Garrick Wine Bar

This was my second trip here on the strength of an exquisite bowl of moules marinieres the first time around, sat in the cavernous basement sipping a good red; any pretentious francophile such as myself would have felt at home. Few places in London offer decent French bistro grub at reasonable prices with as much Gallic flair - another being Le Mercury, Islington. On my second trip this love affair became sour: the starters had morphed into an ugly and tedious gastro-pub style: sat on limp rocket and splattered with an over-viscous "balsamic" spirograph nonsense. My starter - mussels again - was a gritty catastrophe. Unforgivable.

Thankfully the main courses were as before - conservatively brasserie fayre - a well-grilled steak frites, nicely red, so was the wine - we were back on track, despite rubbish service throughout.

Then the bill came (and this has become a pet hate of mine) with 12.5% service charge added. I requested a bill net of said charge. The waitress argued back "why, you don't want to pay us?" in her consistently unpleasant tone. Naturally, I like to pay a tip in cash, with a better chance of the diligent waiter receiving it. This miserable woman didn't receive it.
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Escoffier
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 7
Tuesday, September 02, 2008

Says it's a wine bar.

Looks like a wine bar.

Prices like a wine bar.

Where's the wine????

They really need a wine lover to put the wine list together and stop choosing wine according to the lowest wholesale price and potential mark-up.

Le orrible wine
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Charlie
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4
Monday, February 27, 2006

Good french grub in a cosy cellar atmosphere.
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Jim
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, December 28, 2005