Boisdale of Belgravia

Probably a bit expensive for what it is. The cheapest burger was £8, with another £4.50 on top if you want chips. It was good, but that's a lot of money for a burger. That's also off the bar menu, which we had to ask for specially. I had a couple of nice cocktails, but as usual you're looking at about £10 each. Wine ranged from £5 to £10 a glass. Service was a bit slow to start with because our side of the restaurant was empty, but once someone was over our way, they were friendly and eager to help. Drinks in the bar after dinner were enjoyable, particularly being able to have a cigar on the terrace and live jazz downstairs. Verdict? Be prepared to pay above odds if you want to eat; however, it's a great place for a huge selection of whiskeys and cigars and the right atmosphere to enjoy them in.
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Dan - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Monday, August 16, 2010

This is an overpriced restaurant drinks-wise, but the Jacobite menu offers 2 courses for under £20, with plenty to choose from. I ate delicious steak tartare, and stole some of my partner's haggis and burger, and all were tasty, juicy and moreish. The atmosphere (it was a Saturday night with live music) kept us there for over 4 hours, and the staff were more than happy to accommodate us between the bar and the restaurant, delivering the most delicious cocktails (we drank Mojitos and Rusty Nails all night) and happily letting us sniff the measure for a £270 shot of whiskey ordered by another customer. A superb venue for people-watching and whilst some might find the waiting staff efficient to the point of haughtiness, I enjoyed the brisk service and stoicism!
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knotofpeace
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 4
Monday, August 16, 2010

Dire! The four of us ate there yesterday and disappointing doesn't come close to this experience. Perhaps we expected too much from the description of 'Scottish' but putting a tartan carpet on the floor and a kilt on an Eastern European waitress (who does not know the capital of Scotland btw!) does not make a Scottish experience. Having haggis on the menu does not constitute Scottish cuisine. Stocking the bar with a very extensive whisky choice and then charging extortionate prices (i.e. Talisker 10 year-old at £19 a dram! It’s currently £23.99 a bottle at Sainsbury’s) is a joke. My friend and I use Arran Aromatics products at home so why did they have Dove hand soap in their restrooms? Where was the Kintyre cheese, the Islay lamb (their beef is advertised as Aberdeenshire but then so is every steak in London steakhouses), the abundance of Scottish seafood, the Ayrshire potatoes, Scottish butter, vegetables, etc. etc. etc? Even the bottled water was French! My husband had an overpriced small piece of chicken breast with cold vegetables and the rest of us had bland haggis (as opposed to the delicious offering in The Albannach). We really wanted dessert but avoided it as the menu had no Scottish cuisine, not even Cranachan. Sorry, but tatty decor, inattentive staff hanging around the bar chatting and not even asking customers how they enjoyed their meal, poor food, expensive whisky (but not the Islay choice of my husband's) and an uninteresting wine list of bottles under £50 if that is the most you want to pay will never tempt us back. Woeful, I'm afraid.
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L Telfer
2 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Sunday, June 20, 2010

The Good: - On a Friday night the live music is exceptional, and the atmosphere generated by the band is superb. You can stay at your table all night (we usually stagger out around 1am) and it's genuinely a lot of fun.

- The steaks are good quality and well-cooked.

- The drinks list (wine and spirits) is extensive and there will always be something which will appeal.

The Bad: - Apart from the steaks, the rest of the food is very average (at best). Trying to find a starter or pudding which I actually want to eat is always a struggle.

- It's expensive - and given the poor quality of much of the food, you do feel a bit of a mug paying £17 for a 3rd rate prawn cocktail.

If you like drinking good wine and whisky whilst listening (or dancing) to excellent live music, then this is the only place in London to go. If, however, you simply want a good value, top-notch meal, then you would be well advised to avoid this place.
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Robert Dawes
6 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 2
Monday, December 07, 2009

I can't understand why there are so many negative reviews here. I ate here recently and had a perfectly lovely meal. Good food, good wine, and good service.

The decor was a little odd, granted, but I think that's a pretty minor concern compared with the food, wine, and service.

