Aqua Nueva

I went to Aqua Nueva for dinner with friends on a Thursday night. We had been really looking forward to it and couldn't have been more disappointed!!!

The service was appalling - every single member of staff I came across (and there were seemingly dozens of them swanning around with little to do) was rude and arrogant. Furthermore, when I went to the loo with my friend, on the way back one of the 'hostesses' physically grabbed my arm to stop us getting through when we had actually been sitting on the table right next to her for the last couple of hours! I'm intrigued to know what the point of hostesses are who don't even know who is eating in their restaurant!

Service was exceptionally slow and we waited about half an hour to pay the bill so we could leave the restaurant and go to another bar - we certainly did not want to stay there any longer.

All in all, I would strongly recommend that you avoid the restaurant and bar at all costs, and keep your feet firmly on terra firma as the views are simply not worth the terrible service!
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1 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, May 25, 2012

We went to Aqua Nueva for a girly night and had so much fun, the service was very attentive but not rushed, and the cocktails are very impressive - the Cosmopolitan is a classic very well done in there! As for the food, I really can't pick a dish I didn't love, very well done indeed and lots of variety.
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Natalie
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Sunday, March 18, 2012

Went here on Friday night with friends, and I wouldn't go back.

The portion sizes are ridiculously small, they wouldn't fill a fly. We shared some tapas dishes but we barely had a bite each and then the mains were not much bigger - in fact probably the size of a normal sized tapas dish! Also, they came on oversized plates which took up all the table space, which is a bit silly considering tapas is lots of dishes!

It was also really noisy, what with the bar being quite busy and nearby and also they turned the music up really loud at about 9pm, so we had to shout at eachother to be heard, making conversation rather uncomfortable.

The service was slow and the food was average. I admit I enjoyed some of it but it is not worth the money at all. I don't mind spending for something really nice but this was not nice enough!

Not recommended.
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3 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Monday, February 27, 2012

Had the misfortune of being taken for lunch to this sorry place yesterday. I can honestly say it was a totally miserable experience we will do our best to forget as quickly as possible; having said that if it was me who chose this place I would be ripping the hair out of my head. The lunch menu selection was very limited, which alone may not be a problem if the food is good. Well this food was absolutely pathetic - starter of dry meats was ok, but nothing more then what you can get from any supermarket; main course - that was a shocker - duck (which I normally love) cooked (or rather roasted) by somebody who does not give a damn, because it was bland, dry, hard and awful - and served with a half a shallot, that was it.. The worst lunch we ever had, it was absolutely awful. Then a very very average pudding. The staff was awful, they could not care less (and we were the only guests in there, apart from us not one table was taken which also gives a clue about how "popular" or "liked" this restaurant is. I complained to the manager who - like there rest of this place - truly did not look like he was interested in the slightest... What a sorry waste of time, total fiasco, we so wish we went somewhere else...
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2 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 1
Saturday, July 30, 2011

Shockingly over priced. My wife and I went there yesterday to have a special meal. People with earphones greet you and check your name against the reservation list, then you take the lift to the 5th floor. There is a huge extremely loud bar area, and then through a long corridor to the restaurant section. The restaurant section is a bit less noisy, but still way too loud to hold a normal conversation. We ordered roast vegetables to start with , and you get a few vegetables, some of them stuffed with cheese, not worth the £9. This person comes along and offers one small roll of bread, and never comes again. For mains we ordered lamb and oxtail. The menu described the lamb as coming with new potatoes, in reality it came with one half !!! of a small new potato, the oxtail was supposed to have pumpkin mash and asparagus, it came with one spoonful of mash and two small asparagus heads. The dishes were so small we ordered some sides. The food itself was not bad, pretty good even, but my oh my, I thought the days of nouvelle cuisine with huge plates and small portions were over, I was wrong apparently. For 26£ you expect to get a bit more than a piece of meat and nothing else. The service was good, and the food was descent, but way overpriced, portions too small, restaurant too noisy, and the place pretentious and smug beyond belief. We also ordered one of the cheapest bottles of wine for £36, also over priced. Over all we paid £120 , of which £85 were for food which should cost no more than £35-40 in my opinion. We will not go there again, not good value for money.
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5 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Saturday, July 30, 2011

Las Vegas is wonderful for many things, among them a real sense of pomp and circumstance around the art of eating. Sure, you can grab a burger, or queue up at the trough of an all you can eat buffet to feed your face with the best of them, but there are plenty of places where flair is key. I was reminded of this as I entered the slightly schizophrenic entrance of Aqua, two restaurants for one, in the old Dickens and Jones store on Argyll Street. Heavy red drapes, suited flunkys and confusing mirrors remind you more of the circus house in Twin Peaks than luxe dining. A lift to the loft disgorges you into another welcome annex, with yet more floating staff, and by the time you enter the main bar you feel thoroughly confused.

The main bar is decorated in a generic international style. Chinoise fabrics, opulent drapes and tall banquette tables surround the semi-circular bar - occupied by skinny pretty girls and the braying suits who pay for them flood the space. From the main bar, the space leads off to a Japanese restaurant on one side and a Spanglish restaurant with its own bar on the other end of a long corridor. It's owned by a consortium of Chinese businessmen and seems determined to pick and pinch from every cultural influence it can.

The Spanish side of the space is very separate and feels lighter in style, like eating in the lobby of a Four Seasons hotel rather than chowing down in the nightclub. The international feel carries on, with French and Polish staff treading their way carefully round the menu. Our stumped 'sommelier' finally recommended a Rioja as being the most Spanish, desperate as he was to veer towards the upper reaches of the list. Tap water wasn't offered.

The menu has a Spanish twist, but in the loosest sense of the phrase. We tried to do tapas, but you'll fare just as well going for starters, main course and desserts. The plate of Iberico ham was thickly and badly carved, chewier than it should be against the grain, and a stretch at £18 for around 125 grams of the rich, gamey meat - even in Borough Market you'd be pushing it to pay more than a fiver for that quantity. Other starters of octopus, sliced sausages and croquettes were acceptable, but not exactly memorable, though they did have a grassy and tart extra virgin olive oil I could have almost drunk neat.

The mains followed a similar vein. Monkfish 'adobo' was a pleasant piece of fish, but bore no trace of the titular marinade, a spicy Latin American base of peppers, oregano and cumin. Of the other mains, a beef tenderloin was a well cooked yet dainty slab, served simply with pimentos de padron, a simple if incongruous side to the dish. The boiled 'confit' tomatoes were left untouched. We'd attempted to order the peppers as a tapas plate and had initially been told that they weren't in season. To be fair to the restaurant, when we pointed out that they were the side of one of the main dishes, they did offer to cook an extra portion as a side, though charged us prettily for the pleasure of the simple salted peppers.

For a Wednesday night in November, pre party season and a year after opening, both sides of the restaurant and the two large bars were buzzy and busy. It's an impressive state of affairs considering the punchy prices and determinedly inauthentic concepts. But this place doesn't appeal to or aim at the determined foodie. If you want to eat authentic Japanese and / or Spanish, there are a dozen better within walking distance. But if you're entertaining clients, models or proving to friends that you are in the know prior to a night jousting with AMEX Black cards in nearby Movida, then you may just have found your new go to destination of choice.
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www.grumblinggourmet.com - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4
Saturday, November 20, 2010