Buddha Bar

okay first when it comes to London clubs just expect to pay over the odds and have to wait in lines if you don’t get on a guest list.
Fortunately I went to this club when a friend had booked a big birthday so we had a great reserved area, excellent service and we were left to have our fun with no attitude from security or staff
The bar itself is not very big, its actually a small joint giving the impression of being busy just due to the size of it. Weekends this place will always get full and being a celebrity haunt they will restrict the people they let in.
This décor and bar area itself is very nice, with the staff also being very good and quick to serve.
My only gripe would be that they do seriously over charge on drinks, i think it cost me £18 for two bottles of bud!

I have to say that this place is a great venue, décor is very cool and ambiance

Yay! I’m a fan very much so.
I’m not going to beat around the badger bush. If you have a special occasion to celebrate like my birthday, a hot date with me, or you aren’t paying and I am, then Buddha Bar will be the hottest place in town. However, whilst there are numerous factors about BB that slap you across the face with the awesome stick, we need to be sensible. Allow me to explain…
Located underneath Waterloo bridge and a recent edition I think as I never saw it on my drunken walks home whilst at uni… There is a sense of grandeur as you enter and look down onto the restaurant and the dimly lit tables each adorned with a candle and an orchid. Everything about being in Buddha Bar makes you feel special. Whilst I think Lizzie G is right. It does strike me as the type of place that could stink of City Boys towards the end of the week who would simply go there to throw their money around, I think if you pick your day and time correctly you’ll be on to a winner.
Thai fusion cuisine appeals to Sexy Rob. It is certainly one of his preferred styles of cooking, take Busaba for example. I can’t get enough. The food is delicious. I had the crab sushi and edamame beans to start, followed by the pork belly with jasmine rice and a melty chocolate cake to finish. Faultless. The pork was incredible. However, with this unique experience comes a heavy price tag. I felt that in order to review prices I would need to take a peek at the menu to ascertain the value. It pains me to say that this really is a place that you should visit well feeling thrifty. Take a look at the menu here — However, with this unique experience comes a heavy price tag. My advice to you all is to book it through Toptable and stick to the set-​menu. Should cut back on the cost of the food, so you can be prepared for the price of the wine and drinks.
It really is an experience to savour and the real winner for me is the incredibly warm friendly and welcoming staff. They pretty much were the icing on the cake. My waitress was outrageously helpful in guiding me to the food I wanted, she knew her wine and was attentive throughout the meal without being annoying. Spot f’ing on!
I went up to the bar afterwards and to be honest I was shocked at the drinks prices. 24 nuggets for two drinks is a joke. Especially when I could have whipped up a better Mojito back at the Batcave. Have a word Buddha Bar!
In conclusion: Go. Go now. Armed with a credit card.

Well, this may be a «tourist locale» but I found the place intriguing and one-​of-​a-​kind. First of all, how I found the restaurant was a miracle because the place is literally under the base of a bridge! When you walk in everything is dark and reddish. I asked my friend if this was a vampires lair and we were the main meal!
Ok, I’m not from Kansas, but LA, and this place seemed pretty cool to me.
We started off with Cocktails on the second floor bar. Great drinks served with complimentary snacks. Once we made it down to have our meal, the service was great and our meals were tasty and the portions HUGE (looking back, we ordered too much food).
We started with the Buddha Bar chicken salad that was enough for four people, hence we had to temper our appetites so that we had room for the main course. We also got several pieces of Sushi that were the best I’ve had in London.
For entrees, we ordered the Roast Black Cod (which was almost as good as the Black Cod at Nobu LA) and Grilled Wagu beef which was melt-​in-​your-​mouth tender and flavorful.
We ordered the egg fried rice with prawns which was too much food (and a tad on the greasy side). I’d say that you can skip any sides given how big the appetisers and entrees are.
In summary, this isn’t a place I’d go to every night but I found it exotic and a nice change of pace.

