My friend suggested this place, she had been there last week and had a nice time.
We arrived at the restaurant (table booked) to a warm reception. Temperature and music was good (a tiny bit loud). Overall the ambience was sophisticated and welcoming. Tables were set nicely.
We were given 4 menus (brunch, lunch, wine and cocktail). The first thing was that there was no soft drink menu, it would be nice to know prices and to know options without having to make a snap judgment. Our first waitress with brown hair, was professional and listed all the drinks available. I asked for skim milk but received full cream, when I enquired of the next waiter when he announced "latte", he said, "um sure". But at least they came quickly.
We ordered two English Breakfasts and one of the Buttermilk Pancakes. While we were waiting I had to ask for table water, from our blonde waitress (who thought this weird) when other tables got it automatically, my glass had something floating in it. The brunette resolved this quickly. I asked the blonde waitress to please remove the lunch bread rolls from our table, (my friends had been charged last time for it, and we didn't want the bread with brunch). The blonde lady said, are you sure? A little rudely. Removed the bread (but not bread plates). Starting to feel weird, we had been seated by one person, served by three. One positive thing was that they didn't seat anyone directly next to us.
Food arrived. The waitress put the three plates down on the ledge behind us, a bit unprofessional, you should be able to carry three plates, she did know who was having what. It was quick, rushed, making us feel like a "process" (four different waiters, no questions about brunch or lunch, no real rapport as such, no asking how we were).
The pancakes looked lovely, they were fluffy and nicely presented. However the English Breakfasts had no toast included or any garnish or presentation. It looked like something I made myself at home (perhaps the idea). The tomatoes were not very nice, mushrooms were okay, ham was tasty (bit too salty for me), eggs, soft poached (perfectly). But confused about the lack of toast. As we were finishing we noticed that the tables around us were getting cute little metal racks of toast, I asked my friend, when she came last week if she got toast with her EB, she replied yes. I asked a fifth waitress, who had a brown blazer, "Just a question, were we supposed to get toast with our breakfasts?" A little mini flash of panic went across her face, she asked you both didn't get any toast? And I said no.
She went to go and ask the kitchen, our blonde waitress returned and told us that we needed to ASK for toast when ordering. THIS was the thing that ruined the already tense experience. There was nothing on the menu that suggested that we could order toast (perhaps, "Extras: toast - 2 pounds or something"), also, one could safely assume that an EB includes toast. She replied with, did the menu specify toast? When we said that my friend was here last Sunday and she received toast automatically, the waitress replied with we just changed the menu, which I have a feeling she was lying due to the fact that the first waitress looked stressed and others had toast. We weren't asked if we wanted toast, we should have been asked, if this was ACTUALLY the case.
The bill was a bit of a slap in the face, besides the expensive drinks and the 12.5% service, there was also a one pound to the GR and 2 cover charges at 2 pounds each. I asked the waitress over to explain what these were, the one pound was the Ramsey foundation, the cover charges were for eating in the restaurant rather than the bar (Ridiculous that we were being charged per seat when there was already a service charge, and nothing on the menu to warn, nor were we given the option). She said, I can remove them if you want, in a way that was quite rude. Fed up, I said, yes remove those off the menu and the service charge please. Honestly, if we had a great time we would have paid (even though cheeky).
A sixth person (the manager) stepped in. We were offered OJ and champagne to apologise about the toast (our blonde waitress was lying) and a fuss was made. I agreed, embarrassed, then when paying the amended bill (did not subtract for lack of toast), I said, I think we will just go without please, the message was not relayed as we were presented by the manager and our other male waiter with three glasses (had bits of fluff on the rim from the polishing cloths I assume).
A nice gesture, although this should have solved earlier. I think when our waitress went to ask permission for the cover charges to be removed then the Manager heard and then we got some response, but it was a too late and just embarrassing.
I wouldn't go back, for the price and ambience I expected more. There were so many things that could have been better, and please, sort out your sections wait staff-wise it would make things run a lot smoother. read more