Le Pont De La Tour

Just back from a late lunch for 8 people. Food good but dreadful serivce from beginning to end. Haughty waitresses who avoid eye contact. If the girls in black suits think this is French restaurant service, they need a little more training. No drinks before orders taken. 2 errors in starters. An hour between starters and main course arriving. Went and fetched white wine from cooler and served ourselves as no waiter interested in serving. Food good but not exceptional. The bill was a travesty - we had, by choice ordered some of the cheaper options off the menu but were charged £20 for 2 courses even though those options were about £17 per 2 courses. Added cheek of adding 12.5% gratuity as we were a party of 8. Not a good option if you are looking for a value for money restaurant near the Tower. Ok if on an expense account!
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Pete and Jan
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Saturday, January 23, 2010

Booked an offer on-line: "Bar and Grill: 2 courses and a glass of wine £19.50". It's not worth it. On Friday night, @ ca. 7-8 pm the place was quite empty: only 2 tables were taken downstairs: us and another couple. Starter was £5 + main £11, which leaves £4.50 for the glass of house wine (not particularly nice one). On the wine list, the cheapest was £6, thus giving me a total saving of £1.50? A total trap. Food was not haute cuisine. Just average. Wouldn't return. PS: very friendly staff though...
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E.
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 3
Saturday, December 19, 2009

generally just an all round good place to eat and drink.....still very busy even during these hard times which is a good sign....
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stu
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, December 02, 2009

You can have a nice meal and wine here, but first you have to stay cool while the very important receptionists determine if you can or not, and where you can be allowed to sit in an empty restaurant (which stayed empty throughout, as punters gradually filled the outside tables ona pleasant day).

We made clear in our booking for the cafe area that we wanted seafood platters, but you can only have these with lobster in the restaurant area. Hence the switch. We found a table outside for three after much humming and hahhing, sat down. When we were told that we couldnt have that, as we were two (place was empty) and it just might fill up. We sent her back to her boss by saying the space was needed for the platter, and we could be sat and served there with greater convenience.

A bloke finally arrived and started serving us as if we were customers at last, and the meal improved. A very good white wine from eastern italy, from a grower last seen on the shelves of David Gleave's superb late 80's wine shop Winecellars, followed by a good selection of oysters, molluscs etc. Very pleasant. Sommelier a happy chap but still puzzled by his comment that muscat from frontignan was in fact a grenache and therefore red so we would have a sweet wine Coteaux de Layon instead, this was served without him letting go of the bottle, and was unusually dark brown for a loire. But it went well with pudding and we had enjoyed our meal despite the start.

But D and D....a restaurants importance is not determined by the froideur of its welcome.....
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william
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Thursday, August 27, 2009

called last week to book for a very special client lunch and informed them so....i was told by the bubbly receptionist that this info would be noted and we would be taken care of. And we were. the food and service was first class and my business concluded very easily after. thanks to everybody there involved.
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rich
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Monday, August 03, 2009

Having read through recent reviews i can understand the inconsistency. Having lived close by i've been visiting since the mid nineties and i have eaten in all of their many outlets . i can say i have had many truly wonderfull meals and some truly bad meals as well....fair to say under the current chef ( and there have been a few over the years) the food has been the most consistant and creative it has been for a long time. The last bad meal was 3 years back. I think before going to Le pont you should know which restaurant or outlet you are going for. They have a bistro, a fine dining, a food shop and 2 private rooms then on the sunday the bistro and the fine dining turn into 1 to offer a suday offer with live music which since it started has been extremeley popular. but not my cup of tea. For some reason this site only lets you review Le pont as whole so you get the impression Le pont is just 1 restaurant which it isn't. My preference is the fine dining. The seafood hors d'oeurve is very creative and as a starter is certainly not small. The poached halibut with caviar sauce and asparagus is the best piece of fish i've ever eaten and on par with any so called michelin star restaurant and i belive at 39.50 for 3 course it is descent value. But then yes you do have the supplements on foie gras, lobster, fruit des mer. I did believe it was common knowledge that these are expensive luxery ingredients so for me they are underderstandable. Last time i eat at the ritz the lobster alone cost £50 + just for the main course but maybe i eat out to much. The creme brulee's which i love change regualry.

