Shaka Zulu

Awful..just awful place! I booked this place for my friend's hen night and we were a group of 15. This is the email I sent to them following our experience:

"I'd like to say thank you for helping me to book your venue and answering my queries.

HOWEVER...the service on the night was absolutely abysmal and it ruined the entire night for all of us.

1) I recall you stated we may be placed on separate tables but I mentioned on the phone upon booking (I'm not sure if I spoke to you) that if we can push the tables together then I don't mind. I was not told they would be round tables that cannot be moved!! What made it worse was that the table behind us was a long table set for 15 people and we were not allowed to sit there because it was booked by another party. This I can understand, but that table was empty the entire night! Surely if that party didn't turn up 30 minutes after their booking time we could have been moved there (this is a standard agreement with all restaurants) but I asked 3 members of your staff (including the manager I believe!) and they said no. They weren't even apologetic at all and showed no sympathy for our situation which just upset us all even more. If anything, the staff just made it sound as though it was all our fault.

2) A few of us ordered the smoked salmon for the starter, my friend's one arrived and it was tiny, then mine arrived and it was a huge portion. I asked the waiter if he could fix it and he said he would have to ask the chef first. When the waiter returned he said "the chef just said that this is how it was put on the plates so....." and he shrugged his shoulders and was about to walk off when I called him back and demanded this was fixed. He eventually fixed it.

3) When we got the bill, everyone was not happy with the way the night had gone so they all refused to pay service charge. This is optional anyway so we were under no obligation to pay it so the money I gathered from everyone just covered the bill. I counted the cash in front of the waiter, he then took it and counted it in front of me. He then said "why are you not paying service charge?" so I explained the issues, he replied with "but none of that is my fault so I'm not going to get a tip". We would have been happy to pay full service charge had the service been better. I told him it wasn't all his fault and I didn't want to upset him by telling him we weren't too happy with his service either. He didn't look happy, he took the money and walked off. He returned a few minutes later and said "my boss counted the money and said you were £9.75 short". I was absolutely fuming because he and I counted the money and it was correct. How obvious was it that this was his tip!!

I was recommended to your restaurant by regular customers of yours, I told them about that night and they will never be returning. My group will also not be returning. Our friends and family that we will share this with will no doubt never be returning either. That's roughly about 200 people never returning to your venue.

We all discussed the matter and will be writing online reviews about our experience on every website we can find to warn others of the poor service received, along with facebook of course.

I went home crying, I was responsible for organising the night and your staff made it a complete disaster.

I'm not going to waste my time asking for a refund or for a credit to my credit card because I know you will refuse so there's no point. I've already wasted time having to write this email.

THANKS SHAKA ZULU FOR RUINING OUR NIGHT."

- I'm still waiting for a response to this email!!
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Asti
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Monday, January 16, 2012

Sooo close, yet soooo farrr!! When my company announced that our christmas party will be held at SZ, first i did was to read all the reviews on this site and my heart sank knowing we are going to go to place that scored 3.8. I found very few positive comments and thought hey it could be luck that as its a corporate event, we could get away with better treatment. Boy was I wrong!!

The evening started off pretty well - some of us went early and we were told to wait in the lounge. We got our drinks and 15 mins later were shown to our tables. So to serve 25 people, i thought the handled it pretty well. Food wise - everything I chose tasted between mediocre and OK, but my only criticism for SZ is to stick with what they know best. When they dished out the Christmas pudding in brandy sauce, that was the worst pudding I've probably ever eaten.

Moving on, we then went to our "booth". So firstly they temporarily placed us in a booth that was booked for someone else. It was right close to the entrance door and if you can imagine 25 people crowding that area either being disturbed by people walking in and out of the club or even us being an hindrance to other customers. My colleague and I approached the lady at the counter to ask the place to "our booth" and she tells us aggressively that where we placed at is our booth, though the name "reserved for so and so" is printed on few papers and placed on the table. And she went on to say "if you dont like it, you can leave, we can give that table to someone else who needs it". Now frankly we just spent approx £3K on food and drinks while dining and about to spend another £2K for the club and I thought it was pretty rude staff to talk to you like that. The problem of that night is that if we knew another place that would take 25 people who wanting to have good time for Xmas party, we would have shifted that 25 ppl. But in Camden Town, that time of the night, few ladies in the party, would we want to take that trouble? I guess not. My CFO too Facebooked everyone that the staff was pretty arrogant and rude. The cocktails were pretty expensive for the standard double shots/single shots compare to West-End bars and for the money we spent, we could have had better time elsewhere. It is a shame, as after the meal, I was looking forward to giving SZ a good review but I guess they have just ruined our night. Funnily enough the place was buzzing like any other club on a Friday night.
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ExpertEnoughToComment
3 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 3
Monday, December 19, 2011

