Sofra (Oxford Street)

I went to this restaurant invited by a Turkish colleague and it was one of my worst experiences with restaurants in London.

The food is absolutely tasteless and very badly cooked and presented. And the service was awful. It is a shame for Turkish community to be represented like this. At the end my colleague was so sorry to ask us to go there.

I am really surprised that Sofra is named in the list of 50 best places in the UK to have Sunday Lunch in the Independent newspaper website.
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Mahtab
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, June 11, 2008

We visited Sofra on Monday 10 December for our xmas lunch. There were 12 people in our party and we had booked our table for 12:30, Upon arrival we were left standing outside in the cold for approximately 30 minutes while our table was prepared.

Our table was in a dark basement with a dirty floor, the stairs leading to the basement were greasy and slippery we had a fabulous view of the lavatories and the doors had been propped open especially to enhance our dining experience.

We waited an hour and fifty minutes before we finally got our drinks. We had complained numerous times but this did not speed up the service. Eventually one of our party went and spoke with the floor manager who assured us that he would take charge and ensure our food arrived. When we placed our order from the Christmas Menu we had to argue with the waiter because he was telling us to choose a single starter when the menu and the waitress had told us that the starter was a meze on one plate.

The food arrived, my chicken arrived with riced (I had asked for vegetables instead of rice) and it was cold. My colleague had salmon and this was still raw in the centre. Another colleague had ordered a mixed grill which arrived without lamb - when we asked for it two cubes of lamb were presented in a bowl. The floor manager gave us some fries to placate us - these were in the main left untouched as the food and service were terrible.

Considering that I have visited their sister restaurant Ozer on many occasions and have always had excelent service and good food, I thought it only fair to write to Sofra's head office and give them the right to respond to my complaint before I posted a review here. They have not responded and do not answer the telephone. Perhaps it does not matter to them as the location of their restaurant ensures busy walk-in trade,

All in all it was probably the worst cullinary experience I have had for a long time
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Andrea Marcou
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, December 14, 2007

What a terrible dining experience. The waiter is a very unfriendly and impolite person to have to deal with which left a very bad impression on us. The food was quite good but the lack of decent service completely ruined the whole meal for us. To start with the waiter does not even talk, just grunts at you. My partner and I both ordered the fixed healthy menu (12pound each) but I don't eat lamb so I told the waiter this. The menu clearly states that vegetarians are catered for however when the food came I was still given one portion of lamb- some other dishes were substituted but still one rissole on my plate, very strange. I didn't send it back as it was just one part of the meal and the rest was fine. We also asked for tap water but when the bill arrived we were charged for the water. I told the waiter I did not want to pay the 12.5% service charge (outrageous amount) and he asked why. When I told him we were charged for water and I was given lamb he began to argue quite aggressively with me- which also happened to be the first words he had spoken the whole time. Despite my explanation he continued to protest and entered the full amount in. By this time I gave up, I was not assertive enough to refuse to pay and wanted to get out of there. So unless you are interested in being charged for grunted at and then being made to pay for such "optional" service I'd elect to eat something where they care about how they treat their customers- at least out of principle.
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Mr Milroy
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 0
Saturday, October 27, 2007

I visited Sofra in St Christophers Place and was extremely dissapointed.

We were sat down and given complimentary Olives and Humous.

When I asked for some bread to dip into the Humous I was told that they had run out of bread but some will be on its way soon. 20 Minutes later still no bread.

A starter also failed to appear and we were served the main course without it.

When I questioned the Waiter about the starter I was told that because my starter comes with bread and the bread had still not arrived, they could not serve the starter. Why couldnt they tell me this when taking the order ?

The icing on the cake was when a waitress asked us to move table to make way for a reserved party of four. (No such party arrived).

At the end we were given the Bill without asking for it, paid and promptly left without a word of complaint.

Accessed Sofras website the next day to give them some feedback. Not a word of apology or acknowledgement.

This restaurant may have been good once upon a time but feel compacency and apathy has set in over the years.

Appaling !!
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T Gregory
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Having shopped in Oxford circus most of the evening, we thought we'd treat ourselves to a nice restaurant in St Christphers place at Sofra. We were seated quickly and were given olives and humous but no bread. I asked for a dry white wine but I was given a sweet wine that tasted like sherry! When I called the waiter over he abruptly shouted over his shoulder that 'The bread is coming'! When he plonked the bread down on our table I told him about the wine to which he told me in a abrupt manner that they only serve two wines by the glass the rest they sell by the bottle, had I known this I probably would have chosen something else as both wines tasted pretty bad! Our meals arrived very quickly and both tasted okay but nothing special about our dishes. I had the chicken tangine which was chicken, chips and a bit of salad basically. Our bill also took a long time and needless to say we didnt tip. All in all its not a bad restaurant its just been let down by the rudeness of their waiters.
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Kprincess - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 7
Friday, July 13, 2007

I had dinner at Sofra at Oxford Street on Christmas Day. I am very surprised to learn that some customers were not satisfied with the service of this restaurant since I felt that all the waiters were very attended and warm. I booked a table for four and got a table immediately once we arrived. Although there was a lot of people and the waiters were very busy, they were very patient when we read the menu and selected the food. I picked a lamb shank which was served with some rice. For people who love lamb, this restaurant is highly recommended. My friend ordered chicken. I tried it and it was equally great! Oh I nearly forget to mention that there was a wide variety of appetizers as well. Ask the waiters to recommend some to you if you don't have any ideas. They were really helpful. After we finished all the main courses, my friend misunderstood that our meal went with a free dessert and asked the waiter. His response was impressively friendly. 'There is no dessert going with your meal, but we would love to give you an ice cream if you like.' That Christmas dinner was perfect and I would definitely visit again.
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Food Fever - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

