Liliana’s: The Chef’s Response

Madison Dining Online recently reviewed Liliana’s Restaurant in Fitchburg.   You can see that review here.  While we liked the restaurant, and recommended that our Madison Diners give it a try, there were some problem which we experienced that were pointed out in our review.

Chef/Owner Dave Heide appears to have put considerable thought and time into crafting a very well articulated response.  We appreciate this, and while we will leave the response as a comment listed on the original review, we believe that the effort Chef Heide went through to respond deserves to have greater visibility.  And so we’re including it below, in this post.

We wish Chef Heide, and all at Liliana’s, the best. 

Dear Reviewer
First, thanks for the kind words about us. We really appreciate them. And thanks for your constructive and kindly-worded criticism. As a brand new restaurant, we’re still ironing out a few kinks—and we want you to know that we’re working hard every single day to get everything perfect. Anything less than exceeding all of our guests’ expectations, every time, would never be acceptable to us.

I’ll do my best to answer your specific concerns.
As far as table size and overcrowding, we researched tables and decided on fairly typical sizes, especially for restaurants seeking an intimate atmosphere. Still, if the tables seem too small, we need to address that concern. What we are working on now is a better system of keeping the table cleared as much as possible and streamlining the plating/presentation side of things. We think you’ll notice the improvement the next time you visit us.

You may be happy to know that we’ve also added an expediter to facilitate kitchen/wait staff communications and make sure the time between courses is less. It’s one of the great challenges of restaurant management, and we think we’re getting better and better at it—but seamless, streamlined perfection is what we’re striving for.

We took very seriously the comments you had for each of our dishes you tried, and rejoice about the things you loved. But we want every dish to be perfect. As far as the chicken entree you wrote about, we have implemented changes in the kitchen to ensure that the dish is consistently as good as it was meant to be, and we’ve increased the portion size. As for the doneness of the chicken, one of the problems we have run into with organic birds is that the meat will be fully cooked to temperature, but as the meat rests the blood will leech out from the bone. This gives the impression that the chicken is undercooked, but I can assure you that no matter how long the chicken is cooked, there will still be blood at the bone. I’m hopeful that our guests’ palates will confirm that the chicken is properly cooked, even when their eyes can’t. In any event, I can personally assure you that quality in the kitchen is absolutely foremost at Liliana’s—we take your concerns very seriously.
Thanks for giving us a second chance. Every comment you’ve made pushes us to do even better, to try even harder to make every dining experience at Liliana’s a perfect and memorable occasion. We’re grateful you’ve stuck with us so far, and promise that each and every subsequent visit will be even better than the one before.
Sincerely,
Dave Heide
Owner/Chef, Liliana’s Restaurant

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