Floridita

I came here for a special occasion - a good friend's hen party. We arrived in good time, the club/restaurant had a good buzz and we found ourselves a seat and waited to be served drinks... 15 minutes later we established there was table service, and it eventually took several prompts to be served. We ordered a mixture of different cocktails and non-alcoholic options, but strangely they all had the same overpowering taste of mint.

The food menu had a great range of options and a vast list of different steak cuts.

However the problems started when one of our party, who was pregnant and thus had to be careful to not to certain foods, ordered a well done steak. She was first served a medium-well done steak, which had to be sent back. The response was 'that is how we serve well-done', totally missing the point that by serving the steak less than well done they were putting one of their customer's health at risk. When the steak returned it looked as if it had been incinerated.

Three other members of the table ordered steaks, and all had a bland favour and pappy texture. 4 of the table thus ate nothing but starters. Our next door table also had their meal sent back to the kitchen.

On complaining, we were told the manager was 'too busy' to deal with us. The situation got worse when they added £6 pp to the bill for 'music charge'. We were told they had a policy to call a customer 4 times before a booking to explain this charge; we received no calls.

We gave up before dessert / coffee and will certainly never return.

The place was packed by the time we left with posers drinking at the bar and couples dancing. I cannot imagine these customers bring much income to the venue - which leaves me to think they are missing a trick.
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Teirrah
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 0
Sunday, June 07, 2009

We went to Floridita last night as a last minute idea. There were 6 of us and having chatted to the friendly doorman we chose Floridita over Mezzos to eat at. We were quickly told we'd have to leave the table by 10 which was no problem as we all wanted an early night. We had a lovely table and the service was friendly and efficient. The food was distinctly average and expensive. The wine was also expensive but was at least nice. When we got the bill we'd all been charged at £6 music fee even though we sat far from the stage and were leaving at 10pm!! Worse still, the 12.5% service charge had been added AFTER the collective £36 music fee!! We spoke to a waiter about this and he was quick to volunteer to take the charge off, in fairness, but I think they would only have been to quick to charge us had we not have scrutinized the bill which I think is appalling but probably common practice in a lot of these places. Probably wouldn't rush back there but wanted to write this mainly to warn people of the charge.
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Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 3
Sunday, May 10, 2009

My brother and his wife visited London for the week-end so I decided to take them to what used to be one of my fav restaurant in London, Floridita.

When we sat down around the bar for a few drinks before diner, we waited 15 mins for someone to take our order before we finally had to order at the bar. At least the drinks were as usual splendid and the bartender did appologize for the wait and made us laugh while making the drinks.

For the second round, we managed to catch the attention of a waitress who was - no joke- bitting her nails in a corner of the room. When we told her that it was a bit complicated to get drinks through her, she told us that there was nothing she could do about it, and decided to ignore us after that.

When we complained at the reception, the lady pretty much told the same thing, but in an even ruder way. Appalled by this, we left and had diner somewhere else.

What a disappointment it was. I will go back for the drinks and dancing, but it is about it...
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Robert Ciboj
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 5
Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Last Saturday I went to Floridita to celebrate my friend's wife birthday, I really thought we were going to have a great night and dance till late. However, the night was cut short when we encountered, what I could describe as appalling service and shocking attitude from the staff. Once we finished diner, we asked the waiter if we could move to the front area near the dance floor (there were some empty tables). He came back saying that we could only move if we bought a bottle of champagne or one of their luxurious bottled drinks! We were surprised to hear that since we had already spent a lot for dinner and paid £6 per head on top for the live band.

Anyway, we moved to the bar area instead where we asked for some drinks. When we got our drinks, my friend's mojito was full of ice and a tiny bit of rum/soda. We brought this up to the attention of the waiter who completely ignored us. My friend mentioned this again to the girl at the front desk who in return told my friend off. She was patronising and challenged us to either stay or go, if we were not happy. It was really embarrassing, needless to say we left very disappointed.

There are many other places in London where you can have a really good night out. Personally, I would not recommend Floridita to anyone, I went there not only to eat but also drink a mojito or two and dance salsa. Unfortunately, I did not do either and experienced very poor customer service.
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s gil - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Saturday, April 18, 2009

We decided to go to this place as we thought is going to be a night to remember to celebrate my wife birthday but never the less the night was one to remember but for the wrong things.

I never imagine the poor customer service such a high place provide specially with the girl in the front desk she does not have any experience dealing with customers needs.

After spending a lot of money in our meal we decided to go to the sitting area to enjoy the Live Band that we already paid for ,we come acrros with the news that we have to buy a bottle of champagne to sit in the front area that was empty all the time we stay there.

