Welcome to The Lobby, a festive and well decorated downtown bar and restaurant that features a mid-century modern vibe with a cozy but comfortable atmosphere, great service, and delicious drinks.

The Lobby is a great stop to plan on if you are visiting the Festival of Lights that happens every holiday season in the Downtown Riverside promenade as it is right in the heart of the festivities, and they go all out with the decor inside to really get you into the festive mood.

We started off with a couple of the appetizers, the Poke Wonton Nachos, and the Pot Stickers. Both were delicious with just the right amount of food to get us ready for dinner but not have to worry about being full when it came, and complimented our first round of drinks well. The wontons in the Poke Wonton Nachos stayed crisp and didn't get drowned in sauce and can happen, and the Pot Stickers were hot and fresh at the table. Pot stickers can tend to get cold fast, but these stayed hot and enjoyable throughout our opener.

For our designated driver, we had a mocktail called MySpace Top 8, which has an alcoholic twin so make sure you specify you want the mocktail version, which featured a photo of Tom from MySpace. The joke may soar over the heads of the younger patrons, but this old internet hound howled. The mocktail was delicious, and featured Seedlip Grove 42, Honeydew Melon Syrup, Coconut, and Lime. Seedlip is a non-alcoholic ingredient specifically created for mocktail creations and is really changing the way mocktails are experienced, and The Lobby is making good use of it in this beverage.

For the drinkers at the table, we sampled the Christmas in Cali, a tiki inspired vodka drink featuring gingerbread syrup, melon liqueur, coconut, pineapple, and lime, all served in a kitschy tropical Santa mug. The gingerbread flavors worked well with the coconut and pineapple and provided a delicious tropical tiki Christmas we didn't realize we needed in our life.

We also sampled the Gingerbread Espresso Martini featuring Sobieski Vanilla Vodka, Mr. Black Coffee Liqueur, Cold Brew, Gingerbread Syrup, and Cinnamon Whip. I am personally not a fan of flavor infused vodkas, but this one was actually quite good. The vanilla flavor was well-balanced, and not sickly sweet, which can tend to happen, and gingerbread playing with the coffee was perfection. I Recommend this as a follow-up beverage after the meal is over paired with the house beignets with chocolate dipping sauce.

To the main course, and we tried the Lobby Burger, the Spicy Chicken Sandwich, the Short-Rib Mac-n-Cheese, and the Chicken Alfredo. There were five of us, don't judge. The Lobby Burger was the clear winner of the night, featuring Angus beef with sharp cheese, tomato, lettuce and onion jam on a brioche bun served with fries. The burger was cooked and seasoned well, and very filling.

Unfortunately, we weren't thrilled with the other dishes. The Spicy Chicken Sandwich was visually a delight, but the chicken was a very small in comparison to the bun, and the amount of slaw piled on top of it. The pasta from the Mac-n-Cheese and the Alfredo were both a bit mushy and overdone, but that may be a preference thing, I tend to lean a little al dente with my pasta. My biggest issue with the Mac-n-Cheese is that the short ribs lacked flavor overall, and it all felt a little pedestrian for the price.

The service was fantastic, and I can't say enough nice things about the overall experience we had with the staff. There were five of us, which is a bigger group than I would recommend for this venue, but they accommodated us well with our reservation, and we were comfortable, despite the venue being cozy. Our server managed our table with consistent attention, and dealt with a finicky drinker with smile, and we never had to flag them down to get something we needed. We all had a meal, with several appetizers and drinks, and the bill came out to about 50 dollars per person which I felt was a great value for this type of venue. With the added decorations and festivities, the Lobby was the perfect place to begin our evening enjoying the Festival of Lights.