Lola's Lounge — Restaurant in Sarnia

It was our 28th wedding anniversary and we decided to dine at Lola's Lounge. I found the place small and cosy; but kind of outdated with an outrageously price menu and not much to account for in terms of quality and $14.00 margarita drink ouch! that did not deliver its flavour. Friendly staff , very loud loud place to have a nice relax dinner without hearing a large group patrons talking very very loudly ( no mask after finished dining) and thinking of COVID -19 particles dancing across to my table. My intuition warm me to keep mask on. I couldn't even hear the waitress when placing my order. When I made a brief comment on noise level I was told "this is a very busy place". I asked for the empty booths but I was told they were reserved. We decided to have an appetizer and depart as fast as we could. But later waiters came back and offer us another table near the bar ( much quieter ); we decided to stay and order dinner. The lamb appetizer was great, however the $13 clam chowder, let me tell it should be call a potato chowder instead of clam chowder, perhaps the ALL the calms went back to the sea lol :(. The fish dinner (arctic char) $28.00 was tasty; on the other hand, the Tango Thai hot pot chicken and shrimp didn't delivered; price at $25 00; a large plate full of noodles with coconut milk sauce; 3 small shrimps , 4 VERY small pieces of chicken,( about an inch each) 8 small pieces of baby /young corn and 8 slices of watercress chestnut in other words the dish should be rename "Lets Tango watercress corn baby" ;too much baby corn and watercress chestnut Unfortunately, my dining experience did not exceeded my...

The food is great. Wonderful job kitchen staff!!!! The servers are kind and knowledgable, with that being said the manager knows nothing about proper customer service. Very unprofessional.

In response:

I was there for a romantic special occasion dinner with my husband. I ordered my food, it was delicious. He ordered a steak rare. When he received the steak it was medium to well. When he said this, the owner came over with a flashlight to check his meal in the middle of the restaurant instead of tactfully taking it to the kitchen. She agreed that it had been overdone. The steak went back to the kitchen, and was COOKED MORE!!!!! That's ok, a mistake, but by the time he received this even more cooked "rare" steak, I was long done my meal. He noticed it was now very well done and told the manager he asked for a rare steak and didn't have anymore time to dine. We were moving on to our next plans for our special night. After all of this, he had eaten only one bite of his steak, yet was made to pay for the whole meal????? That is absolutely bad service and downright terrible. I said I was glad to pay for my meal as it was perfect and our drinks, but didn't want to pay for a steak that wasn't what he ordered and he didn't even eat. We were made to pay for the whole meal. Absolutely unacceptable and terrible business coming from a manager of a finer dining establishment.

Sorry, the reply took so long as I was busy moving. I will not be expecting much from this location in the future and have not returned...

Sorry, used to love this place but it's not what it once was. Staff are trying(mostly) but can't handle a full house, service has suffered. Two of us sat at the bar on a busy Saturday. Ordered 4 shareable dishes, which all showed up at once. Oysters Rockefeller was a bit fishy. Ceaser salad was over-dressed and heavy on the anchovies. Ordered the feature appy, jerk shrimp and it came in a sauce(tasty) and covered in spices, garlic, etc....kind of like a paste. Sounds good right? Except they served it with the shell still on the shrimp! I thought it was an error but was informed that it was intentional, super weird! It means we needed to pick up the shrimp and peel off the intended flavoring/coating, the result was very messy and less flavorful than it could have been. Meatballs were delicious. I don't live in Sarnia anymore but always made a point to visit Lola's when in town. I've sent friends and family many gift cards over the years too, but I don't think I can count on them to deliver the experience any longer.

I wish Lola's well, I know times have been tough, but also encourage them to have an honest look at where they're at today and where they could be. Change the burnt out bulbs and repair or remove the broken strings of twinkle lights, clean up the messy under-stocked bar. Maybe a fresh set of eyes would catch most of it. Update: So much for an honest inward look, blaming and dismissing the Customer in a response to the review seems to be the path...