Cyrano

lancelot

Beg to differ further, I like it. 1st September 2009

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Dont believe the last grumpy reviewer, it's a good friendly little local brasserie and cafe with simple but good food and nice pavement tables. As for 'never was refused my Amex card elsewhere' - nonsense, neither do half the restaurants in London. I think 'asenglish' is used to eating in flashy places with flashy people, it's great that he won't be there trying to impress his girlfriend next time I go there - which will be tonight in fact!

asenglish

Beg to differ 11th September 2008

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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.

teebee at 21/11/08

Asenglish - I'm sorry you had such a bad experience at Cyrano. I've been there several times and always had excellent food and good service. But about accepting Amex, while the higher end restaurants and shops in London do accept it, many others, cafes, gastro pubs, smaller shops etc just don't because of the high charges. I like to use my Amex as much as I can to get my airmiles but I'm afraid the fact is, it's not universally accepted here in the UK. So my advice to any visitors would be not to rely exclusively on Amex and have a Visa or Mastercard as back up.

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walid

La Brasserie de Cyrano 23rd October 2006

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Alright first of all I've got to make a confession! I'm a big fan of Cyrano de Bergerac, and thus I pretty much consume any product or service that has the Cyrano name or the Bergerac one. In matter of fact one of the first red bottle of wines I bought was from the Bergerac region. 2nd confession I had to give this place a 4 star as the lovely Fanny (picture attached) was not only very friendly but was also willing to put up with being photographed by phone camera. Fanny if you see this review I look forward to reading your comment or your review. What I love about working for TrustedPlaces is the great opportunity it gives to me and the reviewers to engage with shop and venue owners about their premise in creating a vibrant and fun community.

Now about the place, to be honest I hadn't had any food but a macchiato, which was tasty and promptly served. Cyrano is nicely decorated and has lovely lamps which reminds me of decorations during the inter war years. So all in all I'd recommend Cyrano if you're in the Holland Park area and make sure to say a big hello to Fanny!

robcarter at 31/10/06

I am a big fan of fanny already.

robcarter at 31/10/06

Sorry I really couldn't help that. Like keyboard tourettes.

walid at 31/10/06

Now now Mr. Carter we wouldn't want Fanny to be intimidated from joining TrustedPlaces would we?

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