Waterloo Brasserie
special offers
40% off food
...from the a la carte menu. Includes Vat, excludes service. Click for more details
2 courses and a glass of house wine: £14.95
...from a fixed price menu. Includes Vat, excludes service. Click for more details
2 courses and a glass of house wine: £14.95
...from a set menu. Click for more details
our comments
Waterloo is not known for its restaurants. The area has always remained determinedly grubby in aspect and now that the Eurostar has puffed away forever the chances of wealthy Parisians stumbling off the train in search of sustenance is slight. And yet surely an area so close to Covent Garden must one day ‘come up’ as estate agents like to say? Well the people behind WB, as we are advised to call it, obviously think so. As the wind howls down the road, causing me to stagger as if hit by an invisible hand, I glance about the lunchtime crowds many of whom are heading for WB. There’s certainly business to be had here.
Thinking of the lunchtime traffic, and the theatregoers in the evening, WB has a special daily menu, which does for both. The main menu is one of those menus so lavishly printed that you know it’s not going to change very often, if ever, which makes it a bit worrying. So looking for fresh ideas we go for the set lunch and sit back and wait.
Except we can’t sit back. The stools are very high, and very high chair like, and sitting back would mean crashing to the floor. My dining companion, from a food and travel magazine, can’t actually shimmy herself in any closer to the table and I can’t get down to help without a ladder, so a kind waitress shoves her in. WB is larger than you think, a big room out back and one downstairs too. It’s a partner place to the swanky Cheyne Walk Brasserie and has its own style, although one which reminded me of an old-skool disco.
The food at £18.95 for three courses is well priced enough, but at that price you have to expect to be under whelmed and so it goes. A foie gras and chicken liver parfait starter is smooth and silky, and probably has more chicken liver than foie gras in it, but is edible enough and the bak choi and onion and ginger relish aren’t bad. The bread is uber crispy though and jumps off the plate when cut. No ordinary bread was offered either before or during starters, a bit lax of them. A lentilles broth with carrot ribbons is underpowered and the carrots rather too hunkily cut to be called ribbons, again though it’s edible.
Salmon pan-fried is over cooked and the garniture ‘Grand Mere’ not explained. I still don’t know what it was, but then I didn’t eat it. A decent hunk of fish and organic too, we reckoned all it needed was to be taken out of that pan a bit quicker. My grilled wood pigeon is much better, under cooked (as it should be) and full of flavour and I liked the Spetzel, that mysterious German pasta which you don’t get to see enough.
Desserts weren’t a triumph by any means. The crème caramel was liquid and the apple crumble seemed to be made from catering, pre-chopped, apple plus a packet of instant crumble. It may well not have been, but that’s how it tasted and looked.
So WB comes across, at least on its set menu, as fair enough for the price, and there are plenty of ways for the visitor to London to get really ripped off in the area, but not great yet. It’s open all day for breakfast, lunch and dinner and seems children friendly and hopefully will improve as the months pass.
FH - January 2008
your comments review this restaurant and win a bottle of champagne
Not good at all. Staff friendly and attentive but struggled with English so drinks orders had to be returned twice. Steak (off set menu) was bad - tubular, greasy, tough. Potatoes cold.
Friend asked for asparagus and salmon starter without the salmon so they just scraped the salmon off the clearly pre-prepared dish which still reeked of the fish.
Wine good and location fab. Bit of a wasted opportunity really and awful value for money - an Angus steakhouse with upgraded decour. Someone needs to get a grip.
Comment on this reader review
Overall rating 
Food 2 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Saturday, August 02, 2008
Not cheap, not good, and not recommended. Get take out chicken on the high street and save the fifty pounds for a really, really good bottle of wine.
Comment on this reader review
kevin
Overall rating 
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Sunday, June 08, 2008
The best thing about this place is its location if you happen to want an eaterie close by waterloo or the old vic, right across the road from both. Décor inside is a half hearted attempt at Phllippe Starck with fruit immersed in large vases, lighting way too bright in the front half of the restaurant and tables with almost a bar stool seating arrangement which might not appeal to all. But it’s the food you mainly go for of course and unfortunately this was no better than average. Pumpkin crumble and scallops for starters were bland. Wild bream (I'd ordered halibut but was told it wasn't available) was a fair improvement and my partners mussels were, well, mussels. Service was on the slow side with the starters taking almost 40 minutes to arrive and slightly irritatingly we kept having to ask for glasses to be refilled. It also failed the water test with no tap offered and jug removed once it had been poured. Overall, it’s a pleasant enough addition to an area not overly stocked with reasonable places to eat but that’s the best to be said unfortunately.
