maze

We celebrated my wife's 40th birthday at Maze; poor choice.

I don’t mind restaurants being pretentious, serving small dishes for outrageous amounts…however the food was down right disastrous – I am not sure it's the best way to describe it – maybe disgusting works better.

What surprises me time and again is people ability to lie and convince themselves that this is a decent restaurant.

If you want a good eat out experience better go to Hakkasan...
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Michael
3 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, November 01, 2011

We hadn't been for maybe a couple of years and having seen what Jason Atherton is doing at Pollen Street Social, we thought it was time to see how Maze fares without him.

Food quality wise , the answer is decently well. The food we ate wasn't better than it used to be, but it certainly wan't hugely worse. We each enjoyed the food, though some was better than others and some old favourites have disappeared. We thought the highlight was a slow-cooked veal with onion risotto, a slightly different take on an old favourite here.

The thing that seemed to have changed was the prices. When looking on the internet we saw courses at £17 or so an thought that they may have decided that fewer but larger courses is the way to go. But no, the portions are still tiny, and whilst a few years ago you'd just have ordered one or two more, you'd think a lot harder today. Frankly a moderately hungry adult is going to need five dishes . I had that yesterday and with just two glasses of the cheapest wines, and coffee it cost £100. At that point I'm starting to ask lots of "value" questions. Like is it reasonable to charge £5 for coffee and chocolates then deliver exactly two truffles each? Seriously, I use curry-houses that do better than that.

And of course whenever we went to Maze the place was pretty full. Yesterday they had part of the restaurant roped off and unused. In business all my life, I offer the following suggestion. The answer to declining customer numbers is never to put up prices so that a smaller audience is creating the same total profit as a big one. Its never to describe tiny courses as small to medium . Some of what I ate yesterday would struggle to reach small. The least I could pay for a decent glassful of white wine (was that really 175ml? ) was £9.50

I've always thought of Maze as one of my favourites- probably no more, and if I go back it'll either be on a fixed price lunch or a deal. Maybe this is where they're missing Jason Atherton- in leadership and maintenance of values - rather than in the kitchen alone.
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David Henderson
7 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 3
Thursday, August 18, 2011

The good: The service is excellent, all the staff are very polite, helpful and knowledgeable. A clever touch is the wine list on an iPad! We had a quick tour of the kitchen after and was interesting if maybe a little odd. The food was well presented and pleasant enough.

The bad: The portions are tiny, a mouse would be asking for more!! To be fair they warn you but state the portions are small to medium. If they have to warn you then that tells a story and prevents anyone from complaining about the portion size. The taste sensation they describe is missing, again its not bad but not a sensation.

Would I recommend going? If you have money to burn and no appetite then go otherwise there are far better places to go.
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5 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 2
Sunday, August 07, 2011

Went to Maze for their Monday lunch special and it was fantastic. We had a lovely table by the window and started off with a glass of champagne each. My husband ordered the beetroot and goats cheese plus the veal and onion risotto and I had the pressed chicken parfait and the schezuan beef and pork. Desserts were pistachio parfait and raspberry sorbet. All dishes were amazing but the beetroot and the beef were by far the best! We ordered the wine flight to go but were disappointed that the wines weren't matched to the course but for the price it was worth trying some different ones.

Total bill was £130 for 3 courses plus 3 wines and a champagne each and well worth it!
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9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, May 04, 2011

Not quite worth the £200 bill!

Don't get me wrong the food is beautifully presented and taste's nice - but thats just it NICE. I expected to have a taste sensation going on but it never happened.

The service is friendly, both me and my husband felt a little intimidated because everyone was a little overly friendly. Presentation is spot on and the atmosphere very nice but I did feel very let down.

My top tip try the Oxo tower
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Michelle Clarke
7 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 4
Tuesday, February 08, 2011

Went last Thursday and ordered 4 dishes from the lunch menu. The Cauliflower veloute & smoked Haddock was gorgeous, the hake - ok but lacked a something, roast partridge - spot on and the gingerbread was out of this world. The Service was charming as always even though we were late. The perfect escape from the madness of the January sales and unwind for an hour.
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Abis - View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Monday, January 10, 2011

We tried the new set lunch menu last week that included 3 dishes for £30. The food was fantastic as was the friendly service. We feel the menu has a good selection that caters for most tastes and the house wine is amongst the best we have had. We can only recommend Maze and definitely will be returning in the near future.
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Eliasam
9 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Friday, January 07, 2011

Went for lunch today and ordered: Salcombe crab, grapefruit fluid gel, mango, wasabi ice cream

followed by: Cornish lamb rack and shoulder, English garden mint gel

and finished with: Rice pudding, bitter chocolate, orange and thyme marmalade, orange ice cream.

All the dished were amazing, especially the lamb which was so tender and melt-in-the-mouth. The rice pudding was perfect for a cold winter's day! The downside is that is it overpriced compared to places like Petrus and the service was a bit slow.
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Mr CM - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, December 21, 2010

We had private dining, 7 course lunch for £100 a head. Overall I was very disappointed. We started with a seasonal veloute of cauliflower and jerusalem artichoke - this was fine (despite no amuse bouche) but it was downhill from there. Crab salad after that was fairly uninspiring with little of the grapefruit gel or mango that was meant to come with it. even the wasabi ice cream didn't really have any impact.

The roast bream was a fairly healthy dose of fish but didn't taste that fresh and was overcooked. There was also very little flavour from the squid bolognaise that was meant to accompany it and whilst I could see the chorizo the garlic puree was non existent.

The cannon of lamb was soft but without provenance. Given it was served with samphire I assume it was salt marsh lamb but quite frankly it was over seasoned and undistinguishable. The strips of fennel that it came with was more like sauerkraut - I took a poll round the table - not one labelled it fennel.

The farmhouse cheeses were just a choice of 3 and again uninspiring. THe only saving graces were the pre dessert and bitter chocolate delice.

Cannot recommend this place at all which is a shame as i had heard good things. Would instead recommend a more intimate tasting menu experience at Marcus Waring's or the Ledbury for about the same price.

Does not in my view deserve it's star or even consideration for a star!
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Stewart Hastie
4 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Monday, December 06, 2010

We went for my mothers birthday and have previously been twice before. Once to the chefs table. Previous experiences were very good. This time was incredibly disappointing.

The waiter was pushy, a tad unhelpful. As we chose from the main menu, he said to us you may want to order a couple of starters and mains as they are just taster sizes as well. Ok so you order a main at 28pnds, I think that should be sufficient as a main course. So we went for the tasting menu. We have all had many tasting menus over the years and been blown away (Petrus, Savoy - fab). This did nothing for the taste buds. The best bit was the company and wine.

The food was cold, from the very first dish, the cheese was a joke (it had probably been lying out all day, the dessert - a blackberry crumble was awful. When you think crumble and fruit... you don't get that - there was no crumble.

We have had many wonderful experiences at Ramsays other restaurants but this was poor. Better experiences can be found elsewhere. Over priced for poor quality food and service.
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3 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
Thursday, November 25, 2010