White Buddha Lounge & Cafe

NO LONGER IN BUSINESS!!! I stopped by there several times through out this month to see if they were open and try this location. They have never been open during posted hours.

Stopped in for a couple blue moons before my movie. This was my first time here I loved the bar lights. Staff was ok, he kept my mug full

This was the first time I came back, since they opened. A lot has changed for the better. Still, it feels like a contradiction. The bar itself is beautiful. The drinks are fantastic. Unfortunately the service was just not up to par. In an environment like this, the bartender should be greeting and making eye contact repeatedly. The bartender looked at me a few times, then walked away. Finally I stopped her and asked if I could order drinks. There was no dialogue and she did nothing to make the experience anything more than mediocre.

This place absolutely sucked. First of all, the bar stools are extremely uncomfortable. And why are there velvet ropes everywhere? It’s possible that I went there at a time that wasn’t very busy, and it gets busier and more hopping later on, but they seemed tacky and unnecessary during happy hour. The bartenders were rude and spent most of the time checking their facebook and/​or talking sh*t about other customers in spanish (myself and my friend included). They tout themselves as a «high class» martini bar, but couldn’t make a dirty martini to save their lives. WILL NOT GO BACK!

This is a funky little place for sure… you can sit at the bar or in the main area, but it’s not set up for a big group of people to sit and talk — more like for couples or groups of 4 at the most. They DO have a VIP room, which you gain access to by spending $ 200 and it includes a bottle of what you are drinking, plus the ice and mixers your group wants.
They do have 2 happy hours (lovely) and some pretty tasty cocktails. We’ve had some good times there!

This is a pretty swank place for the Tri-Cities…but it has too many downfalls. It’s really spendy, and too small. We had a few friends and we seemed to take up the whole place. It’s also very loud when they decide to have a DJ… which seems really weird. The atmosphere in general was pretty nice and I love the decorations. The staff is ok, but not exactly efficient. I’m sure I’ll go there again, it just won’t be a regular place for me. It does have potential, but until it changes – 3 stars.

Woohoo! this is as good a lounge is going to get here in the Tricities. Good environment. Drinks are good. i had a vodka tonic. Just moved here from San Diego, and its nice to feel like im in a cool lounge in San Diego, even though im in Kennewick. Will go again soon. I went on a Wed night, so there was hardly anybody there. But i will go on a weekend and give an update. Hopefully I can pick up on a guy here.

Okay, if you want swanky places to drink, come here.
This place is swank.
I really like the décor and the atmopshere. It’s not something you’d typically see in the Tri-​Cities.
We went here on Saturday and all their specialty martini’s were 5 bucks. Which is a steal, if you ask me!
My favorite is the White Buddha Martini, if you like milk mixed with your alcohol, this is the drink for you. If not? its not the drink for you. move on.
I do think the place is small, which is okay… and I have heard that they do Dj nights, which makes me curious to see how it’s all set up and arranged on the inside to handle a larger crowd.
Our waitress told us they have nightly specials, so I will be back to check them out again.

One of my favorite places in the Tri-​Cities to grab a cocktail. The atmosphere is what is most intriguing about this place. Its a modern, eclectic atmoshpere that the area has been lacking for some time now. It’s the closest thing to the «big city» bars and martini lounges that we have.
The service is definately friendly but a little slow at times. Even when it isnt super busy, it still seems like it takes a while to get a drink. I didn’t notice that the drinks were watered down at all as some of the other reviewers have noticed, but then again, I am mostly a beer drinker. I have sampled some of their martinis once or twice and I thought they were really good.
The food is marginal. I tried a chicken and lettuce wrap type of dish and I could tell the chicken was pre-​cooked and microwaved to order. I would have preferred freshly grilled chicken. Also, the lettuce wasn’t very crisp or fresh. It seemed flimsy and of poor quality. Still, not a bad dish but not a good one either. I would necessarily be excited to eat there again.
I love this place simply for the atmosphere and the good service. It makes me feel closer to home (Los Angeles area), and it’s a decent place to meet people and have a good time.

Now I’ve heard talk of weak drinks & subpar service, but I still have to give this place props. The owners are super sweet, and nice. They’re trying. They’re trying to instill a sense of style to the morbid Tri-​cities.
Recently, I really lucked out. A last minute Brazilian Night materialized at the WB. A group of friends met me here and we were served a night of all things Brasil. The music on the speakers was heavily samba. There were tropical drink specials.
ATTENTION:
White Buddha is the first place I know of in the Tri-​Cities that serves caipirinhas! I had a couple and they were dang good. Their was no weakness to their game. I had a mojito later, and it was adequate. I’ve had better (heck, I make a decent one).
The STAR:
Clearly the best thing of the night was the entertainment. The owner and a few other guys make up a trio of samba drummers (I believe their name is Batacuda). But the clear STAR was the samba dancer who performed three times throughout the night. She was AWESOME & sexy. The drumming and the dancing was a dose of cultural I’m not used to in the Tri-​Cities. White Buddha is the bomb for daring to be so classy.
In between performances they even played some salsa music, and our gang ended up taking over any open floor we could find and danced the night away.
The WB is a taste of much-​needed Big-​City-​Cool in the small-​town-​tri-​cities.
: White Buddha HAPPY HOUR :
Every day 5−8pm
$ 5 martinis
$ 5 top shelf
$ 2.5 Import Beer
$ 6 Apps

Not sure there was even any liquor in my drink. It was a $ 7 martini glass of juice. Oh but it must have been fresh squeezed because it took an ice age to arrive. Looks good inside but that’s about all this place has to offer. But, what can you expect from a bar in a strip mall?

