Sorrel

Half-way through our meal we agreed that this restaurant would be lucky to last long.

The food, being mainly fish, is pretty good but what lets this place down is the service. Our pre-lunch drinks arrived after the wine ordered to go with our food; having been asked if we would like side orders, these failed to arrive and the waiter was really quite rude when we reminded him. And when they did turn-up the order was wrong. The waiter didn't check what one of our party was drinking and subsequently poured sparkling water into still. And when the bill arrived (although they had taken off the side orders) as we were not happy to pay the service charge they were unable to deduct this from the bill as they didn't have the right authorisation!

The restaurant was barely half-full, which was just as well as the service was slow enough. Small things like the cloudy water in the flower vase takes very little effort to put right. And apart from the supervisor, the rest of the waiting staff hardly seemed to care.

I am often asked to recommend restaurants for lunch but Sorrel will not be one of them.
Comment on this reader review

Samantha
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 3
Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Just finished a fairly satisfactory lunch at Sorrel. First impressions were good - it's bright and fresh and the tables are well spaced. First minor gripe was that no one offered to take my coat and I had to find the rail myself (though upon leaving, the coats were collected for us). Ordering drinks seemed a little harder than it should have been, considering we only asked for two Peronis and two still waters. The beers arrived promptly but ten minutes later we were still waiting for the water. When prompted, our waiter replied with a tinge of annoyance in his voice, "Yes, yes, they're on their way." Not ideal. However, the place was certainly redeemed by the food - the generously portioned broccoli pasta with spinach and sausage was creamy and full of flavour, and two orders of tuna steak were cooked perfectly - one rare, one medium. We skipped desserts (a shame, they sounded delicious but we were rather full) and with only two of our party drinking the bill was never going to be huge, but at only £7 for starters and £14 for main courses this place is astonishingly good value. I'll certainly return, but will probably take a lighter starter to leave room for the pannacotta!
Comment on this reader review

Thursday, November 10, 2005