2 /5 Chris Watson: I originally booked via OpenTable. About 30 minutes later I received a call advising that, due to Valentine’s Day, my booking needed to be converted to their set menu event. Which was fine. I did wonder why Open table hadn’t mentioned special events. During that call we discussed seating and I was specifically offered the Piano Room upstairs. I clearly remember this because I asked the caller to wait while I checked photos online before confirming.
We arrived 15 minutes early and were immediately taken to a table downstairs. I explained that we had booked the Piano Room. I was told that was “not possible” and that it was not being used that evening. After speaking with the maitre d’, I was left feeling that the seating plan had been changed and I was now deceptively being told otherwise, and I said this to the maitre d at the time.
What made this worse is that two other couples nearby also raised the exact same concern about having booked the Piano Room. They were apparently given the same explanation. Later in the evening we discovered guests dining upstairs and even found the restaurant’s own Valentine’s flyer offering a Dinner and Piano Room package. That confirmed this was not a misunderstanding, but a deliberate misrepresentation, and I feel a flat out dishonest lie to my face.
Food was...inconsistent.
Despite pre ordering the vegetarian starter because my wife cannot eat crab, both starters arrived as crab. Risk of death anyone? It was corrected after raising it, but the replacement pumpkin ravioli was undercooked (the pasta, not the contents), and just... cold, and sitting in excess water as if it had not been drained properly. The flavour was decent, but the execution felt rushed. Im guessing due to the "miscommunication" causing a delay.
The lamb main course, "trio of lamb" was again served cold. Each plate had two French trimmed cutlets, but one of the four was clearly undercooked. It appeared the kitchen was still trying to recover from the earlier delay, leaving the rest of the dish sitting too long before the last cutlet arrived raw in the centre, and service to the table. At a guess, it almost feels like someone only made 3 cutlets and forgot the fourth, so the food sat waiting while the fourth was rushed. Overall, flavour was good, temperature and detail were not.
Dessert was excellent and the best part of the meal.
We then moved into the jazz lounge where seating was extremely cramped. At one point another guest fell asleep and knocked a drink over my wife, despite my best reaction speed to try to catch it.
The bill came to £250.65 including service and drinks, plus the £60 deposit. For nearly £300, the experience did not justify the cost.
The jazz band and lounge staff were genuinely very good. Unfortunately, the repeated service errors and the dishonesty around seating arrangements overshadowed what should have been a special evening.
As a final kicker, the head chef and maitre d were sat in the restaurant where we had eaten, telling one of the waitresses that they "would like to get her in for another trial shift" which I hope she was getting paid for, otherwise i believe is illegal in England.
That said, I think the head chef and maitre d are the ones in need or further training and probationary periods. the waitresses ALL did their job last night, including one that apologised profusely about the whole episode.
We ended up getting a Dominos pizza on the way home too as we were still hungry.
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