L8 Cafe & Lounge

We met up with some friends for drinks and had some beer food on Thursday night. The food is already ordered by our friends by the time we arrived. But I can mentioned some that I thought they made it pretty good. I had the salt & pepper shrimp, the steaks that’s cut in little cube, the shrimp fried rice, shrimp noodles, fried calamari, beef salad, papaya salad. I had little bit of each and they were pretty tasty, I drank a whole lot too, so I had a good buzz :)
For entertainment, they have a one man band playing both Vietnamese and American music. And I even see people getting up and singing Karaōke. On Thursday night they usually have a good crowd. There’s a little dance floor for people who wants to dance and I do see people gettin down.
There’s a patio out on the side for smokers.

If you like subpar food in an atmosphere that’s trying too hard, then this is your joint.
In a phrase, L8 really isn’t worth your time. I visited this place shortly after it opened and can honestly say that I will never make that mistake again. When you first walk in there are two thoughts that come to mind: «why is this restaurant even here» and «judging by the décor this place must have some decent eats.» Looks can be deceiving.
I ordered a club sandwich here and was served something that looks like it came out of a 4^th grader’s lunch box. The bread was nothing more than wonderbread, the lettuce looked like it was simply torn off the head, and the rest is pretty much down hill from there.
To be honest, the whole experience was just terrible. I really don’t even care to continue with this revue except to say: don’t go here. Westminster is a city that is completely littered with delicious restaurants and there’s no reason to go here except to maybe have a drink… and even then i’d have to be really hard up.

This place is one of two things. Located in the Twilight Zone or is a business front for Vietnamese gangsters. The staff here simply does not care. This Ikea-​fest of a restaurant oozes with Avril Lavigne pretension.
I had beef with mint and although the meat was pretty suave I couldn’t taste it. My right ear was being pounded so hard by music that it shifted my taste buds to one side of my face.
Open mouth +pops Tylenol 3+ …check please
L8 is deluded and it’s a shame as this particular center needs a place like this

Stopped by Friday night with a couple of buddies just to check out the «new» Vietnamese hangout.
The décor was pretty contemporary and not too pretentious. If you’re a beer aficionado, the selection was limited because Vietnamese folks always acquiesced to the default Heinies & Coronas. I didn’t have any room for food, but the café served non-​americanized appetizers such as frog legs and dried squid.
The bartenders were absolutely friendly, affable, and quick to refill your beverage.
The only knock on this place was the music. A live band was featured that evening and the genre of music (classic rock n’ roll to vietnamese new wave) they played didn’t really fit the image of a lounge. The music was way too loud for any reasonable conversations to occur between anyone.
The friendly bartenders will probably motivate me to come back for a beer… hopefully next time, I can actually hear what they’re saying to me.

What’s the best way to describes L8?
Imagine getting a nice new 3 series (fairly nice,) but only to find out that it got a Ford Pinto Engine… well, that’s how L8 is… pretty nice décor. amble parking.(maybe I should have take that as a hint) it just got no soul, they reminds me of that one guy in high school, who’s kinda cool, but got no self-​esteem, so he tries to fit in with everyone but ends up looking like a fake… it’s a bar/​lounge. with Vietnamese food… But just like the one guy from high school. They tried to make their food «cool» by combining their own flavors. but failed miserably.
We had a group of 15
So we pretty much ordered everything.
Hot pot-​just like the place itself. Lacks flavors.
Vietnamese chicken salad. way too much onions. no chicken,. They should renamed it to Onion salad with sprinkles of chicken
Chicken wings.-had better as Costco.
Bo luc lac (Shaken Beef) again. The quality of the beef was good. At least it was filet mignon. I use to think you can’t go wrong with Filet mignon. boy was I wrong.
Pineapple fried rice… just like the restaurant. nice looking (the pineapple itself was the serving tray) but lacks flavors.
We actually ordered a few more things. but I didn’t want to try it anymore. I just stuck to the oysters.
The best part was the Oysters (raw) at least they didn’t messed that up.
One more thing. we were trying to make a bad situation good, since it was one of the guy’s birthday… but they said we were being too loud. And we need to keep it down… wtf?1!?1?!/1?!?\
It’s a freakin Bar/​lounge right?
Just like that guy from High school who tried too hard to be cool…
They failed.
oh one more thing.
if you’re going to charge us 8 – 10 bucks per drink. please make the food decent.

