Dial Restaurant & Bar

I recently had a dinner at Dial through an offer and wasn't expecting much after having read recent reviews! Hopefully things seem to have improved. Service was prompt but non-intrusive, starters were Divine (loved the egg Benedict!).

The overall ambience of the place was quite lively as it has a open place arrangement (bar + restaurant), some might find it noisy but for us it was an positive addition. Overall the meal was great if not perfect and would love to go back!
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Ricken Mann
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, April 09, 2008

Having eaten at Dial several times, the quality of the service and food has declined to the extent that I won't return.

Last week I booked a table for 4 under a discount scheme to which I belong, and in which Dial participates. The meal began quite well - we chose a pleasant wine which was priced reasonably, and we enjoyed our complimentary bread. Starters were reasonable, although I was disappointed by the hard pastry in my onion tart - it would have been excellent had the pastry been better prepared.

Things declined quite dramatically with the arrival of the main courses, however. My husband was presented with a dish which was not what he had ordered at all, so he had to wait for his meal to be prepared from scratch. During this time I ate a mediocre dish of calves' liver, which was quite tough in parts.

We had finished our main courses by the time my husband's main course arrived, some 20 minutes later. Obviously, we then anticipated a lengthy wait between our courses, as we would not be ordering pudding before my husband had eaten his dish. We expressed our disappointment with matters and asked if the replacement bottle of wine we were ordering might be on the house, in view of the situation.

We were told that this would not be possible - which was obviously disappointing - but then the waiter told that we were already on a good deal with the discount scheme!

We all thought that it was utterly appalling that the attitude of this member of staff was that poor service apparently did not matter if we were eating at a discount in the first place! We told him that his comments were disappointing and offensive, but he would not budge on the matter.

It wasn't until the very end of the meal, when we requested the bill (having pointedly refused teas, coffees and - except one of us - pudding), that the waiter made any attempt to accommodate our disappointment at all (perhaps prompted by my earlier comments to him about my being a keen restaurant reviewer); he offered my husband's main course for free. Given that this was a relatively cheap vegetarian option, and that we'd have been entitled to a 50% discount anyway, this was a rather inadequate gesture. Besides, any kind of financial compensation was redundant by this point; we'd been made to feel embarrassed, and that Dial did not deem us worthy of polite service.

Nevertheless, we accepted the offer and left. However, the waiter's attitude towards us left us feeling very negative about the whole experience; regardless of the discounts under which diners are eating, no restaurant should see this as an excuse to offend customers and offer shoddy service.
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dawnage - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Sunday, February 24, 2008

Last night was my third visit to Dial and, unfortunately, it wasn't as good as the previous times I'd eaten there.

I was pleased to see that the restaurant was half-full, creating more of an atmosphere than on my previous visits, when the restaurant was nearly empty. My husband and I were shown to our table promptly and served warm, complimetary bread.

The wine arrived and it was good - and priced decently, too. Our starters were excellent: I had a prawn and crab cocktail, which was presented interestingly and tasted wonderful, while from the reasonable selection of vegetarian starters my husband chose the wild mushrooms on toast , which he proclaimed rich and flavoursome.

It was from this point that the meal began to disappoint. Within 60 seconds of our starter plates being cleared, we were presented with our main courses - it would have been nice to have had five minutes or so to digest and discuss the first course, as the dishes really were very good and merited that.

My husband had the tomato and goat's cheese tart, as it was the only vegetarian main course on the menu - a bit of a shame given that he had the choice of about 4 dishes for his first course. He said it was enjoyable enough, although not a particularly interesting dish, and it was overly-starchy thanks to the pastry and a generous helping of new potatoes.

I was looking forward to my wood pigeon main course, but was disappointed by two gristly, indigestable lumps that had to be placed at the side of the plate. The meat was quite overdone and very difficult to cut properly. In addition, the dish contained Brussels sprouts, which I loathe - I certainly wouldn't have opted for that dish if the menu had said it contained Brussels sprouts. That was a disappointment, but probably my fault for being a fussy eater, rather than the restaurant's!

My husband decided to skip pudding, but appreciated the waitress bringing him cutlery to dip into my chocolate sponge with clotted cream. This was a simple dish and was not unusual in any way, but it was executed well, and enjoyable.

