The Four Lanterns

I was staying at a hotel around the corner so decided to eat here, the waitress was friendly and attentive, I wasnt impressed with the food though, I had the mixed kebab that was served with rice, the meat (I think was chicken and lamb) was undercooked and both tasted the same as each other, they had no flavour or herbs to infuse with, the rice was some kind of tomato rice with a blob of tomato sauce on top, again tastless and no flavour.

for dessert I ordered baklava or paklava I think they called it, this was straight from the fridge so was solid and hard to cut, this would have been better at room temperture or slightly warm.

I also had a Metaxa.. I love metaxa but this was also served cold this should have been at room temp or warmed also.

plus when I asked for a separate bill the price mysteriously went up by £2...was this a service charge? it wasnt stated on the original receipt!
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Paul
7 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, October 14, 2009

I am very surprised at how good the other reviews are on this site. I don't want to appear like I am particularly critical but I have good reasons to be after my dinner here on Wednesday night with three other friends.

It started off very well - we had a nice table outside and ordered a 2-course meal which was surprisingly good value at 10.5 pounds including a glass of house wine. The waiter was friendly if not a little too friendly. However the following followed:

1. There was a 1 hour wait between the starter and main course while all the other tables were being served despite them ordering after us. One of us went inside to ask and found our order was forgotten at the counter! It was only then that our kebabs were put on the grill.

2. Two of our dishes (chicken and shish kebabs) were burnt on the outside but uncooked inside - they probably rushed to get these dishes out as they were already late, but we couldn't eat the uncooked pieces.

3. The bill was miscalculated and each item was priced separately (instead of being treated as a set meal). This meant they over-charged us by 30%.

When we complained, the owner didn't even apologise, and instead accused us of just wanting a discount. He suggested that we should go to McDonalds if we wanted less than an hour of waiting between courses!
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Maki
3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, July 01, 2009