Home Bar and Kitchen

Sadly, Ms Burt hadn't been to Home before we booked there last Friday, and so we went along on the basis of the thoroughly gushing reviews further down.

I guess the alarm bells should have started to ring when, on arrival, there was a queue of people who may or may not have been from Essex, waiting patiently in line for the opportunity to have an aggressive bouncer shine a torch into their handbags. We jumped this queue by explaining we had a reservation and were ushered past the reverberating entrance to the bar into a Shoreditch-tastic world of 1970s furniture.

Cocktails arrived after a little cajoling, although it was interesting to see that the descriptions "long" and "short" on the list bore absolutely no resemblance to what actually arrived.

Wine was OK, if a bit steep, but the staff kept wheeling out new bottles of water without asking us until we had to plead with them to stop. And then there was the food....

Starters were generally considered to be good, with the mushroom risotto a particular hit. The mains, however, were something else entirely. Steaks were about as unimaginatively presented as I've ever seen - your local Beefeater would be ashamed to knock out something like this - while the pork belly was very fatty and didn't really taste of much. I can't even remember what the vegetarian option was, but the person who had it didn't feel the need to eat very much...

We didn't have the stomach for pudding, but made the mistake of ordering two glasses of port, both of which contained more sediment than the Rhine Delta.

It weighed in at about £55 a head, which I admit isn't a king's ransom by London standards, but is a bit cheeky for food that aspires to be average and service that doesn't even have that sort of ambition.
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David Johnston
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, November 07, 2006

This place has some redeeming qualities, but overall it's more than somewhat disappointing.

First, are we not getting a bit tired of the retro (that is, junk shop cast-off) furniture? Especially when mixed and matched with the cheapest plastic chairs.

Now, the starters were unusually good, but the main courses were a bit limited and unmemorable. Given the two courses for £23 approach, you might expect to get the odd bit of mashed potato free rather than just an attempted tower of meat on a bed of soggy spinach. This just comes across as mean, especially after the quality of the starters. The dessert list is entirely unimaginative; I can't even remember what was on it.

That seems to reflect a wider problem with the place -- "bar and kitchen" sums up the dilemma, too. The experience of eating there is undermined by the ridiculous noise from the bar downstairs -- and an endless throbbing bass that makes conversation difficult at best. Perhaps the soggy spinach is intended to stop the tower collapsing in the resulting tremors -- I don't know. Anyway, the point is that eating in the restaurant is entirely overshadowed by the volume of what's going on downstairs.

The wine situation deserves a special mention. It's not worth going beyond the house wine unless you've won the lottery, and the staff could do with taking a bit more interest in what's in the bottles. They circulated and held out two bottles. When I asked what they were, our waiter looked puzzled and explained that one was Argentinian and one Chilean. So that narrows it down, then. (I have to note that the bar downstairs offers a far superior Campo de Borja at a far more attractive price.)

But that was just the beginning of our wine adventure. Although the staff were sometimes a bit scarce, at others they came and engaged in "helpfully" topping up glasses without being asked. Am I alone in thinking that that practice should be banned by law? In the most infamous incident of the evening, one of our waitresses helpfully topped up six glasses with a bottle that anyone with the vaguest sense of smell could immediately tell was heavily corked. When we raised this with a waiter, he presumed to suggest that all ten of us were wrong and that he knew better, and that we'd only raised this after knocking back most of a bottle. He did not seem to be aware of the waitress's "helpful" automatic refill policy. He held out, but you don't really do that when you have Dulcie Burt and her friend Errol Skeete as paying customers. Not if you want to retain any of your "discretionary 12.5% service charge". Eventually he gave in with bad grace, but in doing so lost most of what might have been a £60 tip.

So this place is something of a victim of its own Shoreditch/Hoxton trendiness. It tries to be too many things and combines it with a sloppy and sometimes arrogant approach. They seem to feel that people will eat there once and never again, so why bother? They're right in the first part, but I'd have thought that avoiding bad reviews and trying to justify your service charge might encourage a bit more effort.

