The River Cafe

A special birthday was meant to be a celebration meal at this well known place. As a party of four, we were crowded into a small space - along with very other diner around us, so that the backs of our chairs were touching people as the table behind.

The menu was surprisingly boring, with a very limited choice, but entering into the spirit we ordered. The service throughout was magnificent, but the food did not match. The portions were ridiculously small - even for the very small eaters in our group. Four small squares of a ravioli was a ''portion'' We had two courses, a couple of bottles of house wine and at £60 per head we decided to abandon the reputation and get a take away to survive the journey home.
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Peter Cobb
3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 0
Saturday, October 16, 2010

First time visit and was impressed with the service and food. A bit lacking in atmosphere (but it was lunchtime so not surprising). Modern interior and decor although clearly an old building with some traditional styling. Overall, very pleasant lunch with good food albeit over priced in my opinion.
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7 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 4
Tuesday, September 14, 2010

I have never read so many reviews written by imbeciles.

I went to the River Cafe last night for a birthday meal and everything was extraordinary: the food, service, and the atmosphere.
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Daniel - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Thursday, August 05, 2010

the river cafe is stuck in a time warp and have failed to keep up with London.

went for the first time recently and was sadly disappointed. service was pretty good but nothing can make up for the basic standard of the food served to the high prices charged. the clientele and the interior is very 1995 so if you're not a west Londoner and have tried other restaurants across the city out of the W6 postcode you'll feel cheated.

without going into details it was overall an average meal that could have been served in any local gastro pub for less than half price.
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3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Friday, July 23, 2010

Been going to the River cafe for more than 10 years now, and sadly our most recent trip was disappointing. Went in winter 09 and food was still good, had the most incredible langoustines that I still dream about. But this time, some of the food just was not up to scratch. The pasta dishes were excellent, the fettucine with pork was divine and crab spaghetti good, but carpaccio of seabass was a little too much herb and not much else. The quality of the seabass was not sashimi quality as one would expect and therefore the dish was disappointing. In the past, the ingredients were the star of this restaurant, you could taste the freshness and the quality of all the veg, and the fish was sublime. But my whole red mullet was so disappointing, terribly dry and totally uninteresting in flavour I could've done better myself at home (and I have their wonderful cookbooks which I use often!) I would never squeal at paying £30 or more for this dish if I felt the ingredients were worth the price, but sadly it was not the case.I used to order the whole seabass and turbot (when they used to serve it whole)which were delicious so it was sad to have such a disappointing dish. Our guests had pigeon and osso bucco, all perfectly ok but nothing spectacular, and everything was served luke warm for some reason even though only the seabass dish was supposed to be served lukewarm.

Dessert was the usual chocolate nemesis which is thankfully as good as always, but PLEASE River Cafe maintain standards, we love the restaurant and concept and food, and although the pasta is still great main course dishes really were below par. ANd we paid almost £500 for 4 people, and simply put it wasn't worth it this trip.WIll go back again in a few months to try it out again and hopefully have a better experience.
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anon
7 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 4
Wednesday, May 26, 2010

We are sad to report that despite the hype surrounding the River Cafe, our experience left us wishing we had gone somewhere else. We were left very underwhelmed.

We went for lunch on Saturday and were really looking forward to a great meal. My wife had the calamari to start and the accompanying salad was so covered in salt that it was actually crunchy. I had the crab ravioli which was slightly overcooked, blandly presented and left me underwelmed. We didn't make a fuss about this at the time but it really was a mediocre offering.

For the main, my wife ordered sea bass which is hard to get wrong and she has had numrous times before elsewhere. The Sea bass arrived and immediately my wife turned up her nose at it. The flesh was old! It had no texture and was mushy. At this point we complained (we should have sent the salt covered starter back but had given them the benefit of the doubt). The Maitre'd was very good and immediately offered to replace it or provide something else. This gesture was ruined by him saying that he had tasted it and this is the way they prepare their sea bass (ie we were wrong and the inference being that in our ignorance we had mistaken River Cafe culinary excellence for poor fish...No this was simply poor fish!)

...Sooo my wife went instead for a bowl of spinach pasta as an alternative. This arrived as a plate with a pile of pasta dumped on it. Parmesan had been grated liberally over it. That was the extent of the presentation. A bit like food you do for the kids when you are in a hurry. It was ok, but again nothing to justify the reputation or the prices of this restaurant.

