Lost Society

This is an old favourite of mine now, and the staff make me feel like a regular (even though I'm not really).

This place has an ecclectic and very well priced wine menu with some real gems on it. (Try the Elysium black muscat an a sunny day for a real treat). They make an amazing mojito and all the cocktails we've tried there have been good.

The food has always been good when we've eaten there with a confit de canard standing out in the memory particularly. Even when their kitchen's closed they've been willing to go any knock me up a plate of antipasti. The bar staff are incredibly friendly and you get the feeling that they're all great mates.

The decor's great and pleasantly starting to feel lived in rather than just quirky as it was when they'd recently opened.

In summary I have a lot of very pleasant memories in this great bar, but I'm lucky - it's only just up the road from me, and I have a habit of going at odd times like saturday afternoon and midweek when its quieter. I've never waited in a queue for it - if I see one I go somewhere else.

Recommended as an excellent place to plan your wedding...
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Alex C
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Friday, February 15, 2008

Such a breath of fresh air for Clapham, this place is still by far me and my friends favourite place to hang out on weekends.

Sunday with the live music rocks!!
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Ems
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, October 09, 2007

This venue could be pretty cool (as we had heard prior to our visit) but is actually quite dreadful. We were a group of five very lovely ladies who wanted a girls night out somewhere with a cocktail list to die for and we had heard Lost Society was just the place. We presumed that we would be fine if we arrived at 8.15pm but that’s where the trouble began as we encountered by a queue. The queue wasn’t too long and being British and we don’t mind a well-managed effective queue – however this was anything but. We queued for an hour with very minimal movement whilst a large number of random people seemed to be able to waft in with a bit of a wink and a kiss (in the most fake of all manners) for the door staff. Some (very unbeautiful) drunken girls nearly started a fight by trying to blag their way into the queue, ignored by the bouncer. We reached the front of the queue by 9pm rather disillusioned but determined to sit it out after so much time invested. Then movement ground to a halt and we were informed of a one in one out policy (meanwhile large numbers of people ‘popped’ out with a stamp on their hand many not even returning). A while later 8 people left and we were then told that they now needed to wait for another two to leave so they could let in 2 people from the normal queue and two from the guest list queue at a time. 15 minutes later 6 people from the guest list queue were allowed to enter whilst we remained in the cold contrary to the promise. Another 15 minutes and we finally were granted entry at nearly 10pm!! Once inside there seemed plenty of room for at least another 50 people (pretty much the whole queue). The décor of the place is quite nice but nothing new and the bar staff were lovely whipping up some delicious cocktails and not shy in recommending some blinders. However the general overall attitude of all other staff was truly poor in every sense and the whole queue system appears only to be in place to satisfy some self-perpetuating image of uber cool (not effective). We also found the whole restaurant/bar/club attempt a bit pathetic with waiting staff having to navigate drinkers after 10pm and the tables and restaurant area taking up space which should surely be used for the bar on a Saturday night (again eliminating the pointless queue). As sophisticated ladies we have frequented many a fantastic bar but this is definitely not one of them. Lost Society has seriously bad management and no doubt will close before long, which will be a blessing. I would recommend you avoid this place with a barge pole, and perhaps Time Out could revoke their award?
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Monday, October 08, 2007

Great Friday night out, the venue is so beautiful and food excellent with a great menu and a extensive list to match.

Worth every penny, I'll certainly be coming back!!
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Karen
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, September 25, 2007

I went to for diinner tonight, and had to write a review straight away.

Have not has such disgusting dinner for a many years!

Starters:

Aubergine & Fennel soup: the soup was watery tastless. The organic baguette was burnt

Voka jelly: cannot even describe how bad that tasted

BUT the smoked duck was good

Mains:

Steak and chips: My god, the chips were so hard that I felt that I was eating rocks

Tuna nicoise: Ummm.... was that tuna or some sort of chinese prawn toast?!?

Linguine: The tiger prawn was mushy. I guess tesco value prawns would taste even better. Both my mum and my sis ordered the pasta, I guess they cook the two together: my sis' one had no sauce and dry, my mum had all the sauce and looked more like a soup.

HOWEVER the atomspher is very nice. Trendy and amazing. The service was excellent.

I haven't had such good mojita for a long time.

I guess if you are thinking to eat there, then forget it. Highly recommended as a bar.
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J
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 0
Thursday, September 06, 2007

Very disappointing.

Was made to queue for an hour, and then they let the entire queue in just after 9pm (which strangely enough, is the time they start charging).

Nice enought bar, but terrible door staff and suprisingly uncool crowd.

There are many much nicer bars than this in Clapham.
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, September 02, 2007

Took a group of 12 people to Lost Society for my partners birthday.

We all had a fantasic night and were treated really well by the staff, from the doorman right through to the wait staff and bar staff.

All 12 of us enjoyed our meals and felt they were well priced, and the cocktails are brilliant :)

Previous reviewer must have gone on an unfortunate night because when we were there the clientele were almost all very good looking! Vibe was fantastic, overall a really great night.
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Kirsty
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Monday, February 12, 2007

Decor was good and the man on the door was friendly. However the bar was overpopulated with raucous twentysomethings who looked as if they were on a night out from essex. The meal was extremely disappointing. The resaurant was rather cramped. The starter had clearly been made earlier in the day as the fois gras terrine had been standing on the toast for hours which was now soggy and soft. The small steak was over-cooked for medium as requested was no particular cut and plonked on top of the chips along with some very poor sauce. I was served better meals when I was in school. During the meal on a couple of occasions I dropped my napkin and when the waiter picked it up for me he handed it back to me insteadd of replacing it, on the other occasion I picked it up myself.

The only redeeming feature was the price, just under £60 for two courses and a bottle of reasonable wine for 2 people, but it honestly felt like we were eating motorway service station food rather than in a restaurant. We couldnt bear to stay for a dessert and left after 2 courses. We wont be returning and dont recommend this to others. The music was ok but was usually drowned by the brash cacophony of the wideboy and bimbo clientele.
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Az Maxwell Hakeem
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 3
Sunday, January 21, 2007

Definitely recommend this venue. Very cool crowd and good tunes. The food was excellent and I couldn't fault the staff in here. Definitely worth the trip A+
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Nicole
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Thursday, January 18, 2007

I went for dinner and drinks after reading the many glowing reviews, but unfortunately was bitterly disappointed. I expected somewhere along the lines of Loungelover, but found Lost Society to be cliched with bad cocktails, cheap furnishing and generic 'towny' music. The food was a real let down, my aubergine starter was undercooked, and my cod main was bland and cold. The basic ingredients were obviously not fresh, and the restaurant suffers from simply bad cooking. Lost Society obviously now has a fantastic reputation, but one which to my mind, with food and drinks like this, will quickly be lost. If you are looking for innovative fun drinking and dining, I would head East.
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Anna Mostyn Williams
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, December 04, 2006