I had dinner at Sofra at Oxford Street on Christmas Day. I am very surprised to learn that some customers were not satisfied with the service of this restaurant since I felt that all the waiters were very attended and warm. I booked a table for four and got a table immediately once we arrived. Although there was a lot of people and the waiters were very busy, they were very patient when we read the menu and selected the food. I picked a lamb shank which was served with some rice. For people who love lamb, this restaurant is highly recommended. My friend ordered chicken. I tried it and it was equally great! Oh I nearly forget to mention that there was a wide variety of appetizers as well. Ask the waiters to recommend some to you if you don't have any ideas. They were really helpful. After we finished all the main courses, my friend misunderstood that our meal went with a free dessert and asked the waiter. His response was impressively friendly. 'There is no dessert going with your meal, but we would love to give you an ice cream if you like.' That Christmas dinner was perfect and I would definitely visit again.
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- View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, March 21, 2007

This place has the worst service ever!! They rushed us into ordering, however the waiter did not ask us how we would like the steak to be cooked. I requested for rare. When the food arrived it was really well cooked.

None of the waiters smiled or said thank you. The food tasted aweful.

DO NOT GO THERE!!!!!
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Matt
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, March 10, 2007

Absolutely awful. Do not eat at this restaurant!

We had to ask for some bread and olives 3 times before they arrived. Our waiter walked away whilst I was ordering and then came back and told me to carry on in a very abrupt manor. The restaurant didn't have what I had ordered so I ordered a steak. Yet again our waited dissappeared whilst I was ordering but 15 minutes later our food arrived. The waiter had clearly heard my order but had not asked how I would like the food cooked. We ordered some fries which never arrived and after telling the waiter 3 times we gave up. Waiter tried to take my friends plates away before I had finished eating. I told the waiter I hadn't finished but apparently he 'wasn't speaking to me'!!!

Coffee's were not what we had ordered to top it off.

I spoke to the manager to remove the fries from the bill and also to tell him I wasn't happy that 12.5% service charge had been added. Apparently it is a busy restaurant so I can't expect things to be perfect!!!! He wasn't interested in hearing why I wasn't happy with the service. He crossed the service charge of the bill and shoved it in my hand.
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 3
Thursday, February 08, 2007

My friends and I went to the Sofra Restaurant in St Christopher's place on Sunday the 4th February 2007 about 2.30 pm. Once we got there it was packed and it looked like everyone was enjoying themselves so we were quite excited as other friends had also recommended this restaurant.

We were lead to the lower level part of the restaurant and once settled we had to wait for about 10 minutes to get served, this was fine. So we ordered the lunch special which includes a starter and a main course. The starters came very quickly and the 3 of us enjoyed it greatly, thinking what a good choice and eaglery looked forward to our main meals.

Ok so 15 milutes pass and that's ok we talk amongst ourselves and then 25 minutes pass and we are a bit concerned that our food has not arrived yet. We try and catch the attention of a waiter but with no luck, but finally we do and he goes into the kitchen which is behind us, we notice that something has gone wrong, as they seem to be arguing. Any way buy this time we are quite annoyed and it takes another 15 minutes before they come back with our food. Two of our orders were correct but our 3rd friend had a different dish to what she ordered, we told them this and he took it away.

First of all the 2 of us only had our food and our 3rd friend did not have a meal because the orders were messed up. So the 2 of us started eating although we did feel bad for our other friend.

The second problem was it was just under luke warm, a little cold!! You would think after waiting over 40 minutes for our main course it would at least be hot!! We took a couple of mouthfuls and then decided this was not acceptable.

So we called the waiter and asked for the manager, which he replied he was the manager. He incidently bought the final dish to the third friend, at this point we said that we were not happy that we had to wait for so long, the fact our friend's order was incorrect and that we could not eat all togther and the fact that the food was cold.

The manager merely smiled and said but you have eaten half of the food!! We had not, we said, the third friend no longer wanted her dish and we had not finished ours. We tried to explain to the manager this appalling service but he then turned away and left!!

By this point we were still hungry, angry and shocked that he ignored us. So we asked to speak to the manager again, and he came down again. We said to him that he did not give us a chance to explain what our problem was, he just said forget about the bill, but we were outraged, it was not about the bill it was about the service and the quality of the food!!

So we listed our grievances:

1. waited a long time for main meal

2. the meals when arrived 1 was wrong and the other 2 cold

3. the fact he was not helpful and quite rude, although kept smirking at us and looking at his watch!!

4. The fact that his badge says "I will serve your food and drinks on time" was a joke I pointed this out to him and he said "yes" (what's all that about??)

5. We pointed out that it was not about the money but the appalling service and standard of food.

6. At this point he still had not apologised we felt that we were treated unfairly and he probably thought that we only wanted to get out of paying our bill, remember we only had starters, 1 drink each and 2 mains that were hardly eaten

All we wanted was an aplogy really and for him to recognise our complaint.

We will never go there again, it is a very popular restaurant as it is always busy but we do not understand why we were treated in such a way. W e were very dissapointed and deflated. We don't like to complain, but we felt that we had just cause and wanted others to be aware.
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Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Monday, February 05, 2007