Le Chardon (East Dulwich)

Having put so much care into creating such a wonderful atmosphere to dine in, it's a shame that the experience is completely let down by the grim staff. "Grumpy" and "Surly," the two girls on duty on Tuesday the 22nd did nothing to make us feel welcome from the moment we walked in, despite the fact that we'd booked in advance, and were the only three people they had to deign to attend to. We were welcomed with a grunt, and pointed vaguely towards an empty table as we watched Grumpy's back heading towards the kitchen. Our delight at the warm ambience witnessed from outside the front window was completely sucked out of the room as soon as we encountered our "hosts". Having created such a cool first impression (and maintained it consistently throughout the evening) it would be hard to judge whether the quality of the food merited the price. In times like these you'd think the staff would be grateful to be employed, and might appreciate that dining out is a luxury to their clientele these day. Although, sadly, we were far too reticently English to ask for the 12.5% service charge be removed from our bill, we usually do add a bit extra to the tip, if the service is good. So Grumpy and Surly lost out on a little more spending money, and despite the fact that we live close to the Abbeville Road branch, the Chardon, I'm afraid, will not see our custom again. A great shame really, as it had so much promise.
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Stewart
5 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 4
Thursday, March 24, 2011

Great evening. Went early on a Wednesday night with 2 small children. Although no children's menu, they were very accomodating with mini portions and our were just happy with great chips and vegetables plus a pancake as dessert. The adults loved the baked brie salad, the liver and the duck, all cooked to perfection. Courteous and attentive service, a fanatastic evening.
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, February 23, 2011

After using taste london card discount in the restaurant on a previous occassion I was surprised to be told last night that we were not allowed to use the card unless we had booked, I informed then that last time we had not booked and they still refused to let us use it. I will not be returning, you can't have one rule one night and a different rule for another night. They did not even offer to knock 10% off the bill which should have been a 50% discount as a good will gesture. Bad service.
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1 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Have just had lunch at Le Chardon and decided to write (a complimentary review) so was very surprised to read all the bad reviews which have been logged.

My wife and I really enjoyed our set price meal, the service was OK and the food came at just the right intervals. Tasty and with good saucing etc.

The all up price including service (£44) was acceptable, if not a great bargain - we only had two courses and one glass of wine (250ml red which was a bit chill)

I am definitely prepared to give it another go!
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Max
7 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 6
Monday, January 03, 2011

Beautiful building with French artifacts. But its entirely downhill after that. At £55 + service charge per head + drinks one one have expected that staff at Le Chardon would have tried to make the New Year's Eve dining/event enjoyable. They did indeed work very hard to make the evening enjoyable for diners - but elsewhere. At around 11.30pm rubbish was taken out through the restaurant; the kitchen door was opened to ensure that there was a cold draught; resentful staff moaned together in the backroom; and many diners were not served their final course. There was no competent managerial presence. Worse of all diners were subjected to very loud, horrible, and utterly inappropriate techno-music blasting from some obscure radio station. Requests to change the music were treated with disdain - clearly the plan was working. Before midnight most diners had left.

No flowers, no candles, no decorations. Resentful staff. A cold, hostile, unfriendly experience - in short a rip-off.
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1 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, January 02, 2011

first of all i'm french, i called at 8.30 pm to know what time was the last booking, the waitress or the manager said 10.30. So it was ok. We arrived at 10.20 pm and i could read on the manager (french) and the waitress 'face " ho nooo what the f.... are they doing at this time!!! ) anyway, i started to apology myself about the time (in french) and i was trying to say sry about it in a good way like " i'm sry but we come here because your snails are very good and its my birthday" she looked at me without smile and said " you can have only one course thats it !!! " so we left......

its a shame for me to find a french restaurant like this one!!!!!!!!
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nico
0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Went to lunch with my husband on a week day. When we went in there was no one to seat us. I had to pop my head into the kitchen to get the cook's attention. He then informed the waitress that we were there. She then yelled from where she was sitting behind the bar (out of sight) for us to go to her! When we asked if we could sit outside she just huffed. When she came to ask for our order, we asked about the specials and she barked them or just pointed at a board on the wall.

