1 /5 Josephine Lee: I must start by saying that Tosa’s charcoal grill is truly excellent with authentic flavours, great variety and exactly the kind of food I’d happily cross London for.
Unfortunately, the service was so astonishingly poor that it very successfully ruined the entire experience.
We were “greeted” by a middle-aged lady standing by the till, most likely the manager, whose facial expression never once moved away from deeply unimpressed. From the very first second to the last, her attitude was consistently cold, abrupt and frankly hostile. Quite a talent, really.
Our booking was 6:00–7:30pm. Because it was our first visit and the menu had plenty of yakitori options, we needed a bit of time to choose. Starting from 6:15, we were repeatedly rushed to order, not gently reminded, but properly pressured. She even told us, in a tone that could only be described as a threat, that we were allowed to order once only and not a single item more afterwards.
Naturally, if we can only order once, we’d like to choose carefully… but instead of giving us space, we were interrupted again and again with reminders about the 7:30 hand-over time. It became so uncomfortable that even our conversation was disrupted and the children with us were visibly unsettled. What an educational moment for them, a masterclass in how not to serve customers.
No one asked if we wanted drinks, no water was provided not even tap water and the level of service would be considered shocking not just in Japan but frankly anywhere in the UK.
We understood we had limited time, so we ate quickly. Despite this, staff still removed our dishes before we finished. Attention to detail? None whatsoever.
When it came to the bill, the menu was simply dropped onto the table without a single word. The receipt was collected in the same silent, performative manner, no thank you, no goodbye, nothing at all. We did, however, manage to leave before 7:30pm, which I imagine made that manager incredibly proud.
£145 for three adults and two children, a perfectly reasonable bill for good food but utterly unreasonable when paired with this level of customer service. The contrast was almost artistic.
While waiting for food, I checked previous Google reviews. The same complaints have been mentioned again and again and absolutely nothing has changed. Truly impressive consistency.
So here is my advice:
If you plan to eat here, prepare yourself mentally.
If you care about basic hospitality, I wouldn’t recommend it.
And as for us, once is more than enough.
