Lobby Lounge

Went here on Christmas and it was pretty busy. Service was sub-​par. There were tons of dirty tables and it took us 20 minutes to get greeted and have our table cleaned. Drinks were good and food was great. The chicken and waffles are pieces of chicken on sticks fried in waddle batter. very unique and tasty! Additionally, we ordered the pouring which is made with tater tots which I would also recommend.

I’m a little generous here with the 4 star rating, but Lobby Lounge inside the Fairmont is a WIN because
A) They got TONS of COMFORTABLE seating
B) Decent Happy Hour
C) Big projector screen and smaller screens to catch the games
If you’re looking for a place to watch a game and don’t want to deal with some of the more rowdy places downtown, Lobby Lounge is a great spot if you don’t mind spending a bit extra! Plush seating, couches, etc. It definitely beats sitting on a wooden chair or cheap bar stool at some other places downtown lol
Being a hotel bar and inside the Fairmont, they do charge a dollar or two more then you might be used to, but ambiance is what you’re paying for. It’s not a dive bar! They got a decent happy hour too, $ 5 for house wine and beers & $ 6 for well drinks. Some small plates for $ 6-​$ 8 each. However, it’s only Monday to Thursday!
My biggest gripe here would be the service. It’s been so hit or miss from my experience (via multiple visits), certain servers only acknowledge certain sections and they are inconsistent when making their rounds. It can be frustrating when trying to get another drink. My last visit here, it took almost 20 minutes before anybody would come to take our order.
So yeah, 3.5 rounded up to a generous 4!

I have never in my life witnessed a more frazzled server and unsupported. Today like all weekend has been exceptionally busy and they didn’t prepare. I had to ask for a menu after sitting for 20 minutes. I then has my menu taken from me without reason or explanation. When I realized she wasn’t coming back I then went to the bar where I was told the menu changed!!! All j freaking wanted was a damn burger and Fries now you are offering sushi! To say I am furious is an understatement! This is the most disappointing thing I encountered this entire stay at the hotel. I say this after running a half marathon with a pulled muscle this morning!
And now I’m being told I could have ordered a damn old school burger?! Now you want to offer me ice? I’m so mad!
I’m still mad but at least they removed the crappy fish tacos from my bill.
Don’t eat here if a half marathon just wrapped and a prime minister is staying as well as whatever conference is going on! Don’t do it!

I stayed at the fairmont and decided to have dinner in their lobby restaurant .
There was plenty of room and I could sit in the larger table with comfortable couch.
A musician performs there which ads some nice atmosphere to the place .
The waitress was welcoming and courteous and it was relatively a quick service .
The only reason I give it 2 stars, is because of the food. I did not enjoy any of the dishes I ordered .
I got the onion soup and I had many onion soup in my life time, this was by far one of the worst. Oily and stale and just doesn’t have the rich texture an onion soup will have .
I ordered the veggie spring rolls, same thing, just doesn’t taste good and not what you expect.
I ordered the veggie platter with the Humos, also, tasteless, no spices, no flavors, just not fun.
Too bad, I guess they need to find someone else to cook there.

In the Fairmont hotel, in case you were wondering.
Food is overpriced as you would expect from a hotel, what I didn’t expect was the quality (especially from the sushi). Tables are tiny, but the wait staff is pretty good too (really surprising from a hotel lobby bar)
Rockstar and half baked rolls were very tasty, but came apart while we were trying to eat them with chopsticks.
Menu has a giant whiskey selection
Fish tacos were excellent, not too salty, grilled fish and filled with tasty goodness.
If you’re here on company dime, it’s awesome and we will probably be back.

Definitely taken a turn for the worse. … use to be a classy place to get a high quality drink. Stopped by on a Saturday night, and think we got the ice skating/​Christmas in the park crowd. Don’t get me wrong, i have kids, love kids; but don’t want to spend $ 35 (with modest tip) for two drinks to watch wedding music and kids dancing to the theme from the Lion King. It was entertaining watching a dirty old man hit on women, and get them to dance (while smacking his gum, awesome).
The former menu with a nice list of alcohol and cocktails is gone, replaced with run of the mill. Oh yeah, our martinis were served in glasses that appeared to be champagne glasses.
Would have been four stars if we were at a dive bar/​dive hotel lounge and had paid $ 10. Should have just bought a bottle of booze and skipped the place for that price/​quality.
The picture is from the live rendition of the Lion King Mighty Jungle..

I expect most hotel bars to overcharge you for drinks, so I wasn’t surprised that they charged me $ 12 for a Maker’s Mark on the rocks. I was surprised at how heavy handed the pour was though…

Yeeeek don’t order the club from here… Dry and bland. Very very bland.
The staff is awesome. The bartender is awesome. Just don’t order the bland club sandwich. You’ll start to think you lost your sense of taste.

