Lotus — Restaurant in Highgate

Worst restaurant ever! Experience started with the restaurant sign and online saying open from 11.30am till late. We arrived at 5.20pm and could not enter the restaurant.

We were seated and didn't get acknowledged by the waiters and waitresses. On multiple occasion we made eye contacts with them but they proceeded to do other tasks. It was a hot and humid day and the restaurant was unbearably hot and gross.

We ordered a few drinks but nothing alcoholic or fancy and felt like we were being judged. Five of us ordered the feed me menu and we told them that one of us is allergic to red meat.

Food came out and basically the waiters and waitresses just dumped the food on the table and walked away, no explanation or description whatsoever. Horrible attitude. This continued until the desserts, where this lovely lady actually asked whether we wanted to know what flavours they are etc.

Entrees were basically all the cheap vegetables cooked in different spices/sauces, nothing amazing. Mains came out and there was a beef dish. We questioned the waiter why there was red meat and he said no there's no red meat, only beef rendang. Beef is red meat! My friend is severely allergic to red meat and could kill him if ingested. This is very unacceptable. Beef rendang was average, and the fish dish had more sauce than the fish itself, very overpowering and basically inedible. Desserts were below average, the flavours didn't work at all and the textures were all wrong.

We also asked for tap water but all the tap water given to us were warm/room temperature but we see cold water sitting on the bar bench. We questioned whether we could have cold water and they said we will have to pay for the cold water as they were "filtered". It was a very hot and humid day and we couldn't have cold tap water from a restaurant without paying for it? Like seriously? It's 2025! The waiters and waitresses poured water for the other tables (who were caucasians) and just dumps the water bottles on the table on us, why? Because we are a group of 3 Asians and 2 Caucasians?? Racial profiling/discrimination much?

$82 pp for a feed me menu with cheap ingredients like broccoli, cauliflower, curry puffs and dry like sand popcorn chicken. Mains of 1 tiny prawn per person, 1 prawn hargow that tastes like flour, bland piece of roti, inedible fish, below average beef rendang and some thick horfun is just disappointing. $450 dollars later all we ended up with is $450 out of pocket and full of disappointment.

No idea how a restaurant like this has 4.7 stars from 2k+ reviews. Probably paid reviews. Definitely will not recommend as there are better...

Well I will go back again... Myself and my two brothers went here. When I walked in, I was taken with the layout and decor which was modern, upmarket, clean lines, tidy, tables set a goodly distance apart but still enough seating to take walk-ins (us) despite being quite busy even for a Monday. Has upstairs and downstairs with entry/exit points directly to neighbouring bars and restaurants. Our seating was comfortable. The staff were very attentive, friendly and on point. Providing our menus and asking if we'd like drinks, including water. I prefer having a drink while reading the menu. Most restaurants do not provide this service and I have to ask. The menu came in three sizes - Small, Medium, Large. This was strange to me but after being served, I thought it made a lot of sense. You and whoever you're with order up to three dishes each from small menu. These are like appetisers/entrees which you can share and they will provide one piece for each person. Medium menu is slightly larger pieces so you would order up to two dishes each again, they will give one piece per person. The Large menu is basically a main so if you're still hungry after eating S & M you order for yourself. The food is amazing with so many different flavourings in each dish, your pallette, well at least mine, was wanting to try other dishes but didn't want to look like a pig. 3x ppl x 9S, +6x M was enough for my older brother but myself and younger brother ordered a L, each. Incidentally, despite the amount of food we had, I did not feel bloated nor did my food sit heavily in my stomach which I was amazed and grateful for. My cocktails were nice as was the Red Wine my younger brother ordered. It was a great experience overall even my very "country" older brother who doesn't like going to Restaurants like this, enjoyed his food and himself. Spending an average of $100 each, it was well worth it. I highly recommend eating here. Btw, I didn't take pix of everything because I was "chomping at the bit" to...

My friend and I dined in on a weds night for dinner, we had a reservation for 8pm, the atmosphere was on point with warm moody lighting, gorgeous decor and I appreciated the background music was not too loud. Definitely great for bigger groups but not kid friendly.

We were seated at a small table by the window, with enough time to view the menu, not being huge eaters we decided to go all Carte and pick an appetiser, entree and a main to share. The waiter was polite but some how even with repeating the order he still got my friend’s drink order wrong - we ordered the same drink, just one with vodka, she didn’t want to make an issue of it so settled with what she was given. The some things I weren’t happy about the service were that we did wait a long time between our first 2 dishes and our main, the waiter came to ask if everything was ok as we were waiting then promptly announced he was refilling our water jug which was a third full - which was fine till I saw on the bill we were charged for another bottle of water which we didn’t ask for or drink. It also took awhile for our leftovers to be packed up after we asked so by the time we left it was practically 10pm

Food wise the portions were decent for the pricing we ordered the butter chicken curry puffs - the pastry was really flaky and the filling was overall delicious but the pastry was bit oily and the ah char was unbalanced too sweet and not pickled enough. The kingfish sashimi was probably our favourite dish, it was absolutely amazing and I could eat a ton of it, the sauce was zesty and fresh and a total flavour explosion. For main we had the beef rendang with rice, it came a bit on the cold side, flavour wise it was nice and the spices were well balanced but overall lacked salt as the potatoes made it a bit on the bland side, I appreciate a well cooked potato in a curry but just a bit of salt in the boiling water would’ve made the difference.

I’d dine again but definitely book ahead for an earlier...