Loka Restaurant and lounge — Restaurant in London

Now I normally never like to give negative feedback, as I'm in the camp of nothing nice to say then say nothing at all. But really have to stress that a restaurant needs to understand the value of feedback from all its customers and improve what they are offering, alot.

First off we brought a Groupon voucher for what at the time was advertised as a great deal. 3 course meal and mocktail for 4 from there main dinner menu. At just over half the price they would normally charge. Opportunity for all parties, new clients for restaurant if we had been impressed and new place for us to enjoy when in London. Unfortunately that's not how it went.

First off originally tried to book table over phone male reception was rude and claimed booked up when mentioned Groupon deal for Friday evening, wasn't allowed to book for following week to soon 🤔. However called the following morning my wife this time asked and spoke to lady , we hadn't mentioned Groupon. No issues booking for the following week. Make of that as you will.

Now the 1 positive which is the decor. Very mild pastel colours with comfortable seating, warming lighting and beautifully arranged artificial flowers across various areas of the restaurant wall.

When we got there for 7pm on a Saturday, it was dead. Only 2 tables occupied 5 people in total. Why had he made a fuss to not allow us to book early is beyond me.

Now the CONS. What we got I can only describe as a child mains course. Me and my brothers inlaws ordered chicken and beef skewers with supposedly salad. I kid you not can get more out of a chicken nugget happy meal. If I had to pay full price for that I would have walked out of the restaurant at the point of that weak rationed plate being placed in front of me. At this point I questioned are we being given a Groupon equivalent of meal or is this what you would actually get if you was a full paying customer. Either way not good. My wife's sea bass was at best fairly ok.

The starters again nothing special , hummus average and Krokett nice. Portions as expected.

Pudding through no consistency. Ordered 2 rice puddings , however got something shaped and had the texture of creme caramel but tasted like rice pudding. But was surprisingly nice. Did have a laugh when the other 2 puddings came. They literally got 1 baklava each the size of a thumb on 1 plate between the 2 of them to share. No ice cream No drizzle of sugar just 1 bite and gone 🤦🏻‍♂️.

Lastly service was unmemorable just a very base line standard & honestly not worth the charge they believe they can place on bill.

My point to this is if you are in an affluent area, decor is a standard, service should be welcome, pleasant and friendly. If you are going to charge up market prices then your food should taste great, be presentable and have something on the plate. Unless your a Michelin star but this place isn't I've had better service and taste from school dinners.

After food we left about 9pm with our bellies as empty as that restaurant. No one but staff waiting around with no one to serve....

We had a meal for 4 on a Groupon offer last night.

The offer required that we call to make a booking .... we called many times but the phone was not answered.

We then visited the Loka website, where there was an option to book online by clicking the button.

We clicked the button, and it took us to the OpenTable website. We filled in our details and the date we wanted to book and clicked to confirm. OpenTable then displayed a message to say that Loka was not registered on their platform and could not make a booking!!!

So we went back to the phone, and after about another 12 or so attempts, the phone was answered, and we made the booking.

The deal then required that we e-mail the Groupon voucher to Loka. We sent the confirmation e-mail we received from Groupon to Loka. Our covering e-mail made reference to the booking call we had just made and that the Groupon confirmation is attached.

Later in the evening we received a replay from Loka that said

"Thank you for your email Please call us to confirm your booking by phone Your booking not confirming yet until you call us"

So we replied to say that we had already called and have made the booking.

When we arrived at Loka on the night, we were asked for our Groupon code/QR code. None of this was shown on the Groupon confirmation e-mail (this was the same e-mail that we had forwarded to Loka). We showed this e-mail on our phone to the member of staff dealing with us, and all he said was that we must find the code or we would not eat. This member of staff then said he would also look on his system to see if he could find the code, and he walked away.

We looked on the Groupon App. The booking was shown but no codes, but after a number of clicks, we found the QR code (but no code numbers). We sat waiting for the member of staff to return .. and we waited ... and waited . After 20 minutes, we spoke to another member of staff, and provided the QR code.

Although we saw the original member of staff walking round the restaurant, he never came back to speak to us again.

In fairness, some of this poor experience is due to a procedural difference between Groupon and the restaurant and not wholly due to Loka. But these differences must be a know isssue to Loka. We were left feeling that they could and should have been dealt with in a more helpful and friendly manner.

By now we had been in the restaurant for almost 30 minutes and still not seen the menu let alone placed our order, but we are happy to report that things then proceeded as one would hope and the food was good although 2 of our group order the Moussaka. They said that it had a lot of flavour but was better described as a...

Worst experience ever. I would not even give one star as well if I could. Had a voucher gifted from a friend, came to this place. The place itself looks very pretty. But the staff very unfriendly. So the menu given is so different to the regular menu if you have a voucher. Doesn't say any where on the voucher that you will be given a different menu, even from the menu that was given the staff said most of the food was unavailable. The food that we ordered was also disgusting. The chicken was dry, hard as a rock. The drinks were horrible. It felt as if you are treated differently beause you had a voucher. We were not even given the regular menu to order anything else we wanted to pay for. I think they just asume that you are unable to pay. No staff available around. Once we sat at the table, it took them about 25mins to take the order. We ordered mocktails they tasted as if they were soft drinks out of a bottle with a dried lemon. I read reviews of this place written by other people who have visited this place and i was wondering if i should visit this place or not. But just because a friend gifted a voucher we ended up going. Please do not visit this place, such a waste of money. THIS IS THE...