Elysee

Having read a previous review, I thought to myself is this the same place that I was at on Saturday 14th May 2011. I googled the name Elysee Restaurant and found it to be the only one in London.

It was a surprise 30 birthday party which my husband had arranged for 14 of us, so we had arranged a mini bus to pick us up and get us there for 8pm. We were taken to the upstairs bar for cocktails and drinks and found a great outdoor terrace also. There were maybe 20-30 other people upstairs creating a really good atmosphere which started the night with a bang.

The manager of the main restaurant came upstairs at about 8.45pm and told us that our table was ready for us and we could go down at our leisure. We sat down at our table at about 9.15pm and by 9.30pm our starters had reached the table which were of the highest quality. There must have been over 15 different starters as sharing plates and each one was great.

We asked the waiter to delay the main course for an hour whilst we danced to the live show. The mains arrived which were even better than the starters. The dessert were platters of fresh fruit. This restaurant is probably one of the best places I have EVER been to. The service was fantastic the food was even better and the atmosphere was something I had never experienced before. I don't usually write reviews but after having read one of the previous reviews I had to write my review. All the way home on the mini bus we never stopped laughing and complimenting the Elysee Restaurant. Thank you for a very very memorable evening. We will all be coming back.
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Friday, May 27, 2011

Ok where do I start? Had some family over visiting from another country and going off the recomendation of a friend of a friend we decided to give Elysee a bash, given the recent refurb and that so much money had been spent on the decor. Please do not judge a book by its cover as this place was the worst restaurant I have even had the misfortune to eat in in all my life.

Not only was the service appalling, the food was substandard and the whole night was a shambles.

We called up for a booking the night before and were told that they restaurant was fully booked but they would make room for us upstairs . When we arrived, there was not a soul in the restaurant (it was 8.pm on a saturday night). We were ushered to a private room upstairs (there was 8 of us altogether) and this is where the fun began. We were left sitting in this room for 20 minutes before we were served, we complained and a waiter eventually came to our service to serve some drinks, we then had to endure the clueless waiter forgettting our drinks order so he had to come back and take them all again as he lost his previous list of drinks???!

Eventually after the drinks arrived we had to wait a further 30 minutes to order some starters which when they did arrive came in dribs and drabs and looks like reheated muck.

Eventually things got so bad that we asked for the bill and told them that we did not want the rest of the starters or the main courses that we had ordered and we wanted to leave. We asked to speak to Management, eventually someone came along and apologised profusley when we said we were leaving and not paying for the horrible food that did arrive. As a token of apology they offered to move us downstairs to the restaurant (bearing in mind this is almost 2 hours later). We should have just cut our losses but decided to humour them and go downstairs where we were sat in a dark drafty corner. It might still be worth noting that only 2 tables were occupied at this point and on a saturday night!. Things went from bad to worse, it was like we had 6 Manuels waiting on our table and each one as gormless and clueless as the other.

Just to conclude, it was so bad, the waiters so rude that we were told we would not have to pay for any of the food, the Management plied us with "free" bottles of wine to apologise but when it came to paying they still tried to charge us for food AND the supposed "free" wine they were giving us!! A total and utter travesty! do no waste your time, money or effort on this place which was a total Big Fat Greek DISASTER!!!!
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0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, April 11, 2011

I found this restaurant after an extensive search on the internet for a greek restaurant to celebrate my sister's 30th birthday. I was not disappointed at all! The food was excellent, the service and atmosphere was brilliant and I would absolutely reccomend this restaurant to anyone who wantsa night out with a live greek band. greek singers, plate smashing and dancing that is pure value for money!!!!

Thank you Elysee for making my sister's birthday extra special...we will be back!
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Maria
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, April 11, 2011

I had a business lunch on Friday afternoon at the Elysee. Since the weather was fine, we were asked if we wanted to eat on the roof terrace which we agreed to. I was impressed with the wide range of fresh salads on offer - I had the couscous salad which had fresh mint, pomegranate and feta cheese and was delicious and the rose wine was pretty good value at £20. Since I work in the Charlotte St area this will definitely be my one of my first choices for lunch on a sunny day.
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Mary N
9 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Sunday, March 27, 2011

My wife and I went to Elysee on Saturday night. When I had phoned to make a reservation earlier in the week, I had been informed that the restaurant was very busy and I was given the impression that I should be lucky to have a reservation.

