Lush Cafe and Lounge — Restaurant in Tempe

I showed up with my girlfriend for the pretty in pink brunch today. When we arrived at 11:46, there were only two patrons in the restaurant. We placed our order for breakfast, and received it in a timely fashion. Later we placed a drink order and requested the check at 12:45. The young lady continued on making rounds throughout the restaurant as more guests had arrived. Apparently our order was put into the computer at 12:51 at 1:05. We asked the young lady in passing if we could have our check and also let her know that we did not want the drink. She insisted that we had to take the drink because there was no refunds. We explain that we had already waited at 20minutes, but we had other things to do. We just wanted our check and go when she returned at 1:11p, (25 minutes later) she had the drinks on a tray. We explained again that we did not want the drink. She said that her manager said NO, to the canceling of the order and that we had to take this because it was already made. I got up to speak to the manager. She argued with me and told me how they don’t get refunds then she told me that my drinks have been sitting at the counter since 1:05p. WHAT SENSE DOES THAT MAKE???? I asked her, what good are those drinks at the counter doing me if I’m sitting at the table? I understand that there was only one bartender, two young ladies serving, but at the end of the day I am a customer and I don’t wanna hear any excuses for being short staffed.. Bottom line is it took damn near 20 minutes for this drink with a few people in a restaurant and we were not paying for it so the manager Finally says she’s gonna make this a one time thing and not charge. And just wanna be clear this is not a Money thing it’s the principal and the way that she chose to handle business. The drink in fact was ordered by my girlfriend who also placed a GOOGLE REVIEW. Instead of the owner acknowledging what actually happened, In her in her response the manager or the owner decided to be argumentative and state that there were 22 people in a restaurant. Guess she included STAFF in on this count. SAD…. Poor Business When a good MANAGER, sees their staff struggling they normally jump in!

4/19/2025 6:53p. So the manager is BIG MADDD So management just responded as I knew she would on the defense and the story is not truthful. Our drink was ordered at 12:45. At that time we requested for the check. We caught the waitress in passing 1:05p and asked for her to cancel the drink. We reminded her that we were still waiting on the check. The waitress told us that our drink should be on the way. Again we said that we didn’t want it. The drink came out 6 minutes later. That’s when I went to speak to the ragedy manager that’s responding. Please speak the truth. I HAVE TIME TODAY!!! You keep saying $5 drink!!! I have visited a few times before, have waited long periods for my food and drink, but I understood due to it being crowded. Now you want to be sensitive by saying it was cruel for me to say “ you being short staffed is not my problem”. That’s just fact. When a consumer is paying for a service, that’s exactly what they expect! How would you feel? I don’t have to take pitty on your situation. Just do better next time

As I previously stated, it wasn’t the cost it’s the principle. Please take a few CUSTOMER SERVICE TRAINING CLASSES. Since we are being petty you absolutely didn’t have 20 people in there unless you are counting staff. Everyone that leaves a negative comment can’t be wrong. You argue with everyone that leave a negative comment rather than trying to just be better. I will be sharing your comments on all social media sites.! Thanks for being professional. #Letsgo …waiting for your next ignorant response No thank you on a free Margarita. Save that for the next person you try to do dirty,

Oh yeah, don’t think I didn’t notice all of the great Reviews that just popped up, all timed stamped minutes after I posted my comments . Hmmmm what a coincidence.

You can’t...

I wanted so badly to be able to give a 5 star review. This however, is not the case. I actually was not going to leave a review until I read through a few on another website. It's been well over a year since I attempted to venture out and Lush Cafe was my choice.

Worse decision I could have made!

A good friend of mine invited me out for drinks, knowing we both had early mornings, we decided Lush would be the ideal spot. Close by, mature, and gave us the opportunity to support a Black owned business.

My friend was immediately turned away because her white dress showed her silhouette. Although Security is responsible for making the decision, a woman from inside ran out to tell her the dress was inappropriate, despite the fact that it came to her ankles.

