Crazy Bear

Possibly the most overpriced thai I have ever had. Wouldn't bother with this one. Firstly they never replied to my email request for a table and secondly I would say that my local take away is 10 times better than this place for both food and price. My duck was tougher than the wheels on my car. Poor! Service was good tho and place was quite nice.
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2 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Sunday, April 11, 2010

When I called up to book the gentleman I spoke to was very insistent we have the set menu. I explained we did not want this and was it mandatory? He said no but was still very insistent we had this. He also requested we pay a deposit of £30 a head. As I did not have my credit card at this time I said I would call back with it.

When I called back the week before to check I spoke to a female who confirmed we did NOT have to have the set menu. She also never requested the deposit.

I also called up on the day to see if we could bring along a small cake as it was my friends birthday - bare in mind there were only 6 of us and such a cake would have cost £10 at the most for us to bring. I was informed that they wished to charge us £50 for the privilege - I am not sure what exactly you would have been charging for there - 6 plates and forks?

Onto the evening…. Firstly as soon as we got there we were told the table was only for 2 hours, admittedly this was in the title of the email I had received confirming the booking however it was never verbally pointed out to me and it is very easy to miss in the title -

I raised this with the manager and he did kindly offer to have a booth available in the bar for us after our 2 hour slot - which was at 9.15.

Our meal was lovely and the staff serving us i.e. the waiters were very polite and helpful.

However at 9 (15 mins before the end of our 2 hour slot) we were asked if we minded moving to the bar as our booth was ready. We had just ordered another bottle of wine and were told this could come to the bar with us. This was all fine, however when we got down to the bar there was no booth ready nor did one appear to be clearing soon. Although 5 minutes earlier my friend had been to the bathroom and seen an empty booth - it had obviously been filled in this time. Why were we asked to leave our table when the booth was not free??

The staff then tried to clear some seats for us by asking some poor other girls to move up and sit very closely on the sofa. We then asked to see the manager again and it was like the manager had completely forgotten ever promising us the booth. We were just left standing in the middle of the bar whilst waiting staff were trying to serve others and the poor girls who had been asked to move quite rightly scowled at us making us feel very uncomfortable.

We asked for the bill and it took a further 10 minutes to come and we were amazed to see a bottle of wine on it which we had ordered at the table and which had been brought but had not been opened as we did not have a seat or glasses. Did the manager think we were going to take this and drink it on the street??

We paid the bill and not the service charge although I do feel the waiters that served us were fine.
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4 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 5
Monday, January 25, 2010

This has to be the worst dining experience I have had in 12 years in London. 6 of us booked a table here for a friends birthday, and even the booking process was fraught with difficulties and bad attitude. We were told for a group of 6 that we had to order off the set menu by one member of staff, but then another told us we didn't have to. In addition they wanted to charge us a £50 service charge if we wanted to bring in a cake for our friend. Now on to the evening itself - we were hounded to order as quickly as possible as the table had a 2 hour turnaround. Ten minutes before the 2 hours were up we were told that they had cleared a booth for us downstairs in the bar where we could go and finish our drinks, so got us to move downstairs only to find there was no free area for us to sit. We were left standing around with drinks, coats and bags in hand and when I tried to complain I was met with complete and utter incompetence, arrogance and accusations that I was being rude to them. This place has the rudest, most arrogant and incompetent staff I have ever seen in a restaurant. The food is reasonable, but overpriced. There are any number of better Thai restaurants than Crazy Bear in London. Avoid at all costs.
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David Knox
1 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, January 23, 2010

I I booked the Crazy Bear a couple of weeks ago for my partners birthday. I booked a booth which was cosy and very romantic. We were both really impressed. The service was brilliant to the point that when I droppied my fork the passing waiter picked it up and gave me another one. We ordered Champagne which was temparture and quality perfect. The food was served quickly and the portions were good. The waiter that mainly served us was very attentive. It was a really nice surprise even though I had told them when I booked that It was my a birthday and when we ordered our dessert my partners came with a candle and a happy birthday biscuit.

