Tas (The Cut)

Atrocious. Really no other word for it. The service was surly – have you ever known a waiter refuse a request for an ice bucket – and the food indescribable, not only because it was badly cooked, badly presented but also because you really didn't have a clue what you were eating!

My starter had a large piece of eggshell in it. Tasty. Then came my grilled seabass. Under normal circumstance, I would expect to see on my plate, a succulent fish, pearly white, that fell apart as your pressed it against the roof of your mouth with your tongue. not so this. It appeared to have been microwaved dry. You couldn't peel it from the skin and when I did manage to slice off a piece to eat, I wish I hadn't bothered.

I never, ever eat in fast food chains, but given the choice between a greasy burger bar and this place, the burger bar would win every single time.
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0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, July 27, 2011

TAS is the best thing happened to me. I wished if i can have interior of my house like that. Food and services.....one can only wish. such class you dont find in five-star.
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Rashida
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, April 27, 2011

We have been in Tas with my wife. We both work in hospitality industry. We are quite intrested to taste new dishes and I can say we are quite good on it. We also have our favourites as you can not go wrong with those dishes where ever you go in the world. However Tas managed to suprise us with terrible tasteless foods, plus their service.

We asked for one of their set menu called "Renk". There were about 8-9 mezes and also a bottle of house white. The wine was amazing, crispy, fruity and well chilled.

However the food was terrible. There were triangular spring rolls which was not cooked that we would easily how many pastry paper were used. There was stuffed wine leaves which the leaves were not cooked. The leaves were more like newspaper's paper. There was kisir which supposed to be quite crispy and which supposed to have some fresh peppers and crushed nuts and tomatoes however it apeared as tomato sauce. Falafel was terrible as we could not even taste because of its smell. There was not any flavour on any of the food. There was also deep fried calamari which was more like a chewing gum. We could not beleive how they could manage to make a deep fried calamari terrible.

Anyway it did not take long that we decided to go somewhere else. So I asked for the bill as we just wanted to pay and go to one of our favourite restaurants near by called Sofra. Same cusine, slightly expensive however they at least serve nice foods. While I was asking for the bill I was extremely polite (as we work in the same industry I know it is not nice to get bad feedback) and explained the waitress that we were not happy with the food as we could only eat 2 dishes out of 8-9 of them. Anyway waitress came back and said that the manager will bring the bill. I just wanted the full bill, I did not ask for any discounts or anything (again it is really common in London in these casses to ask for discount).

A gentleman and a lady (seemed to be the manager) appeared on our table (later on we understood he was the owner). He told us that it is not respectful to say disgusting for the food as the God supplies these ingredients to the humanity (I do not think God work in your kitchen...). I was shocked and we were still extremely polite and was trying to explain that we did not say it was disgusting. He was insisting that we said that (I think he thinks their food is disgusting). He tried to teach us how we should behave to the God's foods. I told him that we did not came to get religion lesson from him. He again shocked me by saying that it is his place and he would decide how he would speak to the customers. I said that I never seen such a behaviour like that. Then he told us to leave the restaurant!!!

I could understand if there was a mistake happening but it needs to dealt well. This gentleman instead of coming and asking us what was wrong. He directly started to abuse us. I wish I could make a complaint about his abusement to a legal authority.

The second think I did not even want to speak to him and it was his choice really to come and abuse us. I did not even feel secure when he rushed to our table.

WE WILL NEVER EVER GO BACK AGAIN. I won't even pass from their pavement. Terrible experience, it ruined our day. Nobody deserves such a treatment, especially if you are a customer.

I could not understand how people give good feedback about these foods really. The restaurants pay fortunes to gourments to find the best flavours or balance of flavours. They do not leave it to God... But I don't think Tas needs that as they do not even know what flavour means... They should hire new chefs and should change the owner...
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kifidis
2 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, April 06, 2011

Seems like quite a busy and popular restaurant, with decent reviews, so gave it a try. The complementary bread with yoghurt hummous was a welcome appetiser, but turned out to be the best bit. The starters the two of us shared, courgette fritters and falafel, were disappointing. The falafel were not too bad, but then no better than anything you would get out of the freezer section in a supermarket, the fritters sloppy and tasteless. A distinct lack of spice and flavour. And that the falafel were swimming in hummous showed a lack of imagination since we already had a lot of this on the table. The tiny bit of salad with the falafel was the nicest bit.

