Boisdale of Belgravia

The food is overpriced and not all that outstanding. Yes my fillet steak was nice, it cost £32 without veg!!! Service poor, waiters who don't get round to serving your wine and interrupt your starters to give you main course cutlery!

Would I go back - No!
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Jane
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 6
Monday, October 29, 2007

Atmosphere was nice but foods was awful. The steak that I ordered very well done was rare.. and service debatable. And oh so expensive for what they are serving!!
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Honey
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Food was great! Starters (crab & scallops) were superb. The lamb was fantastic. Would definitely have it again. Dessert-custard & raspberry tart was perfect! Great feel to the restaurant; good for business or casual lunch. Music just right, lighting etc. I would go back and recommend the restaurant to others.
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Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, July 18, 2007

The food was exceptional, especially the fillet steak, it was cooked perfectly medium rare. The atmosphere was great, having the jazz music really livens the place up, very relaxing. Overall I was very happy with my time at Boisdale Belgravia, the service was friendly, the atmosphere was sensual and relaxing, the staff were knowledgeable on their products, and I will definitely give Boisdale another visit very soon.
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Christine Echeverria
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, July 18, 2007

What can I say? If they're any of you out there that fancy a nice bit of fresh tender meat or better still,a gorgeous hunk of flesh on the bone ... and I know that you do, ladies and gentelmen - you all must hurry to the Boisdale!

The food is divine, the staff attentive, especially that French bloke, the surrounding tres' elegant as they'd say in Le Havre! And don't lets forget the jazz - the night we went we had a beautiful brunette warbling for us!!!

There is one drawback it's not cheap but my philosophy is, if you want cheap go to a KFC!!!

If you decide not to take my advice and not to go - you'll be silly billys!!
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The Priapic Ferret
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 7
Saturday, July 07, 2007

Reasonable food, well presented. Great selection of wines and cigars and reasonable quality jazz. Pleasant service - if a little slow, but nothing to complain about. To the other reviewers who complained about the cigar smoke - what do you expect from an establishment that bills itself as a restaurant / cigar club?
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Jack Banner
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 6
Monday, February 19, 2007

How does one start to describe a restaurant so bland? Well, perhaps bland is the wrong word as the decor is about as faux Scots as you get this side of the Royal Mile. It is of the food of which I speak.

What makes a good restaurant? I would suggest welcoming, helpful staff; a pleasant ambience; good food.

Well Boisdale, you get zero out of three.

First of all, someone needs to tell the bar staff that a gin and tonic comes with lime NOT lemon. Someone else needs to tell the staff how the tables are numbered - it took three waiters to work out where our table was. Yet a third person needs to teach a waiter that when a customer orders food he should not go back to the customer twice to try and persuade him that he doesn't really want what he ordered.

You probably now have the impression that even before the food arrived I wasn't very impressed with Bosidale.

Many years ago I learnt that restaurants that have laminated menus should be avoided at all costs. Boisdale has laminated menus.

The food arrived. I had a starter of a potatoe cake with a poached egg and some kind of fish-tasting sauce on top. The best that can be said of it is that it was boring and the combination didn't work. My main course was a steak with chips (I refused the bearnaise sauce and "slow roasted" tomato - (shades of chain pub food). Excellent quality meat, cooked exactly as I requested, but what a pity it was luke warm when it arrived. I shan't mention the chips as they tasted as though they were made from frozen.

All in all, a pretty dismal meal in a pretty dismal restaurant.
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Warren Alexander
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Monday, February 12, 2007

This restaurant does nor deserve a long, detailed review but service, food, ambience and cost are the four items that justify you not going there.

1. Service - both mine and my guests arms were exhausted from having to constantly raise them to get any kind of service.

2. Food - so expensive and when are they going to be able to understand the concept of what is actually mean't by rare, medium or well done.

3. Ambience - large tables full of tourists (nothing wrong there), men smoking huge cigars (super unless you like havana tasting food) and then there was the so called jazz band - three bored, disinterested guys playing poor quality songs

4. Cost - for what it is, don't bother and be aware that if you are there after 10pm you will be charged £4 per person for the band. I calculated around 100+ people in the place so for 25 minutes of bland jazz, the restaurant is having the last laugh.

I have lived in London for over 25 years and have been lucky enough to eat in some of the capitals' finest restaurants but for sure, this is not one of them.
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Monday, November 27, 2006

We went to the Boisdale for a colleagues leaving do, the food was reasonable, if offle/haggis is your thing. The scallops however, weren't good for £15+ for the starter rather, disapointing. The biggest let down, which quite frankly distroyed the evening was the service after we had finished dinner. Pls beware if you do go to the Boisdale, they have the most agressive, hideous door man/bully boy that snatched an almost full glass of cointreau from my hand, and copious other drinks from my companions, not five minutes after the bar man served them to us. A reasonably nice evening was ruined, by horrid staff. Pls don't expect great service here, as you will be let down.
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kate
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Boisdale is a great place to max your credit card on expensive booze and smokes, with a wine list that actually arrives in a ring binder and a similarly weighty tome full of cigars, some of which cost as much as a used family hatchback.

Unfortunately, once you’ve tried the steak in truffle sauce – which is spectacular – and downed a few bottles of red to the sound of a usually excellent jazz band, there’s quite a lot left to be desired if you’re going to part with so much cash.

The menu is disappointing once you’ve been there once. Simply cooked game, fish and steaks feature in a big way but, the steak aside, the promise of hearty British food simply isn’t matched by what lands on your plate.

On my last visit, and it will probably be my last visit, I went for whole roast duck and – to my surprise – was presented with just that. A roast duck, slightly cold, on a plate, on its own.

The menage a trois, a starter combining three different types of salmon, is a similarly disappointing affair. Three chunks of forlorn looking fish, on a plate, for well over a tenner.

To be fair, a side order of vegetables arrived with the duck, but for a meal costing nearly £100 a head a little presentation would go a long way.

Another issue is the layout. Boisdale has expanded over the years to occupy various new buildings within the London terrace where it sits, and unless you book early, you might end up in the old restaurant – well away from the band, and the atmosphere, looking at a coffee machine and a bored waitress.

If you like cigars, jazz and fine wine with food as an afterthought then Boisdale is the place for you, otherwise, there are far better places to spend your money, and if you’re eating here you’ll spend a lot.
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Pascal
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Thursday, November 09, 2006