Sure it’s like a stylish PF Changs on steroids (with better music)…don’t let that stop you from checking this place out, I actually really liked this restaurant. Tucked under the Waterloo bridge the Buddha Bar’s big red doors beckoned us to stop in, however they were filming at the time so the hostess walked us around a bit asked us to come back for drinks. The interior looked so amazing that we decided to check them out later that evening.
The service here was personable and top notch. After two Elemental cocktails (Elements gold rum, velvet falernum, mango/​peach juice, and bitters served in a highball) and a Blushing Geisha (contents unknown), the details on the food are a bit fuzzy.
I remember spicy tuna on crispy rice, which was quite good and the yellowtail was served with a thin sliver a jalapeño giving it a perfect amount of heat, then we ordered a round of various dumplings, fried squid and shu mai which were all too salty for me.
The décor is a sight to behold. Perched high up on the bar, you have a lovely view of the restaurant and the large Buddha overlooking the diners.
The bathrooms were stunningly beautiful and the stalls have those clear class walls that turn opaque once you lock the door. In sum, Buddha bar may have more style than substance when it comes to food, but the great service and excellent cocktails tips it to“fan’ status for me.

I’m going to say this now, I came here for an event, it was a huge Christmas party and my old work had hired out the whole place. We brought in our own DJs and most of the food and drinks were free.
I’m taking price out of this review completely because of that! So let me start by saying that as a venue for a night out this is pretty cool, a bit like Disney Land with all the over sized Buddhas and other nonsense all over the shop. I can imagine that this place will be full of suits chasing skirt on a Friday night as it has the plush decadence to cover the dirty truth of a night out!

PF Changs + overpriced + pretentious professionals = Buddha Bar
Don’t get me wrong, I had a great time at this place, food was good and so were drinks. However, strictly based off taste alone — I think I could have fared better going to a mom and pop place in SoHo. But then again, that applies to every «Asian-​fusion» restaurant.
Yes, overpriced but consider the décor, ambiance and live DJ music as hidden charges on the receipt. You’re paying for the experience, so relax a little. Unless you’re from a lower caste, at which case you should be on your toes for the ushers — they’ll escort you out promptly.
Head upstairs to the bar and have a martini. I can’t remember which one I had exactly, but watching them make it was like what I would imagine it would be like to watch Dali paint. Fresh juice, all the bar tricks you saw in Coyote Ugly sans half nude blondes (they’re too posh for that) and highway robbery of 15 pounds per martini. Worth it? Try it and you decide. Personally, I would be just as satisfied with Tesco vodka and Sprite Zero but they don’t have that on the drinks menu.
In a cool little spot right underneath the — i could be wrong — the Jubilee Bridge? No, not the London Bridge. Did you know that the majority of people assume that the bridge that folds up in the middle is the London Bridge? Actually, it’s called the Tower Bridge, which to the disgust and annoyance of Brits and smart people everywhere, is rarely known… but I digress.
Buddha Bar: Not for those on a budget but a decent place to go splurge. Why not? You’re presumably on vacation.

Every town needs an ominous-​themed Asian fusion restaurant/​bar (Geisha House? Tao? Your mom’s house?) and why should this town be any different? I knew exactly what to expect the moment the hostess told me the restroom was «behind the giant Buddha statute»: all frills, less substance.
I came here for lunch and the food was A-​OK. Nothing remarkable but nothing atrocious. The highlight, however, was that everything was HALF PRICED, thus making everything taste automatically better.
I will say that the desserts were amazing while the service was less so.

Went this weekend for a friend’s friend’s birthday party and had a good night. Entry was simple as we were on the guest list and the door staff were friendly. Inside the place is well done up and very chilled with lots of space and seating. We here for drinking and talking only so this isn’t a review of the food but you could do a lot worse for a late night venue in central London and we were very please on the 4am journey home.

The patrons make me want to rate lower, but the bartenders, and staff in general, was absurdly «on». It’s not my scene, but professionally run, and the bathrooms are pretty. I didn’t have a bad time.

A few years ago my friend was studying in Paris and I went to visit her for a week. We had a great time visiting bistros and bars not frequented by tourists. One night we went to Buddha Bar and I was taken back by the place. It was like nothing I’d see before, a lavish dimly lit venue which was opulent yet also relaxing at the same time. I was excited when I heard that a Buddha Bar would be opening in London. I was equally impressed– the food was exceptional, the cocktails were excellent, and the service was very good. This place is not cheap but definitely worth a visit on a special occasion. If it’s not already booked up I’m thinking I might go to Buddha Bar on New Year’s Eve.

