The Lawn at Fulham Palace

Like previous reviewers have said, the setting is wonderful and a million miles away from city life. We both felt like we were on holiday. Unfortunately, the food was disappointing especially the main course - rather soggy steak on a bed of potatoes. The staff were all very nice but had absolutely no direction - it was rather like waiting for a bus - they would all take your order one after the other or not at all! A top tip to any restaurant is get the waiters to offer more wine or water - it is a great money spinner. My single glass of wine was never replaced or cleared - if I had been asked if I wanted another one, I would have said yes without even thinking about it. If it were not for the stunning setting, we would never return however we are back there tomorrow for tea and I suspect will try it again for dinner.
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 3
Saturday, August 02, 2008

Perfect location for Sunday lunch on a summers day. The food is only ok - all of the main courses are grills of one kind of another - 3 meat (steak, lamb chop or spatchcock chicken), 2 fish (bream or halibut), and one vegetarian grill. The starters are more innovative. However the food quality is acceptable, the staff tried hard and it is a really nice family friendly location. We will return.
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Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 6
Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Like your other reviewer I am local and really wanted this restaurant to be good. Have visited twice now and each time the service has bordered on the incompetent. Hordes of staff but clearly an overburdened kitchen.

There is only so much of my life I'm willing to devote to lunch; had to ask twice for a menu and the starter arrived after 2 hours! The steak was ordered rare and came well done after another hour.

It's not cheap, the portions are on the stingy side and to try to accommodate so many covers when the kitchen cannot cope smacks of greed.

It's a lovely place, especially in the summer, but an enormous disappointment.
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Alex
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 2
Monday, July 28, 2008

The setting is absolutely lovely and as we live very close we have popped in here a couple of times over the past few weeks.

The first time we went we had afternoon tea which was ok despite there being no scones! We had a chelsea bun instead which was delicious.

We have been for early evening drinks since and although quite pricey - the service has been great. I guess you are paying for the lovely setting.

We will go again.
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Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 5
Monday, July 28, 2008

Overpriced and experiencing some serious teething problems after being open for more than a month!! Went there for lunch on Sunday afternoon. Food is not cheap, nor are portion sizes plentiful - wouldn't really say that many of the menu items actually appealed to me. Wait staff seemed quite indifferent, and service was patchy and at sometimes rude.

We ordered a light lunch as we wanted to get afternoon tea, which was only avaiable after 3:30pm. After telling 2 different waiters that we were waiting to order afternoon tea, when we did come to actually ordering around 4pm it turns out there were no scones or sandwiches - only a selection of cakes. Apparently it would take about an hour for the scones to be ready - not sure why it would take that long to bake scones, or why the chef hadn't started baking earlier in accordance with the menu offering afternoon tea at 3:30pm!!

Very disappointing first visit - head waitress was helpful, and she kindly took the service off our bill after all the hassles with the afternoon tea. I might go there again as the setting is lovely - but would recommend just to byo picnic on the lawn, or apparently you can get takeaway burgers there too.
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Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 6
Tuesday, July 22, 2008