Tom's Kitchen

Great service, average food, from a very short menu. Serve draught beer in 'large' glasses, not pints. Panacotta was inedible it was so sweet, completely drowned in a further super-sweet sauce. The serving dishes are also stored at the kitchen 'bar' so all diners there get to cough, sneeze and splutter into your forthcoming side dishes. How pleasant. Gordon Ramsay would never suffer such basic faults.
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Thursday, June 26, 2008

Popped in last night (Wed) at 8:30pm ish without a reservation as was in the area. As 2 walk ins we were seated promptly at the bar where we ate. Place was real busy with all tables full or reserved. Compared to the reviews below, maybe we got lucky! Service very good, food good (but a little overpriced). Good vibe. Not a destination place for me but may give it another go in in the area.
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JT
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Thursday, May 15, 2008

Perfectly reasonable food but nothing amazing - which is what we want from our celebrity chef restaurants, right?

We booked for 8pm on Wednesday night, but had to wait 45 minutes for our table to be ready. The menu sounded exciting and the food executed nicely but there wasn't any wow factor that set it apart from the food in the dozens of other bistros scattered around that part of town. It was also packed and the tables very close together so don't go expecting much elbow room, but at least the bill wasn't as huge as some other celeb places we've tried. Worth a go if you happen to be in the area, but don't expect to be blown away by it.
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Ella
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Thursday, April 24, 2008

Eaten at Tom's K a few times... must say the service has been very good, attentive and friendly on all occasions. The first time we ate there, there was too much salt on my salad, and as soon as I complained the manager tasted it, went straight to the kitchen to get another and came back apologising profusely (the chef had mistakenly salted it twice!)... got a free dessert and glass of wine for hubby! All other occassions the food has been very good. ... the Churros dessart is divine. Must admit, tghe home made ketchup takes some getting used to, but that's because we've grown up with the toxic red stuff and mistakenly believe that that is what ketchup is supposed to taste like. Now, I love it... it's fresh tasty and made with real tomotoes!! All in all... always guaranteed good food and buzzing atmosphere. Can get noisy on a weekend... but surely that's what going out to a "kitchen" is all about. Stay in if you want somewhere quiet!!
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Emma F
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Monday, March 10, 2008

Amateurish service.

When we arrived, we waited five minutes at the entrance whilst the receptionist patronisingly lectured some people trying to get a table without a reservation. After more waiting around, we sat at our table about 25 minutes after the time of our booking. No one came to take our drinks orders until we asked.

The food was good but it took some negotiation to get an undercooked chicken to be replaced. Most restaurant would either take the dish off the bill or offer a dessert for example as compensation for the disagreement. At Tom's Kitchen, we had to ask for the dish to be taken off the bill. Given that there were apparently three managers on duty that day, it shows a very poor attention to detail and customer care.

On the whole, a bit overpriced given the poor customer experience even if the food is delicious.
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Monday, January 21, 2008

I ate at Tom's Kitchen last night, they were obviously doing well as we could only get a table at 6.30, and they were already quite busy. Within 5 minutes of arriving I had a sour taste in my mouth from the high pressure sales tactics of the staff. The waitress didn't just offer us something to drink to start, she specified cocktails "or maybe some champagne", then when I said we would just have a bottle of wine, she tried to suggest a wine starting fairly far down the price list - and she didn't even ask us what we were eating, so how was she going to suggest a suitable wine? Then we were asked if we wanted bread and olives - all extra of course.

