So I decided to book a Loch Fyne as a surprise for my girlfriend for Valentines Day dinner, since we are regular customers to Hertford and St. Albans branches which never disappoint on both taste and service we were in for a shocking experience in the London branch.
Upon being greeted and sat down our order was taken, we were asked to place our drink order. We ordered a bottle of sparkling water for time being and were left to select dishes from the menu.
After 20 minutes of waiting around for our water in a semi-filled restaurant I signaled a waitress to find out where the water was, upon which she confirmed with acknowledging nod that she will be with us.
Additional 10 minutes passed and nobody bothered checking up on us, hence I got up and got our drink that was sitting on the bar waiting to be collected. Waitress at the bar asked if we wanted the water taken to our table which I responded that there was no need I had this in hand.
Quickly, waitress that sat us down materialized and took our order around 30 minutes after being sat down initially.
Waitress asked if we wanted any 'nibbles', bread, olives, etc, which we advised that we would just like to place an order from their special menu for starters. We selected Oysters as we had them before and they were devine in Hertford branch.
For the main course we upgraded to their top dish which was a seafood platter to share (expecting an amazing tasty spread).
To start with, we had two glasses of Prosecco, this was accompanied by bread, butter and olives, which we said no to, but was left at the table nonetheless (we thought this was complimentary, due to the wait).
When the Oysters arrived they looked great (as always), except we had to chase the staff for condiments, napkins, teaspoons for accompanied sauce which we thought was just poor presentation and customer service.
When the main course arrived it looked like a pan lid with a dirty dish water at the bottom, and seafood on top. We were about to be stunned by the culinary skills of this fine seafood restaurant.
Two lobsters overcooked to hell, so tough you could resole your shoes with. Mussels that had unappetizing blisters on their flash (when I highlighted this to waitress, according to their kitchen this was fine to eat! WHAT?!), and squid that could make the next Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmare.
We had enough! We asked for the bill, waitress agreed to take off the main dish off the price, but we paid for the rest. Interestingly enough, bread and olives were on the bill even though we said no, but paid for it anyway as we could not be bothered to argue and further.
We felt horrible that all the seafood was wasted, maybe for Loch Fyne London we were just another table, but this finished our Valentines day, we went home hungry and disappointed, we will never be back there again! read more