Great Queen Street

Boring, boring. I've been a few times since this place opened, and the only thing I've ever had that was really good was a rib of hereford beef for 2 which was fabulous, but that's the quality of the produce, not the quality in the kitchen. When it first opened the menu was interesting - never as good as the anchor and hope though...but now it barely seems to change. The crab toast is a small portion for the cost, on an even smaller piece of toast! I've had a truly dismal cassoulet here in the past as well. I felt compelled to write because I went for dinner last friday, read the menu and couldn't see anything I wanted, so I left.

I am sure lots of people like it because the same dishes stay on the menu, and it gives them somewhere to come back to for the things they like...but I want something more interesting and better from this place.
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NDP
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Monday, May 26, 2008

Really interesting menu. Skilfully cooked food with great bold flavours. Friendly service and a relaxed atmosphere.
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George C - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Sunday, May 04, 2008

Food is fundamentally good but could be served with better accompaniments and less "bare". The place occupies a strange part of the market - too expensive for an ordinary pub lunch, too unfriendly (or very informal) service for a restaurant, not quite sure whats its unique appeal is supposed to be.

If it was cheaper I'd go more often and would find the brusque service and presence of lots of items "on toast" more acceptable. However do go if you want to see what gastropubs will all be serving in 5 years time - its a good idea but they need more professional waiting staff for these prices.
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alchemist
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 6
Thursday, April 24, 2008

I liked it here when I went for dinner a few Fridays ago.

The bar downstairs is great. The chap serving did so with a relaxed but efficient panache that reminded me of a good party host. There was a pretty unpretentious crowd down there without any attitude.

The dining room is pretty poor. It's long and narrow with a noteably low ceiling. The furniture's pretty drab and the lighting was set on sodium streetlamp glow. Nevertheless, we were given a good table in the window and the food and service made up for the disappointing surroundings. The room was busy and had a nice laidback atmosphere.

Service was friendly and swift. Food was from a straightforward menu: great meat well cooked. The food's not cheap, nor is it as over-priced as some reviewers would have you believe.

I thought the wine menu was modest though adequate in choice and reasonable in price.

Don't think I realised the chef was uppity about his steak cooking - how annoying of him. Seems entirely at odds with the otherwise sensible approach of the place.

Go for dinner with friends - it's great for that, but not the place I'd choose for a romantic dinner with my wife.
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Kwev - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Having thoroughly enjoyed an evening at Great queen Street last summer, it was a shame to find they' all seem to have got too full of their own self importance to provide a warm welcome - much too like hardwork to get a drink! Steak comes how chef likes it because they don't believe the customer knows best . They produce simple, honest well sourced food but I can do that at home without the inflated wine price and disdainful service so will not be troubling them again!
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Sarah
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 3
Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Amazing.

My boyfriend and I went here for our anniversary. We had 4 starters, 1 main course and 1 dessert to share. The starters included a fish + blood orange salad, snail + bacon salad, fresh chicken soup and crab on toast. Among all of them, the crab on toast was the best and I couldn't have enough of it. Highly recommended! The other starters were all above average. We had minute steak for maincourse. The steak was served medium rare and I have never had a steak of such high quality (precisely what I was looking for but failed in many other steakhouses). The dessert was okay, and I would have ordered another starter instead of dessert next time. The bill came out to be £60 with a bottle of red wine which we considered to be really reasonable.

The service was fabulous. We were constantly checked whether we need anything. The waiters/ waitresses also offered great advice on what to order.

Atmosphere was generally warm and welcoming - it too noisy for a romantic dinner but would be great if you are coming with a bunch of fds. Another advantage of coming in a group is that there will be a lot more choices for the maincourse section, since a lot of the dishes are for 2/3 or even for 5.

Definitely coming back again!

:)
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NG
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Sunday, March 09, 2008

We booked a table for 8.30pm and by the time we came to order 2 out of 3 of the specials were scrubbee off the board.

My friend is pregnant so her choices are limited. She decided to order steak, but asked for it to be cooked through, pointing out this request was only because she was pregnant.

The chef refused to prepare a well done steak. The restaurant will only cook rare or medium!. He didn't lower himself to come and explain his reasons, just sent the poor embarrassed waitress back to the table to apologise. She said they were a pretentious bunch.

This left my friend with a grand total of two items to choose from the menu. She ordered the chicken only to be told that was also off the menu.

It's all very well for a chef to be so la-di-da that he cannot bear to cook a well done steak for a pregnant women, but a chef with such high standards should make sure he orders enough produce each morning to deliver the other items listed on the menu. Useless.
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, February 17, 2008

Disappointed. I had hoped to find somewhere with decent food at decent prices. The food was uninspiring and expensive for what it was. £20 for a rather uninspiring rump steak, plus £4 for some chips, is not good value for what is really just another gastropub. The service during my visit was haphazard and slow throughout (albeit pleasant).

I had high hopes for the place but was disappointed. The gastropub trend is now too often just an excuse to offer mediocre home-type cooking at high prices.
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Charles D
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4
Monday, February 04, 2008

We visited this restaurant last night and had a table booked for 7pm. We were not told to that we had to leave by any time when we booked or indeed when we arrived (on time).

The service was slowish but we were happy with the leisurely pace. We were given pudding menus and then left alone for at least 10 minutes. Our waitress then came over at 8.50 to tell us that the table was booked again in 8 mins so there would be no time for us to have a pudding. Naturally we were annoyed by this as we had made our choices and this was the first we knew of the time limit on the table.

Eventually she said we could have puddings but we "would have to be quick". We ordered the tarte tatin. This would take 25 mins we were told, so no, we didn't have time for that. Unbelievable.

I have no issue with a restaurant having 2 sittings in a night but if they can't manage to serve a small table 3 courses within 2 hours, they should rethink their practice.

The attitude really annoyed me as they had given us no warning and then acted like it was just one of those things.

Completely ruined our night. Useless.
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Lucie
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, January 25, 2008

Lovely. Went here for a spontaneous Tuesday night dinner and was very impressed. The place is popular - there were only seats at the bar available at 7pm on a wet and windy January Tuesday. The menu is short - so short we didn't fancy the mains (not as finnicky as it sounds since we don't eat meat - carnivores are well-served here), and had starters and sides instead. Which I don't have a problem with - much prefer places that do a few things well than a large number of things badly. And they do do the food well here. Smoked mackerel with beetroot and horseradish was fabulous - it came as a chunk of fish, backbone included, rather than a fillet, and was much less greasy and the smoking more subtle than is usual with mackerel. Crab on toast perhaps didn't hit the heights of the mackerel but was still a very tasty plateful, and both portions were substantial for starters (the menu doesn't in fact distinguish between starters and mains, so these might be have 'light bites' rather than starters). Sides of mash, with a hint of nutmeg, and greens, buttery and tender, were also very good. Despite not having mains, we were too full to manage a pud each and shared a muscat custard caramel - a slightly boozy creme caramel. I'm not usually drawn to creme caramel on a menu but if they were all as good as this one I might change my mind. Service was polite and efficient, they'd turned the heating up enough for January (which SO many restaurants don't do!), so overall we left very happy and will undoubtedly return - though will take the precaution of booking next time.
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- View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Thursday, January 17, 2008