Langan's Brasserie

Langan's trades on past glories.

The atmosphere is still excellent - lively and fun and buzzing.

The clientele includes the upmarket, the wideboy and the dodgy.

The food is terrible. All of our tables variety dishes had been cooked an age ago and then re-heated. Everything dry and tasteless.

We had good fun though but would never come again if we wanted a satisfying food experience.
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Nick, London
5 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 3
Saturday, December 17, 2011

Had not been to Langhams for at least 5 years so thought would try it again but now wish we had not done so.

Langhams used to be good but now is tired, jaded and in need of some urgent re-decoration. The toilets both male and female were filthy dirty and we could not tell when they were last cleaned properly. However none of this would have really matter if the food had been good but it wasn’t.

The restaurant (Ground Floor) was busy which we suppose it should be on a Saturday night and the atmosphere was buzzing although a little too much 'Bling' was very apparent.

However the food is were Langhams failed to impress at all. We did not bother with starters and just ordered main courses and desserts. One of the 'Saturday Night Specials' was roast beef with roast potatoes & yorkshire pudding which literately consisted of 2 slices of roast beef, 2 roast potatoes & 1 yorkshire pudding with some watery gravy. Another course ordered was liver & bacon and this was the thinnest piece of liver we had ever seen which was complimented with 2 bits of undercooked and fatty bacon. Desserts when they eventually arrived were very uninspiring and totally bland. (Lumpy custard for a start…)

The way the food, which is mean, boring and pretty tasteless was served and presented at Langhams reminded me of school dinners when I was a child but not so the prices.

Overall a bad experience so will not be returning for the simple reason that there are so many other better restaurants in the West End that provide great food with great service so why waste your money here at Langhams.
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Lee Aspinall - View all reviews by this user
4 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Sunday, October 30, 2011

I am really surprised by the reviews below. I went there for a business lunch a few days ago and I thought it ticked all the boxes!

For a starter, I had the spinach souffle with anchovy sauce. This was really nice although the souffle should have been a bit lighter and was actually quite heavy. This was followed by red mullet in nut butter with a variety of vegetables. The food was lovely, the atmosphere was great and the service was excellent.

Granted, it is expensive but I wasn't paying.
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- View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 6
Friday, July 08, 2011

I had a meal of rack of lamb on Saturday. It was poor quality meat - a spoonful of tasteless vegetables. Had to pay extra for boiled potatoes and old carrots. Not what I expected from a well known restaurant in London.
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Ann Macfarlane
3 Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 0
Monday, May 10, 2010

Visited Langan's for the first time in a year or so - always a favourite, but oh my has this place changed. Full of sparkly suburbia on a night out. The staff were quite indifferent, lighting like a supermarket, paper tablecloths (when did this happen, or did I just not notice before because everything else was good!). Food arrived all too fast, obviously pre prepared, beef over done, chips reheated, creme brulee freezing cold (aparently a health and safety thing), complained and pretty much told that they don't need my business anyway. Wrote to complain and - guess what, 'points taken on board', not prepared to discuss. Well it is such a terrible shame to see such an institution sink so low. Bye bye Langan's we've dined there for 30 years but no more.
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Nick - View all reviews by this user
2 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 1 | Value for money 1
Saturday, May 08, 2010

This is just a wonderful place, whether its just two of you or a group of 10 women (I have experience of both). Always wonderful food, good service and pretty good value. They are accomodating if you are with children and its a superb location. One of London's forgotten treasures.
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8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Wednesday, May 05, 2010

I always enjoy my birthday lunches at Langan's. Excellent food, Good, friendly service and a great atmosphere.
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Jacqui Livesey
10 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 9
Monday, April 26, 2010

Had a really rather disappointing meal in Langans last night.

The service was OK, a little less than slick: The waiter would *only* take an order in the order he had decided, so although the person he looked at first said 'I haven't chosen yet' and others were saying 'I have', he refused to budge. Twice during the ordering, he walked away from people talking to him because they were ordering out of sequence. Not the end of the world, but a little bit weird.

The big thing, though, was the quality versus the price. Every main was at least £5 more than it needed to be: Burger, egg and onion rings (sorry, steak hache) with no bun, salad or side dish was £16.50. It was nice, but didn't justify the price. My wife's chicken with stuffing and bread sauce (new potatoes were an extra £3 for 5 tiny ones) was £17.50 and really unimpressive. Flavourless, badly cooked (how does Roast Chicken have soggy skin?), it had 'desultory work canteen' written all over it. Other dishes (calves livers, fish and chips) got several 'it's...OK's from the rest of our table.

I know I sound like I'm carping on about the cost but I think that, if you're charging £12 for a smoked salmon and bread starter and £15 for prawn tagliatelle, it needs to be really spot on...and this wasn't. You can get 2/3rds of a 3 course meai from a number of michelin-starred restaurants in London for the price of a main here.

Two random observations: 1) OK, we get it. Michael Caine is an investor. You don't need an illustration of him on every menu, a bust of his head *and* a cartoon of him on the wall (I spotted one, maybe it was the only one. I suspect not). You don't walk into the Tribeca Grill to see De Niro's face on the napkins.

2) I'm not going to make myself popular here, but....it was a really 'bridge and tunnel' crowd (not burberry and shell suits, but certainly not a 'typical' crowd in a restaurant with these prices in this location). Nothing wrong with that, but it felt like everyone had come up town (I'm no mayfair snob, I live miles away). It feels like a self-generating phenomenon: people dress up because it's a pricey restaurant which can charge high prices because everyone's paying for the buzz, which is generated by everyone paying high prices and putting on a suit.

Thinking about it, I may have inadvertently touched on the secret formula of running a restaurant with that last sentence.
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Caspar
6 Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 3
Sunday, March 07, 2010

Have been visiting Langans for years. Took some friends there Saturday evening. Really disappointed to find paper table cloths and service very `fast food`. as though they just wanted you in and out. Not at all what I have come to expect from Langans. Food was fine!
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Geraldine Jones
5 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 5
Monday, November 02, 2009