Back To Basics

The food is amazing!! AND the service was even better.

Only problem was the size of the restaurant, even though we booked a table for four we sat next to a huge party and I had to breath in everytime someone tried to pass, which was quite hard given the portions of food I had just eaten.

Our waitress was absolutely lovely and made really good recommendations on what we should order.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, August 20, 2008

I've been here 4 times, and every time has been a treat. I've found the food to be fresh, and well cooked. The portions are a good size. The atmosphere is warm and bubbly. And the staff are slightly eccentric, but friendly.

The menu can be slightly limited toward 9pm, with many dishes sold out, but I'd rather that they bought smaller portions of fresh fish, than buying in bulk.

The bread comes with 3 flavours of butter, and the gradalax is sublime.

All in all, highly reccomended.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, July 10, 2008

Disappointing - service was very slow and somewhay perfunctory despite the restaurant being only half full. Fish was overcooked. Expensive for what we had.
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Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Ate there this evening. Four people, seated outside on the pavement, no traffic at all really, so quite pleasant. I had the sea bass with ginger and spring onion, which turned out to be a very decent peice of fish, big portion, and done nicely. Other had the pollock and halibut, and there were no complaints.

Service was fine, not particularly knowledgeable about the menu, but friendly and obliging enough.

It's not cheap, for what's on offer, but this is Fitzrovia and a little bit off the beaten track, and they know people can afford it round there. Would I go again? Yes.
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Reg Forstuff
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Friday, May 23, 2008

I dined with my partner at Back to Basics last night and we have a very poor experience.

We ordered a selection of smoked fish for starters. I ordered a Tuna steak on a salad of mixed beans and goat cheese and my partner a wing of skate. The starter was poor, dry and the mackerel fish seems like just from one of the Tesco's value packs.

My Tuna was poorly cooked and smelled off. When I mentioned this to the manager, the lady was rather unpleasant. Even the goat cheese was poorly cooked. How difficult is it to melt goat cheese? The mains where almost £20 each and did not include any kind of veg or side order. The wine was OK.

This is the first time I complain about a restaurant. It could be just my bad experience, and other costumers seem to have been enjoying themselves. However, things went definitely wrong for us and the fish was certaintly not fresh and the manager did not handle this well. Needless to say, we won't be going back.
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MM from Oxford
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Sunday, May 04, 2008

Had a group of 10 on a Saturday night. The Polish wait staff was a bit spotty at first, but once we had them engaged they were attentive and engaging as well.

Food was fresh and as good as the prior reviews have mentioned.

This restaurant is situated on a comparitively quiet street, and made for a good atmosphere both inside and out.

We felt like we had found a local's secret place to go, although we were just visiting for a few days in London. Not inexpensive, but good value for the money.
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Very full on the evening I was there, with only two waitresses serving. I had to wait 75 minutes to get my first drink, and 1hr 45min to get food. My codling was dry and not terribly nice, with cold mushy peas squashed under a huge glass pot of tartare sauce, and my friends calimari was rubbery and inedible.

For the price I would expect a much higher standard of food and service.

The serving ladies were doing the best they could I'm sure, but a room full of about 40 diners really needs more staff to provide a satisfactory and unrushed service - it was almost impossible to get their attention they were so busy.

Not an experience to want me to go back!
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 1
Thursday, February 14, 2008

Went for the lunchtime menu, very pleasant service, great value, had a lovely herring and potato starter, though the prawns and couscous needed to be a bit livelier. The decor is fun, eclectic and different from the usual restaurants, overall a very enjoyable experience and will definitely go there in the evening sometime
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Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Sunday, February 10, 2008

Delightful - we wanted to sit outside when it was chucking it down with rain (don't ask) and they turned the heaters on for us without a grimace.

£10 lunchtime menu really good value - great bread and flavoured butters - I had peel & eat prawns for started which came with a great jam, and had john dory with flageolet beans for main. The fish was great, beans a little on the salty side but the sides of veg were very good too.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Friday, October 19, 2007

I took 4 friends on Friday night after enthusing over what an amazing restaurant Back to Basics is. Admittedly the staff have always been verging on stroppy but the food has always been so good that it hasn't really been an issue. Friday night however, was an exception. The place wasn't full and the booking was for 8pm so we were rather disappointed that the majority of the dishes was already not available. The staff were even stroppier than usual and when I asked about the availability of certain dishes, I just got grunted at. When I finally managed to get the waitress to take our order she told us in her acerbic manner that "regulars are used to dishes not being available". Whilst I can accept that certain fish is not always available, the side orders of veg too? Having previously regarded the charmless staff as part of the dining experience, this was not possible on Friday and really made me realise that good service and friendly waiting staff really do come as part of the package. To top it off, the ladies' toilet was out of order so we had to use the dirty men's one, complete with broken seat. Suffice to say none of our party will be returning.
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Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Monday, August 20, 2007