Bunga 90 — Restaurant in London

Saturdays are the best day for brunching and Bunga Bunga have opened their doors on Saturday afternoons for hungry diners who wish to enjoy their Matinee Brunch, but also wish to be entertained. A few weeks back I got the opportunity to attend and I jumped at the opportunity. I have to admit that this was one of the best brunches that I have ever been to! I literally had the best time of my life! If you read on, you will find out why…

From the moment, you enter Bunga Bunga, the staff becomes super secretive, I was taken through a back door and down a set of stairs, which leads to the main dining area. I was a little apprehensive at first, my initial thoughts were ‘Where the hell are they taking me?’ but I also thought this was apart of the whole theatrics. You see, the entertainment is Italian mob style, similar to popular films like the Godfather or the Italian job.

The brunch starts with warm Brioche bread, served with Burrata and homemade tomato jam. The Brioche is very dewy and sweet, which makes it sit perfectly with the tomato jam. I finished the jam in 5 minutes flat and did the shameless action of asking for more tomato jam and Brioche as if my name was Oliver twist-Embarrassing much! However, for me, the combination was just so moreish!

The antipasto was secondly presented, which is Bresaola, Coppa, Mortadella, and Finocchiona Salami. I still had some leftover tomato jam and brioche so I paired this together.

Before I could even tuck into the metro pizza, I was alerted by the sounds of cop sirens, the entertainment had begun again. An Italian couple graced the stage as the new scene began. Running from the cops, the couple encouraged and advised us to drink up the prosecco, as it may be the last thing we were drinking as the cops were around the corner. After a few minutes of chatter, the couple then broke into a melody rendition of ‘Anything you can do, I can do better.’ What I loved was the rest of the diners also started singing along. I guess the cops were tailing onto the couple as they ran off the stage and I began to tuck into my pizza.

The brunch metro pizza is one metre long with three different toppings. I glared at the pizza in utter shock! One metre of pizza! Luckily, my friend was here to help me devour the pizza! The topping choices are as followed; -Tuscan sausage, tomato, mozzarella, pancetta and a baked egg. -Quattro for Maggi: Mozzarella, Gorgonzola, Taleggio, and Parmesan -Mozzarella, Spinach, and Stracchino cream I opted for the vegan cheese and the removal of the egg due to my dairy allergies and for all you veggie and vegan lovers, you will be happy to learn that there are vegetarian and vegan options. My favourite topping was the Tuscan sausage options as the sausage is well cooked and tasty, overall the pizza has a dewy texture but I do think this was due to the vegan cheese.

What to drink? The brunch comes complete with 2 hours of bottomless prosecco and Bellini, but my advice is to drink fast as those 2 hours do fly by. I choose to go with the Bellini, as they are an absolute fruity dream and pair nicely with the brunch menu. Lastly, there is the Drunken Espresso Tiramisu, however, I opted out of due to my allergies.

Overall, this is one of the best brunches, I have ever attended in London, although I am not a huge fan of Italian food (Only due to the fact most Italian dishes predominately contain milk and cheese, which I have allergies for) the entertainment makes the brunch worthwhile. After two whole hours of Bellini drinking, I somehow got nominated by my guest and ended up on stage singing Valerie by Amy Winehouse; oh, did I forget to mention that there is karaoke and live music after the brunch, where you or your guest can nominate diners to sing. Oh, and please note, and if you sing badly the hosts and entertainers will sing over you, and that is your cue to leave the stage, thankfully this did not...

I felt compelled to write a review because Bunga Bunga seems to get so many 5-star reviews and I don't get why! So, here's my honest perspective...

I booked a Saturday 2.30pm Buff Brunch show for my best friend’s birthday in August 2023. We were initially really excited because of the video clips we’d seen online and the rave reviews promising a great girls’ night out! Everything was looking promising when we turned up on the day. We had no issues getting in from the queue and were promptly seated with a great view of the “stage”. Our first drinks were served quickly and our first pizza made its way to us swiftly afterwards. Great start!

As the show progressed, we were impressed with the initial performance but felt the two that followed were “filler” performances, particularly as we didn’t recognise any from the reviews we’d seen online, so we assumed that perhaps the venue was saving the best performances until the evening show at 7pm. That was our first disappointment.

