Lela - Bloomington

Very unattended and uneventful evening. Would consider going back, but nothing particular to draw.

We took our adult children for dinner and wanted a place that we could have a conversation. There was just the right amount of background noise. food was amazing. We will definitely be back.

Taking advantage of Restaurant Week, we decided to try Lela for dinner on a Friday night. The dining room is wide open with hard-surfaced tile walls and a view of the kitchen so it was very lively with all tables nearly full, but not super busy. The booth seat my wife sat on was very hard and uncomfortable while my chair was comfortable so we exchanged seats and she was right, it hurt my bottom after a while. The Restaurant Week dinner menu was 3 courses so we opted to order from that. Adelle, our server, was prompt and knowledgeable offering menu suggestions that I always appreciate. He started off by saying that the dishes were mostly Italian inspired I would disagree. Being Italian, a meatball appetizer and a gnocchi dish do not define Lela as an Italian Restaurant as seen in the offerings we chose. For the appetizer course, we ordered Lela’s Simple Salad with cherry tomatoes and lemon vinaigrette, and the Peruvian Ceviche of Hamachi with coconut milk, lime juice, habanero chili, garlic, ginger, and cilantro. The salad was just okay, and the Hamachi was quite watery indicating it was not freshly prepared and all I could taste was lime juice. The other flavors were washed out so it was not a pleasant dish. My wife had the Steak Frites, a perfect medium-rare hanger steak with freshly made fries. The fries were not as crispy as they should be but tasted fresh. I had the Pan Roasted Skuna Bay Salmon with “melted leeks, mushrooms, and beure blanc lemon butter sauce that I pared with a glass of Böen Pinot Noir that was superb! The salmon was nicely roasted and moist that pared perfectly with the leeks and sauce – for sure the best dish of the night! The Chocolate Mousse was actually a small dry chocolate cake with something resembling chocolate shavings, but was actually a sugary wafer broken up over the top. Lela was a hit and miss for us on many counts and not a restaurant I will likely go back to, especially with the loud noise levels. There are better options!

We e been here a couple of times, the Devi e is phenomenal and the food is fantastic. Great wine list!

I've heard a few people talk highly of Lela, but it just wasn't my experience. Nothing was disastrously wrong, it simply wasn't worth the money for me.