The Sound Lounge — Restaurant in London

I paid a visit to the Sound Lounge on Saturday evening (04/11). The venue is towards the bottom of the High Street in Sutton, about a 10 minute walk from the rail station. It is a small, glass fronted music venue that doubles up as a cafe and record shop. I was there to see Peter Bruntnell, a superb folk rock singer who was performing with his band.

This is a great venue. The beer / drinks are reasonably priced, and there's a good selection on tap and in bottles. I had an excellent pint of MVT Session IPA for £5.30, which makes a nice change from being charged £6 or £7 for a can of lager in other venues. The food on offer at the Sound Lounge is vegetarian, and although I didn't try it, it smelled delicious and was evidently very popular with my fellow gig goers. The venue staff are very friendly and helpful. I stood up against the bar, and a member of staff came over and asked if I'd like a stool!

There is so much potential in a venue like this. The floor size and stage reminded me of the Lexington in Kings Cross, and it would be interesting to see a standing only gig there as Im sure it would make for a cracking atmosphere. On Saturday night, most of the crowd were seated, which gave the venue an intimate feel, but it was a little quiet. Nevertheless, it's good to see a decent music venue in this part of South London / Surrey as there aren't many in the area. I hope it goes from strength to strength.

Finally, a few words about Peter Bruntnell. In my humble opinion, he is a very underrated singer / songwriter and guitarist who has produced a number of excellent albums. He's well known in America but goes under the radar in the UK. I'd put him in the same bracket as the legendary Richard Thompson - he is that good. Please go and check him out, and if you're in that part of South London, please pay a visit to the excellent...

First time going to The Sound Lounge in Sutton, we came in later on in the evening (around 8PM) and were looking to walk in and book tickets as there were no more tickets available online. Very friendly and welcoming staff at the door invited us (4) in and said as we missed almost 7 hours already that we were fine to watch and enjoy the last two bands.

We ordered our first round of drinks and stood at the bar and enjoyed the music. We then ordered food and ate outside as there were no tables available inside to eat. A few more rounds later and food finished we came back inside, ordered another round and managed to find a table to sit and enjoy the last band.

One of the bar staff (dark hair, blue eyes with a ponytail) very rudely came up to my partner and said to him “without a wrist band you all need to sit outside you can’t be here, I don’t know who told you you can be here you have to go outside”. My partner explained that we were told we can be here and that we’ve spent quite a lot of money already (£100+) on food and drinks and we’re willing to pay for the entry but were told not to worry at the door. She then said no you have to go outside.

My Dad went up to the lovely lady and gentleman that allowed us in and explained to them what she had said and the gentleman explained to her that it was ok, she went up to my dad and told him he said it’s fine, my dad asked so can we stay? and she said I don’t know and walked off.

It was a lovely experience up until that point and it honestly put a dampener on our night, would love to come back but the lady working there needs to sort her attitude out as there is way that you talk to people...

The vanilla and chocolate vegan cake was probably one of the best I've had. But the service took SO long, its appalling!! There were two members of staff, one was making a latte and the other occupied. I waited at least 10 minutes before even being looked at. From making the latte and the other one finishing what he was doing, they began to clean the tables (despite many of them being empty), it should really be a priority to serve CUSTOMERS first as we are literally wanting to PAY!! After cleaning, they proceeded to do other things. I was shocked. There was becoming a queue now of customers and I don't know what kind of service this is making customers wait for so long!!!!!!!! The cakes were literally out front and I could have picked it up and left money on the table, but that would have been poor on my behalf. I was pissed. Yet I was first in queue. So I waited and got my cake. Next time, fix up, and make sure your staff are trained to be serving customers. A latte can sit on the machine to make. It was like they were avoiding even looking or acknowledging that we were there. Usually, at least you apologise for doing X, Y, Z and that you won't be long. But to start cleaning things that didn't need to be attended to yet. Such shoddy...