When Buddha Bar came to London it was apparently one of the most anticipated launches in 2008. Literally located under Waterloo Bridge it is dark, lusciously red carpeted, intricate and of course features the world reknown giant Buddha statue. I had been to the one in New York early this year so I was interested to whether the concept had been brought over in full in London. It pretty much had though I don’t remember the restaurant in New York being quite so dark – tonight we could barely make out what we were eating! Ha ha!

Just like in New York when you walk in there are a plethora of wait staff to direct you to your table or take your booking. At first we didn’t really know who to look at as they all kind of just looked at us without any particular person taking charge!

Just like the visit in New York we were not sat in the main room with Buddha presiding over us. Not sure why but actually it turned out okay because we had our own little Buddha’s surrounding us in the area we were in and actually it was a little more private and less loud than the main room which suited us girls (Pauline and Anna) for our catch up.

And just like our visit in New York our waiter was really funny. He had me cracking up but he was super attentive not only in his presence when taking our orders etc. but also paying attention to each of us girls!

Food-wise it was actually not too shabby and with the top table 50% offer was decent value (without the 50% off offer I think very seriously over-priced) though servings were not particularly generous. The problem, I think, with the Buddha Bar concept in London is that there are sooooo many uber-cool Pan-Asian restaurants in London already that the market is just over-saturated with the cuisine. As a result it makes it difficult to deliver food which is unique. Still I was pretty happy with our main options in the shrimp tempura with spicy dressing and the surprise of the night for me was the five spiced grilled chicken. Ordinarily I’d avoid chicken being what I would, probably unfairly, consider to be a fairly bland option but the five spiced one was tender, moist and superbly marinated. The lamb rack was unfortunately not great though … tough and, to me, too much lamb flavour! Ha ha! Photos are a bit rubbish – I’d brought my camera but left the battery at home!

We didn’t actually check the bar out but I read that its proven to be popular especially being open with their late licence until 4am!