I think there are probaly 2 things which hinder the pont.

1.for the many outlets they have maybe they are trying to please to many people with such a wide range of offers

2. in the summer time the restaurants double in size because of their lovley terrace and the staff do always seem stretched in the summer but as soon as the chill comes back no one wants to sit out side so the terrace's close again

my recomendation to those who have had a bad meal is to inform them and let them try to make up for it the second time round because when it is on form the food and service is excellent
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Dean chodean
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, July 14, 2009

i have to strongly disagree with the gentlemen below. i go reguarly to Le Pont de la Tour for the sunday offer. it is amzing value for money and certainly most other people must thinnk so as it is packed out every sunday. but it is sunday lunch food i.e roast beef and yorkshire pudding. if you want the kind of food which the gentlemen suggested below then you need to visit any other day just not sunday. take into consideration you have a jazz band and creche for kids included in the the £25 for 3 courses i would have to say it is excellent value. i commend them for changing with the times and making the place accessable to people with familys.
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jen
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, July 14, 2009

I had lunch with 5 friends last sunday at the Pont, and the ONLY food on the menu that was edible was the ones that didn't require cooking, ie the boiled langoustines, the oysters and the gazpacho. I took one mouthful of my roast beef and left the entire plate. They brought me mustard and horseradish, almost 15 minutes after service which is bad. My friend who had the roast chicken also took one mouthful of his chicken and left everything. The other people had bream, 2 inch square of fish on crushed potatoes. We weren't even offered the a la carte menu, they kind of pushed the £25 menu insistently at us, despite our protest we wanted the old Pont food. (like fresh sole menuere, black butter skate, that were high quality) . I suspect that only way for them to make ends meet is to offer cheap menus and to make that viable, they buy very very inferior products ( the vegetarian option on the menu was ' linguine with vegetables', exactly in those words, is this a sign of a chef who even cares???)

We had two bottles of expensive chablis and ordered a good red to go with the cheese plates. Up to then we'd eaten nothing as the mains were so bad ( I'm not a fussy eater, the food truly was repulsive) , and cheese is cheese, so we filled our stomach with 3 tiny piece of cheese. That was our lunch that costed £25, which is hardly value for money.Even with the great view of the river, its unlikely I'll ever set foot in that restaurant again, unless it changes policy, owner ,chef and management
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Alyssa Martin
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Monday, July 13, 2009

A lot of people have criticised the food at the Pont. I personally was very pleased with the food on offer. Yes, the portions are quite small but this IS haute cuisine you know. I found our food very well presented and full of flavour. The staff are a bit over the top with the bread though. They came round about 3 times asking if we wanted some bread rolls.

I was particularly impressed with their 50 page wine list. It is bound in a leather case and is about 3cm thick!! A Sommelier comes around and serves the wine which is nice. It means you can actually ask what wine goes with what you are eating and get sound advice. It makes a difference from the usual brain-dead waiters you get in most restaurants.

The dress code in the main restaurant is "smart". I like this as fewer and fewer people nowadays actually dress up to go out for a meal. This is especially true during the summer months where people turn up in shorts and flip flops (particularly in very touristy areas).

The toilets have individual flannels to dry your hands instead of the the handdryers that do anything but.

We ordered some Kirs which was disappointing. This is supposed to be a French restaurant and yet the Kirs are nothing like the ones you actually get in France. The Kirs at the Pont are just a large glass of cheap white wine with a bit of cassis dumped in it- no flavour at all.

A lot of people complain that this restaurant is expensive. It is true. However, you can get some great deals online like we did (try lastminute.com). Our total bill for a 3 course meal was £90 (including drinks) which wasn't bad for a restaurant right next to Tower Bridge.

I have to say that they did give me the wrong bill at the end which was a bit bad from a restaurant with this reputation. Nevertheless, I would certainly go there again (especially if someone else was paying!!).
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Dan
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Thursday, July 09, 2009

Menu system unclear. Service slow, drinks arrived after first course.

Food - a dreadful experience: totally lacking flavour and finesse. Very small portions. After waiting over 15 minutes for my miniature Clafoutis it arrived cold. French cheese selection which advertised 7 cheeses, only 3 tiny pieces arrived. Total bill: £175
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A M
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, July 07, 2009