I hate to give a bad review because I really like the Lobby Lounge at The Fairmont, but feel I need to share our experience. My group of friends & I decided to have drinks & food after ice skating at Downtown Ice. We managed to find seating enough for our large group. The server was prompt despite the lounge being extremely busy. We all ordered food & a number of us ordered the chicken skewers. To our horror one of the skewers was completely raw inside, like full on pink. We were obviously upset especially because some of the children had eaten the chicken. We made the server aware of the issue & she was visibly upset and apologetic. I feel mostly disappointed because Fairmont is a reputable chain hotel & things like this should NOT happen. I certainly hope their kitchen does proper checks of their food after something like this happens, otherwise this could become a health department issue with lots of sick people. My advice, don’t eat at the Lobby Lounge. If you do go, go for drinks instead.

This place runs hot and cold. Somtimes it ‘s a cool place to lounge and drink, sometimes it’s a shit show. Good selection of booze and people watching. Te live music is also sometimes fun sometimes you sint want to deal with. I think it’s best on a weeknight when you can habe a mellow quiet drink

Mostly I like this place for the people watching. Every time I’ve come here it feels like I’m at a wedding reception with the crowd of folks on the dance floor getting really into it. It’s definitely an older crowd, but that’s part of what makes it fun to watch.
The drinks and food are just ok. Ordering cocktails off menu is a big risk as I’ve had some truly awful ones. Try to keep it simple. I’ve been happy with the service, but we always seem to end up with the same waitress who remembers us.
The seats are comfy and we can usually hear each other talk. It might be easier if we sat a little further back, but then we wouldn’t get the full show.

I like the food, location, and entertainment, even if it’s yuppie. The problem is the service: it doesn’t match the cost or atmosphere. A bartender can make a great cocktail, but a server can easily spoil it with attitude, apathy, and awkwardness… This isn’t Holliday Inn. Hire some staff that know how to serve; this is a great spot for tips and they would make bank! But otherwise, I like it here.

The place is finally renovated. The last time we were here, the majority of the lobby was sectioned off. Though this is a great place to sit and talk, a great place to watch sports; they have a giant projector screen above the bar where we watched the first half of the Niners’ game yesterday, and a great place to enjoy the live band (and dance if you like)… the service is horrible.
We came here Saturday night and Sunday afternoon. We were ignored for quite some time at the bar. I was going to walk away because drinks cost an arm and a leg anyway but he insisted on staying because «it’s about the principle». He got an IPA of some sort and I got a mojito. I would have enjoyed a diet soda or an iced water w/​a wedge of lemon in it because I drank maybe ¼ of it. I’m not an alcoholic person. I tried.
There were a lot of folks Saturday night. A much older crowd but I actually liked it because it’s different than the crowd I used to belong to. We sat and watched 2 German shepherds dance (mascot suits) and retired to our room not too long after we sat down.
On Sunday the lounge was packed for the Niners’ game. This is a much better alternative than being sardines at places like Smoke Eaters and the like because although we were all there to watch the game, the crowd wasn’t rowdy. I guess maybe I’m getting old because I don’t enjoy overly crowded places w/​loud individuals being annoying.
When I walked in from getting my car Saturday, I saw my 3 guys sitting there enjoying their drinks and truffle fries. Our monster was enjoying his apple juice but you get the gist. I joined but didn’t want to pay for a diet soda since I have it upstairs so I opted for ice water which took forever to be served.
The food looks good judging by the table next to us.
Service can definitely and should improve.

Okay so there are a few things you have to just accept when you go into a hotel bar/​lounge:
1) It will be more expensive than your average bar — They’re catering to a tourist crowd and it’s the friggin’ Fairmont! If nothing else, it prevents some of the seedier characters from hanging out.
2) Not everyone is «stylishly» dressed — So what if there is are a lot of khakis and nametag lanyards; business travelers need alcohol too.
3) Dueling pianos — Come on, admit it. you love it.
… with that being said, I love hanging out at this place. The people watching is divine and the Friday night cover band may be cheesy, but it gets people out on the dance floor. It’s also one of the few lounges in downtown that has comfortable seating (I’m tired of places with backless barstools for seats — can we say, «drink, pay and get out?») AND an area where you can hear what your friend is saying to you. The service is usually very prompt, always friendly, and there’s never any pressure to leave ASAP.
Take a chance locals! It’s fun, not pretentious, and oh yeah, the drinks are delicious as well!

Recently went to an event held at the Club Regent ballroom here at the Fairmont but they didn’t have a bar in the ballromm. My cousin and I decided to start drinking so we hit up the Lobby Lounge.
THEIR MOJITOS ARE AWESOME!
The bartender made my first drink (captain and coke w/​a splash of grenadine) a bit on the strong side but whatev. it was yummy. First I got a strawberry mojito and she got a manjo mojito. Then we both tried their blueberry mojito… mmm mmm good. They are a bit pricey, but duhh you’re at the Fairmont, what do you expect? I was very satisfied (and tipsy).

