W Lounge — Restaurant in London

I can only give the food one star as we never actually got to eat it.

My mum and I came here a few months ago for a celebratory girls night and the entire situation was a fiasco. Unfortunately for potential customers they have no allergen information on either the website menu or physical menu, however since my mum is allergic to dairy, we figured she could have the chicken steak and chips minus the Parmesan topping, so I booked for 7:15pm on the evening of the 14th.

When we ordered, we told the waitress my mum can’t have diary and so could she have the chicken steak minus the Parmesan, and she went to check that with the chef. She then came back to us and said the chips are cooked in the same oil as the arancini balls which contain mozzarella, so my mum can’t have those either, but they can replace them with anything else off of the starters and sides section. We accepted this, looked at the menu, and my mum chose the fried prawns to replace the chips. We placed the order again with the waitress who went to tell the chef. The waitress came back again and says the chef said my mum can’t have the prawns nor anything off of the sides or starters menu, but she can have extra side salad. Bearing in mind the chicken steak and chips already came with a side salad, she did not want double side salad, and a piece of chicken and some salad would not be filling enough for a dinner.

The chips alone as a side cost £5, so we said can we order the prawns separately (which were almost equal in cost at £7.50) and pay for them, but get a discount on the main meal since my mum couldn’t eat a third of the actual dish and the restaurant seemed to be unwilling to be flexible on amendments for a dietary requirement.

The waitress put the order through and said she would check the discount with the manager. Whilst she was checking, we noticed that other dishes on the menu had asparagus, baby potatoes, and options to add in mushrooms as an extra. The waitress came back and informed us that the manager said no, we could not have a discount. So as a last resort we asked if we could substitute the extra side salad for any other cooked vegetables or baby potatoes on the menu, and honestly I have no idea who said no this time, the manager or the chef, since it seems that both of them were making decisions and nobody seemed to actually be in charge, but the answer was again no. I’m not entirely sure why we were only allowed to have extra salad (raw vegetables) and not cooked vegetables.

At this point we had had enough of this, both the chef and the manager passing messages to us through the poor waitress, and decided just to cancel the food, pay for the one drink we had, and go elsewhere for dinner. We told the waitress and she said she had to tell the manager and would be back. She then came back saying the manager had asked us if we were sure as the food was already ready. The cheek of the manager trying to make us feel awkward by telling us the food was ready was astounding, but yes we were sure and we told her this, so she then had to go and tell the manager and get our bill. We paid for our drinks, and as we did our food came out of the kitchen just to sit on the side for the next 15 minutes whilst we finished our drinks. The food alone would have been £50 and we definitely would have ordered more drinks, so that was a loss of around £100 for being unwilling to accommodate a dietary requirement.

This elusive manager never once came over to check on us, offer any solutions to the apparent problem, or apologise. This is what managers of restaurants are supposed to do. Establishments are supposed to care about their patrons and their reputation. It seems as though W Lounge doesn’t care at all. We have lived in the area for 25 years and there are many, many restaurants in South Croydon that go above and beyond to accommodate such requirements, one of those being Little Bay just down the road where we ended up going. Half the price, amazing service, and dietary requirement friendly! Save yourself the headache and go there...

Please avoid! I’ve never had such a terrible experience in my life - and I’ve been to many restaurants before. The staff are unprofessional, rude and do not know what customer service is. They say staff are under training but even the floor manager is rude and doesn’t know how to treat customers. They made us feel uncomfortable, we received dirty looks and they didn’t try to make our experience a little better. We attended W Lounge for dinner and drinks, and were left unattended from the moment we walked through the door - the place wasn’t full at all. After several mistakes with drinks and food orders, we were overcharged and ‘kicked out’ of the establishment in such an uncomfortable way. We ordered a shisha which we only enjoyed for 40 minutes because the restaurant was due to close at 12. Firstly, they should have made us aware that we’d only be able to enjoy the shisha for 40min before we ordered it (when we complained they actually admitted it usually lasts for 90min) and secondly, they should have let us know that they were going to turn off the music and turn on the lights before they did so we didn’t feel as uncomfortable as we did. Although I completely understand they had to close the restaurant, it’s only right for the waitress/manager to inform us on such basic things. We were also told that we should have checked their opening times to know that we shouldn’t have ordered the shisha at the time we did. Like, what? Not only that, but as mentioned we were challenged and received dirty looks when we complained. Overall, it was a very unpleasant experience and it’s a shame because the place looks great but unfortunately the floor manager and staff know nothing about customer service nor basic manners - two very important skills when working in the hospitality industry. Aside from that, it’s a pretty expensive place and it just didn’t feel right paying £200+ (£30 in service charge) for such an awful experience. I am most definitely not going to return and I’d think twice if you’re...

We visited middle of May and if google allowed, this would be a 2.5 star review.

The restaurant is decorated nicely and was very clean at first glance. When we visited, there was a party going on in the backroom so the staff was pretty preoccupied with the larger table majority of the time.

The furniture in the front of the restaurant is well curated however, the chairs are quite large and heavy are leave little room to move when back to back with other customers.

The staff were very friendly but sometimes tricky to flag down due to the large party.

I noticed that the dirty plates were being placed right next to the fresh plates on the counter that lead downstairs to the kitchen which isn't great.

The starters were nice and came pretty quickly. Unfortunately the mains didn't. We also ordered two more drinks which we had to chase down after 20 minutes of waiting. After waiting a while, we received the food. I ordered the burger and my partner the steak. The burger bun was cold but had grill lines so that was confusing and the burger didn't taste very fresh. The main concern was that with the steak, we ordered a peppercorn sauce and it arrived empty. When I say empty, I mean that it looked like it was an old previously used one. They brought another one round but it looked like it had just been filled up in the same old used sauce pourer.

With the main party taking over the restaurant, a young man in shorts and a Gucci bag (not uniform) came to where the food was being served. He then started assisting with the food serving. Maybe was due to the high orders coming in from the back room but didn't look great as they didn't look like they worked there.

Maybe it was a rough day we went in and would usually give it another go. But with regards to the sauce jug and the food being placed next to dirty plates definitely makes me hesitant on returning.

Hopefully they can sort these issues out and I'd happily give...