Quo Vadis

STP

29th July 2009

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A fab place for a special meal in Soho.

The food is magical.

The Hart Brothers are the guys behind Fino and barrafina (both worth checking out).

The barstaff create some truly delicious cocktails - try the Earl Grey martini!

If you want to celebrate something special you should definitely head here.

Fortess

Behind the coloured glass 29th November 2008

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Having worked in Soho, I'd often tried peer through the coloured glass. I'm big Barrafino fan, and wanted to try out another from Sam and Eddie Hart and with theatre tickets booked, an opportunity to grab a bite from the pre-theatre menu (£16.95 for 2 courses). I'd read how beautiful the building was but my hopes were very much dampened when faced with dreary furniture.

The staff were friendly and attentive. We looked at the set menu, then went for small plates from the starters. Our side of salsify was too salty. The menu read well, and I am sure they do it well, but the restaurant was all taupe and tame, so I'll stick to looking through the glass, and to Barrafino.

bellaphon

Changed for the better. 14th September 2008

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“There are places I'll remember
All my life though some have changed
Some forever not for better
Some have gone and some remain
All these places have their moments
…” (In my Life- Lennon/McCartney)

It was a degree of trepidation and scepticism that I’d somewhat arrived with Quo Vadis. Did I need to blow a week’s wage on an average meal and mingle with the likes of Victor Meldrews and Fat Cats in an otherwise pretentious atmosphere? Will it also disappoint like Le Café Anglais? Will they also allow me in with my Motörhead T-Shirt?

Thank goodness for the Hart brothers for dispelling the negativity surrounding this grande dame of an institution. It was pretty clear they have applied the Midas touch to the place as well. The dining room oozes quality and prepares the diners for an enlightening experience. My daughter’s starter of half a dozen Colchester oysters were so delicate in flavour and firm in texture that the addition of shallot vinegar or squeeze of lemon was deemed unnecessary. My delicious Steak Tartare was beautifully concocted (with the right amount of capers, chives and hand chopped steak) and served at the correct temperature, not 5 °C straight from the fridge. My mains of Skate with capers and lemon was skillfully cooked, for it was lovingly melting and fresh tasting. Her Grilled Scottish Lobster was verging on the ridiculous; it was so huge that she could only manage half of it and we even joked about the great beast on her plate taking on a king crab for breakfast. This great tasting dish was responsible for us not finishing the stupendous chips (the best I’ve encountered) and refraining from the pudding course altogether. I’m ok with the cover charge; the bread was good and the water didn’t taste of the swimming pool. Even if the food was average you could come back here again just for the brilliant service, everyone gets pampered.

There are certain places that fall into the category whereby you religiously patronise week in and week out, Quo Vadis is one of them.

foodbymark at 10/10/08

Great review. I've not been here since the Hart Brothers took over. Time to visit again.

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fairy600

Okay 10th September 2008

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Quo Vadis is situated in the heart of the west end. The service is incredible, second to none. The prices were phenonemal and unfortunately, we will not be going back. It was extremely pretentious and there was certainly a type of clientele that dined there and we did not fit into that. I found it very hard to relax and enjoy my meal. The food, although good, could be matched somehwere else at less than half the price that we paid. We loved the paintings that were on display, but there wasn't really any atmosphere. Very quiet and lots of business men enjoying the bottles of champers or very quiet couples whispering over their meal. It just wasn't what we were after. Perhaps, if this is the thing that your after then maybe you would enjoy it- I'll let you try!

bellaphon at 10/09/08

Thanks for the warning.

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Weeboo

Stuffy 28th August 2008

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Personally I find Quo Vadis to be a somewhat hit or miss dining experience. The surroundings are lovely, but the general ambience is stuffy and the service can be slow. This is a safe bet for a business lunch with guests who enjoy a level of pomposity in their venues. The food is generally good, but over priced. Quo Vadis obviously has aspirations, but lacks the grandeur of other fine dining restaurants. And its somewhat a mismatch to the contemporary, arty feel of the Soho area and the many media companies that call it home.

Definitely a good choice for entertaining clients, but I wouldn't recommend it for a romantic dinner.

chrisp

An exercise in cynicism 12th August 2008

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Quo Vadis is, as everyone will tell you, an "institution". Perhaps this explains why the room felt a bit like a padded cell (boom boom), but perhaps it's also why they feel they can get away with charging a £2 "cover charge" for a teeny pot of green olives and tap water and why, barely a month after opening, they've jacked their prices up a good 30% average against those listed on their website.

One of the few items that doesn't seem to have suffered from inflation is the "Tomato Essence with Crayfish", which is just as well as at £12.50 for a small bowl of unremarkable consommé with a couple of tiny bits of crayfish floating around in it, any more really would have been burglary. Bear in mind that this is crayfish, rampant vermin of our waterways and one of the cheapest crustaceans money can buy - I'm thinking particularly of that sandwich in Pret-a-Manger which comes stuffed with the blighters and costs about £2.50. If there had been a whole lobster tail floating in the bowl, £12.50 would have been about right. But for a dish whose raw ingredients must have cost literally pence (tomatoes, crayfish and basil, for heaven's sake) this was inexcusable. A companion's crab linguine (up from £8 to £9.50) was, to be fair, pretty good. Not £9.50 good, obviously, but just slightly less violatingly expensive than mine.

My main course was a prettily cut pigeon in a nice thick red wine jus, and although was more cooked than it needed to be nevertheless tasted pleasingly gamey and had a nice crispy skin. It was up from £19 to £23.50 - about the same price as my entire meal, including beer, cost at Dim T the other week. But because neither my bird or my companion's Dover Sole (£25 up from £21.50) came with any sides these were ordered as extra and along with a small pot of admittedly gorgeous house chips (up from £3 to £3.75) and a salad of more of those boring tomatoes and some sliced fennel (up from £3.50 to £4.75, a massive 36% increase) the bill mounted up.

The raspberry trifle was a new addition to the pudding menu, thus saving it the comparison with the old prices. It was actually very nice, and prompted me to wonder why we don't see more jelly on modern restaurant menus. I might start a campaign to rehabilitate jelly as a dessert ingredient - it's sad that these days you are more likely to find jelly in your starter (I'm thinking particularly of Maze's "BLT" with tomato jelly) than where it belongs, with summer fruits and vanilla cream and accompanied by a chilled glass of Sauternes. And yes, a Summer Pudding was tasty enough as well, but at £7.50 (up from £6.50) it contained too few summer fruits inside its inch-thick bread walls to excuse the price point.

The bill, including service, one and a half bottles of wine and that bloody cover charge, came to £98 each. That's about what I would reasonably expect to be charged for some of the best restaurants in the city (last time I visited The Square, for example, the bill came to about £89 a head), and this food, although perfectly pleasant, in no way justified those prices. Quo Vadis would be a standard mid-range restaurant and I would have no problem in recommending it if the bill had been about half as much. As it stands, inflated to the point of cynicism, I can only suggest you stay away until someone comes to their senses and realises that charging £12.50 for a bowl of tomato soup does not win you friends.

Browners

Opening in July... 23rd December 2007

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This is the Hart's new venture following up on their success with Hart's in Notthingham and Finos and Barrafina in London.

It's going to be a British grill on the ground floor with a private memebers club upstairs spanning 2 or 3 vast floors.

At the moment it's in a very exciting state of disprepair and is due to be opened in July.

With the Hart's flair for entertaining and connections this could be a great rival to the Gaucho.

sue at 13/08/08

So, have you been in to try it now it is open?

chrisp at 12/09/08

In the meantime you should remove this review - it's artificially inflating the score of this mediocre restaurant :)

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