The Wolseley

Not at all impressed by the afternoon tea; the somewhat surly waiter forgot to bring plates for the scones and forgot the macaroons we ordered. The macaroons were stale and unecessarily dipped in dark chocolate. Having had a merely adequate lunch there a few months ago, in the main restaurant where I could barely hear a word my lunch partner was saying, I totally fail to understand the hype. And despite it being a lovely room the furniture and accoutrements are looking quite shabby.
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HW3 - View all reviews by this user
2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, June 15, 2011

WHAT COUNTS - REPUTATION or SERVICE?

With great expectations due to REPUTATION, we arrived 10 minutes early for a special belated birthday celebration dinner. A private affair so no fuss required, just a good evening and food expected. The food was good and wholesome, but definite NO WOW factor! The wine was tasty! Sadly, the SERVICE had something to be desired. Fortunately, in our party of four, the conversation overflowed, so the 2+1/2 hours for 2 and a bit courses passed pretty quickly. BUT, when we had to wait more than 10 minutes to be served with the bill, the long, VERY LONG DELAYS between the simple courses began to tell on our good natures. Our waiter was pleasant although he was definitely absent when personality was handed out! I don't believe the delay in serving our meals were his doing even though it took 20 minutes and 2 reminders before our bottle of wine arrived at the table. The young lady Matre'd was pleasant and seemingly extremely upset when hearing of our woes. Her boss was less convincing, with his EMPTY SORRY!!!!!! My son said we ought not to have paid the "discretionary" service charge, and he was correct. But, I think this would have reflected on our waiter who was certainly not the the sole / if at all the reason for our poor service experience, anyway, he did not deserve to shoulder the blame. I can only hope that others enjoy a better experience at this "infamous" eating establishment!
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Dr G Baitz
5 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, June 01, 2011

We had breakfast to celebrate our wedding anniversary and it was fantastic. The staff were welcoming and friendly and gave us a complimentary basket of pastries to acknowledge our special day. My husband had the english breakfast and I had eggs benedict along with the best hot chocolate I have had in a while. The glasses of juice were a bit on the small side but can't fault anything else! Bill was £44 for breakfast, juice, tea and hot chocolate.
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9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, May 04, 2011

food was consistently good for the limited unambitious items listed.

service was very good but it was not the place it was two years ago, when It served more elaborate and

excellent dishes now just small cafe dishes, very limited. welsh rarebit turned out to be grilled cheese on toast, not real rarebit

the space, the room is/was great and had energy in the past, but the bustle is all

about nothing now,

not sure why they changed direction but is not the former restaurant

a waste of time, but is convenient for not bad food late at night when the service seems to go on vacation
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Mad Duck - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 1
Monday, April 18, 2011

Have we just been lucky everytime we have dined here? Went for lunch on Saturday, and in my humble opinion, another ripsnorting success! The place itself is glorious of course, but we had cheerful and prompt service and enjoyed ambrosial food as well. The cheesey extravaganza Souffle Swisse for me, Quails Eggs nestling on a bed of mushroom duxelle under a drizzle of hollandaise for him, followed by wonderous Halibut with bernaise sauce and Calves liver and bacon, not ground breaking for sure, but totally delicious. Shared a refreshing Lemon Meringue Ice Cream Coupe, before going home to lie down groaning like those sheep from Far From The Madding Crowd who had eaten clover to bursting point! The Wolseley was packed again, so they must be doing something right!
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Christina Caballero
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, March 07, 2011

I went for the afternoon champagne tea experience at The Wolseley with my teenage son and was totally unimpressed. My tea consisted of finger sandwiches made from stale bread and shop bought scones. My son had hamburger which looked good, however was placed in a cheap bread roll and served with those disgusting thin frozen chips. The only thing I would recommend is the earl grey which was divine. Apart from that it's totally overpriced garbage, not a relaxed dining experience more like an expensive canteen.
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0 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Friday, February 25, 2011

I had high expectations but The Wolseley did not live up to them. We were allocated a table looking down on the whole restaurant which initially a voyeuristic experience, meant that we were segregated from any atmosphere.

The food was beyond poor. My rib eye steak, requested as medium was still mooing when it arrived. The service was also poor and even though two bottles of wine were ordered, only 1 arrived and I had to request my bottle of red another 2 times! When requesting it a second time i was greeted by an eye rolling waiter and was made to feel that i was an irritation. I fail to see what was so special about this restaurant and certainly wont be returning nor recommending this to others. I have been to many fine dining establishments but this was not one of them. Having a bottle of ketchup 'plonked' down in front of me when requested was also another unpleasant surprise. Surely it could have been served in a separate dish rather than acting like a greasy spoon cafe!
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Paula Kirby
2 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 2
Monday, February 21, 2011

This place is amazing on every level. Staff are right balance of attentive yet unimposing. Food is simply the best - never once had a bad meal in there and the atmosphere is buzzing.

Absolutely adore this place cannot recommend highly enough
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C.Harding - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Food was very nice, and the building is admittedly incredible, very magical. HOWEVER, it is very difficult to appreciate these factors when faced with the service which we received. It was absolutely appalling, the staff were incredibly rude, inconsiderate and all in all ruined the entire experience of dining here. I would never return and would strongly recommend others to go somewhere else as that attitude within the hospitality arena is entirely unacceptable.

Worst service I have ever received in my life, bad attitudes from the management to the waiters. awful. absolutely awful.
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2 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 2
Sunday, January 16, 2011

We had breakfast on friday for my son's 30th birthday, I had read it is the place to go for the best breakfast in London.

It was amazing, the building alone is fantastic it's so ornate, you are transformed into another world while you are there, we could have been in the 1800's. Although it was very busy the service was fast and efficient, and it did'nt feel as though there were around 150 other people there at the same time.

I had omelette arnold bennett and it was delicious, followed by various pastries and coffee, the full english my son had looked and tasted very good, we will definitely be going back.
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kym
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, December 13, 2010