Buddha bar is very well known and has become really popular in these past years. At the entrance, you will find hench doormen, but dont feel intimidated as whenever I have been, they have all been really nice.
This is definitely a very up market venue to spend a night, you can usually tell by the crowd, it is popular with celebs and football players.
Once inside, the entrance is very grand, and quite overwhelming, there is very lavishly decorated, with great colours, reds, blues and purples, and this all creatives a real atmospheric setting.
You do not have to pay to get in which is a bonus in London, but I think on certain nights this is not the case. Drinks are reasonable, between £9 and £12 for cocktails, which is average for London.
Bar staff were very friendly, something which is not always the case with these upmarkets venues, in my experiences here, though I have heard differently from othere people.
This is perfect for couples or groups of your close friends.
There is also a nice restaurant below (bar is upstairs) the food is average, nothing outstanding, medium range prices for the meal, it definitely could be better. But I recommend to go to the bar, the DJ is good, plays soulful funky lounge music, you can dance and also lounge. Middle eastern/​modern theme.
One weird thing is that I have never used the toilets, but my girlfriend has, and she just told me this moment, that they are really funky, when she entered, she could see through the other cubicles, but once you lock the doors, that’s when the lights change somehow and your cubicle is sealed. Very funky, loved it. I suppose its worth going just for that!
On a serious note, its a really nice place, it’s growing in fame so you have to give it a try.

This is one of those ostentatious, themed-​feeling, over-​the-​top sort of clubs. Walking in you’re greeted by glo-​stick chandeliers, a wafting bass tempo and a golden Buddha two-​stories high. It’s exactly the kind of place that feels like you’re *somewhere* — that you’ve arrived at a destination. What can I say? I’m a sucker for such things… this also means that I like it.
A group of us wandered in here on a Thursday night after everything else started shutting down around us and we found ourselves in need of a late night venue. When we got there we were told by the bouncer that we needed to be on the guest list if we wanted to enter after 10, but after some obligatory sweet-​talking, we found ourselves inside easily enough… and it was clear to see why… despite the exclusive, ‘place-​to-​be’ cachet that BB is going for, it was far from packed.
Not that it was empty either… this is a relatively massive venue, and there was still a decent enough crowd upstairs for it not to feel empty, it’s just not that the elite throngs were rushing the place.
I was completely unbothered (perhaps even satisfied?) with this state-​of-​things, however, and was more than happy to sip my rusty Cinderella martini on a plush chair overlooking the dark chasm filled with incandescent purple and blue lights and the Buddha standing guard below us.
The drinks here are well-​done… every other girl had the passion fruit martini in hand — a delightful sure bet. Also, the music is cool and rhythmic, and while its presence is felt, it’s not overbearingly loud.
So maybe Buddha Bar London is not going to be quite the experience the Paris branch’s was in its heyday, but it’s still an atmospheric and impressive late night option.

This review really has nothing to do with the fact that I’m growing more cynical with age or that I don’t like trekking down to the Embankment on a Saturday night. No. But when I finally went (mainly out of curiosity), Buddha Bar failed to get anywhere close to meeting my already-​low expectations. I even shocked myself by feeling sorry for it.
I suppose Buddha Bar was very possibly the mother of the cool, dark, cavernous Asian-​fusion restaurants that serve out shared plates to the beat of a clubby/​lounge-​y DJ mix. Sadly, I never made it to the original BB in Paris during its hey-​day (I took a peek a few years ago when it started to resemble Disneyworld), but I frequented the one in New York (very Sex-​in-​the-​City-​like) and enjoyed every minute of it. The food was never great — but that wasn’t the point. It felt original then, as did the clubs with the big bouncers and red ropes and the ladies offering you gum and perfume in late-​night bathrooms. All of that is what Buddha Bar in London is trying to capture (complete with the ladies in the bathrooms). Unfortunately, it arrived too late. From the stacks of young, beautiful black-​clad waiters and waitresses (why do three come to your table at once?) struggling to get your order straight to the ludicrously priced food (£4 for a tiny bowl of edamame? And what, just for laughs, £31 for half a peking duck?), everything feels dated and ridiculous. The only thing a bit different was the half-​empty room.
How can this restaurant possibly succeed?