L8 has its pro’s and con’s. Let’s start with their one PRO. L8’s interior design has a modern, hip, loungy feel to it. That’s about it. On the other hand, their CON’s outweigh their PRO’s for sure. We just went for a birthday party this past Saturday. The birthday girl tried calling 3 days prior to make reservations for a party of 25, but no one answered the phone for 3 consecutive days. Apparently, L8 is under new management. Arriving at 9pm, L8 was nice and set up balloons for the birthday girl. We hung out at their VIP lounge that was cornered away from the band. Not so cool. We ordered the calamari and that wasn’t too bad. Their fruit bowl was over priced and was not worth it whatsoever. Also, the music was so Vietnamese. If you are into the Vietnamese music and live bands, this place is for you! I would have to pass the next time around.

I went there when it just opened for lunch. They had fancy english names for dishes where you could go a block down for half the price but the food was pretty good. We had fried rice, pork chops & beef chow fun.
Just in case you didn’t notice, L8, you’re in Westminster California. (and i saw the eviction sign on your door while driving to work. everyday i look at L8 just to see if it’s shut down yet. lets not kid ourselves anymore. just turn yourself into a vietnamese coffee shop.)

I’ve been here a few times since my first visit. It’s a little more club-​ish and people actually dress to impress now. One thing that i did notice is that they charge more for drinks. BOO!!! The first two times i was there my order was like so:
1 Cap and Coke + 1 Grey Goose and Redbull = $ 14
The last time:
1 Cap and Coke + 1 Grey Goose and Redbull = $ 19
OMG … a 35% raise in less then 2 months. I expect this in Hollywood or LA but in Westminster??? Any-​how, the bartender’s still suck. A friend’s friend ordered a fuzzy navel and somehow the bartender heard shot of hen. As a former bartender i really don’t know how you confuse fuzzy navel with shot of henessy.
If you can’t make up some kind of excuse to get out of going here, my advice is pre-​party before you go. If you need a refresher, stick with something you can pour straight from the bottle into your cup: o)

The décor is nice and stylish, which seems out of place with the strip mall its in. I came here for lunch with a few people. When I arrived there at 12:30, there was only one other party of three casually taking their time dining while going in and out to smoke. The entire time I was there, which was over an hour, no other customers came in.
The food took some time to come out, probably 20 minutes or so. Two people in my group had the Kobe burger. When they came out, they looked pretty good to me. They actually screwed up on one of them by adding cheese when one lactose intolerant person in my group explicitly said to hold the cheese. Luckily the cheese wasn’t melted into the meat all the way and was able to be scraped off. The other person that ordered the Kobe burger said that their burger was dry. Another person in my group ordered a cobb salad and someone else ordered tom yum soup. After browsing the menu for quite a long time after the orders were taken and went in, I actually decided not to order anything. Nothing on the menu stuck out or appealed to me and the dinner entrees seemed way too pricey. Unless their nighttime business is a heck of a lot better, I don’t think this place will survive very long.

Nice place. It has a lot of potential. They started having a Club/​Dj. I’m checking it out tonite. The staffed does need some work. The bartender was a rookie. He didn’t know how to make a snake bite. WTF! Use a spoon damn it!
This place could be great if they promoted it rite and worked on there staff. The night I went, it was someones b-​day. They had a Dj that thought he was the sh*t. He kept being loud on the mic. Get a sound guy buddy, to much feedback. Then there was a group that kept taking pictures like if they were the damn paparotcy for myspace! It got really annoying.
The only thing I’ve ate there was the calamari. It was good. I’ll updated next week. I think it’ll get better in the coming months.
; ^ D

Had lunch the Kobe burger was a great portion for the value. The service was great. I think people should give this place a chance especially since its brand new. Im sure they are going to work out the kinks.

