Papageno Restaurant

Having visted this restaurant, I believe that the review below is from someone who is content with low standards.

The restaurant certainly looks extravagant and bold, but the food and service were poor. Not much thought went into presentation of the food, and not much care in the cooking and preparation either.
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Travis
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 1
Sunday, January 13, 2008

We stumbled across this amazing restaurant and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. We did not have to wait long for at least 3/4 waiters trying to attend to us, the whole atmosphere is magic! the loos very interesting, its loud, vibrant and the music if you love opera as I do awesome. The house wine was one of the best I have tasted for house wines not your usual vinegar. Lamb koftas as good as we have had in the Middle East, recommend the prawns and smoked salmon. Appetisers a welcome surprise. All in all loved it. Pricewise reasonable I thought considering whereabouts your situated in the heart of Theatre Land. Very surprised to read negative reviews maybe they've been too spoilt ha ha!!
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Anne
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 7
Saturday, January 12, 2008

Just don't know where all these bad reviews come from, I have been there with business partners several times and was always spot on. The lobster is just great and also great value for money. Went there twice with my wife two nights in a row. The first time we went was our first time there and we went back the night after because it was so good. I have done some consulting work for many trendy bars, restaurants and nightclubs all over Europe, so I am also quite critical and know what I am talking about. Can't find any fault with Papageno's. No restaurant is perfect all the time so either they had an off day or the people writing these reviews should stick to boring traditional restauants.
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Albert
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, January 10, 2008

Possibly the most horrific restaurant experience I've had in a long while.

I reckon any Car Boot Sales that might take place within a 20 mile radius will be doing very well out of this place, judging by the tat they stick up on the walls. From the velvet tablecloths and napkins to the eerie ambience, it was unnerving.

We had originally opted to eat there because it was able to seat 5 of us on a busy Friday night in Covent Garden and we were desperate for something to eat. The service was almost comical, but I can only give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that, given the decor, the circus theme was upheld right through to the waiting staff. Our waiter couldn't muster a smile all the while we were there, but perhaps I should give him the benefit of the doubt once again and assume he had some sort of medical condition. You'd have thought the compulsory 12.5% tip he was shortly about to receive would cheer him up a bit, though? Maybe having to work every night in a place that resembles some sort of Gregorian travelling freakshow nightmare does that to you after time.

But perhaps the point at which things really turned farcical was when I had to excuse myself to visit the loo. Lazy staring at the walls in the cubicle quickly turned to abject disbelief as I realised what I was looking at! Don't get me wrong, I'm all for art involving nubile young women but this sort of stuff would probably put Hugh Heffner off his grilled Halloumi. This place is almost worth a visit just to experience the explicit renditions of ladies doing all sorts of things. Even though they looked like they had been done with a My First Finger Painting set, the scenes were easy to interpret. Apparently the girls' loos are similar. Who knows what parents must feel about young kids seeing it all? Anyway, I took some photos for future reference and went back to wait for my meal.

The drinks had arrived fairly swiftly, but with only one beer on the menu to choose from, it hadn't taken us long to order them either. There were about 12 things to choose from food-wise, half of them fairly ambiguous ("Vegetarian Pasta" apparently needs no elaboration) I ordered the grilled chicken with garlic which the waiter duly served with a grunt. To be fair, it wasn't bad, but when you only cook the same dozen things every night you should probably have it pretty much spot on after a couple of weeks anyway. Others in our party fared slightly worse.

At this point I think I had succumbed to the eerieness of the surroundings and had begun to embrace this hallucinogenic Lewis Carrollesque trip, but thankfully this jolted to a halt as we got the bill. I'd love to see what Gordon Ramsay would do if he had to take on this place for his Kitchen Nightmares programme, I would hazard a guess at "set it on fire and claim on the insurance" The only downside I can think of would be the sudden drop in local car boot sale revenue, but I think I could live with that.
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Nick
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 1
Sunday, January 06, 2008

Hideous! Never in my life have I had such a horrible restaurant experience!

I went there one day in December along with the rest of my family to celebrate my mother's birthday. The moment I sat down I began to loathe the place. How do they expect to put 13 people in such a tiny, cramped space?!

The food itself was terrible, and there was barely any choice. For starters we ordered grilled halloumi, fried squid and cheese borek, all of which were undercooked.

For the main course I ordered fresh salmon, whilst the rest of the family ordered either anatolian style lamb or chicken princess, all of which took an age to deliver (for goodness sake, all you have to do is put a piece of salmon on a plate, cover it in sauce and put a lemon slice on the side - it doesn't take an hour to do that, does it?).

The so-called "fresh salmon" wasn't even fresh, and the sauce didn't really make anything better as it was tasteless, anyway. I ended up leaving my main course unfinished.

