Lounge at the Fairmont

I checked a couple pubs in the ‘hood and they were too loud and seedy for my mood. I was walking to a Mexican restaurant near my hotel when a drunk yelled at me, «Hey Blonde Chick … can you spare some change?» So I turned around and went back the way I’d come. There is a steakhouse next door but I wasn’t willing to pay $ 40 for steak even though it was on my company’s tab. I decided to go back to my room and order a pizza.
As I was going through the lobby, I ran into the friendly concierge and he suggested I check out the lobby lounge.
I was tired and hungry so I did.
My server was extremely friendly. She brought me some peanuts. They tasted different and kinda nasty (pepper, salt and vinegar) but were addictive.
After a long day, my Keiths tasted good. Alas, no local beers on tap to try.
I ordered red Thai curry with chicken. It was okay but tasted like an expensive Lean Cuisine (at $ 17). The chicken was the fake processed frozen chicken breast. Yuk :(
So though my belly was full, I was disappointed in the quality of the food considering it’s the Fairmont Hotel.

It’s a nice low key lounge but they really gotta work on their chairs. A must for any lounge is great seating, one that you would want to linger in for hours on end comfortably while sipping endlessly on drinks. At this place, the seating were considerably lower than any lounge I’ve been at and worst of all, the seats were overly soft and were not appropriate to the height of the table (very annoying). It’s a Fairmont — can’t they invest in some new cushions? I felt like I was sinking into my seat the whole night.
The place was nearly full on a Saturday night and the noise level was lively yet comfortable enough to hold conversation in. The crowd is definitely more mature, somewhere between 45 – 50 (too old for me). It didn’t feel pretentious but it also isn’t the type of place where you go people watching. :-)
The menu has a lot of appy’s to nosh on — it was an eclectic menu with nachos, tuna and then some Indian inspired dishes. Desserts are available at $ 9 each, we tried the chocolate fondant cake with raspberry coulis. It tasted more like a very rich and creamy brownie as opposed to the lava cake it should’ve been. I’ve had other similar cakes I’ve had before, which are typically baked as ordered so you get the warm cake and oozy chocolate filling — that didn’t happen here.
The drink menu is diverse but I was disappointed in the wine offerings; nothing great to try. There are a decent number of wines by the glass in a different sizes, starting at 5 oz and around $ 9-​$ 12 a glass. At $ 12-​$ 14 for a cocktail, which is rather pricey in Wpg but normal in larger cities, there should be more innovative cocktails as opposed to an updated Singapore Sling.
Service is nice but kinda guarded depending on who you get. Although I found it odd that we had 3 different servers in a span of an hour — I prefer continuity.