Where shall I start?

Possibly one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had. Sitting in Shaka Zulu is reminiscent of sitting at one of the themed restaurants at Disneyland Paris...and not in a good way. The atmosphere was awful; claustrophobic to say the least. This was booked for our office Christmas party. Drinks were ordered (we were on separate tables and our table held only 4 people) and after waiting 30 minutes we enquired where our drinks were, to be told that they were extremely busy tonight and we would have to wait! I did offer to go to the bar myself as we were only 4 steps away from it. They were chronically understaffed. We were sent the menu to select our choices beforehand. Crayfish salad....cunningly disguised as prawn cocktail....was ok. Heavy on the mustard in the dressing with watery crayfish tails. The salmon was another story. A salmon fillet served on a 'bed' of wilted cabbage. The salmon was tasteless, over-cooked and suspiciously smacking of a microwave meal, the entire dish tasted of nothing but the oil they used on the cabbage. After two bites I left it. It was inedible. On calling one of the hosts/managers over and explaining my issue with the food, she said she would check with the chef...frankly I do not need someone else to tell me that it was tasteless crud. We asked for bread and were initially told that we could not have any as it wasn't on the set-menu option! This AFTER being unable to eat the food I was allowed! I ended up walking out...hungry.
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0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Beautiful, almost magical, decor. Thats where it stops. Food took an hour and 15 minutes to arrive, very expensive and quality did NOT match the insanely expensive prices....a total rip off! Rude and unexperienced staff, apart from one waiter. Apart from that, will NOT be going back anytime soon...unless I marry a footballer or win the lottery because the place is stunning. A shame the food and experience didn't match :(
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Sally
5 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 3
Monday, December 05, 2011

In all my experience in eating out I have never come across food which I would not even have the heart to feed my pet.I went with a group of 10 people for the Sunday buffet which was supposed to be a selection of 20 exotic dishes - how misleading!!

The 'exotic' buffet was simply salad, frozen samosas and dried rubbery bits of meat which was no doubt from the day before. As for the main courses, well there only 4 to choose from which were all as bland and tasteless as each other and most definitely not fresh. My wife was so disheartened by the lack of taste and variety which the website promised that she went to the chef and questioned him about this. Of course the chef didn't have much to say so my wife asked him to grill her a piece of chicken, but surprise surprise when it arrived it was not even cooked inside as it had just so blatantly been defrosted and then cooked in a rush. Now we come to the dessert- rock hard brownies, sour creme brulees, defrosted berries and a tub of vanilla ice-cream on a bucket of ice with no scoop.

Lastly there was a delightful experience of hard bits of bread and dried up cheese that had been sitting there for hours on end. Even the presentation of the buffet was awful and with no labels to actually say what we were eating.

For £20 pounds per head you would think that the management would actually care about what the customers were putting in their stomachs and make an effort rather than making money by feeding people yesterday's leftovers and disgusting tasteless food. If anything it was like armed robbery! Please do not waste your money!
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Mohamed Ali - View all reviews by this user
2 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 0
Sunday, December 04, 2011

Fantastic food but one of the worst dining experiences of my life. Having booked and pre-ordered our meals we were made to queue twice before we were sat down. Our table wasnt ready so we were made to wait in the bar where we, as a group of twenty, were made to sit at a table for ten. We were then taken to our table and it took over an hour for our starters to arrive - apparently the kitchen was totally unaware of our order - and having entered at 9pm we left at midnight. The staff were rude and unprofessional throughout and the 12% 'service' charge was the cherry on top of one of the worst dining experiences I have ever encountered. Avoid like the plague.
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Tom Love
3 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Sunday, November 27, 2011

One of the worst restaurant experiences I've every had. We weren't seated until an hour and a half after we originally booked. When I complained, the station manager initially insisted that I had spoken to the wrong member of staff about the delay and then tried to blame Transport For London (TFL) for the previous table's occupants not vacating on time!