If you’re looking for a cool lounge with great service, keep on walking. Upon walking in the door you will be slapped in the face by a sad attempt at a trendy L.A./Vegas club. Instead of low lights and a cool atmosphere, you will get low lights with the flicker of fluorescents, lack of service, and hip hop from five years ago. Think Ikea furnishings, that look like they were taken off the clearance shelf, trendy neon lights that are over powered by the blinding white lights at the bar, and paper lanterns that hang from the ceiling, not so much as a design plus, but more as a clichéd attempt at being Asian (I feel like the designer must have said, «We’re an Asian lounge! We need paper ball lanterns! That’s an Asian design, right?»). It seems like the design was taken from a scrapped plan for Pinkberry. Why didn’t Pinkberry use this design in their yogurt shops? Because it’s pathetic, sorry, and overall laughable.
But, I don’t want to get down the aesthetics only. No, no, no, their service was far from desirable. By being able to make a comment on their service, I think it would actually require there to have actually BEEN service. Instead, you had a group of three or four employees standing behind the bar gabbing away, ignoring the guests. But then again, there weren’t really that many people there on a Friday night. There was a couple with their newborn baby (yeah, just what I want in an «upscale» lounge, a crying baby), a group of three 50 year old women, and my fiancé and I. It seems everyone else in the Tri-​Cities got the memo that this place was a mockery of modern minimalist interior design
Needless to say, we were less than impressed and suggest they go back to the drawing board and for the love of design, PLEASE get new curtains, adjust the lighting and fix the flickering lights (no they weren’t trying to be cool, it was literally a light bulb on its last leg). While the photos make this place look cool, don’t be fooled! Photoshop can do some amazing things.

First thing I have to say, I read in the paper that this place was kid friendly in the café — let me say, IT IS NOT KID FRIENDLY! There are no high chairs, no boosters and not much for kids to eat. While the waitress and waiter were VERY helpful VERY friendly, we won’t be taking our daughter there ever again.
The food was ok, there is better in the tricities, but there is also worse. I was also disappointed that there wern’t more Thai dishes. When this place opened, the paper said that they were Thai inspired and while there were dishes with the title Thai, I didn’t think Thai when I ate them. As for the drinks, as stated in other reviews, mine tasted watered down, but my wife thought hers was just right, so it might just be that I prefer a stronger pour.
The main draw of this place would be the atmosphere — the paintings and décor are way cool, comething the Tricities needs more of. The music kept things fun, and the wait staff completely added to the experience. As a date night, don’t eat your meal here, but do stop by for a drink and maybe a snack.
In review, would we go again, yes, but not for dinner, maybe as a stop before or after a movie, with an tapas plate or two to get us through the rest of the night.

kinda reminds me of a place in China town Seattle «CAFE 102» this place needs a better sound system though and i’ll be happy. =P

Service at the bar was good, but at the tables was only so-​so. Server couldn’t explain the difference between the burgers. My cosmo was only ok, but the mango martini was tasty. I’ll go back because there isn’t anywhere else around here like it and I think they are trying.

A few of us went out the the Buddha for the first time the other night and I was simultaneously disappointed and impressed. The place has a great ambiance when you walk in and is definitely different from any other place I’ve been into the tri-​cities. The color changing bar is sweet and the spherical lights from the ceiling are great, but then you turn around. They did a poor job of covering up the fact they are in the middle of a strip mall and the tables are cheap quality from ikea. The chairs are also not very comfortable and the music was really loud. I also expected our server to be friendly but she really wasn’t.
Our drinks weren’t good or bad and ran between $ 6-​$ 9 each for a mixed drink and their limited light beer list was $ 3-​$ 5 each. They said they were going to have a happy hour mid-​week but were very wishy-​washy and refused to show me any menu or tell me what they had or any of the prices. I was planning on going back to check out happy hour but after that ordeal I’m going to skip it and enjoy another local establishment.
I think where this place would shine (and why I gave it an extra star) is the potential of their food. Their plates are very reasonable, all under $ 9 and sound great. I think they are more substantial than tapas and looked great coming out of the kitchen. If I wasn’t headed to dinner I would have been all over the food and skipped the drinks completely.

Fresh, contemporary and cool… but, the place feels a little awkward. It’s a great start for the Tri-​Cities as we need more swanky restaurants to bring out the fancy in the mid 20 year olds. If you are going there just for drinks, I wouldn’t recommend it. They were very weak… and that’s not just my opinion. As my friends and I sat on our white cubes across from people we didn’t even know, we overheard them complaining about the weak drinks as well and one customer even asked for less ice in his next drink in hopes that they’d fill it more with alcohol. To sum it all up… the atmosphere is decent, but awkward and I’m not planning on doing any more drinking there anytime soon. The service was great and friendly, and heard people saying the food was excellent, but small portions.

Lounge feel… different than most places in Tricities… interesting style…
blue lights, lanterns, modern décor… I wanna get comfy in here, but the modern style furniture make it a bit hard…
Decent tapas menu right now… fish, shrimp, salads.
I had a cuba libre… diet style… it was very tasty! I also had the martini shrimp which was a martini glass styled with shrimp on the rim with a special sauce in the glass. It was pretty tasty! I would have it again.
Little Tip– don’t be fightened by the darkened glass from the outside… walk in, it will all be ok! :)