My friend is a beautiful bi-racial woman. (Fair skin + white dress = washout) Even though the restaurant staff person spoke in a soft tone, you have to be aware that you may trigger a person by what you say. The way she repeatedly shaped her hands around my friends body, explaining her point, really felt like body shaming.

Instead of stating the restaurant would be closing at midnight, incase we wanted to change and come back, the employee turned and went inside.

We left and ended up spending $40 for a dress. Although the sheer black dress 'passed' the scrutiny, we were told that the kitchen closed at 11pm. (It was 10:54pm.) No time to squeeze into the table and make a decision if we wanted food.)

My friend at this time, feeling very uncomfortable asked if we could just leave because of how she had been made to feel. Once outside, security said he didn't understand what the problem was with the first dress. We walked away.

The employee who initially refused us entry, ran outside as we were walking away and said, "I need you to come back. I need you to come in."

If she had informed us of the closing time before, maybe we would have. Maybe if her looks were not so disparaging towards my friend, maybe. Maybe instead of inviting us back tomorrow to see a live performance and to get there early, with no other offer of free water or something, we would have considered it. Because she said she needed us to come back.

I even asked if it was a church establishment because of the long list posted outside the main entrance of what is not allowed to be worn. I was told it wasn't. I had a looser dress code at my all girls high school, and we wore uniforms.

I guess she needed us to come back because the parking lot was less than half full, on a Friday night.

I could have overlooked all of this, but the one thing, I cannot and will not over look is poor treatment to people of color, especially from other people of color.

If you think my comments are extreme, tell that to the tears that flowed from my friend's eyes for 30 minutes because of how she was made to feel.

All we wanted to do was have a drink. We will have a drink, but it won't be here.

You never know who is coming to your place of business or what influence they may have.

All I can say is...

The food was on point! My husband ordered some chicken wings and he absolutely loved them! He also ordered the lamb chops and fried rice and he adored them. I had the jerk chicken rolls and they were excellent and my other friends had the braised short ribs and the crabcake! All of the food was amazing and the service was very good. However, there were some quirks that I just really didn’t appreciate, hence the four stars. Number one I don’t like that they automatically add a 20% gratuity even on a party of four. I can see adding it on a large party, but just on the normal 4-top table was a bit much. I guess they have to do this because with it being a black owned restaurant they are assuming that the average black person won’t tip. I always tip 25% or more if the service is excellent! However I don’t like being told that I must tip 20%. The other thing that was weird was this. We had reservations at six and about 8 o’clock rolled around and a server came over and changed the light color on our table from white to red. We were told that our two hours were up and that unless we ordered more food that we were going to be asked to move to the bar or to another area. Again, I know this is a black owned establishment and I’m assuming that the owner thinks that the average black person doesn’t know how to properly patronize a restaurant . I get it because I know our people can be a little cheap,. but no one likes to be rushed or told when they need to get up from the table. In fact, they moved to the next table , which was the exact same size. That didn’t make sense to me and I found that to be a little rude. Quite frankly it’s a turn off.

I will continue to support this place because the owner was extremely nice and the food was fabulous, but you’ve got to think about not treating your black patrons as though we are uneducated and not sophisticated enough to tip appropriately! Our bill for two people wax $120. Not bad at all. A 20% gratuity was automatically added bring the bill to to $144. Still not bad. However, I would have tipped her 25-30%, but since they didn’t trust that I had sense enough to leave a good tip, their loss! But here’s the part that got me, there was an additional line for you to “just tip the waitress!” I thought that’s what I was doing?? We were told that the automatic gratuity was for a group of people, but that if we wanted to leave a tip just for the waitress that would be additional. What the what!! So my husband feeling pressured tipped another 20%! It’s stunts like this that drive me nuts! You try to support our Black business but you’re making it hard by creating uncomfortable rules which feel like us feel like we are being discriminating against! By our own! No one likes to be told how much they should tip (I understand gratuity added on a large party, but it was 4 of us.). We also don’t like to be made to move one table over because our...