Le Palais du Jardin

I really don't understand all the negative reviews on this website. Palais du Jardin has always been a favourite of mine. I went again last night – and all was as good as ever. Nice welcome, excellent service, lovely food, and cleverly selected house wines at £16.50 per bottle. I wish we had such quality and value near to Oxford. My only complaint is that it is too far away!
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Garry Wiseman
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Saturday, January 12, 2008

Amazing absolutely loved it. We booked to go on New Year's Eve 2006 with some friends who know London restaurants quite well.

I've never had such a nice meal and both the service and decor/ambience were also perfect.

I had carpaccio of beef with truffle oil and a paremesan crisp to start which was just melt in the mouth.

This was followed by a fish dish (unfortunately I can't remember the name now) and finally chocolate mousse. Everything was exquisite and was washed down very nicely with a couple fo bottles of Chablis.

The meal was by no means cheap but given that more than a year on my mouth still waters at the idea of going back I think that has to be a fairly telling tale!

Would recommend this to anyone who would like a really special meal out as they wont be disappointed.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, January 09, 2008

I chose Le Palais du Jardin as the special meal for a day out for a friend's birthday. Having read a number of reviews and concluded that most people only seem to write one when they want to complain, I resolved to review the place whether I liked it or not, here are my conclusions.

First of all, most of the complaints here seem to be about the service. When I was there it was a Thursday night and there were around ten tables, so the staff were under no pressure and I have no complaints about the speed of service at all, in any case, I think many of the below reviewers are expecting a bit too much from a busy central London restaurant. On the other hand I have to say that, with the exception of the very welcoming manager and host, the staff were uninspiring, I didn't feel especially welcomed or cared about by them. They did leave me to finish my wine at the end of the meal without badgering me though, which was nice.

The food was excellent, exactly what I would expect for the price, although my main course, the halibut, was a slight waste of halibut, a very delicate flavour, with a very strong sauce, but very tasty nonetheless.

The atmosphere was nice and airy and impressive enough that my friend gave a sharp intake of breath and a giggle when she realised we were eating there. Needless to say, I was satisfied.

In all I would say great food, run-of-the-mill service, no better, no worse, and an excellent atmosphere, I would recommend it to a friend on a quiet night.
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Saturday, January 05, 2008

I was ther for new year's eve.

I booked the same day at 12 o'clock

they said you come to night, but the restaurant ask you to end your meal before 8pm because all table are already booked at that time.

we said ok. And all was marvelous.

Food and wine are really nice. And cheap for that level of quality (Chablis Grand cru 39£/fles)

The service was ok, with the french touch, but even if you see that they want to be on top, they are not at the top. (i asked twoo time to get a coke) But for a restaurant in London it's really good. (In Paris it would be wrong).

Staff is really pleasant and available, Bathroom is clean !!! (that's not always the case in London (either in Paris)

The atmosphere is really nice.

The price is cheap for that level of quality.

I recommand it to all my friends.
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Librekom
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, January 02, 2008

This place used to be good 10 years ago. But not any more.

Even though I booked a table, they asked to leave when we were still eating our pudding!!!! Have you ever heard something like this?

They said "you can finish it at the bar" meaning eat our it standing at the bar. Needless to say, we just left the place, and they charged us for the desert.

Avoid this place at any cost unless you want to be treated like s***.
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Hiro
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, December 25, 2007

I have just come back from lunch at LPDJ with two girlfriends - it was supposed to be a fun Xmas lunch. It has to be said that I agree with the other reviews and wish I'd seen them before I went - the service was absolutely appalling.

We arrived for an early booking at 12.15, there was hardly any customers and yet it still managed to take them 5 minutes to seat us for a booked reservation. The staff were uninterested and uninspiring about the menu and wine list. To be fair to them the restaurant was staggeringly understaffed. We waited 15 minutes for our bill, ages for the dessert menu to be taken etc. The icing on the cake came when we asked to speak to the manager as we left. We had already paid the bill but thought we would mention that we had not had great service. In most places feedback like that is usually appreciated by the manager who can't see all that is going on. Instead the manager, who was obviously having an off day, said he wasn't prepared to hear anything from a bunch of twentysomethings and said he wanted us to leave the restaurant. With pleasure monsieur and we won't be returning!

Food was good but a bit of a nasty after taste thanks to the attitudes of the staff/manager.
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superna - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 6
Friday, December 07, 2007

What a shame. Nice venue aesthetically, very poor from every other angle. Rude staff; indeed the waiter taking our order looked at his watch whilst I was choosing between two options on the menu. We had to continually remind them to refill our glasses, the food portions were tiny and the food pathetic. Just a real waste of a good looking venue.
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danvan - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Thursday, December 06, 2007

I tried to book a table for a work lunch in December and called twice to do so. Both times I was treated in a very rude and pompous manner. This restaurant seems to be under the impression that they are doing us as the customer a favour by even deigning to talk to us for more that 5 seconds. Frankly they can stick it.
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Thursday, November 15, 2007

Having always enjoyed dining at Palais du Jardin over the past 5 years I decided to take a date there for our first meal together. However I was nearly put off going when I saw the reviews of the place on here and other websites. From what I read I assumed the manager must have changed and the standards had dropped since my last visit several years ago and was unsure as to risk taking someone I was hoping to impress there.

In the end I decided to go for it and booked a table for 7.30pm on Wednesday night. As soon as we entered I knew I'd made the right choice and could breathe a sigh of relief.

The manager is still the same friendly, polite and pleasant man I remember and we were seated at our table straight away. We were offered a glass of champagne by the manager while we decided what to order and our waiter was friendly, charming and respectful throughout the entire evening.

I had the oysters to start and my date had the foie gras, then we both had the lobster and fillet steak with an excellent bottle of chateaunef pape. The whole meal was a delight and the service was excellent.

The atmosphere was perfect for a first date and we were very well looked after throughout our meal.

For those people who have commented that they found the staff rude I can only say that from my experience - if you are polite and respectful to the staff at Palais du Jardin then they will be polite and respectful in return and the enjoyment of your meal will be much enhanced as a result.
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Matthew Christian
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 6
Thursday, September 06, 2007

Took my brother there for his birthday last night. I've had dinner there before. found the menu has expanded compared to previous years, food and wine quality still excellent. However, service level has certainly declined.

They had 1 waiter taking orders for the whole restaurant area. The woman who served our drinks wasn't very pleasant. It took them ages to bring our bill and didn't bother to bring back my change. The service charge of 12.5% was already included and I was determined to get my change back.

How crafty!
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, July 03, 2007