The next disappointment was the bottomless pizza – it wasn’t bad but it wasn’t anything to write home about either. There’s a reason why pizza is one of the most popular bottomless brunch food offerings at so many places – it’s cheap to produce and it certainly looked and tasted like it at Bunga Bunga. Seriously, one of the toppings was actually tiny chunks of potato…

At first, the waitresses were very attentive at topping up our drinks. I think for the first half an hour of the show, we’d finish a drink and a waitress would be straight over with a bottle of pink prosecco to top you up. But this approach eventually slowed and it felt as though the bigger tables of hens and brides-to-be were prioritised over the smaller tables. By the end of the show, my friend had to chase a waiter down to get our drinks topped up and we were still scheduled to be there for another 40 minutes!

On the topic of service, we were extremely frustrated that when we received our £110 bill, a discretionary £12 service charge had been added. We would have been more than happy to leave a tip but to add this service charge to our bill felt like a dirty tactic from the venue to earn more cash when customers have had a few drinks and are, therefore, feeling less inclined to argue over it.

What’s more, we thought it was a bit premature that one of the waitresses came over and asked us if we could leave a good review of the venue and her service on Google. We were more than happy to but then felt uncomfortably pressured as she waited for us to leave the review at the table! This was before the show had even come to a close!

When it came to leaving the venue, there were multiple reminders from the staff that everyone had to leave by a certain time, which I thought was a bit unnecessary as many people started filtering out by the time the show ended at 3.50pm anyway. My friend popped to the toilets and as I was waiting for her just outside the toilets talking to another woman, security guards came over and started rudely rushing us to leave. I even said I was just waiting for my friend to come out of the toilets, but I continued to be rather aggressively ushered up the stairs and out the front door!

When my friend eventually came outside to find me, she said the whole room had been cleared out and expressed the same frustration at the gruffness of the security staff. What a way to be thanked for your custom!

Overall, for an experience that cost £55 per head, we left Bunga Bunga feeling ripped off. Was it a good bottomless brunch? Somewhat. Would I return and recommend it to anyone else? No. You would be better off spending your money at a genuine cabaret or burlesque show and getting far more good quality food, drink and entertainment...

Me and my friend went to Bunga Bunga on a Saturday to celebrate her birthday.

We was sat right at the front and was really pleased with our seats as the view was great. However the performance was not (your better off at the back!) It was more like a performance you expect to find at a children show on a low budget all inclusive.

The “performers” do pick on people in the audience and have ZERO emotional intelligence. So even if your feeling awkward they won’t stop. You can’t eat your food while they are performing otherwise they will point it out to the whole audience. The performer actually said that “if the girl in the front didn’t clap he would get really p*ssed off” obviously this made me feel really uncomfortable and I only had a few bits of food!! After this obviously felt uncomfortable and hungry so I mouthed to my friend I wanted to leave (this was said privately to a friend next to me) he then shouted out “aww she wants to leave” to the whole audience.

After calming my anxiety I managed to walk out of the restaurant and a security guard outside realised I was uncomfortable and took me to a private room. My friend went to settle the bill however was made to pay 50% of the full set menu even though we hadn’t eaten anything.

Great concept but Much nicer places to go! I did send across an email but wasn’t offered any apology but I did get a refund!

Email to management… I attended your establishment on Saturday 28th January to celebrate my friend's birthday. During the performance I felt I was targeted by one of your “entertainers” on more than one occasion. In the first instance as an immersive performer, he should have realised that I looked incredible uncomfortable. However, this did not deter him from making a second and third rude remark putting me in the spot light for the audience. A member of staff did realise after the first incident and came over to check if I was okay. However, your performer did not have the emotional intelligence to realise this and continued. Stating to the audience that he would be “p*ssed off if the girl at the front didn’t clap” is very unprofessional and no way shape or form a part of immersive entertainment or entertainment. This caused me to have an anxiety attack, I then mouthed privately to my friend stating I would like to leave. The same performer then mocked me on microphone stating “aww she wants to leave”.

Following on from this, I had to be taken to a private room in order for me to settled my anxiety. A member of the audience came past while I was in the room and also made a comment saying how “I shouldn’t let it ruin my evening”. It was too late for that! I feel like this alone validates how inappropriate his remarks where.

My friend come back inside to settle the bill, however we she not offered an apology. She was told she cannot settle the bill and has to return to the table. After explaining the situations and the member of staff acknowledging that she was already aware my friend was allowed to settle the bill. The staff member offered a "discount" of 50%. This again, is appalling as we had only had a starter and a drink. I wasn’t able to have more than a few bites of my main as when I tried, I was picked on for...