Les Deux Salons

We went here for Sunday lunch after booking online (credit card details requested, very cheeky). Ariived at about 12:30 and the place was deserted, only two other tables were occupied.

Service was efficient and we ordered a mix of starters and main courses. Most started were very ordinary except for the Snail pie. The mains were even less attactive, the best was the cod but at over £21 a big rip-off. We ordered some side orders as well, but these again were very small and expensive. A lot of food was accompanied by the same vegetables all drpping in water - was the kitchen in such hurry.

The place is rather gloomy, especially when so empty. So overall not a great experience as the bill was on the high side.
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Dutch_Food - View all reviews by this user
5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 3
Wednesday, June 22, 2011

I took a friend here for a birthday champagne afternoon tea at 3pm. We arrived promptly and were shown straight to out table. No one came to take our order for about 15 minutes which was a shame as we knew what we wanted and were aware that there was a 1.5 hour turnaround on the table. We ordered and then sat there with nothing but two glasses of tap water in front of us for another 30 minutes. We then noticed a group who had come in much later than us had been given all of their components: tea, champagne and cakes.

When I pointed this out to the waiter he interrupted me halfway through my sentence without looking me in the eye and rushed off to pour two glasses of champagne. The cake stand followed about another 15 minutes later and finally our tea, Darjeeling and Earl Grey, which the waiter then proceeded to pour without a strainer, emptying a load of tea leaves into our cups. We asked him to take these away as he'd just poured without a strainer and he looked at us like we were mad, but took them away and then tried to pour us another cup each, again without a strainer!

When we asked directly for two strainers he said that there was a hen party of 30 people upstairs and they had them all! My friend's response was 'well we can't drink tea with leaves in it can we?' he then grudglingly went and found one, which we had to scrape out in between pourings so as not to mix up our teas, bearing in mind we hardly had any tea left by this point as he had poured us a cup each which had been poured away.

I'm not really sure what was going on here and we did just seem unlucky with the staff as the food itself was very good indeed and the atmosphere was very nice. Les Deux Salons need to look into this though as you pay for the experience as well as the food itself, especially for something like afternoon tea. The other member of staff I explained this to was very understanding and took the service charge off the bill, quite rightly so.
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Catherine
6 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Saturday, May 21, 2011

Very disappointing. As the restaurant is owned by the same group that owns Arbutus, I was really looking forward to an amazing meal. My duck main was beautiful, though on the small side, especially since they didn't suggest I get a side to go with it. It was my £8 salad that was the main disappointment - on the menu it sounded a medley of flavour, with goat's cheese, honey, and oregon all featuring, but in the end it was just an £8 small plate of leaves and some beans. Appalling. Everyone I dined with had a similar experience - food OK, but small amounts and with a hefty price tag. Won't be going back.
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Wendy
6 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, May 18, 2011

was a nice experience except for the lady with short hair at the reception who is far too serious and a little rude.... the food was delicious, the pork belly was absolutely delicious so was the floating island.
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9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, May 03, 2011

I've eaten at Les Deux Salon four times. On the first occassion the meal was almost faultless but each on subsequent visit the food has got progressively worse. The main probelm is to do with the seasoning and whilst this is always going to be down to personal taste, the level of salting in the dishes was high enough on Sunday at lunch for all my guests to comment on it. On a previous visit I chose the day's special which was a cassoulet. This dish was particularly mediocre with the duck dry and tasteless. The bavette of beef I chose on my last visit was merely ok and was a tad tough and sinewy. Nevertheless, the snail and bacon pie was superb. Make it bigger and it's the perfect main course.

Whilst the service is superb, sadly this restaurant lets down the other two in the group, Arbutus and Wild Honey.
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Warren Alexander
6 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, April 26, 2011

I was a bit apprehensive about this restaurant so was surprised when we had such a good time there!

The people at the welcome desk aren’t great, aloof and sulky. Fortunately, our waitress who was Australian was wonderful and made up for it – friendly, down to earth, attentive, and knowledgeable about the food. She also recommended two different wines for us and gave us a taster which were beautiful.

We went for the extremely good value pre-theatre 3 courses for £15 – brilliant considering that most of the mains are about £20 and the starters around £10! All the dishes we had especially the garlic and potato veloute and the cottage pie were fabulous and I was very full by the end of the meal.

We had a table downstairs by the bar which I liked as it reminded me of a Parisian brasserie. I really enjoyed our evening there and would go back.
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Annie - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Really hopeless, food not horrendous but service total rubbish. Don't bother with this place - so many better options in the vicinity.
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Danielle
4 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Saturday, April 09, 2011

Dammit! Having really enjoyed the set menus at Arbutus and Wild Honey I was really looking forward to the pre-theatre menu but ended up rather disappointed.

The terrine starter, quite reddish in colour was almost sticky in its consistency with quite a strong, rich flavour - one slice was too much!

The intense flavours continued with the main course shepherd's pie that contained some rather unwieldy chunks of lamb a really intense gravy and extremely buttery mash on top. Too much richness and flavour!

Dessert was their immaculate floating islands - a cylinder of meringue floating in custard - that I've enjoyed at Wild Honey before and lucky was immaculate as the same dish there - a good end. I'm sure that on a better night the £15.50 three courses would represent great value.

Shame, but will give it another try - maybe of the a la carte next time. Quite like the restaurant and how it's been decked out - must have cost a fortune. One waiter we had was clearly on his first night - rather nervous!
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Richard - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 7
Wednesday, March 02, 2011

Went for a birthday. Starter was cold. main was cold - sent it back and it came back as cold as before !!!!

They didnt bring a new main, it was just put under the grill so the fish was dry and poor. They use a lift to move the food which I was told was slow so the food is cold by the time it gets to the table !!

The place was half empty for a Saturday night - which is no surprise judging by the food.

Paid for the wine and left.

Would not go back if it was FREE !!!!
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a boulton
1 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, March 02, 2011

I love Arbutus and have had a few nice times at Wild Honey, although find the staff a little frosty but I was greatly looking forward to Les Deux Salons.

First impressions were good. The room was pleasant and nicely designed but seemed over-lit. It had the feel of a hotel restaurant or of a European restaurant concept done in Dubai - not a bad thing, necessarily, but not as instantly likeable as, say, Dean Street Townhouse. Then things nosedived.

It took 4 receptionists, none of whom seemed to understand English, about 10 minutes to take our coats and check us in. I had to repeat the booking name 4 times. To be honest, they seemed....frightened.

Drinks took an age, it was impossible to catch anyone's eye and, after arriving at 8pm, we had only just ordered at 8.30pm. (Just a note: form getting no attention at all for 30 minutes, our water glasses were topped up almost every minute after we had ordered.)

The food was good but not great. It seemed to be heading towards the quality of Racine, a place that does the French brasserie thing effortlessly, but kept missing. Cassoulet was a highlight. Terrine would have been better had it not been so cold. I'd rate the food slightly better than Cote, the other French place LDS reminded me of.

Service teetered on the amateur, I have to say and those bright lights killed any atmosphere there might have been. The bill, at around £60 a head with one glass of house wine, seemed steep.

I might go back pre-ENO or for a quick weekend lunch but only for convenience. I really wanted it to be better.
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Sean
4 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, March 01, 2011