Our food took 35 minutes to arrive even though it was a simple croque monsieur and the restaurant was almost empty. It is the worst service I have experienced in a long time. And they still had the audacity to charge us 12.5% service charge! We only paid it because the idea of having an argument with that awful woman was not worth it.

Never again!
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1 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Wednesday, August 11, 2010

When our friends called us to ask us if we would like to go to this nice French restaurant yesterday, we were really happy as we just moved in the neighbourhood and finding a nice restaurant in your neighbourhood is never easy! They told us they went there once in February and it was nice, so why not.

We were a big table booked (10 people) at 9pm. by 9.10pm, we all knew what we wanted to eat and drink, but the waiter came finally at 9.25pm and could only take the drinks order (don't ask him too much, i.e. we were just asking for the bread in the same time as the drinks, as he could not remember all, good start!). Finally, 9.45pm, he is taking the order, he took him for ages to take the order but anyways finally done. We go the starter at 10.15pm, 1h15m after we arrived! I ordered a homemade vegetable soup which was actually boiling (impossible to even think about eating it), and had the same taste as water with an awful lot of salt, so nothing homemade and waiting 1h15 for having it boiling (certainly because it just came out of the microwave and it was only water) was too much for me so I sent it back straight away.

We ordered 3 rib eye medium, they all came well done, we ordered 4 French fries we got 2 bowls and the waiter said it was 4 portions! We asked for the sea bass to be prepared but it still came as a whole so we had to wait another 10 minutes. Did I actually mention that we got the main at 11pm???

My liver was horrible, and the homemade mash potato was a ready made one diluted with too much milk I think.

Anyways, you can imagine that we did not ask for dessert or coffee and asked straight for the bill. Paying 12.5% for the service we got for the guys (he ignored us all night while we were asking him for water or wine), neither the soup I sent back and what about the bread? Is this a joke, French restaurant where usually bread always come for free, £1.35 for a mini roll and a piece of butter?

This restaurant is far from being a good restaurant, even further from having a title of French restaurant with horrendous service, prices too high, wine list mediocre.

They should better think of hiring great people and forgetting about their microwave in this restaurant if they want it to still be there next summer.
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Geraldine
0 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, July 30, 2010

This place used to be a lovely local restaurant so despite the reviews 2 of us ate there a few weeks ago and I am afraid I can only echo the comments below.The food can only be described as average home cooked bistro fayre,no dish was worthy of being singled out and the cheese selection was virtually frozen,It was a lovely summer evening and the place was busy but not full and it was not difficult to pick up on a few people being disgruntled with the service which can only be described as borderline rude.We got away quite lightly but a couple who complained about warm white wine were offered ice cubes to put in it after being told the only bottle left had not been in the fridge.

Its always been a lovely space at least they can't spoil that and not many moons ago there wasn't really a lot of competition in the area,now there is.

Try harder.
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mal - View all reviews by this user
5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Friday, July 23, 2010

Our experience mirrors that of Anon below. I too had fond memories of Le Chardon's good value set lunches so four of us met there last Saturday for what we hoped would be a simple weekend lunch.

The room is unchanged but I felt the there were more tables jammed in (to no avail - only two other tables were occupied while we were there.

The menu reads well - four starters and five mains on the table d'hote. Our starters were a mixed bunch - the spinach soup was OK but the smoked mackerel less so. Mains were uninspiring.

The service was quite the worst I have experienced in a long time. Not just offhand and aloof, the waitress (patron I suspect) was plain rude. She served me a short measure of wine, slammed the cutlery down on the table and made a major fuss of replacing the menus on the window sill behind us.

Bread is charged at £1.35 per person so with a compulsory 12.5% service charge the £9.50 menu works out at £12.75; not a fortune but way too much for a bad meal badly served.
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Robert
3 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Tuesday, June 15, 2010