12 Comments

1. Krishna Kumar says:

   March 31, 2011 at 4:01 pm

   This restaurant was at the top of our must check out list when we decided to move from US to Kochi. Unfortunately when you have high expectations, you can get disappointed quickly as well.

   The day and time we chose to visit this place was probably not the best because it was around 4/4:30 on a weekday. We walked in, no one from the restaurant staff seemed to be around. Loitered around, there were some people eating or seemed to be. But no one from the staff showed up. Finally someone showed up and said that the restaurant is closed but the cafe is open. Since we had missed lunch, we were super hungry, decided to check out the cafe menu. Turns out it was a like every other Kerala restaurant. 10-15 items but only serving 2-3. And for us being vegetarian, they didnt have any vegetarian at that time, even though the menu had some very interesting sounding veggie items.

   Not sure if we will visit again. But glad that the corporate lunch crowd is helping the place. We do need more such places, with creative and different menu. But preferably without the Kerala restaurant-service-culture.
2. Abhishek says:

   April 1, 2011 at 3:26 am

   @Krishna Kumar: Thank you for having taking the time and effort to comment on your experience @Lokah. It is, however, very disheartening to hear about your not-so-pleasant first visit. We, the management, will take this up in our service briefings and hope to nullify any such instances in the future.

   We have recently launched our new restaurant & cafe menu @Lokah with a lot more cuisines being covered- Bengali, Lebanese, Swiss, Kashmiri, Sichuan and a whole lot more. It would be great if you could share your personal email/contact information to shek@lokah.in, as we would like to know more about the dishes you’d asked for, the particulars etc. We could have run into non-availability of a few items during our first week so I’d like to make sure we don’t encounter such problems again and mete out the best possible service and food to our guests.

   Also, for information sake- our lunch timings are from 12-4 PM and dinner from 7-11 PM. We hope to see you again. Thank you.

   Regards,
   Abhishek
   Owner- Lokah Restaurant & Cafe
3. Shalini says:

   April 1, 2011 at 11:30 pm

   I agree with Krishna Kumar. I was unlucky to have not read is post yesterday , else we could have saved ourselves the trouble of tasting that … Tough I had heard about their poor service earlier but thought we were ok to venture for some good food.
   The food right from Lamb chops to Lasagna, which Ms seams to be appreciating so much, was worst that a layman could do : leave apart a professional Chef.
   Basic thing of Indian Food is Nan – which I have never seen go wrong is the hardest and fastest that can be done.
   PLEASE SAVE YOURSELF A TROUBLE OF EXPERIMENTING…
4. Abhishek says:

   April 3, 2011 at 10:23 pm

   @Shalini: Sorry to hear about your experience. Would you be kind enough to pinpoint what exactly was off about the lamb chops- the meat, the sauce, the sides? And were you served the chicken or veg lasagne? Our kitchen works very hard at serving these made-from-scratch menu items, so your feedback will really help us in going back to the drawing board and having a re-look at these dishes.

   Regards,
   Abhishek Nair
5. Shalini says:

   April 4, 2011 at 1:01 am

   The lamb chops actually didnt have any lamb in it… except for the rib bones… . The mashed potato should come with some ranch dressing… which was MISSING and ofcourse the combination of Fried pudina / mint leaves with lamb chops was horrible…and it was hugely priced. Meat and Sauce MISSING
   Lasagne – was veg – Just two pieces os Pasta with some vegetables inside sauted in south indian flavour (like in stuffing of paties)NO SAUSES what so ever. The cheese on the top was hard to chew (may be over done)
   Nan – So hard that neither kids nor the elderly lady could chew. Very thick and the yeast was excess leading to sour taste. Even the batura was too thick like a thin crust pizza base.
   Will be happy to give you more details incase ….
6. Mishel says:

   April 4, 2011 at 10:52 am

   The food I had from Lokah is the worst! They charge you so much and moreover, thee quantity is less and quality is disheartening. Maybe, as the author says, the lasagne and meat loaf mus b the exceptions (u were lucky enuff to try that only). I ordered for something called a brownie blast for some 80 bucks. The glass was a lil more than the normal wine glass (size) and they served it mediocre. I had to ask them to serve me a chilled one again! The grilled sandwich which comes at 100 bucks is not worth it. To top it all, the service is worst. The kinda looks and attitude of some staff was sad. hope they do something bout it!
7. Abhishek says:

   April 4, 2011 at 9:29 pm

   @Shalini: Thank you for your feedback. The meat is something I will definitely take up with my suppliers. We have had problems in the past where when the meat ratio was not upto the mark, we had upped the portion size. Will look into it. Also we do not plate our country mash with any dressing in particular- but will definitely have it served with some upon request. The vegetarian pasta too I will have a re-look at. And the Indian bread served at your table sounds very off- these are not how they are served regularly and will definitely make sure to avoid such instances in the future.

