11th September 2008
Beg to differ
I have trouble even giving this place ONE star. I just returned from dinner there this evening. I am a frequent business traveller to London and Europe so I have learned to temper my expectations of good customer service but Cyrano managed to completely surprise me with its new low standard of both customer service and poor food quality.
With only five tables in the place with customers sitting at them, the three servers were unable to provide even minimal customer care or attention to either my girlfriend and I or the older couple sitting next to us. Not once did anyone come to ask us if we needed anything after we had ordered and begun eating - I actually had to flag down our waiter in order to spend more of my money on a glass of wine.
It was probably a good thing that no one asked us how we enjoyed our meals - the food was bland, overheated, and presented haphazardly. There was an endless parade of fruit flies and house flies flitting around us while we ate. Before the bill came, I asked the man who was apparently our waiter to please separate my meal from my girlfriend's since my meal was on my corporate expense account. "Impossible", he replied, " it is already entered into the system.". He then asked if I would take a separate hand-written receipt and I asked if he was serious (because of my field of work, I happen to know that separating the bills is a simple task on the restaurant system they used).
When I pulled out my American Express to pay for the meals, the waiter told me dismissively that I could not pay with that card. I was stunned and I asked if he was serious and he curtly replied, "yes". Aside from taxi drivers, it was the first time in all of my trips to London that I could not pay with my corporate American Express card. My girlfriend and I pooled our pounds and paid in cash, anxious to just leave what was a most unpleasant experience and meals that were more than disappointing.
If I were new to London or if I were just an obnoxious or untravelled type of person then this experience would not have been worth my time to talk about further but this was a complete surprise to me. Absolutely an obnoxious experience.