Streatham Soul Club - White Lion SW16 — Restaurant in London

Before writing this review I thought I'd check to see what everybody else had written about The White Lion and I was expecting a load of one star reviews with a load of complaints but it's mostly good reviews on here so I can only imagine we were greeted with "the B team", the positive reviews are bogus or there has been a change in management very recently. Having recently moved to Streatham and having tried all of the pubs in the area I was left to go in TWL. It was something I had been putting off as whenever I walked past it there was no more than 3 or 4 people. Yes, this was the daytime and I have never walked past the place past 9pm but there never seemed to be anybody in there which begged the question that if nobody is ever in there then how do they maintain the food? The other night my friend and I thought we'd give it a go anyway. It was about 7pm on the Wednesday evening and again, no more than 4 people. We were greeted by the surly Brazilian (I think) barman and I ordered the pork belly with sweet chilli sauce and my friend ordered the saltfish. The whole experience upon ordering then decended a farce. He had to check with the chef (as he was new apparently) whether he was ok cooking the saltfish. The only trouble was that he couldn't find the chef!! Another chef turned up with shopping bags who said he wasn't working at the moment. The barman was frantically trying to phone the first chef. All this time we had placed a coctail menu on the bar and were trying to chisel it off at it was stuck there because it and the bar were so so sticky. We were debating whether to just cancel everything and go but the chef finally answered so my friend paid for the food by card. The card machine got jammed which took an extra few minutes and I paid for drinks by cash. Even ordering the drinks seemed tedious and we were both exhausted by the whole experience. The barman even wanted to know where we were sitting so he could find us!! I understand if you have an electronic food ordering system the till needs to know but he was hand writting the food order on paper for the chef and the pub only had 1 other table with people on it. We then sat down with our drinks completely bemused, and worried about what we would be greeted with food wise. The barman 5 minutes later then came back with my friends debit card!!! He didn't hand it back upon ordering and we were so taken aback about what had gone on earlier we didn't realise. After 20 minutes the food arrived. Never before in my life have I been served food with the plastic microwave cover still over the plate!!! I mean microwaved food does happen in pubs on some items I know but at least make a bit of effort in showing your customers the whole thing hasn't been in for 3 minutes on high power. My pork belly was literally fat. I think I had about 4 small forks worth of passable pork on there. The amount of fat on there was way too much. It was tasteless and no effort had been made to make it crispy or cook it nicely, the mash was relatively boring and most of the green beans were still freezing along with this sweet red sauce stuff which was still frozen on the outskirts of my place but on the top of the mash was at least warm. My friends salt fish had hardly any flavour, it looked very unappealing and the rice was dry where I suspect they cooked it days ago fresh and dug it out of the fridge and microwaved it. I thought of complaining but then remembered what we went through to get this far and was reluctant to go through another Benny Hill Show so I managed just about half which was pretty much the mash and my freind ate just over half of hers. We walked to Sainsburys and got some food and went home praying that we would survive the night, which we did thankfully. Maybe this is the place for live music and rock bands in the evening and maybe if you like that then maybe you will have a good time if you like sticking to tables but this is not the place for friendly service and great food. For the price there are tons better in Streatham - This was probably the...

An amazing experience with hidden gems of enjoyment and pleasure.

With courteous security team and a friendly staff behind the bar, White Lion SW16 seems to have married a solid combination of safety and service.

With many venues that claim to offer a good time, White Lion SW16 "never knowingly undersold" may as well be their moto because you get more from your experience than you would ever have expected.

Tasty Caribbean food served with a soup that is to die for.

The BEST compliment to this venue we can offer is the fact they have THE BEST musical vibe that we have experienced in a LONG TIME. They often say that music is the food to your soul, well, with their SoulClub experience, you will be left full to the max with amazing musical diet. If you want to have a nice night, with great conversation and amazing Disc Jockey's ON POINT, White Lion SW16 is your choice.

If ONLY the night lasted much longer than just 1am.

Ps. They also have a sterling membership scheme on offer. Worth all the might your "Nigel Ben"...

The bar has a mature crowd on Saturdays. There are two rooms of music, ranging from jungle to soul, with many other genres in between. The bar is fairly empty around 8pm so this is a good time to grab something from the menu before the crowds arrive. The food prices are reasonable and the portions are plentiful. There is also a vegan option that looks very tasty. The mix of men to woman ratio is about 70/30. The average age was mid to late forties. There is a centre outdoor area that separates the two rooms of music, this has a bar and allows smoking. This would save you leaving the venue and standing on the street. Parking is limited, but this is typical for a bar on a main road in London. Overall I enjoyed my evening, the staff were very polite and professional. I would recommend paying it a visit.

Hope you found the...