Dean Street Townhouse

Just wanted to re-iterate several comments made by previous reviewers

On the plus side, the idea is a good one....the building has been carefully restored and I found the decor and ambience very pleasant ...although the tables have been jammed together making things a bit uncomfortable at busier times and almost impossible to have a private conversation...

The menu reads quite well...nothing majorly exciting or off the wall...but I was looking forward to my starter.....sadly the quantity and quality of this were not up to scratch.....almost looks like slightly upmarket pub grub but with Soho price tags...and the crab in the crab salad could only be located with an electron microscope!!

What really lets the place down is the service.....more cheap Eastern European labour.....waiters struggling to keep up with orders/ distribute menus....had no real knowledge when asked about wines....had problems understanding English even when questions repeated.....

Shame...as this place could be really great...but its another sad case of style over substance and trying to cut corners/squeeze money out of the customer

I would probably go back for a drink....but not to eat!
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Matt
4 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Had dinner for two with a friend on a Monday evening. The restaurant itself has appealing decor, although the tables near the bar were a little noisy if you wanted an intimate conversation (which we didn't).

I would describe the overall dining experience as adequate but under-whelming and probably lower than what I had expected. I had the spinach & goat's cheese pie as starter, which was incredibly bland (although I guess that's what I deserve for picking such a starter), while my friend's bisque was well received. For my main course I had the sea bass, which was reasonably tasty and adequately presented. The vegetables and mash potatoes (for which I had to pay extra) weren't great - the mash was incredibly dry. We decided to skip dessert as a result of our under-whelming main courses.

Services was ok - nothing to recommend it beyond basic London polite/competent. Our meal, including drinks, came to about £90, so it wasn't a complete rip-off but that was more than enough to pay for mediocrity. I don't plan to rush back.
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JM
6 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 5
Tuesday, August 03, 2010

It's probably more than 20 years since i have been and eaten somewhere so up itself. At lunch today it was heaving with poor sad souls who clearly need to be needed. I had booked a table 3 weeks ago and when I called to book I had asked for a table at 12.30-12.45, the French woman on the phone, so full of hauteur it wasnt true, offered me noon or 1.30. Finally after much negotiation and me saying for goodness sake its three weeks away you cant be full offered me 12.45 (original request). I should have cancelled then and there as this experience had left me with a sense of foreboding. Today on arrival, my guest already there had been seated in Siberia (aka side room adjacent to main room) which was like a yuppies creche so full was it of screeching children belonging to residents of the hotel rooms above. Do you need a password on booking to be given a seat in the main dining room? They clearly even three weeks advance of booking try and keep the 12.30-1.30 slot for their chums. But here is the thing that sums up the whole place (and I could indeed write an essay on this pretentious gaff) I asked the waitress if they had a sommelier. Is that red or white she said? I repeated the question slowly since her English was very poor and i thought she might have misheard, to which she then said did i want a sweet or dry white wine? In god's name what poor excuse of a joke is this place? It's a club for Soho ingratiates. As someone who eats out regularly for both professional reasons and for pleasure and count a number of leading chefs as friends I dont think I have ever come across such a shambolic mess. Salt beef was as tough as old boots.
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Anne Dolamore - View all reviews by this user
2 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Thursday, July 15, 2010

I wanted to like DST, I really did, but one phrase keeps coming back to me: 'this is a bad restaurant.' Anyone who has spent much time in NYC will know what it is trying to be, a McNally buzzing, fun place. It fails. It has hype and attempts the whole velvet rope thing hence booking mid evening dining times is not easy even though when we went it was 80% full. Front of house were warm enough. Ambience was summed up by my companion as 'slightly, only slightly. upmarket Cafe Rouge.' The menu promised solid comfort/bistro food. The haddock souffle was lifeless and the beetroot soup utterly bland apart from some mediocre horseradish. The chicken breast was ok and the steak passable (think Chez Gerrard not Hawksmoor) but the sides were dreadful - carrots that were so overcooked they were actually dry and mash that was a salty flump not a 'eat my on my own' delight. Bread: hmm. a bland square roll for the table scored 3 times but not cut. With a love or a close friend fine, but do you really want to have to hand tear off chunks from a shared loaf??? Charmless staff, exactly three minutes between starters and main, 25 minutes for wine to arrive (teased by the empty glasses after 10) and red that fell into the room not cellar temperature trap. I could go on but no matter: there will always be some people who think a leather booth for 10 and deliberately anti Michelin food are awesome and worth getting excited/blinded about. Both good ideas but when so poorly executed as a concept when there are shining examples pretty much globally (any one of Quo Vadis, Galvin, Ceconni or even Caprice within half a mile of DST even) you do wonder how seduced by the Soho House branding everyone else is.
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Kevin
2 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Thursday, July 08, 2010