Bleeding Heart (Restaurant)

do. not. go here. I'm the type of guy who if I don't enjoy a restaurant experience I'll brush it off with a 'nobody's perfect, no big deal, they just had an off night, worse things have happened.' But not tonight. oh no, not ce soir.

Bleeding Heart broke my heart. Ever been to a restaurant where you have to ask for things.......? EVERYTHING?! A table, a menu, order drinks, order meals, ask when the meals would arrive, not get asked how the meal was, ask for the plates to be taken away, ask for the bill, ask for the service charge to be removed, ask why they were upset that I was requesting for the service charge to be removed.......... well never again.

added onto that staff chewing gum, drinking, ignoring you, more interested in flirting with each other, coughing without covering their mouth, using the cloth to dry glasses to wipe the bar, taking a big bag of rubbish through the main restaurant, you can understand why I left annoyed to the extreme.

DO. NOT. EAT. HERE. UNDER. ANY. CIRCUMSTANCE.
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ben bradley
2 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 3
Friday, December 02, 2011

Went last night for birthday meal. Food was good al la carte style (don't choose the sea-bass - disappointing flavour and cooking method plus over-flavoured black linguini looked like a plate of worms). Steak was superb though, as was my strawberry parfait. Service was attentive, but not so good as previous visits. I thought that they used to do more entremets a few years ago (think they've probably cut back on these due to the credit crunch which is a bit disappointing). Atmosphere was ok but nothing special.
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S Haynes
7 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 6
Saturday, May 28, 2011

We went to the Bleeding Heart Restaurant for a romantic week night dinner after reading some recommendations on the internet.

First impressions were the space was quaint and had a lovely atmosphere. The layout feels as though you are exploring an underground cavern with dining areas in separate space.

The evening progressed and we enjoyed 3 courses with 2 beers and a glass of wine. Service was ok but not extraordinary.

The first course was escargot for the wife and steak tartare for me. Both starters were exceptional. Escargot not normally on the restaurant menu but pulled in from Bistro next door. This escargot was served on a pastry bed in a creamy garlic sauce and was the best we have had. Snails were very tender. The steak tartare was also the best I have had with great flavours, slightly spicy.

The food for the rest of the meal was OK but nothing to write home about. I had suckling pig with crackiling, wife had venison haunch and cheek. Much better pork in our sunday roasts. The pork was slightly dry and not alot of flavour in the dish. Venison cheek was tender and quite good. The haunch was cooked medium and did not have alot of flavour in the meal either.

Wife had pavlova and it was passable. Casing was chewy as opposed to crunchy. Overly sweet as well. Didn't hold a candle to my mums. I had poached rhubarb and vanilla panacotta. This was pleasant. Pannacotta done well.

For the 2 of us the bill came to just under £100 + almost £15 in additional service charge (tips). When I asked the lead waiter in the section to remove the additional charge his demeanor progressed from being argumentative to being abusive. When I finally settled the bill minus the service charge he told us not to come back to the restaurant.

We found this outburst more suited to a 5 year old and not a service professional. I wanted to let management know about this instance and engaged someone looking after the front door. (I was told this was the manager but cannot be sure as I am aware many places tend to circulate the "manager" role amongst the waiting staff so that incidents like this are kept away from the true management or owners of the restaurant.) As I was explaining the treatment to the "manager" the waiter followed us and continued to hurl snide remarks at us right in front of "the manager" and other guests.

The manager apologised profusely to us and ensured that they will be in touch with us to arrange some sort of compensation for the unnacceptable conduct. We did not hear back from the "manager"...

Although we did not let this individual spoil our night, we were very disappointed in this experience as the atmosphere and food up until that point were quite nice.

Well I suppose the waiter will get his wish as will not be back. A warning to others counting on an enjoyable evening...it seems to be a bit hit and miss with this place. Good luck!
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JG
5 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Friday, March 04, 2011

Went for a friend's birthday dinner. The food was very good, however, the service was by far the worst I have ever received.