The food was fine - at these prices you'd expect the food to be good and it didn't disappoint, but the sales tactics continued throughout the meal - constantly filling our glasses even when they were hardly empty, offering us plenty of side dishes, and dessert wine with the puddings. I guess this is fairly standard, but it was such an obvious attempt to get as much money out of us as possible, and it's already pricey. If I had said yes to everything we'd have added £40 to the bill without really noticing.
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Ben
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Late Sunday lunch the restaurant was 3/4 full. Lots of staff standing around looking fab but doing very little (including twin brother of Tom Aitken). Starters - The gaspacho tasted like ketchup with chopped onion, The scrambled egg and smoked salmon bagel was cold and soggy. Main courses the - roast beef came with a yorkshire pudding that managed to be cold, hard and soggy. Mashed potatoe was cold, salty and with a "skin" , the burgers were very ordinary. Service was poor, our waitress really did have an attitude problem. There seems to be no system in place regarding service, or at least the system in place doesn't work. The place is busy (we tried to book a few weeks ago and couldn't get a table) but it seems the attitude is that they're busy any way so it doesn't matter what they serve, or what they charge for it, as people still keep coming through the door. Overall extremely dissappointing, expensive, but more importantly it was poor.
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Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Sunday, July 22, 2007

Been twice - once for dinner and once for the all-day brunch menu on Bank Hol Monday. Tables are cramped and the decor lends itself more to daytime casual dining than to a cosy dinner for 2. Hard surfaces make it hard to hear and lots of kids during the day. The kitchen could do with a better extractor as you do leave smelling a little of the kitchen. The loos could do with more regular cleaning. And the home made ketchup is just plain nasty - watery, tasteless and the colour of regurgitated carrot.

The food however is worth all the above. Dinner was tortellini in lobster mousse and spaghetti con vongole followed by juicy steaks done to perfection. Dessert was a prune clafoutis which was heaven!! Fentimans ginger beer for the pregnant lady - hurrah - something nice to drink!

Brunch included nicely done burgers (enormous and tasty, chips a little salty), perfect eggs benedict and mum had a superbly cooked lemon sole with asparagus. Delicious waffles, exquisite choc profiteroles with ice-cream. About £130 for 5 inc a bottle of sauv blanc.

Sigh. Go for the desserts alone and you won't be disappointed. Tom A was there on Monday - although I think he burned some meat...
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JMS - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Friday, June 01, 2007

I was very excited when I a friend suggested that we had brunch on Sunday at Tom’s Kitchen run by Tom Aikens. “ You can even eat bar style,” my friend told me with great enthusiasm. American style breakfast as well as English Sunday lunch he marvelled. It all sounded a lovely way to kick start Sunday.

Reality? “ Welcome to Hell”. As a sat at the bar I felt I was with on a long haul flight in economy with twenty or so screaming kids. I needed a headache tablet when I left. The place has no atmosphere, even the decor is repressive . The staff placed a woman behind me at a table, meaning I was bashed so many times I lost count. Maintenance people staff, people with prams, all bashed into me.

The staff where pleasant. When I asked for an egg white mushroom omelette omelette, my waiter had to get the manager as it seemed to be a rare thing. When it arrived it was truly awful and watery. My friend’s pork was very fatty. The pea soup was nice, how ever only one came as the waiter had not written the second one down. It took ten minutes for the other one to make an appearances a long time as I counted the minutes to escape

Considering we only had two soup, one pork an omelette chips and beans. Orange juice and water. Bill was £57.00 seems expensive for what was a truly awful experiences. May I suggest Ballan’s in Earls Court they do a much better brunch. Only go if you wish to inflict your screaming brats on the public. You don’t mind very average food on the wholes.

Steven Smith
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blondfella - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 3
Sunday, April 29, 2007

Like Michelin-starred chefs in Paris who open casual, affordable bistros near their temples of gastronomy, Tom Aikens now has his own casual eating place.

Tom’s Kitchen , around the corner from his eponymous restaurant, occupies a converted pub off Chelsea Green. The main room may be Spartan and the noise deafening, but affluent locals are already flocking in. Never mind the cramped, school-style oak tables and bench seats, white tiled walls and bustling open kitchen. On offer are simple bistro classics (duck confit, escargots) and posh versions of pub standards. On our early-days visit, the quality varied from mediocre (hamburger) to good (sausages and mash), and the service from friendly to over stretched. It's not cheap -- dinner for two, before wine, is about £62.
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Thursday, February 15, 2007