Foxtrot Oscar (Royal Hospital Road)

We dined at 9pm on Saturday evening and the restaurant was fairly full upstairs. The upstairs dining area is very narrow and not that long, the decor which is cold and uninviting makes it feel like you are sitting in a shipping container (like the ones you get at the docks).

We had soused herring and fish soup for starters. The portion of herring was far from generous and lacked flavour, the soup (which was boiling hot) was ok but not great.

Mains: - Ribeye steak, ordered blue with mixed salad. The steak was very chewy , grissley and overcooked. The salad was a small bowl with a few mixed leaves that was barely worth ordering.

Duck cassoulet with mash. The duck leg seemed as if it had been left under a hot light for some time so was a little dry and tough, it looked like it had been cooked seperately and plonked on top of the butterbean sauce - this was ok but totally forgettable.

Desert was a shared cheese plate - 3 unexciting cheeses but passable.

Wine was a bottle of Pinot Noir for about £20 and this was ok.

Sadly the restaurant cannot order taxis for you - it was bank holiday weekend and Royal Hospital Road was very quite and a black cab was not to be found. Luckily we do not live far away and so we called a local cab company who came and picked us up..

Cost for this experience was £85.00 which is probably on par for the area, however I don't think we will bother going back..
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Brandybabe
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Lunch here on sunday, place was 1/2 full when we arrived at 12:30 and seemed no sign of abating when we left an hour and a half later. 2 x fish pies, sides of spinach and cabbage, a cheese plate and rhubarb crumble along with a very good NZ sav blanc at £25 saw our bill come to just over £30 p/head well worth it, well done gordon!
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emily
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, April 07, 2008

A high level of expectation was infront of our weekend away without the children, 2nd time in two years. A stunning walk over Tower Bridge around The Tower of London and on to watch Lion King was a wonderful day. This was to end in Gordon Ramsay's newest edition to his chain 'Foxtrot Oscar'.

On arrival I was surprised at how small the restaurant is and how nuch it lacked in atmosphere inside. (Very bland and removed!)

We chose the French Onion Soup and Sweetcorn Soup with Curry Muffin. Both were blisteringly hot and made a good start to our evening. Not sure where the curry was in my muffin though. (Do i dunk it or not?)

Next we chose a Goats Cheese and Potato Pie- lacking in cheese with half filled pie slightly burnt on top and Blanquette of lamb with spices- again lacking in spices with the tiniest amount of vegetables possible.

Thw highlight of our evening was a fantastic bottle of Chardonnay Bon Vallon. Crisp and Fruity and well worth £20.

Would I recommend Foxtrot Oscar- Not bad but not good- so a definite NO!!
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Simon Barker
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 3
Friday, March 28, 2008

We ate at Foxtrot Oscar last week (14 mar) and had the most wonderful evening dinner.We found the service to be excellent and the food very well priced.

We were given a table downstairs and yes I do agree the tables are very close

together but who cares!. We started with the steak tartare which was lovely and the wild boar pate which was a big portion both came with toast but we couldnt help ourselves and demolished the lovely warm bread on the table as well. We both had the ribeye steak next cooked to perfection with the snail butter melting away on top we shared a tomato salad and both got chips as well-(which were nice and crispy and piping hot( i hate soggy warm chips). I couldnt fit in a pud but my hubby decided on the cheesecake and after I heard all the oooohs and mmms from him decided I had to have a taste and it was fab thin base and loads of lovely creamy vanilla filling. We had a lovely bottle of well priced red and enjoyed it so much we ordered another !!So we left Foxtrot Oscar merry and stuffed and thinking about our next visit when we do our yearly trip to London because we just HAVE to go back again.
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kerry
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Thursday, March 20, 2008