We have some drinks in the bar area and one of these drinks was a mojito supose to be the special of the house but was one of the worst drinks that I have to paid and after triyng to solve the problem I was approached with the girl of the front desk and couple of security guards only for the reason that I was not happy with that drink..

I dont think was a night to go back to at all.
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R Paredes
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 1
Sunday, April 12, 2009

a group of 10 of us had a table booked at Floridita last night. despite it being 6.30 and basically empty, the service was awful. They had only managed to lay the table for 9 people and when we pointed this out, the reply was very rude.

We bought a cake for my friend's birthday and were told that she could look at it for free but if anyone wanted a taste it would be £3.50 each. I wouldnt mind, but again, the staff were so rude when they were telling us this.

We were then told that a mojito at our table would be £9 but if we bought it at the bar it was £4.50. This was ridiculous seeing as our table was about 1 metre from the bar.

The food was nice, but in no way amazing and everything is overpriced.

The dancing and the music was good but the whole place was so overcrowed it was hard to enjoy it.

Generally, the horrendously arrogant and rude staff ruined our evening.
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Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 1
Sunday, March 01, 2009

Very disappointing. I booked a table for the second sitting at 9.30pm, we arrived early and had a drink in the upstairs bar Meza, which was lovely. At 9.30pm I was told our table should be ready so off we trotted downstairs to enjoy what I'd heard was great food and a great night. It was very packed and it took us 10 mins to even find someone to tell we had arrived. We were told it would be 10mins before the table would be ready, fine. 30mins later, with much chasing, we were shown a table basically on the very packed dancefloor, where we couldn't move let alone have a conversation, they very 'helpfully' suggested they could put up a rope barrier! We enquired how long it would be if we waited for a better table, and got no straight answer, just a brush off. After another 20minutes, and after much ignoring from waiting staff, and what I assume to be management, no one could tell us how long it would be. This restaurant operates a two sitting system and the second was meant to start at 9.30pm so surely those eating earlier should have been moved on. We certainly weren't the only ones waiting! After nearly an hour of waiting, we eventually walked out. It was a complete embarrassment, friends i hadn't seen for ages had come over from Dubai and I had booked Floridita as I had heard good things about it, but I saw none of that on Friday night. it was a shambles, the staff were disorganised and when they did speak to us they were rude and unhelpful, at one point, when we asked for the possibility of a different table, a senior member of staff said we would get what we were given! It really is a shame because its a lovely bar, the salsa dancing gave it a great atmosphere, and the food looked great, its just a shame they couldn't manage to get us a table within an hour of our booking!!!! I certainly won't be returning and will not be recommending Floridita in the future!
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 0
Monday, February 16, 2009

Do not go to this dreadful place. It should be great in theory, though expensive (£30 for 4 drinks c. £50 meal) but extremely poor management ruins the whole thing. We booked a table for 9.30pm (2nd sitting) 2months previously. We had drinks upstairs first but when we went down to Floridita, there was a terrible crush and we were kept hanging around for over an hour, being shoved about, until eventually we were shown a "waiting area" - under the stairs and next to the kitchen, unable to dance or get sorted or get drinks easily. Management and staff apologised and then got irritated and we got very frustrated. They were unable to provide the basic service of getting us to our table on time or with a reasonable delay. There seemed to be no 1 manager in charge or anyone who knew what was going on. By the time we were seated - at 10.45pm, some of the group had no time to eat and the whole evening was ruined. They advertise dinner and dancing - we weren't able to do either!
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 0
Monday, January 26, 2009

We had a ghastly experience at this awful place: despite having booked many weeks in advance we were given a lousy table on the periphery and were rushed through our meal so that a 2nd sitting could be accomodated. Over half the red wines on the list were unvailable! The starters are all pre-prepared and arrived within seconds of ordering and the main coures were decidely average but over-priced: it cost £300 for 5 people for 2 courses. Our waiter was nice, and frankly was embarressed about the wine situation, but the front of house staff had a 'couldn't care less' attitude.
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d lyons
Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Sunday, December 14, 2008

We thoroughly enjoyed our experience at Floridita. Having been recommended the venue by a friend who had recently held a function there, we had high expectations. The place itself is beautiful - very glamourous with a party atmosphere. We were seated in the semi-private Bar Constante but kept a fantastic view of the authentic live Cuban performance. Food and service were both spot-on, attentive without being intrusive. My guests were very happy with their recommendations and raved about the cocktails. Extensive and well-chosen wine list, too. Not being big dancers we enjoyed the people-watching aspect of this venue and it sure does have it's share of talented movers and shakers. Overall, this is a special restaurant/club and we absolutely loved it!
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M - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, September 04, 2008