I don't normally review airport lounges, but this particular one was appalling enough in both service and food selection that I had to write a review. Firstly, during check-in, the host (I believe his name was Brandon) didn't confirm the number of guests I had. My wife was there with me, but she has her own priority pass and was planning to check in separately. The host instead checked me in with one guest, ensuring that I would be hit with an extra $35 fee.
We did not find this out until my wife attempted to present her card and the host told us that she was already checked in as a guest. I complained to him and he insisted that on his end he saw a $0 fee and in any case, once he checked us in, there was nothing he could do to change things. After multiple attempts speaking with multiples employees to get this rectified, I eventually had to contact Priority Pass customer support, who were able to reverse the charges after some delay.
In terms of the lounge itself, it's rather small (much smaller than the Escape Lounge), and when we were there at around 2PM on a Monday, it was almost completely full. There's a separate gaming room off on one side with plenty of console classics, including Mario Kart and Smash.
On the other end is the buffet. The food here is honestly horrendous. On my visit the main entree was an inedible braised chicken rice. The rice was complete mush, gummed up into a ball, with a tiny piece of chicken perched atop. It's not often that I throw away food since I hate food waste. In this case, I literally couldn't eat more than a small bite of the rice. They also had some pulled pork sliders with completely dried out and tough pork. I didn't end up eat anything else since the food was so bad.
A couple of minutes later the host switched out. I believe the new person's name was Thao Kham. He also confirmed that once the guest charge goes through there's nothing he can do from his end.
We ended up leaving to go to the Escape Lounge. While the food there isn't great, it's at least far better than Portal Lounge, in addition to being way larger and more comfortable. I would never visit Portal Lounge again. read more