February 2011
Good establishments leave you with fond memories. Not-so-good ones make you retreat to the memories of the good ones. And so it is that we sit in Lobby Restaurant and Lounge, recalling the great nights we’ve had at the multitude of bars and clubs that are a hop, skip and a jump away on the parallel street of Changkat Bukit Bintang. And therein lies the rub; I know deep in my bones that this isn’t one of those good establishments.
Lobby isn’t just a restaurant – it’s a bar and a club with add-ons such as the outside seating area. Although furnished in black and red, the space is charmless and the glamour is severely lacking. The bar is a step-up – clinking glasses dangle from the ceiling and glancing at the plentiful bottles behind the counter gives us the idea that if you can’t say anything nice… why not drown your sorrows in drink instead? The interior leaves you feeling ill at ease, unsurprising given its aspiration to become the inside of Hugh Hefner’s bedroom.
As we sat, listening to the echoing thrum of music, I’m reminded of the fact that Lobby is also an eatery and its pull is the strangely ambitious lunch menu of bratwurst pork sausages, crispy pork and barramundi fillet. So, of the food, we can’t say much so we invite our readers to let us know. You can’t, however, fault their happy hour deals: a draught of Tiger beer will only set you back RM8, while a mug is a happy-to-pay RM29++.
I’ve never been a fan of gags made on the aptness of a place’s name to fulfill its purpose but the Lobby is just that: a decked-out lobby. Stay only for the happy hour deals. Against the background, the atmosphere was always going to have to work very hard to take off, and it never quite manages it. Syazlynia Rahim