I recently had an excellent lunch at Foxtrot Oscar and am puzzled by the bad reviews it has been getting. I found the menu offered excellent choice, the portion sizes were generous and the staff attentive and friendly. I would particularly recommend the crab cakes, beef pie, lamb, and crème brulee. The complementary bread was a lovely touch. Two of us enjoyed a delicious, three course meal with drinks and coffee and were surprised that the bill only came to £70, and this included the service charge. After making a special journey from Wiltshire to visit the restaurant we were not disappointed. We are planning a return visit soon.
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Sarah - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, March 17, 2008

i had a very enjoyable meal at foxtrot oscar last night. I had the potted shrimps which were very tasty and my friend said that her crabcake was delicious too, i then followed with the fish pie and some cabbage whilst my friend had teh tuna nicoise. My fish pie was very good indeed, white fish, salmon and crayfish topped with amsh mmm what more could you ask for ina pie? The Tuna was a generous portion and perfectly cooked too. Desserts were their specials a ridiculously gooey chocolate tart (more like a mousse on a pastry base - sinfull good!) and i had lemon meringue pie. Service was friendly and helpful too. With a bottle of water, £25 btle of wine and coffees our bill came to £70 for 2 not bad at all.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Monday, February 25, 2008

I went to Fpxtrot Oscar tonight for a meal and I was very impressed with the service and the food.

We had sweetcorn soup and a speacial of Steak tartare for starters, my husband enjoyed his started so much he wished he had ordered for his main.

The main course was beef pie and lamb du jour, the lamb could have been abit more pink for our choice but it was still enjoyable.

Dessert I had the creme brulee and I rate this better than the creme brulee I had in the La Poule au Pot last week.

I did not know what to expect as reading all the review on here I thought the meal was going to be awful and I was pleasntly surprised. I feel that the people who are complaining the most are people who used to go to the old Foxtrot Oscar and all I can say to these people are times change and things move on, so why don't you. Keep the memories of the times you had there with you but do not compare what was to what is now as it will never be the same.

I will be going back and I would recommend this Bistro to my friends.
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G Davis
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, February 24, 2008

I visited Foxtrot for lunch in it first week, and i can understand the points that many of the others reviewers have made, but i feel that still having the ex-owner/manager running the place is the biggest problem, sitting having lunch listening to him telling people ' it's not how i'd run things, but it not up to me' or ' no i don't really like things, but' ....... gives a really bad impression to anyone who is not in the lovely club he seems to try and surround himself with, which if they had been around a little more often Mr Ex may not have found himself in a position where he had to give up control on something that he seems to hold so dear,

other than him, the food is good, but remenber you are not in one of thre Ramsey top flight places and you won't be paying those prices, 3 of us had three courses, drinks, etc for around £130

i would say that greater changes are whats needed, not trying to make it half what it was and it turn making it only half of what it could be !

Worth a visit as i think this place will really become something
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Tony
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 6
Friday, February 22, 2008

We arrived an hour early for our reservation and decided to chance it, and the helpful staff found us a table straight away. Their attitude set the tone for the whole evening - friendly service and (at least in our opinion) some good food.

We kicked off with onion soup ("deliciously sweet" was my wife's verdict) and crabcakes, and for mains had rack of lamb and the rib-eye. Both were exceptionally tender and cooked to perfection.

Finally, puds were a rum baba and an excellent creme brulee.

The biggest surprise was the wine list - a lovely sancerre for seven quid a glass seemed very reasonable for that part of London (in fact you would pay more in most Edinburgh wine bars).

We thought that the food was great, the service was also and that it was excellent value for money. We'll go again when we are next in London. Only quibble is that there wasn't much room at the table - but apart from that, all positive.
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Eric Bateman
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 9
Friday, February 22, 2008

I went to Foxtrot Oscar last night with a couple of friends, all I can say was how disappointing the experience was!

The old Foxtrot Oscar had a great atmosphere where locals came to have a relaxed & unpretentious meal. It had a great old oak bar where you could wait to meet friends, have a drink and speak to the staff. So we were interested in the new "Foxtrot Oscar" where the "Ramsay" MacDonald’s factor has struck…

Firstly, you walk in & the bar has disappeared! This obviously is to enable them to cram more tables in. Secondly, were told we had to leave by 8.45 (we had arrived at 7.15!)

The menu was very uninspiring - there were about seven starters, five of which were terrines or pates. The main courses were plain & uninteresting.

My Dublin Bay Prawns were tasteless, agreeing with the review below who said they were just jumbo prawns cut up! My Bangers & Mash were tasteless (needing salt) and tepid! The mash was very good but the gravy was like water swilling around the plate!

However, the service was good & quite attentive.

So basically, I would not recommend the new "Ramsay" Foxtrot Oscar to anyone - it is such a shame that the Ramsay Phenomenon has ruined another local eatery!!
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Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 1
Thursday, February 21, 2008