Lokkum London - bar and grill

I heard about The Lokkum restaurant through a recommendation of a friend. I have to be honest, after looking at their website, I was a bit put off initially because they have so many rules. Personally, sometimes I like going to restaurants and ordering just starters because sometimes the starters are just better and cheaper options than the actual main courses and that's not my fault because I don't like paying £37 for 3 chicken nuggets and 2 leaves on the side. However, one of The Lokkum's rules is you have to order a main course meal when coming to the restaurant. I didn't have many other options to go to and it was a little last minute, so I ended up going. Best decision I ever made. The restaurant was so boujee with a red carpet at the entrance, I felt like I was winning an award. Rihanna who? (Even though after looking at the pictures I took, I remembered that the colour red washes me out el o el). The waiters were lovely to us. The lights in there are dimmed and the atmosphere was calm, so its a good spot for date night.

The starters

When it came to the the starters, honestly, I was absolutely shocked. We ordered what seemed to be just simple chicken wings and shrimps on the menu, but when the food came it was heaven. We ordered King & baby prawns (£9) and Spicy chicken wings (£7.50). The prawns dish came with a tasteful, cheesy, creamy sauce and some vegetables. The size of this starter actually came as a surprise because it could have been a main course meal. It was very filling.

The Spicy chicken wings were boneless, they came with a homemade sweet chilli sauce and this was probably my favourite dish of the entire night. Although they weren't actually spicy (bit disappointing not gonna lie), the taste and the sauce definitely made up for it because I absolutely love sweet chilli sauce.

The mains

On to the main course: to be honest this didn't pull through as much as I was expecting it to after those incredible starters. I got the Pan fried chicken (£17) which is a creamy mushroom and chicken dish (it also comes with side fries). Even from just looking at the dish I kind of already knew it wasn't going to be up to my standards. I added some salt in the dish and tried it and it was actually okay. I have tried this same meal at a million other restaurants and even homemade and so maybe my expectations are just too high, but it just didn't do what I thought it would. Overall, this main dish was up to a good standard, it had what it was supposed to have but it just didn't wow me.

I didn't end up getting any desserts because I was so full but the experience I had overall was incredible. I highly recommend this restaurant, not only for the food, but for the service and for the atmosphere that it bought. It's definitely worth dressing up and going there for cocktails for the date night or just for a girls night.

Ratings

Service - 9 to be fair, there was not many other people there as it was a Thursday evening so if we didn't receive a quick service I would be a bit discombobulated.

Food - 9.5 The main course was obviously not as high quality as I expected but it was good and I don't want to keep talking about the starters but they just really shocked me.

Overall - 9 the starters obviously done it for me (as I have stated a gazillion times) and they are 100% the main reason why I will be returning and trying another main meal. The price was also worth it, the bill concluded to £99 for 2 starters, 2 main courses, 2 cocktails, 1 Coke + service charge, which I think was reasonable price for the amount of food and the quality of the food. Mind you, if they up their prices the only thing I'll go there for is the chicken wings.