Hudsons

You people who have an against remark to Hudsons must be MAD!!! Just because you've been there once and didn't give it a chance, doesn't mean you have to be digustinly spiteful about this fabulous restaurant. Deal with it matie, Hudsons is the best if you like it or not!
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Roxanne
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Saturday, May 06, 2006

In response to the additonal reviews below, which have suspicioously sprouted quickly after two negative (though constructively so) ones, I simply don't believe they are genuine. Hudsons is not a good restaurant. Fact. It serves cold food and is under staffed. Sorry, but it does.
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Teutonic
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Thursday, April 06, 2006

This restaurant is fab, fab and fab! My party guests cannot stop going on how that the food, the service is excellent. A month after the party, one of my friends who had attended, asked me where I was going one night. I replied "oh well I am going to Hudsons". "Oooooooh" she said... "I adore Hudsons!"

I recommend this restaurant highly to all of you who go there. It's absolutely fabulous!!
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Aleisa
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Thursday, March 30, 2006

I have been to Hudsons on a number of occasions, usually with a large group of people. Each time the service has been great and the food even better. On my last visit I had paella, it was amongst the best I've ever tasted. Best of all is that it is such good value for money heartily recommended!
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Janice
Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, March 27, 2006

Well, I have to say Hudsons is the best place i've ever been to. I've been coming there since my mother had me. The service is great, if they are busy and the food takes a little longer they can't stop saying sorry! They are really hard working people and are so friendly. All of you people who have complained must of gone to a different Hudsons, because this Hudsons is FANTASTIC!!
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Naomi
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 10 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 10
Monday, March 20, 2006

Well, I don't know. It saddens me to read other poor reviews of one of my favourite restaurants. I've eaten at Hudsons a number of times and always enjoyed myself. I guess I'm one of the many locals (mentioned by another reviewer) who keep the place so very busy.

I've not noticed cold food. I've not had especially bad service, either. Among my friends, Hudsons has a good reputation and is one of our "reliable night out" restaurants.

The menu is varied enough to suit whatever mood you might be in on the night, and prices are fair. If you've travelled far to get to the place, you may be expecting more.
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cjj - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 8
Friday, March 10, 2006

I note the previous reviewer claiming that was the first time she had felt strongly enough to "waste her time" in writing a restaurant review. Well I thank her for her comments. I on the other hand, like nothing more than to pass judgement on consumer-facing businesses which accept my hard-earned. If they want my money, then the very basics of customer service surely, are a must?

It does seem extraordinary that when a common theme of "cold food" appears in virtually every review below, that my party of 8 should experience the exact same fault. I had read these reviews and we had even joked about it beforehand... "haha, I bet the food arrives cold" we said, tongue-in-cheek.

It borders on the pathetic that a restaurant, clearly frequently reminded in reviews like these and I suspect, receiving a number of restaurant complaints on the temperature of its food, still gets it wrong. A basic requirement of a restaurant is to cook the food properly. In this regard, Hudons fails, oh so miserably. My food was cold. Another companion's grated cheese had the aura of a Dickensian boys work house starter, hard as nails and darkened through days of exposure. Inedible. And another member of our party received cold chips. They weren't even luke warm. Sent back, they were quickly...

...when we could hail a waitress.

It seems the main problem of Hudons is the lack of staff. Three times I was forced to get up (we were sat in the slightly dull, cold back room - readers beware) to ask for service and we hardly the most demanding of groups. We all know margins in the trade are thin, but even one extra member of servicing staff could help, only 20 quid on the bottom line. I can imagine our plates were sat on the shelf for a good 10 minutes at least, before our waitress finally got around to delivering them to us.

And they never offered to take our coats. And they never offered us more wine. And a window in the loos (which we were sat next to) was left open so the cruel winds of East Anglia blew in, chilling the ladies in their vests.

And pudding…oh the pudding. Spotting “Mars Ice Cream” on the menu, we were intrigued. Was it an actual mars ice cream bar, served with some chocolate sauce and a dollop of vanilla ice cream? Perhaps their interpretation of the Mars ice cream bar, chocolate ice cream with toffee served on top? No. A plate arrived, with an unwrapped Mars ice cream plonked on top of it. Creativity: nil. Effort: minus 5. Taking the mickey rating: HIGH.

Look, Hudons' heart is in the right place. The menu is accessible and they have all the classics on the wine list. The waitresses were friendly (when we saw them) and portions mostly generous. If you were lucky and received your food on time, and didn't choose the Bruschetta, then you could have a decent meal. The restaurant has a buzzy, south London vibe, if that floats your boat. And we had a nice evening as the company was good and we drank lots of wine.

So by all means go to Hudons, just remind them you want your food hot, and you will be fine. Oh, and don’t order the Mars Ice Cream.
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Teutonic
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 4
Monday, February 13, 2006

This is the first time I have ever felt inspired to waste my time writing a restaurant review, but am now doing so in the hope that readers of this will not waste their time going to Hudsons.

Initially we sat at our table ignored for around 15 minutes, although given food menus no wine list was provided. Eventually a surly waitress deigned to come and take our drinks order and seemed quite displeased to discover we were also ready to order our food. Our drinks were brought over promptly and our starters arrived within 10 minutes, unfortunately all varying between lukewarm and stone cold. However we could see the restaurant was very busy and wanted to enjoy our evening so ate the cold food and didn't make a fuss. We then sat with dirty plates in front of us for around half an hour before we eventually managed to catch our waitress's eye. We ordered another bottle of wine and she asked me to pass over the empty one from the back of the table. I also passed over the ice bucket as this was now full of just water,and needed refilling for the new bottle of wine. This was not to be as I was rudely told that she only wanted the bottle. The new wine came and was duly plonked in the water. Still we made no complaint.

Around one hour and a half after we sat down we started to get a little hungry and spent a desperate 10 minutes trying to catch our waitress's eye again. Unfortunately this time we failed and my partner was forced to get up and fetch another waiter to ask him where our food was. We were told it would not be long and sure enough at just under 2 hours after we arrived we got our food. Again my partner had to get up to ask someone if he could have a steak knife for his steak and I had to send my minute portion of fries back as they were luke warm and harder then I thought it would be possible to make potato. A new portion arrived, hot but equally hard - probably the old portion re dipped in the fryer. None of our meals were particularly hot, quite a feat given by this time (10.30) the restaurant was half empty and the waiting staff were no longer rushed off their feet. One of our party (of 4) had ordered a meduim rare fillet steak - it arrived without a trace of pink in it and was sent back - but only after he got up and delivered it to the bar himself. His replacement steak still hadn't arrived by the time the rest of us had finished our food, so we cancelled the order - again by getting up and going to find a member of staff. I asked to see the manager - yes,again I had to get up and find someone myself. I can only conclude that the manager and our waitress must have been in a competition for who could be the most sullen - why do these people bother to work in the 'hospitality' business? Anyway her offer of compensation for our appalling night was to knock the price of the meal we hadn't had off the bill! Needless to say that was totally unacceptable and further discussion was had.

This was the worst restaurant experience I have had in years and I will never go to Hudson's again. Unless you like a long wait for cold food with added bonus of terrible service, I wouldn't bother either.
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Jay Alden
Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 2
Thursday, December 22, 2005