Tambo Lounge — Restaurant in Newark and Sherwood

🍽️ 4/5 Stars – Lampshades, Hummus, and a Good Time

We popped in for dinner and had a great time — once we got over the fact that one part of the ceiling appears to be sponsored by Lampshades R Us. Honestly, I lost count and started wondering if they were multiplying. It’s like dining under a Pinterest board.

Atmosphere? Fine! Quirky enough to keep you entertained while waiting for your food, with plenty to look at on the walls – the kind of place where your eyes wander and so does your sense of design logic.

The food itself? Really good! No complaints there. Kids were randomly gifted little pots of hummus, carrots, and breadsticks. Very healthy and polite — although our kids looked at it like we’d just served them boiled socks. But hey, free hummus!

Now, the kids’ drink options with their meals were… let’s call them “uninspired.” Basically squash in those tiny plastic school cups we all thought we’d left behind in Year 3. Naturally, we drank the squash and they got milkshakes — parenting level: expert. The milkshakes got two chocolatey thumbs up.

Ordering was a breeze thanks to the phone-at-the-table system. No awkward small talk, no “Can I grab you anything else?” every 3 minutes — just tap, order, and wait for deliciousness to arrive.

Prices? Totally fair for what you get. Would we come back? Absolutely. Food was great, kids were happy, and we left full and slightly suspicious of...

A quirky styled interesting cocktail bar. The food is perfectly fine for the price, somewhere between a spoons and a slug and lettuce. Service is fine and the staff are generally nice.

The drinks are a bit odd, advertise cocktails and have a huge selection of drinks to mix but can’t make what you want, I asked for a normal mojito and instead HAD to have one from a set menu that was not a mojito, it had all sorts of fruit in it and added flavours, I would really have liked to be able to just order a plain old mojito. What I did have was lovely and I have no complaints other than it seems weird that I can’t order a normal cocktail in this cocktail bar.

The only reason for a three star on the atmosphere is the volume of the music, went in at lunchtime on a Monday and literally had to leave as I couldn’t have a conversation with my mother over the nightclub-esque volume of the music. I really love the feel of this place and the artwork is wonderful but I do like to have at least somewhere a bit quiet. Hence the three stars on atmosphere.

Generally if you don’t mind loud music ALL THE TIME, then this place is a good shout for some reasonable food and...

Food & homemade drinks were great if a little overpriced... especially the halloumi fries. There's lots of choice & I would go again as menu is very interesting & varied. I had to wait a long time at the bar as there were plenty of staff behind there but only 1 woman taking drink & food orders along with the payment. She wasn't very happy looking or with her greeting tbh! The other 3 staff working behind the bar were busy making drinks orders but I felt ignored standing there waiting to be served by the surly woman. Even my di ning partner commented on me being ignored for a long time standing there! Not a good or inviting system in place 😕 when the youngsters are standing about it feels odd not to be served! Also, this weekend there was supposed to be 10% discount for steampunks in costume which I was & it was not offered or deducted from my bill..I learnt at the fashion show that the Tambo Lounge was 1 of the surrounding venues that had signed up for this so was disappointed to say...