When we arrived for dinner we were surprised to see that the restaurant was only half full and remained that way for the entire night!

Given that the restaurant was not full and we arrived at 8.30pm, it was extremely disappointing to be told that we could not order a couple of dishes (starter and main) as the restaurant had run out of minced lamb! Shocking!

When we did order, the food was average at best - mostly very bland.

The service started off well, but unfortunately nose dived after we had received our starters. The waiters were clueless. I asked one waiter twice where our main courses were and he seemed to walk off to find out but never returned. I only got a response when I asked the owner!!!!!! By that point it had taken almost an hour to bring us grilled skewers of chicken and lamb and some chips.

I would certainly not recommend this restaurant to anyone.
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AV - View all reviews by this user
2 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Sunday, February 13, 2011

I've got so many comments that I'm not sure where i should start from. We ordered a table for 20:30 on 28th of january to celebrate my girlfriend's 30th birthday. clearly that was our biggest mistake.

1. Menu: Soiled, dirty, with fatty stains and finger marks. some pages were worn out so badly that it wasn't posible to read it. under those names we managed to read, there were no dish description whatsoever. so if this is your first visit to "greek" restaurant u can only guess!

2. Choice of wine: Despite they claim to be a greek restaurant there were only 2 types of greek wine on the list priced about at 40 and 50 pounds per boutle. obviously overpriced. the rest - french, italian, south african - whatever you like but not greek. simple and cheap pinot grigio priced at 29 per boutle.

3.Choice of food: Many dish names mentioned as starters were present under main course list which virtually cut your choise by third. taking to account already poor choise cut by half because of worn out pages , again by half as the were mentioned as starters - on the day of our visit there were at leas 3 main courses "out of stock" as they say. should i mention the same one were out of stock as starters? we were left with just 3 or 4 main courses to choose from.

4. Quality of food: Starters. my gurlfriend ordered salad with panceta and figs some leafes and smoked chiken as i remember. there were neither figs nor panceta found in the salad, just some "smoked chiken" which was awful. our friend ordered octopus salad, - there was no octopus found in the salad. Waiters were dare enough to argue ,trying to prove it's somewhere there.

We had not opportunity to wait for our main course couse as we left this restaurant shortly. As a token of our goodwill we paid for two boutles of wine we finished waiting for our food. ones again impudence waiter added service charge on top of our 60 pounds bill. of course we refused to pay for it. we paid for our wine and left. Birthday screwed up!

Summary: Food: 1 Service: 4 ( I give 4 only becouse restaurant owner sincerely appologised for unacceptable food quality and service. Appologies accepted, but birthday anyway screwed up.) Atmosphere: 3 Value for money: 1

Overall it was my worst restaurant experiense ever.
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O Hordiychuk
2 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Sunday, February 06, 2011

Lucky enough to have a surprise party upstairs in the private room - could not have been more perfect.

The venue is stylish but not over the top and that is reflected in the service and the other customers. Add to that excellent food and prices which reflect the quality but nothing more and you have the perfect mix for a great night out.

The food is a only a nine second to my auntie's home cooking (different level all together).

In short absolutely awesome.
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10 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, November 02, 2010

Getting there was a problem as we couldn't turn right into Percy St from Tottenham Court Road so we got lost around a one way system. When we found our way back, we were able to park right outside. The outside is attractive with some chairs on the pavement behind a barrier (high class swish Greek looking). We were welcomed by the doormen who were nice guys, but I was surprised that they had doormen working at a Greek restaurant. It was Friday night and it was busy but we didn't wait long for a table. If you book an early table (we were there just after 10) you will hear the "early band" I'm not sure what style you would describe them as because they were playing pop, Beatles and Eagles songs but more like a jazz or soul band than a pop band, I don't usually like jazz but I enjoyed this band because the singer was singing songs I knew, and the 3 of them did sound pretty cool. We skipped the starter and went straight onto the main course which was Lamb special that was as described "special" I would certainly recommend it, we also got flat bread rice salad and dippy stuff which all good. The drink was a little bit expensive but I suppose that's how they make their money. We had decided that we was not going to have a too late night but we skipped desert because the band changed to a traditional Greek folk band and I think a belly dancer was going to perform. Thats not my cup of tea so I got my coat! We will go again but next time probably earlier. I have only given 9 for the atmosphere because I don't like Greek Folk bands, so if you like that sort of thing the restaurant is a 10 out of 10.
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Greta
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Sunday, October 10, 2010