Confucius

The old chef is back, Happy days! The restaurant design and décor have taken a hit, but food is back to it's best, with some slight changes. Very good.
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Duncan Cormack
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 9
Tuesday, June 24, 2008

We have recently visited this restaurant with three Chinese friends. The chef must have changed since the last review - the food was sensational!

We have eaten in some of the top Chinese restaurant's in London, including Ken Hom's Memories of China some years ago. This was by far the very best we have eaten in. The service was good too. The food was fresh, the aromas delicious and each dish delicately produced and well received by all of us. We were in Wimbledon on business but we would certainly make a special journey to this restauranti n the future.
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Jeanette Selfridge
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 10
Wednesday, June 11, 2008

I have always been pro Confucius, and know my way round the menu to avoid the less savoury dishes.

Unfortunately the chef has moved across the road to Confucius 2, and the replacement chef along with the food is well below takeaway par.

The menus have changed and gone up in price, the walls have been painted and the cutlery updated, unfortunately they forgot to upgrade the food.

Will not be going back to a place I have used for 15 years.

Will try Confucius 2
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Duncan Cormack
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Tuesday, November 27, 2007

We were intrigued by the wide range of opinions and decided to eat here last Friday evening.

The decoration is ok, nothing special, but acceptable. The welcome and the service was very good. The wine list was fine and very cheap - £15 for a bottle of Sancerre is off-license price.

So overall, not bad at all.....except the food. We wondered about Charles who gave 0/10 for the food. We think that is a bit harsh. We liked the seaweed, so we'll give the food 1/10. The two main problems were the ingredients - poor quality - and the cooking - mostly bland.

Don't go here unless you just want to drink and look at the food.
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Joel and Marie-Helene
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 3
Monday, January 15, 2007

As with most Chinese restaurants in London, I would only go for the Dim Sum.

This is excellent quality and much more pleasant than going to Chinatown.

I would recommend the lunchtime Dim Sum menu, but would agree with some of the other reviews regarding the evening food. have to admit that I've not had decent evening food at any restaurant in London.
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She
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Friday, August 18, 2006

We had noticed this restaurant before and decided to give it a try. The decor is modern and tasteful, not sure why there is a wooden well in the front though. Service is very good.

We had a starter of a spring roll each, and they brought some shoots and cucumber pieces for us too. This was very nice.

My husband had the crispy duck and I had chilli king prawns. We both ordered some noodles with bean sprouts.

My king prawns had no chilli AT ALL (and the menu said it was hot - 2 chilli signs next to it), they came in this very thick garlicy sauce that was quite gross actually. I managed to eat 4 I think and then could stomach no more. I usually love seafood, but the sauce put me off it totally. I filled up on the noodles.

The place did not have that much ambiance to be honest, it played this funny music box music too, we felt flat there, and would not go again. Our meals, including a coke each, came to £34.00
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Jennifer
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 3
Sunday, May 07, 2006

I was a little nervous when a friend booked us here having seen the mixed reviews. But I need not have been: the food was good, in fact rather a cut above the average, with a good vegetarian selection (not always a strong point for Chinese restaurants in the UK). And the ambience was very relaxing - the decor is tasteful and (apart from the well at the entrance) very restrained.

The overall bill, at about £25 a head, included a very good French red. I will be going back.
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Dave Jennings
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Thursday, March 02, 2006

I'm really surprised by the people who call this their favourite restaurant - they definitely need to get out more! Confucius is a great looking, trendy, well designed restaurant that promises much but serves food that is so boring that if the interior matched, it would be woodchip wallpaper!

A million takeaways have served this stuff for 20 years. Even 20 years ago, none of Confucius' food would have even been considered average.

Sadly, the good restaurants have moved on and Confucius has managed to carve itself out a niche serving the same tired, old poor quality menu to clients who know no better. The prices are low-ish, but still higher than the quality of the food merits. You can't call this food good value at any price!

Wimbledon doesn't have a good Chinese.

This is definitely one place to avoid.
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charles
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Friday, February 24, 2006

Slightly chilly at times but the food and the service warm you up. Great value for money. Although one word of warning - don't order the prawns if you are given a table by the fish tank. It leaves you with an aftertaste of guilt as they watch you eat their friends.
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Caroline
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 8
Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Always difficult to review a Chinese restaurant in London, particularly outside Chinatown. This one is typical of a suburban Chinese in that the food is not really authentically Chinese. That's not to say it is bad - in fact the Sunday lunchtime we were there the restaurant was almost full of seemingly satisfied diners both Chinese and non-Chinese. We went for a la carte rather than dim sum (perhaps a mistake). The hot and sour soup was indeed hot and sour, but lacked flavour. The chilli/garlic prawns were smothered in onions (no chilli). Crispy duck was full-flavoured but covered in an inexplicable sauce (didn't taste bad though). One other point is that steamed rice was unreasonably priced at £2.50/head! I should stress that the food was OK - there was nothing actually wrong with it. Just that it has drifted from being truly regional Chinese cuisine - no doubt because of local tastes. If you want real Chinese food I'm afraid you'll probably have to go to Chinatown! The ambience and service were quite adequate - no complaints here.
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mark
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
Sunday, February 12, 2006