Matthew Rutter
Google
A Disappointing & Awkward Dining Experience – Not Worth the Price.
In summary, I cannot recommend this restaurant due to its overpriced food, subpar service, and an overall atmosphere that made us feel like an inconvenience.
Arrival and Ambiance: Upon arriving 5-10 minutes early for our 6pm reservation, we were led through the dining area, where a staff meeting of 10-20 employees was underway. Despite the restaurant being open since lunch, the staff seemed unprepared for our arrival.
The receptionist initially tried to seat us at a table surrounded by the meeting before awkwardly redirecting us to another table.
Service: The service was inconsistent and intrusive. Our first server was friendly but unhelpful, reading the entire menu out to us when we asked for recommendations. We then never saw or heard from this server for the rest of the meal.
Throughout the meal, staff hovered uncomfortably close, with one attempting to clear our edamame bowl twice before we were finished and another removing a sauce mid meal, right after one of us had just used it.
This created a rushed and monitored dining experience. Additionally, one of our menus lacked prices, which felt odd and unprofessional.
I must call out the chap dressed in all black who brought the drinks from the bar was brilliant, really friendly and great at his job.
Food Quality: The popcorn chicken starter was a highlight—flavorful and well-executed—but the server’s bizarre comment, “Don’t eat them, they’re horrible,” referring to the chilies, was off-putting.
The sweet and sour chicken, however, was disappointing. The meat was low-quality, with a bland sauce and thick batter. When cut open, the chicken appeared pink, prompting an unsolicited comment from a server, “It’s thigh meat, it’s not raw.”
While technically correct, this did little to reassure us in a supposedly upscale establishment.
The duck main course sharer was overpriced, duck quality was mid level and little touches missed to make it wow. It was like each dish was missing a true stand out feature or wow flavour.
The prawn toast was like potted shrimp, lots of little prawns put together to make the prawn toast, usually at high end restaurants they use large king prawns, so this was a negative idea from the team here and made the item taste mushy.
Management and Resolution: When we raised concerns about the sweet and sour chicken, a manager (man with an earring) became defensive, offering a dessert or coffee to compensate, we had just ordered a coffee and negroni already and advised him of this.
Shortly after, despite our drinks still unfinished, he informed us that our table was needed for another party of four and presented the bill. This was particularly strange as the restaurant was only half full, with at least nine other tables available for a party of four. Our meal, which lasted just over two hours, was delayed by slow food service, yet we were rushed to leave.
He never did knock off anything extra, just the chicken dish, again giving mixed messaging on what the service level being offered was.
Overall Experience: The £500+ bill for four people, including food and drinks, felt unjustifiable given the poor service and inconsistent food quality.
Every other table we observed either complained about their table positioning or requested to move for a better view.
The staff’s behavior made us feel unwelcome and undervalued as customers.
If you got somewhere like a TGI Fridays you get a better more coherent service + they would deal with a comment about food in a more professional manner.
Recommendation: I strongly advise against dining here until the restaurant addresses its service and management issues. Check back when there are more reviews before considering a visit.