I don't think it was hideously overpriced. We paid about £500 for a 3-course dinner for 6, including a bottle of Champagne, a bottle of white wine, and 2 bottles of red wine. Hardly extortionate, especially by central London standards. That was with most of us going a la carte, as well. If you choose from the set menu, dinner would be considerably cheaper.

One surprising feature of the restaurant was the cigar terrace. It's partly outside, but I suspect not sufficiently outside that it's actually legal. Still, it's well away from the restaurant, so it's not a problem unless you choose to walk into it.
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NautiusMaximus
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, November 24, 2009

The food was excellent. We had the MacSween haggis to start and the Boisdale burger (cooked medium as I asked) for main course and both were delicious and presented very nicely. The Bloody Mary sauce was very tasty. The price of the food was very reasonable and we felt that we got good value for money.

The ambience was a little stuffy for my tastes I would have liked it to be a little more relaxed. I think this is the type of restaurant that doesn’t see many Scottish people through its door. In fact when I called to book a table I had to spell my name 4 times, despite the fact that a) it is an easy Scottish/Irish name, b) it was an English person on the phone who should have known how to spell the name and when he read it back to me he pronounced it completely incorrectly. I could have forgiven someone who was French or something but coming from someone who was English was ridiculous.

I was soooo disappointed that they didn’t sell any Scottish beer or larger and the waiter didn’t even know what Irn Bru is, never mind have any! Hardly Scottish!

The table service was OK, but when they were not at the table the service staff spent far too much time standing around chatting amongst themselves which would explain why they didn’t know our table number, and if I want to see a waiter juggling a tray whilst walking between tables and customers, I would have gone to the circus.
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Sharon McGuire - View all reviews by this user
7 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 8
Sunday, July 19, 2009

We went there on Friday night to treat the mother in law. The place is totally and utterly overpriced and service . Where do I start...?

- they tried to take our food order before our wine (we had to ask for the wine list ) and the food arrived before the wine

- the bearnaise sauce (£25 for the main course) was lumpy. The steak was good but so it should for that price!

- the jazz was good, but having spent £250 for 3 people, I really resented paying £4 per person for the music - what a cheek!

- mad waitress behind the bar who looked seriously annoyed

- the place is shabby and scuffed. The toilets were just a joke. an old kitchen worktop as a vanity unit. and COVERED in dust. You really expect better from such an expensive place.

All in all, it is really over priced and clearly has had its day. It was busy which was a surprise. It should be empty.
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2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Monday, May 11, 2009

I've been coming to Boisdale's for years (8 to be precise). I've always enjoyed the food and the service has always been immaculate. Sadly the dinner I had there with friends on last Saturday has left a sour taste in the mouth and I won't be returning. I had booked a function room for 12 people and on the morning had 5 drop out, for a variety of reasons, having a child taken to hospital being one. Not ideal, obviously but I let the restaurant know and they moved the party out of the room and other people into it. They did say at the time that they would want to charge us for the full 12 dinners, however when we arrived we asked to discuss this further and this was deferred to the end of the meal.

The food was good as usual, and when the bill came it was for what the 7 of us had eaten and drunk, which was of course absolutely great. I questioned this and the waiter did say that someone would speak to me on Monday but that it was fine, so we split the bill and paid Then today I received a call saying they had reinstated the original 12 meals and they would be deducting this from the card I had made the original booking with. Apparently this was not to cause embarrassment, although I am now faced with the embarrassment of trying to recoup the money myself or swallowing the new raised bill myself. All could have been sorted out much easier at the time, while people were there, especially that I've been a long term customer.

Technically they are correct, however I'd expect more from a restaurant I had supported for 8 years, particularly as I had kept them informed all the way along and they had put other people in the room. Clearly though short term cash is more important than them than long-term custom. For that reason, my opinion is that if you're thinking of Boisdales, don't. They really don't deserve your money (or mine).
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Martin S
6 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, January 27, 2009

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
6 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
5 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Wednesday, October 24, 2007