Lotus Bar — Restaurant in London

Would recommend looking elsewhere.

We had a booking for 3 for the bottomless brunch (£45pp) 12-2pm over the late May bank holiday and all was going well to begin with although we were sat around just 1 small table, squeezed between 2 sofas arrangements. The speed of drinks were fairly swift once everyone was seated, with it being busy, and our food was to a good standard. “Our” being the key word (keep reading).

However, the shortfall began when 2 out of the 8 alcoholic drink choices were not available from the start…a quarter of their drinks menu. The drinks were also very basic and nothing like what is shown on their socials. The first drink had a garnish but not the same for the following drinks. Likewise a slush drink I assumed would have crushed ice, not a mixed cocktail with ice cubes. Unfortunately not the premium idea you see online. About 30 mins in, we saw staff rolling through the bar with bags of Sainsbury’s produce which would make sense when the first round of food took over an hour to be served. It is worth noting that you do receive all 12 dishes, but this is grouped together for the table to share - not totally clear on their website or socials. (They also gave the table next to us an extra freebie with what looked like a deep fried hair attached to the calamari). Once the food was received, that gave us less than an hour to have the second course and dessert…but they overran and the second course didn’t arrive until after 3pm, by which point last orders for the bottomless 2 hours had finished, so you were expected to pay for any additional drinks.

During the brunch there was an issue with the ladies toilets, rendering them out of service. So everyone was expected to use the men’s. Considering there are only two cubicles excluding the urinals, you can imagine the queue this created.

Shortly after, everyone was informed they were going to have to take their dessert as a takeaway since the service was so slow and they had to prepare for the next customers coming in. The irony of that, is it took at least 30 mins for them to box a brownie and bring it to the table. We had to ask 3 separate staff members for the dessert since we had another booking we needed to get to & asked for another drink to compensate for the slow service since we could have certainly finished that before dessert had arrived. That request was quickly shut down with some excuse about not being able to serve at that time. Both tables next to us were also not amused with the whole experience. Eventually we left just before 4pm with our branded boxed desserts…clearly not the first time they have had to takeaway.

I understand bottomless brunches can be busy and manic, however Lotus is certainly not the cheapest of establishments and this is not their first rodeo doing bottomless brunch. Likewise, there were plenty of staff so I wouldn’t say lack of staff that day was their issue. For £45pp, I do really expect a much better experience and this unfortunately has made me think twice before returning or...

If you found this bar on tiktok please do not go.

I did not enjoy my time at lotus bar at all. First of all, me and my friend made a booking reservation online (£20) that would be deducted from our total price. Upon arriving to Lotus, we were seated in a cramped area with a long black cloth over the table and completely forgotten about. They also gave my friend a random arrival drink that we never asked for that she had to pay for. I don’t know if because it was bank holiday that lotus was super busy but we didn’t even have menu’s at our table. We had to ask after 20 minutes for a menu. Then another 20 minutes to ask a waiter we wanted to order. The music was good but WAY to the loud to the point we couldn’t hear eachother and the waiter couldn’t hear our order correctly. They also didn’t have burgers? Weird. I ordered lamchops which was £18 ALONE and a extra side of fries. The lamchops were dry, and for a portion of 3 skinny chops with no flavour to be £18 is absolute scam! They didn’t have regular cheese for my friends pizza so they informed her they had to use another?

Then, they forgot both of our fries that we had to REMIND them to bring us although we made it clear to the waiter about what we wanted. My friend had to ask for her fries for a SECOND time because they only brought fries for me at the table . The cocktails for £12 weren’t as bad but tasted more like alcohol than the actual flavours they say are included in them. Me and my friend were so fed up with the ridiculous service that we wanted to leave so badly. If i’m going out for drinks i always finish my drinks but the cocktail was so strong I was so put off! Everyone else seemed to be catered to but us. Our discount also did NOT apply to our total and we booked through ‘shoobs’ website as if the bar was a party? For the food and drinks you get it is not worth spending £50 for horrible customer service. The only good thing to come out of this was the DJ.

I will not be coming back to Lotus ever again and I have proof of it being terrible and others not...

We arrived at this booking were delayed but the venue decided to give us the worse placed table near the toilet small table did not even fit the 3 of us and small stools which were very low. My friend has arthritis in her legs and we mentioned this to staff but they said they can't accommodate. We saw two booths were unoccupied and when asked what about those they said it was reserved but I mentioned for who because aren't they also late too? As we all had to come in time slots. I never got a reply and was ignored. 2 other staff members had agreed with us and even 1 staff who had her first day said it was unacceptable but the manager or whoever was in charge was rude to us and showed no sympathy despite paying £45 each. It was a friends birthday and even where they sat us down there was a health and safety hazard a photo frame sticking out of nowhere with a sharp edge and my friend caught her dress on it and sadly made a hole upon exit.

I really am upset about this because it was our first night out after over 1yr in lockdown and to be treated like this was awful. Outside lots of people from public said that Lotus bar has a bad reputation for rude staff and people. I'm not at all surprised about this now. Its such a shame as the venue is nice and seemed lively.

We were fully respectful and even tried to calmly reason with 3 staff members saying we would be happy to wait but not to even be heard or listened to was appalling. I'd never return here and definitely not worth it during lockdown situations. Don't waste your time.

Edit: ABSOLUTE LIARS. TRIED TO GET REFUND FROM TICKET COMPANY AND THEY LIED SAYING WE HAD FOOD AND DRINKS AT THE TABLE SO NO REFUND ALLOWED STOP YOUR LIES AND TELL THE TRUTH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GIVE US WHAT WE ARE OWED BACK ABSOLUTE SHAMBLES OF A VENUE NEVER EVER RECOMMEND...