Despite the disappointment with the main course, I'd probably give Dial another try - I have a discount card which makes the visit worthwhile, and I have enjoyed my two previous meals there. I'm not sure that my husband will accompany me though, as he was uninspired and disappointed by the vegetarian main course - and the lack of choice he had in that respect. The service was pleasant, as ever - but a decent gap between courses is desirable, so maybe the kitchen could look more carefully at their timing.
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dawnage - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Sunday, November 25, 2007

I ate at Dial on Saturday night with a friend and really enjoyed my meal.

We were shown to our table promptly by a courteous waitress, which set for the tone for the polite service we received for the rest of our meal. Although it wasn't so attentive that we didn't have to pour our own wine at one point, this was preferable to a member of staff hovering by our table all evening: this could have been a reality, given that we were the only diners for a significant proportion of our visit.

The food was good - I had a quail breast salad to start, which was a reasonable portion and presented well, with beans and mushrooms. To follow this, I enjoyed the Grimsby cod in a delicious broth. I chose the brown bread ice cream for pudding, which was distinctive and very nice.

Prices at Dial are reasonable (even more so with the discount card I used) and it's definitely worth a visit - it's just a shame that a restaurant in such an excellent position doesn't enjoy more custom. I suspect the fact that it's part of a hotel may be one reason, although that shouldn't put people looking for an extensive and thoughtful menu (including a reasonable wine list) off.
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dawnage - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 7
Thursday, June 21, 2007

It is a shock to me that people didnt enjoy Dial as much as me or my two friends who recently went and we more than impressed.

As our annual girlie night in London we only choose the best places to dine in - last year was sketch , yr before The Ivy and the yr before was the grill @ the Savoy. All superb restaurants.

I have no qualms putting Dial in amongst this elite company because we enjoyed the meal here just as much as we have at the other much more famous eateries.

Service was impeccable from start to finish, when I asked for strawberries with my champagne, and then a straw with my mineral water ( I admit to being a fussy customer at times )I was served promptly and politely. Nothing was too much trouble.

I have an aversion for tipping when the service isn't adequate but Im happy to say both the high quality food ( try the chicken! ) and the high quality service certainly made me visit again and reccommend this establishment to friends!

Dont be put off by the reviews - try it for yourself - you just might like it - I certainly did.

Lauren, Manchester
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lauren lewis
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 7
Friday, October 27, 2006

Met here at a friend's suggestion. OK, I'm talking about the bar here, never got round to dining....thank goodness......slow, surly service from people people behind the counter who struggled to speak English even more than they struggled to raise anything resembling a smile. Not very busy but still took ages to get a couple of G&Ts. When I asked for the bill a service charge had been added which I didn't dispute, although a close-run decision, because I'm not sure what service we'd received. What irked me though was that they had left another gap for tips in top.....how many tourists (in a very touristy area) must get caught out by that one? There's a lot of choice for an after-work drink in this area of London, I will definitely not be giving Dial my business again.
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Will Henderson
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Thursday, July 27, 2006

Wish I had read this site's review before booking at Dial! Used a competitor's site instead ...shame.

We were force out on valentine's night due to kitchen renovation. We chose the 39.50£ 3 course menu with a glass of pink champagne. Although the glasses were fully loaded, the champ was room temperature and not rose either.

We chose, for starters, a lovely barley risotto with wild mushrooms and reggiato cheese: really delicious, but tiny portion in a huge dish! My husband had leek, potato and smoked haddock soup which was very tasty. The with the mains, it went downhill. We choose the sirloins. I cooked myself a tastier one from the supermarket last week! Tiny helping of mash, and three cherry tomatoes to garnish, mine were raw, my husband's grilled...figure that. The red wine sauce wasnt noticeable. For puddings he had a chocholate tarte with tangy orange marmelade, quite nice, but my champagne and passion fruit mousse, despite nicely presented, had no taste at all, and some lychees inside...! Coffee, included, was served without even asking - ie do you like decaf, black, white, expresso, tea? nothing. The bill came to £93 for two, that's because they also forgot to include a bland 2005 Pinot Grigio...The place also lacks athmosphere...all through the evening, the 'music' was what sounded like a badly tuned radio...not going back for sure!
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Fried Egg Fred
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, February 15, 2006

I was a little worried having read the reveiws after I booked but I was not disappointed. The service was very friendly and attentive, and they did well to accommodate our tight pre-theatre schedule. The food offered some interesting choices with the rabbit starter a very nice choice. At first glance the portion sizes seemed a little small but they turned out to be perfect, leaving just enough room for the Sticky Toffee Pudding that was superb. It was light, hot and fantastic. I would return just for that.
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Kerri
Thursday, November 03, 2005