Stick to the starters on a quiet night and this would be good.
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Dulcie Burt
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 1
Saturday, November 04, 2006

Lovely food! Imaginative recipes but not too poncey. Good Wine at good prices. Trendy setting with mix match furniture and cool photograpgic prints on the walls, spacious and comfortable with a large bar. The service was excellent, very helpfull, attentive and friendly but relaxed and not in your face. Lovely evening, 3 course meal with water, wine and service £40 a head. Money Well spent!!! There's also a good bar with comfy leather sofas and good funky house music downstairs if you fancy dancing off your food or enjoying a after dinner cocktail, which are also very good!
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Gracie Thurgood
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, July 13, 2006

I live in Shoreditch and eat out a lot. Home is by far my fav place for dinner.. the food is very tasty and portions are generous, the atmosphere is 'Shoreditch informal' (in a good way!) and the service is excellent. I eat at Home at least every month and have never been disapointed. The fact that the 70's decor provides VERY comfy dining chairs is a massive plus point for me and my husband..it's great to sit back and give my our waist bands a little slack after dessert! Ten out of ten!
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Kelly Gillard
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, June 30, 2006

My boyfriend and I ate at Home on Friday and were really impressed with the quality of the food. I had oysters and lemon sole and both were excellent and well-priced considering how good they were. I've eaten similar food and paid a lot more at other restaurants. The service was also excellent - very professional and friendly. The unisex toilet was a little disconcerting - not well signed so I wasn't sure if I'd wandered into the men's! My only real complaints are that there is no non-smoking section (though the tables are well spaced so it was ok) and the music was a little too loud for conversation. I'll definitely be going back though. It was a lovely evening and you must try the cocktails too - very good.
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Jenny
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Monday, May 08, 2006

Home definitely has one of the best atmospheres around. As I walked in the other night, a table of gorgeous women rose to greet me with open arms, shouting "James" for all the club to hear. Lovely.

Perhaps they'll get my name right next time. On to the bar, then, to be greeted by staff who make the "smooth talking bar steward" look decidedly jaded and ruffled. Perhaps they have training in incredibly professional cool.

There's a great selection of cocktails on board and the bar snacks are substantial, worth the money and don't take all night to come.

Given the delights of the ground floor, I've never actually made it to the restaurant upstairs and, sadly, cannot comment. It does sound worth a try though - kangaroo is fine food.
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Leon
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, March 21, 2006

I went to Home for a friends birthday recently. The actual restuarant is very stylish without being 'too much', it was warm and inviting and nicely lit. The staff were nice and attentive, BUT my mussels (and my friends mussels) had 'grit' in them, and my main course tuna steak was really disappointing. The food was not worth the money at all, and most of my friends agreed...we were also charged for 12 set menu meals instead of 11, luckily one of us noticed. The unisex toilets with FROSTED GLASS doors were also terrifing.......i've never been scared of sitting on the loo in my life! The bar downstairs is great, the music is always brilliant with a stylish crowd - drinks are reasonable too. Nice place, but wouldn't eat there again.
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kirsty mitchell
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 3
Thursday, February 16, 2006

Nice atmosphere, good food. they catered for 20 of us and we had a great time. Price a tad high, at £23 for a meal each. but the food nonetheless was delicious. I would certainly recommend.
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elzoot
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 6
Thursday, February 16, 2006

I eat out a lot, and nothing comes close to Home. The venue is trendy but comfortable, creative and airy. Staff are attentive, knowledgeable and - good looking. And the food is consistently good. It's like Jamie Oliver's, but without the pretentiousness and overpricedness. My favourite ever!
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Elke
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, January 06, 2006

Well I'm glad you all liked it. But I have to say that although I've enjoyed a few Friday nights at Home, I was disgusted a few months ago when I asked for orange juice, to be met with a snort of 'not much point in our having highly trained cocktail staff is there?'.
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emma
Monday, November 21, 2005