The decor is good, but the ridiculously loud music spoilt the evening for us as I couldn't make myself heard to friends only 1.5m away. Everywhere I looked, couples were straining across the tables to hear each other. Why? This restaurant needs to make its mind up whether it's serving food or a nightclub.

When the food finally arrived, it was on the whole tasteless. I've had better school dinners than this! To add insult to injury, the food (and wine) is massively overpriced.

If you're looking for ambience, good food, a conversation over dinner with friends or value for money, steer well clear!
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Steve Butler
1 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Sunday, November 20, 2011

What can I say that would sum up our experience of Shaka Zulu ? POOR, POOR, POOR. What a disappointing experience not to be repeated. It started off with the confused message my nephew got when booking (should have rung alarm bells). He was told when first booking that Bruno Mars was performing and our table was situated near the band would that be a problem. Must admit I thought this was a bonus until the second phone call that advised us that we would have to pay £17.50 to see Bruno Mars. As this was a family birthday celebration with age ranging from 18 to nearly 80 we didn't feel that this was something we wanted to do as we were unsure how long we would stay. By the third call my nephew was told that if we didn't pay we would be asked to leave the restaurant by 9:30pm. As our booking was for 7:45 I didn't feel this gave us enough time and not forgetting they took our booking to start with. I decided to call the restaurant as it was turning into a bitter expirance for my nephew. I finally got through to one of the managers and explained my disappointment. He apologise and said that he would talk to the staff and we would not be asked to leave at 9:30 instead we could stay until 10pm - how generous when there voice message and web site say they are open until 2am. He said we could call and ask for him if there were any other issues or inquires (shame they didn't answer their phone on the day). Once at the restaurant things didn't improve. It took them a long time to seat us which was an issue as we were on a restricted time scale. This was followed by a bouncer being very rude to my nephew and poor quality food (the saving grace was a really nice waiter).  

I asked to speak to the manager I spoke to on the phone which surprise, surprise was once again disappointing. Although he listened to my concerns his response when I said the food was below average he said " it not for everyone" - what is that  meant to mean? Odd, arrogant response. They served our deserts with the bill (which we hadn't asked for) and were very keen we left. My other concern was the amount of people they were packing into a very small area to see Bruno Mars - due to the amount of people you couldn't get off the escalators, causing a bit of a pile up - luckily there wasn't a emergency. In my opinion, as the manager said "it's not for everyone" , I think Shaka Zulu is all hype and no substance - what a shame.   
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Elpida - View all reviews by this user
2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Beautiful place. Mind-blowing! But it is let down BIG TIME by the service and food. The waiters were impersonal. The chefs (which we could see from our table) were speaking profanities every now and then - such a let down for such a classy place! All this can be forgiven...but not the food. Bland. Tasteless. Overpriced. Its saying alot that...even at nearly £50 per person...we left food uneaten on the plate. This place has so much potential...if only they listen and act on all the negative reviews they seem to be getting....
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Nick
4 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 2
Monday, October 24, 2011

This past week, my good friend from South Africa (who I haven’t seen in years!) finally came to visit me in London. I had heard about Shaka Zulu from a friend and decided it would be the perfect place for us to go for dinner. I was nervous about my friend’s reaction if the food wasn’t authentic, but thankfully she loved it! She had the traditional Bunny Chow dish and said it reminded her of home (such a relief!). I was thrilled that she enjoyed it so much. I had the Coconut Fried Halibut which was delicious as well. The waitstaff were so helpful and prompt. Although the prices are a bit high for students, I think it was definitely worth it to give my friend a proper South African meal here in London. I would highly recommend this restaurant to any South Africans or just those looking for a unique dining experience! You won’t regret it!
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- View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 8
Monday, October 17, 2011