The most shocking part was that they tried selling us severely watered down wine, only the second bottle of the evening. The were completely incapable of serving the food as ordered, or providing the correct cutlery. They were not apologetic and repeatedly insisted that we had got our own order wrong, eg. that the tea was Earl Grey despite the tea bag clearly stating that it was English breakfast.

We had to ask twice and be challenged by the manager when we refused to pay the service charge.

Dreadful place!
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3 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Sunday, February 20, 2011

A JOKE RESTAURANT.

SERVICE WAS DISGRACEFUL. One particular member of staff was rude and obnoxious.

Suggesting that his lack of communication was a cultural thing?

Complimentary drinks didn't compensate.

Better dining experiences to be had elsewhere. Our group were undecided where to eat so we went to Pizza Express in Farringdon.

I recommend Pizza Express to be treated like a human and not an idiot
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Stuart Graham
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Saturday, January 29, 2011

Went last night for an anniversary dinner. Very nice ambience for a romantic dinner, but very poor in most other respects:

- very slow service: we ordered dessert and after 40 mins it had not come, we asked for the bill, which fortunately excluded the dessert, paid and left - nobody seemed to notice

- very poor service: we chateau briande, when it came it was served so fast from the platter to plate than vegetables fell on the floor, and the 'jenga' arrangement of chips fell apart, waiter carried on as if nothing had happened

- arrogant: we wanted ketchup and mayonnaise for the chips, they didnt have in the restaurant so told us they were going to get some from the bar, it never came; also, we ordered the chateau briande medium rare, it came rare, if I'm paying £50 I want it done the way I ordered, not the way a frenchman likes it

Given all that, very overpriced. Perhaps the french / local undiscerning businessmen on expenses / show-offs put up with this, but I'm not interested in pretence - I want good food, reasonably priced and served promptly, not here.
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schaff - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, October 12, 2010

We dined there last Saturday night (a cold night in March). It was reasonably priced, the service throughout dinner (I'm coming back to this one was pretty decent, and the food was thought by all to be really good (except for one undercooked steak but this is a French restaurant so we're lucky the cow was dead). We were served wine right up until the end of the licence period and then - not to strongly - unceremonious and rudely ushered out by 11.30pm with staff (including the owner or manager) standing over us quite literally pointing at his watch and telling us we had to leave. So we left, leaving behind open bottles of wine which they had been happy to sell to us at 10.59pm. We discussed this with them quietly and the killer argument (which started around licensing laws) was that they too (the restaurant owner/manager) had homes to go to. Maybe they're in the wrong job. Not a great end to a Saturday night and a real spoiler to what had been a favourable impression of the restaurant during dinner. None of us will be going back.
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Christian
4 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 7
Monday, March 15, 2010

My husband and I went for a romantic dinner. The ambiance was lovely but the service was appalling. it took ages to get a first drink, we had to ask if we could order and our starter arrived after an hour of arrival (shortly after my husband had asked if there was a problem in the Kitchen - apparently it is too small to cook for the number of covers!). Immediately after we had finished our starter the main course arrived! The food was fine and the staff were very nice but the kitchen is obviously letting them down. It was expensive too! Don't think we will be returning.
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wendy
5 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 3
Monday, September 07, 2009

What a cracking restaurant , there is 4 rooms plus an outside terrace, we got lucky to get a table without booking , Turn out to be a very romantic dinner at the restaurant , lovely dinner with foie gras and chateaubriand not to mention the cheeses to die for, good wine, nice suprised complimentary chocolate cake birthday plate with candle, loved the French staff singing, certainly better than overhearing chef screaming and swearing all night .... Not nice
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Martha
8 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Saturday, July 11, 2009

Recently organised a private dinner in the Terrace Room at Bleeding Heart, and the evening was one of the most successful ones I have arranged. The comments were very positive and the food was excellent and I look forward to using Bleeding Heat again in the near future.

I shall be recommending this restaurant to everyone!
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Susan
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, March 19, 2009