• Added: 25th of September 2008
• Area: Hoxton
• Category: Restaurants

London N1 1AD
020 7354 4777

vobin said
Chaos
A comfoprtable upmarket noisy barn of a place, best suited to diners who can lip read. Service is slow and dull-witted. Don't even think about a pre-theatre dinner here (even though it is owned by the Almeida Theatre opposite). Visiting the restaurant immediately after a play is the only possibility. But they had run out of 4 of the items on a medium short menu and 3 of those were fairly staple (eg steak, scallops, raw tuna). Fifteen minutes after you are seated the waiters hand you the menu and return 20 minutes later to take your order. When you place your order they tell you it is not available (our visit was not on April 1). Potato Dauphin Noir seemed a nice side order from the menu but the chef's version is just separate small new potatoes boiled and lightly sauteed with a bit of butter and melted cheese. What we have here is good quality ingredients spoilt by an amateur chef and dumb waiters. There is no shortage of staff, just a shortage of knowhow and intelligence. It isn't cheap.

• Added: 23rd of February 2008
• Area: Chelsea
• Category: Restaurants

London SW3 5UU
020 7559 1000

vobin said
Bedlam
Visually sock-it-to-yah and yet well spaced tables, for four-somes at any rate. Confused service - over-attentive duplication but when asking waiters for anything they had the attention span of a gnat. The best chicken soup with matzo balls I have ever tasted (including my Jewish grandmother's) but the worst fisherman's pie, which had nothing but salmon in it with a cloying sickening pink sauce - and this in spite of troubling to ask the waiter what it contained and was given an appetising variety of white fish, shellfish and salmon. My 3 dining companions left half their main course untouched. The Caesar Salad departed all possible authentic recipes to produce something vile to look at and even more vile to eat. But all of that could just about be tolerated as part of the typical hyped trendy London eating scene. The true sticking point, putting it on my never-again list, is the high volume audio bedlam. I thought it was a party in an adjoining room (with the usual unremitting bass thumping sounds) and that we had chosen an unlucky night but it transpires there was no pparty and that this is their usual audio background. They believe it gives the place buzz, Spare me! Conversation is practically impossible and there is no table in this place that offers respite. It was Friday night and occupancy remained two thirds throughout the evening. So while cream and gharbage both float to the top, maybe eventually garbage does sink to the bottom