Comment on this reader review
mark
Overall rating 
Food 5 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
First impressions were fantastic and they have clearly spent a lot of money on the interior. Unfortunately the experience went downhill from there. Incredibly slow service and took ages to be offered a drink. Though the back part of the restaurant was almost empty, they decided to sit us (on very cramped tables) directly in between the only other two couples in there which was rather awkward. Lots of staff running around like headless chickens. Food not bad, but soup had to be sent back as it was cold. Overall a pretty disppointing experience. They have clearly spent a large amount of money on the place, but with terrible service and a rather average experience, they won't last long if they still aren't getting it right. I won't be back.
Comment on this reader review
Katie
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Went with a group of people for Sunday lunch. No point in going through all the ins and outs of the disaster but to give you an idea of the experience - unmotivated staff 'managed' by a rude and arrogant maitre d', food taking forever to arrive, orders being lost, people being served at different times (like 30-40 mins difference) for the same course. Wine not arriving for 45 minutes despite repeat requests. And it's expensive. Go for a drink - my bloody mary was excellent and it's like being in a nightclub, but London is full of restaurants - you don't have to go to this one
Comment on this reader review
Sam G
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Sunday, February 24, 2008
It's been a year or more since I came out of Waterloo & walked round the area. On my way to lunch, I was amazed to see how upmarket the shops had got in Lower Marsh- some very designer clothes shops & also plenty of the sorts of people around who might actually go in and buy something.
The area going towards Waterloo Brasserie is the least improved area, with the exception of the Old Vic, and so I was amazed when I stepped in. The decor really is extremely "posh": lots of dark wood, some high stools at counters, and a couple of large sofas on an animal skin carpet by a large fireplace. Personally, I wouldn't call this a "brasserie"- it is to that term as the River Cafe is to greasy spoons.
Anyway, after the initial surprise, initial impressions were good- the drinks waiter remembered my request for a slice of lemon to go with my water, and there were 3 prettily arrayed fresh pieces when we got to our table. That's where the "good" bit ended.
There was a bewildering array of menus- one labelled the 45 minute menu, there was also a set menu, but we couldn't understand what the waitress said about it, and then a large a la carte.
We both ordered a starter & main with side dishes, from a waiter who refused to write anything down (always a worry) and then we waited and waited and etc. It was lunchtime on a Friday, the place was not even half full & it still took an hour & 15 minutes for our first course to appear. Then there was another long wait until our main dishes appeared, but just them, then one side dish 5 minutes later, and then the others 10+ minutes after that. Every time we ordered a bottle of water, we had to chase it, with other waiters pointing to the one who had taken our order, and had now appeared to have decided at 2.30 that it was more important to clear and tidy tables, than to serve customers.
By the time another guy came with the bill, we had been served by at least 5 different waiting staff, and when we were asked "Was everything ok?", we told him "no"
The manager then came over, immediately said he was taking off the cost of the vegetable dishes, didn't listen to what we were saying & insisted they WERE very busy, even though they weren't. He then said "we have only been open a few months", as if that explained everything, and even though the prices were top dollar.
Ironically, the only well organised part of this place appeared to be the kitchen. All of the main dishes were excellent & well presented, but the side dishes were heavily laden with cream, which made them almost inedible.
My conclusion is, I am not sure who this place is for. It claims to be open all day, but the decor is like a nightclub- and the Wolsely it ain't. The place has zero atmosphere and occasionally diabolical music. No-one appears to be running the ship, like Mitch at St Alban- and you would certainly NOT want to go there pre theatre, because of the inordinate slowness.
What a contrast to my favourite place 5 minutes walk away- Las Iguanas, talk about opposite ends of the spectrum....
Comment on this reader review
Carol Fisher
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, February 15, 2008
For the last couple of weeks I have been intrigued by the exterior of the Waterloo Brasserie. On Friday we finally managed to arrange a visit. First impressions were good. We did not have a reservation however after five minutes the hostess guided us to our table. The bar at the front of the restaurant had a good atmosphere unlike the restaurant at the back which was completely EMPTY.
The menu appeared to be very over priced for a brasserie. At first glance it could be mistaken for a fine French restaurant rather then a brasserie. To start I selected the onion soup which was nice but not spectacular. Then for mains I had the seafood pappardelle. The pasta sauce resembled a curry sauce which again was interesting but not amazing.
We found the staff quite arrogant (the manager in particular) which might reflect why the restaurant was empty. My husband and I have seen many restaurants come and go in Waterloo and we believe that they haven't quite grasped the waterloo market. The one thing this restaurant definitely has going for it is the great bar but if you’re hungry I would suggest dining somewhere else.
Comment on this reader review
Overall rating 
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 5
Sunday, January 06, 2008
very good...we went there only a couple of days after opening. they were still working out the kinks so i could dismiss any mistakes they may have done....nice wine lists but a bit long, over 200 wines! how can you choose from that???
And it took about 10 mins for that to arrive at our table. wonderful cheese selection and good moderately price food.....will go again.
Comment on this reader review
That foodie guy
Overall rating 
Food 7 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Monday, December 03, 2007