Went here to celebrate my friend’s birthday last night. I got the stuffed chicken which was more like stuffed crap. The squash, zucchini, and carrots were barely cooked. They were hard as a rock and difficult to cut up. Only three beers on tap, Fat Tire, Newcastle, and Coors. Bartenders didn’t know how to make any drinks. I asked for a zombie, miami beach, and a beautiful… no luck. There was a guitarist playing while we were there, but at 10:00pm they had a DJ played rap/​hip hop. It was super loud so you couldn’t really have a conversation there, more people came later, but no one really danced on the dance floor. Shots range from $ 8-​$ 11, more for premium liquor (Ketel One = $ 8, Hen = $ 11).
My gripe is that my friends and I dropped hella cash there on drinks and food and my other friend closes his tab, but he scribbles all over the signature part of the bill. One of the owners (possibly?) comes out and complains about the signature. My friend is hella drunk and he doesn’t know what’s going on. The lady ends up getting her security staff and kicking us all out. Is that how you treat customers? All over a stupid signature? You got your money, he signed it, fuck it. All the security guys come out like they’re gonna do something, they even brought out this big ass Islander guy for intimidation purposes. There were like 6 of them and 10+ of us, I mean c’mon, we weren’t even rowdy or anything, we were just smoking outside. I just thought it was rude and disrespectful how they all came out. They talked to us nicely and we handled it, but they could have handled it better. They didn’t need to kick us out. My other friend threw cake at the birthday boy and then threatened her if she did it again, they’d kick her out. Wow, I mean we’re drunk, we’re having a good time, we even offered to clean it. Some customer service that is, I will never go to this place again… I hope it burns down into oblivion.

I have been waiting for this place to open forever, it’s called L8 and had a sign that said breakfast lunch and dinner (they no longer serve breakfast) so i was thinking great a hip place open late and it’s a crawl from my house. Now that it is open i have been twice. The first time i went i was surprised how much i liked the inside dark hip music and a full bar, food was ok we got a appetizer poke which was good i like the wantons we also ordered stuff chicken which was good and a good portion, the spicy beef salad which was small and not so spicy my friend got the kobe burger which was big and had a option of sweet potato fries and if you like thoes you know they taste the best with honey which had to be ordered after the food came. Overall service was good, i like when they pack up your leftovers for you.
The 2^nd time we went was because the place I actually wanted to go was closed :(so knowing this place would be open we headed there… mind you this was just before 10pm. When we walked in the music was really load but they had a dj this time. This place is actually really cool for a dance club lounge place! So back to when we walked in we told the host guy at the door two for dinner and looked at us and said let me see if the kitchen is open… i swear my jaw hit the floor. A girl later walked up and said yes they were serving food… really the person at the door should know if the kitchen is open this place is open till midnight and it was 10. So the place is empty with a few people at the bar so we seated with the rest and sat at the bar. My bf got a dirty martini on the rox with belvedere which he said was good but watered down, and it ended up being 10??? WTF am in LA? No 10 was way to much for his drink. I got a white Russian i thought it was good and less then his drink. When our food came I was a little suprised cause i ordered vermicelli noodle with prawns I’m not asian but i got silver noodle stir fry… CAN SOME PLEASE HELP ME HERE IS VERMICELLI NOODLE AND SILVER NOODLE THE SAME THING? My bf ordered the kobe burger i swear that is meal of choice, he ordered is med well and it was totally pink the bartender said it was his fault he put med cause the music was loud… good going guy!
Well it did the job i got full and to be honest I want the place to last everything around seems to pack up around 10, this place has total potential more for night life with live music and a full bar.