The male toilets were awesome, I didn't visit the womens one..I should have gone just to have a look!

All in all it was a great restaurant, good value for money, would definitely go there again soon.
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DW
10 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Sunday, December 06, 2009

The Fitzrovia branch. The entrance is disgusting and doesnt strike 'crazy bear', you arrive and greeted with wonderful chandalier at the reception area - on route to bar area downstairs. The bar is made up of leather stools, leather booths, old school glamour...you will notice cosy couples drinking champagne - clearly on a date, groups of friends. Part of the service is for the host to collect you and take you to your table, ours has trouble in rounding up our little group ! i think i lead the group upstairs before host re asserted himself and showed us our table. Food is as it says oriental - i would say if want good food then oriental food - try golden dragon chinatown - ok not posh but this is the real thing - for posh, glam, fusion Hakkasan - for simple budget but tasty thai - Busaba Eathai. Having said this I cannot fault Crazy bear for the entertainment in theirs of clientale, decor, great for people watching and have a laugh with friends! Romantic dating venue - it claims but do you really want to see lots and lots of cosy couples on your date !
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foodie
6 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 6
Sunday, October 11, 2009

I booked for a group of friends and myself to eat in your restaurant in Fitzrovia last night. I’ve been lucky enough to visit the members club in Covent Garden recently as a guest and had heard really good things about the food in the Fitzrovia restaurant so was really looking forward to it.

A table had been booked for seven of us at 7pm. I arrived at 6.30pm was shown to the bar and waited for my friends to turn up. By 6.50pm we’d all arrived bar one member of the group. Table service was slow, but we were in no rush so it wasn’t an issue.

At 7.15pm we were told that we were late for our table and needed to make our way upstairs to eat as we had to be out by 9pm. We hadn’t been asked to go to our table any earlier than this despite having been there for some time and the instruction was rather *abrupt* to say the least.

We got to the table and ordered our food and wine. I wanted to order the vegetarian starter, however it wasn’t available. So I changed my order accordingly. Slightly annoying that we didnt get told when we were given menus. The starters didn’t all arrive at the same time. For some reason mine arrived 10 minutes before any of the others. I do so like eating on my own too.

The main courses arrived – the food was good. Aside from the fact that one main course turned up stone cold. We called it to the attention of our waiter and it was cooked from scratch again so that problem was rectified. The wine was good. However I would say that overall the table service was lacking to say the least – getting attention from our waiter was a challenge. Plus it didn’t help that he managed to successfully elbow one of our group in the back of the head whilst walking past. And no he didnt apologise.

At 8.50pm we were politely asked to move downstairs as our table needed to be cleared. Ok. Fine. We were all quite understanding about that. Despite the fact that we had only just finished our main courses…..

We were moved to a booth downstairs and again the table service was slow and on two separate occasions we had to go to the bar to get service.

All in all it was an *ok* evening. However I for one expected more, and was slightly embarrassed as I had *bigged* up the experience to my friends.

Up until last night I had been toying with the idea of getting a gold membership as I entertain a lot for business. My mind has been changed and I’ll be looking at alternative options now. No. 9 Adam St is looking favourite. Their service is great.
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Mel Buckenham
7 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Thursday, September 24, 2009

I took my partner to the Crazy Bear a few weeks back as a surprise and wasn’t disappointed. I called and booked a week in advance and got a really good table time on a Friday night.

We got there early and sat in the downstairs bar which is fantastic, the décor was amazing and could have quite happily sat there all night making our way through the drinks list.

A member off staff notified us that the table was ready, whisked up our drinks and we were presented with a well placed table. I must add from start to finish all of the staff were excellent and always close to hand if you needed anything.

As some reviews have said the food wasn’t amazing but its better then good, a wide choice of dishes and some pretty big too. For a London restaurant the food was well priced and was happy to pay the 12.5% added service charge.

All in all a really nice and different night out, an impressive place first date, just for drinks or for a special dinner.
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Honestjak
10 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Wednesday, August 26, 2009