My main was the pork which was a nice piece of meat but slightly overcooked. The vegetables accompanying this were superbly cooked, retaining texture and taste. Sad to say they were the highlight of an otherwise poor use of time.

All told, for a lunch for two costing £180 I really wish I had gone somewhere else....maybe Saturday was a bad day to grace this establishment with our custom. I don't intend to return to find out!
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4 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Sunday, May 16, 2010

This is a rating for my last trip to the River Cafe which was 3 or 4 weeks ago now. It was incredible, as it has been every time we've been. I love it.

We're going for lunch tomorrow (Good Friday tradition) - I'll let you know if anything's changed.
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10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, April 01, 2010

Had waited for some time to visit the River Cafe and finally made it last week (Tues) with a girlfriend for lunch as my employer had asked me to check it out with a view to him taking some clients. Will not return in a hurry as we were met with rudeness when we arrived, rudeness in particular by an aggressive gentleman who approached the table and had a 'rant' at the fact that we hadn't expressed we might choose to eat from the winter special offer menu and from that point on everyone lost interest. No-one enquired whether we had enjoyed the meal or not. The restaurant was half empty with endless staff busying themselves with cleaning glasses etc but no one found the time to offer us a drink whilst we waited for 15 mins at an unattended bar - we had to ask an extremely busy girl rushing by whether it would be possible to be served. Ruth Rogers visited the gentlemen at the table next to us on her way in - how I wished she had made a nod towards our table when I would have confirmed that the food was excellent but the staff extremely lacking in any warmth or manner - such a disappointment and atmosphere less as we were made to feel an inconvenience.
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Mrs N MacKenzie
5 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 8
Friday, January 22, 2010

i went to the river cafe as part of a wedding gift. it was a lovely day and so we decided to sit outside. However, they have a play area in the middle of the dining area which isn't a great idea and one of the kids kicked a football towards our table, which had our wine, water and starters on there, and the ball hit me in the head, wasn't best pleased! The food was quite bland but well made, I wouldn't say it was a great Italian restaurant if thats what you are looking for. the mains are around £28-34 which is quite pricey, for this price i would expect a lot more.
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- View all reviews by this user
3 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Thursday, November 26, 2009

A feast of Mediterranean culinary perfection at The River Cafe in Hammersmith would be all that one could wish for on the eve of their one year anniversary into coupledom. Ideally, the evening would be a synthesis of sparkling perfection; overindulgent melting into translucence of frothy warmth, seamlessness, angst-free and with an abundance of lip colour longevity. It may be that the symptom of society -that we are conditioned to expect idyllic airbrushed snapshots of our contrasting and occasionally brutal reality – is to blame for my folly. Needless-to-say, our evening was far from picture perfect idealism.

What I failed to consider is that life would not cease to occur around us; however special, a trip to savour the delights of two of Great Britian’s most influential chefs Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers – who, together trained and inspired Jamie Oliver – at their beautiful restaurant in Hammersmith, sadly did not ensure that the day was stress-free. A new job, long working hours, a grumpy parent causing –petty and pointless- emotional distress and sheer exhaustion collided between my companion and I as we openly shared our burdens of toil and frustration on the circuitous train journey to our heavenly destination. I am sure it is not surprising that train tedium did not do much to soothe our frazzled nerves.

Still, we finally arrived in good time and typically, I felt a lot less like Keira Knightly –sweeping effortlessly through the doors in Chanel Rouge – and related slightly more to the social awkwardness of a real-life Bridget Jones, surrounded by ‘upper-middle class twits’ as she herself delicately phrases it. In retrospect of this moment, my feelings of ridiculousness act almost as a forewarning –that I did not heed- instead, I reconciled myself to my social absurdity and focused on lubricating my palette.

The fruit of the season; a delightfully floral and nectar-honeyed pear coupled with frosted prosecco warmed the cockles of my soul and endeared my heart to The River Cafe- were I not already enchanted by many a recommendation and rumour, it would have been love at first sight. The beau was rapturously contented from the minute he got his mitts around a bottle of beer – simple pleasures for a simple fellow.

