This restaurant was a tough one – the food was excellent but it was let down by the front of house. Quite a few tables around us looked unimpressed or just waiting for a while. It must be so annoying to be on form with the food but possibly lose your star because your staff let you down. Nothing was REALLY bad but –
1. The wine we selected was just dropped in the ice box, a few steps from our table, by a server on his mobile (!!) – unopened. We waited and waited. Had to ask twice for it to be opened and poured.
2. I'm happy to pour my own wine and water but at least have it on the table – here, at least on 4 occasions, I just gave up waiting and had to leave my seat and take the step towards the bottles, retrieve them and pour our own (there was no staff near us to ask at these times). Eventually the staff started pouring.
3. I had a beer on arrival and the starters included a cocktail. These empty glasses remained on the table for about 45 minutes to an hour. We had to ask twice for them to be removed.
4. We were given chocolate bread – it was lovely – however it was put on the same used side plate that had held the savoury breads (including a strong onion bread). Also we weren't told whether this accompanied anything or was to eat by itself.
There were other small things but these stood out. Like I said, the food was great, good value and the location gorgeous. I did email the restaurant afterwards and got no reply. I did realize here though that I much prefer a la carte to tasting menus – some of the food was so good but was gone in a flash and I longed for more.
by Forever-Eating2707