Pretty good food, let down by appalling service. Get it to go if you must.
Arrived solo on a Sunday about 3 after it took a while to find. I don't live in London, am down 4 or 5 times a year and make the effort to try good independent places, even if it involves a trek. Lots of friends ask for my recommendations from my travels and always happy to share new spots with them. I worked in food service for 10 years as a manager and as such can forgive and forget most having been there myself, hence my lack of reviews on here, but today this left me in a foul mood and too late for a film I wanted to see.
I was aware of the bottomless brunch offer, however it was even louder than expected, my guess is there was a birthday group who had been there a while before I arrived (think clapping and cheering) Had 3 staff greet me and offer to seat me, that's where the attentiveness ended. Ordering didn't take too long thanks to other nearby tables paying, so the server was around. Took an uneasily long time to receive my lemonade, 15 minutes, can only assume they were juicing the lemons (?). About 3.25 I noticed the solo chap to the table next to me had two identical dishes, which looked like what I ordered. He started eating and I thought, maybe he just really likes that dish and is hungry. Until of course the male server arrived confused about 10 minutes later asking him if he ordered something else, he said yes, the server took one away. I then worried he would be back in 30 seconds and deliver it to my table as if I'd not seen it sit at the table next to me for 10 minutes. Thankfully this didn't happen, instead he returned and removed the now partially eaten dish from the chap who was a bit dumbstruck but didn't question it. He had his original dish about 15 minutes later, while I still waited. My dish arrived about 10 minutes after at 3.45 so 45 minutes after I arrived but at least was pleased it had been redone for me. I was handed it by the manager with no acknowledgement of the obvious delay. A simple 'sorry for the delay, we wanted to cook it for you fresh' would have sufficed, an offer of a lemonade refill would have been even better, neither were offered.
The food was good, a little under seasoned and some runny egg white but this was likely due to the rush to get it to me. I'll be honest the runny egg white was a bit shocking given eggs are supposed to be their 'thing'. The pork belly was perfectly cooked, the fat properly rendered and clearly delicately prepared and cooked. With only one egg it was a little dry but with a little salt and chilula sauce it was just right. The portion size was larger than appearances.
Once finished, despite the male server passing at least twice, nothing was removed from the table, nor offer of dessert menu or the bill. I waited and waited to the point I kept an eye on the time (there wasn't much else to do), it took 25 minutes for a friendly female server to come by who was clearly covering for the poor service by the male server as she collected other tables dishes he had passed also. Before she could return with it, he appeared and I explained I'd asked for the bill already, he reappeared in seconds with the bill, asking if the food was good, I said it was, but that it took a while (hoping here he would turn it around and acknowledge the error earlier and apologise for the delay) he barely paid attention. There was a cheeky 12.5% 'optional' service charge on the bill, he went to key in the amount and just went straight to the full price including service charge without asking. I'd had enough at this point and just wanted to leave, so didn't argue over £1.50. The friendly female server was warm as I left saying goodbye, only to rush out a minute later asking if I'd paid as her colleague hadn't closed the check on the system. I said I had and kept going. Would normally have found that quite embarrassing but really was just embarrassing for them, showing the disorganisation there.
Overall pretty good food, likely better on weekdays with less pressure on the kitchen due to server errors and definitely not as loud. The female server was excellent but let down by her male colleague and manager. Also if anyone from there reads this, I would note that solo diners while not as lucrative money wise, frequent places by choice, they're not following their friends' suggestion where to meet up and so are the very ones who are most let down by poor service, with no one else to distract them from it or compensate for it with great company. read more