.
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This place is good for anyone who wants to have a French romantic dinner without being cash conscious. Of course this is reflected on the little things like the serving plates having little splatters of sauce on it and the mish mashed artwork up on the wall.
entrees and mains are both under 15$
The two people who run this place are extremely accomodating and nice as my bf and i showed up at 10.30pm on valentines day without a reservation and t he pace was packed out.
he had the escargots and i the mussels. both in a sort of spicy aromatic little bowl different flavours.
next up was sausages and i had the duck confit.
by then i was getting a bit drunk and i remember just downing this duck like anything. it was tasty, salty and cris