   @Mishel: Thank you for your feedback. Again, I seem to be making a habit of apologizing to my guests. I am sorry for your experience. Were you seated at the cafe during your visit? In the airconditioned space or outside? And was the filling in the chicken sandwich different from what you had expected?
8. Shalini says:

   April 4, 2011 at 11:50 pm

   @ Abhishek – I do appreciate your interest in reading and replying to these message, which will certainly do some good to you. It is upto you where you want to change your supplier or what. What I know is I have wasted my money and a wonderful evening…
   @ Mishel – Thanks for updating.. Pls do rate some other places so that we consumers can save ourselves, because I really wonder on what basis these website rate them. May be when Restaurant know it is for rating (press) they serve better.
9. Mishel says:

   April 4, 2011 at 11:57 pm

   @ abhishek- I’am indeed glad that you take the trouble to read these posts and also wanna improve them.. that’s nice! The brownie blast was more than worse. The glas was so small, and I cant beleive you are charging 80 bucks for tht. Also, the filling for sandwich mus be more and its not even ‘grilled’ as the name suggests. We want the worth for the money we spent.
   @shalini- Well, its sad iam not able to help you in dat cos I myself havent found any such place in Kochi. Moreover, i do not agree to the fact tht websites like these posts reviews blind foldedly. I have been to the restaurants they have reviewd. and i totally agree to the kinda stuff they have posted. Lokah was an exception, that’s all i guess!
10. Abhishek says:

    April 8, 2011 at 9:24 am

    @Shalini: It’s in our best interests to recognize and improve on how we can serve our guests better. We might have our off days but we still make sure that we do what it takes to minimize such instances in the future. I have worked with my supplier and kitchen with regard to the chops, and unfortunately it’s something we could not work out for the better- so have had to omit it from the specials board. Please do ask for me next time you find yourself at Lokah and I’d be more than happy to give you and your guests an enjoyable evening.

    @Mishel: We were facing some problems with our regular glassware for the past few weeks. We have however gone ahead and replaced all of our juice glasses and hope that the next round is to your liking. Also the chicken sandwich served at Lokah should be grilled as per the menu- by any chance if it doesn’t happen to be, kindly inform our wait staff and we’ll do our best in getting things right.

    We highly appreciate your feedback and look forward to making round 2 a far bigger success!
11. Anita says:

    August 10, 2012 at 8:17 pm

    @Abhishek,
    Hi, I have been to Lokah only once and I simply adored your burgers. It was a fantastic change from the ‘cutlet’ burgers we get here in kerala. The only drawback being the extremely slow service. We waited for around half an hour before someone even came to take our order. And another forty minutes or so for the food to arrive. The sad part was we had come exclusively from Ettumanoor all the way to ur restaurant to try the food there. My husband was so angry that he swore never to set foot in Lokah again because he said that the people there did not care for its restaurant. Our outing was sorely dampened becoz of this. Has this changed? Can we order via phone for parcel so we don’t have to wait all day? I asked my sister to get me a burger from there and she said the service is too slow and her day will be wasted waiting for the order. (
12. Abhishek says:

    August 11, 2012 at 12:08 pm

    Dear Anita,

    Thank you for your comments. It is highly disheartening to hear about your experience. Would you able to let us know the approximate date when this incident happened? Were you dining with us for lunch or dinner? We have faced delays in the past due to exceptionally busy nights or staff absenteeism on special occasions; but even that long a wait time is not something our guests are subject to. I would like to get to to the root of this to ensure such instances do not repeat itself.

    There is a lot of effort and thought that goes behind our Mediterranean grilled burgers- we are glad you appreciate the same. Yes we do home deliver! Call us on 0484 4033221 or 4033220. Or for more information log into our website http://www.lokah.in. We hope that we are able to make amends on your next visit. Have a great day!

Trackbacks/Pingbacks

Leave a Reply