A quick glance down the length of this vibrantly bustling space and a large projected clock brought me up to speed as I realised that time had evaded me throughout our wearying travels. Despite the 9.15pm booking, we are speedily whisked through the suburban canteen of a restaurant and seemingly relocated at a humble table for two opposite the bar; time for wine. A careful scour of the menu and I saw nothing of familiarity and had not got a clue which wine to choose; I am so accustomed to choosing a Chardonnay Semillon that I was utterly flummoxed and felt a Bridget moment coming on. Opting for a stab-in-the-dark-lucky-dip approach, I pointed and picked a...Sardinian Vermentino 'Crabilis'

Lucky-dip wine No1 had an overpowering gooseberry sourness that followed my pear aperitif and made me want to cry acid. I was then recommended the Riesling of Trentino (south of the Tyrolean alps, which was still not quite what I was after, but frankly it complimented my companions antipasti of tender chargrilled squid with subtle chillies; the fusion of gentle aromatic warmth, softly smoky flesh and peppery rocket met with the citric syrup of the Riesling and the equilibrium was quite perfect.

Anticipating his gamey grouse, the beau was drinking a sharp and crimson-rich red, which I can’t believe met with his squid quite as harmoniously as my white; Oh the pleasure that can be sought through anti-analytical simplicity –if you happen to be of that breed.

Honestly, the squid could have stood alone; I could have polished it off easily with water- yes, tap water- and skipped straight to the cheque. No doubt I would be missing an important poetic romance of the experience – the myriad of elegant profundities of squid and chillies as enhanced by a buono vino. Believe me, Passion Pants (our saucy waiter) who was no doubt soused with frosty nectar himself, did much to educate me in the subtleties of authentic Italian cuisine; he was clearly motivated by the taste and experience of food, driven to share and inspire others with the joys of Italian food and not by the jingle-jangle-denim-pockets of regular clientele and investment bankers.

He proudly presented -the absurdly simple and yet majestically perfect- crusty warm ciabatta with the River Cafe’s florally Tuscan extra virgin olive oil as if it were a bottle of Moët & Chandon Cuvée. Quite rightly, the complexities of the oil were staggering, much like sampling a fine wine.

It was the Bagna Cauda di Nebbiolo that Passion Pants recommended that blew me away; truly I could have cried right there on my plate, it was so heavenly. Ever the figure of poise and elegance, I waited and...well, cried in my secondi –oh, I shall explain shortly. Originally a Piedmontese dip of anchovies, garlic, olive oil and butter, served as an accompaniment to autumnal vegetables, this Bagna Cauda was enriched with a rubied Piedmontese Nebbiolo. The river cafe’s seductively sensuous ‘hot bath’ sauce – in translation- was drizzled over boiled seasonal vegetables, pumpkin, Florence fennel, spinach and chard stalks.

The anchovy and Nebbiolo red wine sauce was a smooth, dark hue some degree between mahogany and burgundy. It was chocolaty-rich, yet with saline savouriness, it was vaguely reminiscent of Sunday’s roast gravy – and no not Bisto gravy, I mean pan-scraping gravy with rump beef juices, sweet roasted garlic and red onion. This sauce inescapably and evocatively transported me back to autumnal Sunday’s of my childhood and summoned sensory –semi-kinaesthetic- memories of background acoustic folk, crackling hearth lulls and aromatic wisps of my Dad’s amazing roast dinners. It was just too bad that he happened to be the irritable cause of my upset. And, it was around the point when Passion Pants brought me my beautiful secondi of wood-roasted Dover sole –silkily delicate and soft- with barky marjoram, intense capers, trevise and Italian spinach. Once again, the flavours gently balanced to perfection, however, my heart ruled over my head.

Unfortunately, as the beau casually and softly referred to a gruff lecture that I had received earlier that evening from my father – whom I have always thought that I could never please anyway- I cried. I did not burst into a fit of tears – no, at this point, nobody would have noticed the guiltily-quiet, salty tear slowly stroke my cheek and drop tragically from my chin into my beautiful dinner, nobody but the terrified man seated opposite, who loves me. Yes, a heart-rules-over-head moment indeed, the tears fell prior to any warning and without any cerebral consent what-so-ever.

It was only natural – undeniably human- of me to react as I did, especially when the upset was stimulated by exhaustion, an abundance of alcoholic fuel and sparked by an asinine reminder from a lovely- however innately dim creature- a man.

Despite, my emotional emancipation and puffy-eyed-weariness the next morning, I thoroughly enjoyed my evening at the River Cafe and would definitely advocate a second visit. I, however, will endeavour to leave my tissues behind next time and will be moved to cry a river for no man, rather I will shed a tear exclusively for the decadent deliciousness of The River Cafe’s variety of peasant-grub-luxury.
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EF
7 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 5
Sunday, November 15, 2009