Lobby Lounge for tea does not cut it. I’ve had high tea at other places for similar prices and this place wasn’t that great. Luckily I had a coupon, or else this would have been a 1-​star dine.
My gf and I had a 3pm reservation on a Sunday afternoon. It was pretty dead with maybe 3 other tables. No music and staff in sight made it seem even worse. After spotting a waiter serving a table, he continued to look at us but not acknowledge with a nod or gesture. So we waited a bit and when he was finally done he slowly proceeded to walk by and we had to greet him. There was no other staff in sight, which was not a good sign. –1 star.
After being seated, our hostess finally emerged after 5 – 10 minutes. We made our tea selections, which took about 20 minutes to arrive. There were several rounds of waiting this long or longer between food courses. Super slow, excruciating service. –1 star
Onto the food. The jasmine and darjeeling teas were good enough. No cute sugar cubes, just packets of splenda. It wasn’t that fancy and I was expecting food to be served on nice tier stands, which adds to that special ambiance. The tea ware was old-​looking, scratched, and my cup was dirty. –1 star. The first course were 4 petite sandwiches. They were sooo tiny. I know they’re supposed to be petite but these were so sad. What a rip off. Bread was dry and stale, sandwiches bland. Although the ham/​berry roll was tasty. But again, TINY. As tiny as the caviar on the salmon cracker served. Next were 2 scones which were equally small and sad looking. The devonshire cream was good, but who messes that up? Scones were okay, a bit dry, but not bad. We could’ve easily eaten a few more they were so morsel-​like. The last course was an array of tiny desserts. Ok, nothing special.
After quickly finishing our desserts, we waited for another appearance of our waitress to get our bill. It took about 2.5 hours for all courses to be served and about 15 minutes total to eat all of the food. Not to mention I still felt hungry after. If food is going to take that long it should at least be worthwhile and decent in portion. –1 star.
2 stars for the coupon and waitress’ friendliness.
Bottom line: save your money, time, and patience. There are way better places than this. I guess that’s why no one really knows about high tea here.

Excellent: tea
Good: sliders
Okay: service
Terrible: prices, music, sundried tomato flatbread (pizza)

I love how they have free live music 6 nights a week, but MY GOD! SERVICE IS SUPER SLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.
Every time I come here for the live music the waiter takes FOREVER to get our food and/​or drinks. I sugggest you bring your own alcohol so you can have a drink while you wait for your order. Just don’t let them see it. Or, have a lot of drinks at another bar before you come here. Also, make sure you’re not hungry when you come here or you’ll be really pissed off. Eat a snack first before you hang out at the lobby. One time we waited for our bowl of nuts for an hour before we decided to just grab it on the counter by the kitchen door. You might just want to bring your own bowl of nuts when you come here to lounge.
Once I ordered french fries with sea salt and herbs. It was the cheapest appetizer on the menu (everything else was way too expensive and I wanted to munch on something with my Cabernet Sauvignon). They should call it french fries with parsley. I did not taste the sea salt at all. What herbs? They just sprinkled a ton of parsley on the fries. Yes, parsley is an herb. But why did the menu say «herbs»? It did, however, make a nice presentation.
It is a nice, comfortable room, and it’s nice to hang out there, especially with the free live music! So… I guess it’s not that bad.

Sad to see they get an overall two star rating.
I haven’t ever had an issue here. The bartenders were always friendly and accommodating. They would even strike up conversation when they had the time to. I’d have to agree that drinks are on the steeper end; however, what else would you expect when you’re at the Fairmont, right? Go down the street to the Safeway Market and pick up a 40oz if you want to drink cheap. We won’t hate. Really.
Can’t forget to mention their lounge facelift: totally the business! Makes for a chill, comfortable environment when you want to sit, chat and enjoy the company you’re with over some live music when they have it. Not bad, I’d say.

Went to the Lobby Lounge for tea service while on vacation. Luckily I had a coupon because it was not worth it!!!
The tea is served in the lobby of the hotel which was very noisy and was set up like a bar (yes I know it says it’s a lounge, but I’m having TEA here). The waiter asked if there was anything I didn’t like. We said raspberry and he told us there was one raspberry desert that was more of a liqour moose so we just went with it… later on, when the desert came, it was brought by someone else and there were 2 raspberry desserts and one was just raspberries on a cracker type thing! We mentioned politely that we said tot the other guy we did not like raspberries. The new waiter, after explaining this, took back our plate and brought out strawberries. He acted like this was the biggest deal in the world and said he only did this because it was a «class establishment». OK… What is that supposed to mean?
I have been to other teas that have been WAY better and for half the price! They didn’t even bring out butter for the scones or whipped cream!!!