The mains were even more disappointing. The swordfish was swimming in a sloppy tomato sauce that seemed to have everything in it: onions, peppers, lemon, lime, cream and really did overwhelm what is not the sort of meat that deserves to be overwhelmed. The lambs kidneys with cous cous were better, except they were poorly prepared (cut in half and cores not removed) and there was an enormous amount of them: how anyone could eat what appeared to be something like six kidneys I am not sure. The waiter seemed surprised when I left more than half. Just because offal is cheap does not mean you need to overwhelm the diner with meat.

I do not think we ordered the wrong things in particular, as the next table's food looked similar: same condiments: red cabbage, chili sauce etc piled on top of the cous cous in a rather sloppy manner with no regard for overall flavour.

To me the restaurant had a particular "fast food" feel in that ready prepared items were just crammed together with meats. The swordfish particularly showed no attempt to make a tasty dish, but was overcomplicated and sloppy.

A lot of people seem to like this place but I was surprised at how poor it was. The dishes were so confused and overfaced the diner - (in the swordfish's case with onions: tonnes of them, and in the lamb's kidney's case with meat - there was what I would call twice a generous portion of meat there) - they do not seem to have been prepared by someone who knew how to cook. very well. Wasn't dear though.
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5 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Tuesday, March 01, 2011

I came here on my 21st Birthday last year with around 20+ friends. The booking process was effortless for me as they took care of everything and gave us an amazing service.

Our group was seated downstairs, where we had the whole section to ourselves. They offered us the group menu which consisted of sharing around 7 varieties of starters among 4 or 5 people - but there was more than enough to go around. This included bread with a selection of dips, salads, pitta bread with humus, etc. The selection of main dishes were extensive and they were also flexible with the few people who requested for something from the main menu instead which was very kind of them as there is obviously a reason why they have the selective dishes on the offered group menu in the first place.

I had the mixed grill which was nice, and although when it first came out it didn't look like much was on the plate, I found that I was full very quickly.

The food was good for others too and the presentation was lovely - worth exactly what you paid for. We ended up having food left over because everyone was full from the generous starters at the beginning and the filling main - therefore we did not have space for dessert.

Overall, I had one of the best times there and would totally recommend people to try it - especially in a group as the menu is great. The people were really friendly and service was just right.
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9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Thursday, April 08, 2010

This is a follow up to my review of 2007. A personal observation, Tas has a rating of 5.5, yet this is one my most favourite restaurants in London and it serves excellent food. We come to Tas once every 3 months and we are never disappointed.

I recommend the Meze, which gives you a great selections of things. Though don't go for the Meze if you have greedy people on your table.

I am a regular Tas, but I have never had an issue with the staff. They are always very professional, courteous and well trained. I recently took 4 friends who had never been to Tas before. The waitress was overtly pushy and trying to get us to order an expensive set menu. Ok, it was a good selection, but it was above my friends budget and it was more of a "grand feast". The set menus at Tas are very good value and a good way to try a selection of the food, but this particular set menu she was pushing was not right for us. This waitress even managed to stich my friend up and when he ordered his main, she said "would you like Homous with that?". As if to suggest it was an accompaniment to his main dish, this was naughty and back handed way of making order a starter. In the 7 or so years, I have been to Tas, I have never encountered this. I should add this is not the normal sort of thing that happens at Tas and it is an exceptionaly good restaurant.

Anyways, my friends loved the food, so all happy.
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RK
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Tas is a bit of a pretentious restaurant.

I am used to Turkish food, it is simple and exquisite if cooked properly. Tas manages to do some of the work very well. But not everything. First of all, the portions are ridiculously small so they have a huge problem with proportion. I ordered for instance some lamb skewers, I got 6 fatty (that was a problem too) minuscule pieces of meat and a spoonful of couscous.

Compared to other Turkish restaurants that serve decent portions I thought that what I had was highly overpriced. However, the hummous and their dips are fantastic so it wasn't a totally bad experience. I have not tried anything else expect skewers and grilled meat since I know from experience that I should stay away from more elaborate things.

I've seen a comment here about the moussaka and indeed, I wouldn’t risk it, simply because if you want to play it safe in Turkish restaurants you should go for what they do best - grilled meat, dips, hummous, tabbouleh, coban salad, etc.

I think this restaurant is worth trying but it is a question of luck to get really good food. But there is hope.
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Robert
6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 3
Thursday, February 05, 2009