Both the anatolian style lamb and the chicken princess looked unappetising, and apparently the anatolian style lamb was disgusting and was just pure fat - no meat - it was also left unfinished. Apparently the chicken princess was average, and the recipients of the dish have had better grilled chicken in their lifetimes.

Moving on to dessert, the cake was alright, but I've had much better cakes before, and it shouldn't take half an hour to cut an average-sized cake. I don't eat mince pie, but my father does and I do remember seeing a mince pie with a bite taken out of it left on his plate, therefore suggesting how bad the mince pies may have been.

The toilets were filthy and in need of heavy attention when it comes to hygiene - I noticed that one of the toilets flooded, too. Not only this, but the depictions of explicit sexual acts on the walls obviously make the place unsuitable for children - we had about three children with us that night.

Some guy went up to our table and tried to sell us cheapo flowers for £1 each. My dad bought one for my mother, but then that little sneak of a flower-seller ended up showering all the females with us with flowers, therefore we reluctantly had to pay about £8 altogether for flowers. We ended up finding that these flowers were just fake plastic flowers - my cousin's flower didn't even have the head attached to the body. If you ever visit this restaurant, beware of the wrath of the flower-seller. Speaking of money, the amount we had to pay for that pathetic excuse of a meal was terrible.

The only good things about this restaurant were the decor, the performers and the magician, the latter two of which were highly enjoyable and prevented me from wanting to jump off a cliff. Nevertheless, this place spends far too much money on decor and not enough on the food itself or hygiene. There are definitely much better places to eat in London.

I ended up leaving the restaurant that night hungry, having fully eaten only a slice of cake and some fruit, and also extremely dissatisfied.
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Onur
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Friday, December 21, 2007

A disgrace. The service was wanting, a drink request was made 5 times before it materialised. The 'live music' was a poor and trifling. After their 'performance' one of the performers did the unthinkable and came round the tables with a tambourine to collect money....and some people did actually scour their pockets for small change. The music was not of a standard to warrant tips.

The food was bland and several of our group requested fresh dished, this time to be properly cooked. Improperly cooked meat dishes have obvious dangers.

Very amateursihly cooked and prepared. An no one in our group had compliments for the chef.

The desserts were again poor, and consisted of what looked like supermarket mince pies served on a plate.

Overall, a poor experience.
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Albert
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 2
Wednesday, December 19, 2007

We went to Papageno's with a group of 30 (ish). The service was the best part of the evening with everyone getting what they ordered on time, which generally doesn’t happen when you go to a restaurant with such a large group.

With everything else being so flash the food was a let down. The starters were not all that with some strange deep-fried 'things'. My main was a slab of duck drenched in orange sauce with nothing accompanying it, not even a garnish etc - Very plain and not what I expected. The desert was a bowl of fruit consisting of apples, tangerines and a pineapple; how non-creative and cheap is that!?
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Nick
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 2
Monday, December 17, 2007

My husband took me to Papageno's for our first anniversary and I was thrilled from the moment we walked through the door. The place is fabulously eccentric; a collection of exciting odds and ends, statues, paintings, musical instruments, nooks and crannies all over the place, tables stashed away in alcove/opera boxes. We'd reserved well in advance, quite luckily indeed, because several groups in front of us had been turned away. I'd hoped we'd get an upstairs table: they looked so interesting! Instead, we were seated at a tiny round table in a back corner, underneath what looked like a red and gold circus tent, next to a gold-painted water-pipe and another young couple. Despite cramped quarters, the atmosphere was splendid. It was easy to chat without shouting, or listen to people at neighbouring tables speaking in their native tongues. The opera and live music playing in the background helped distract us from the wait, which was no worse than any other busy restaurant I've been to, though no better either. Everything was well-timed, the staff were kind and courteous and the food was absolutely gorgeous. I did feel that the wine-list and dessert menu were a bit lacking for choice and that prices were higher than I would have liked, but overall, my experience at Papageno's is one that I would gladly repeat any day.
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nena
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 5
Saturday, December 08, 2007

I went along to Papageno with a group o 38 people and the service, food and house wine was excellent.

We had the party menu and everyone chose their own main dish but their were no dramas re. service and meals...They got everything spot on!!

I was a bit worried by these bad reviews on her ebut it was really good. I would highly recommend this venue.

Great fun and we even had some singers coming around our table.

Everyone had a fun night.
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Rachel
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Popped in here for an impromptu dinner with my mum and was delighted with the fascinating decor, attentive and friendly service and delicious food. Planning to return for a christmas party, would heartily recommend anyone who would appreciate a quirky, atmospheric and fun dining experience!

Really loved it and thought the buskers were very amusing - no-one forces you to give them money if you don't want to!
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Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Tuesday, November 27, 2007