Petersham Nurseries

We dined at this quirky restaurant a few weeks ago. It was a cold January Saturday and we arived around 2 pm for lunch. Service was efficient and served by wellington clad young ladies. The menu is what I would clasify on modern verging on bohemian. Food was decent except for the steak which my 11 year old ordered and was as tough as an old boot - it was just inedible. The scallops were tiny and few and overwhelmed by the polenta. The vegetable soup was very much to my liking and very wholesome and with a good helping of with barley. The wines seemed organic. The setting is great but not to everyones taste. Food on the day was on the dissappointing side, some what like the nursery on this cold winter's day. Will I go back - yes! But I suggest to get there early early .
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mcnott - View all reviews by this user
Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Expensive but well worth the price. The food was garden fresh and delicious. Contrary to other reviews, we found the service very willing and responsive, if somewhat short on training. The setting was perfect for the meal adding to the overall experience. It is hard to believe that it is in London, not in a village in Devon. Except the parking which was an interesting challenge.
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Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 6
Friday, November 16, 2007

Not sure what it was like when it won all those awards but it was underwhelming when we lunched there on July 14. The monkfish, whitebean and coconut curry with samphire and bhatura was shockingly bland: the curry was underseasoned - it was too sweet, and hadnt been spiced or flavoured enough to balance that. Couldn't really taste the samphire - they couldve chucked any skinny green veg in there and you wouldn't have known the difference. Slow-cooked shoulder of lamb with salsa verde and borlotti beans was better but the flavours, again, weren't intense enough. Ditto for our starter of beetroot and burrata mozzarella and rainbow chard. The only memorable dish was the spicy grilled langoustines and aioli. Yeah it's expensive - 150 quid for 3 people, no wine - but we knew that before we went. What we didn't know was the food would be of a standard you'd get in a below-average gastropub. Service wasn't particularly fab either (asked for dessert recommendation and got a bafflingly bimbotic response) though we ended up being charged 17.50 for it on our bill anyway. It's a pretty setting but all in all wouldn't recommend it. There are more picturesque places with better food.
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Alison de Souza
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 4
Monday, July 16, 2007

I took my mum there for the US mother;s day in May. Since I only live down the road, I thought I must try this much talked about restaurant.

This is an expensive place. We had 2 course meal and the elderflower cordial... the bill was 80pounds, which is very expensive for lunch.

However the food is divine. I've eaten in many expensive restaurants in london, but none of the food can be compared to Petersham nurseries.

I had the beetrot and tomato salad. This was the freshest and the tastiest I've ever had. The Halibut was beautiful.

My mum had the soup, which was ok.. The lamb was so tasty!

I would definietly recommend this place. May be for a one-off special occasion.

I love the settings too.... very very natural!
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Josephine Lai
Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 10 | Value for money 7
Monday, May 28, 2007

Not called the Peter-SHAM for nothing. Great Location, BUT, lousy unapologetic service and frankly obscene prices for very little (in every sense.) Spend your hard earned and time elsewhere. Don't waste it here.

Expanding on this, we arrived promptly Sunday 2.40 p.m. (5 mins early but as booked) for a B'day (& coincidentally Mother's day) lunch, the restaurant's second sitting, having been told the first sitting was 12.30 - 2pm. All the waitresses glibly ignored us for what felt like quite some time. Over and above this, our table wasn't ready and we weren't seated until 3pm, so had to potter about for some time. We were finally offered an alternate table that made conversation impossible, the table so vast you felt positively Lillipution. We asked to move, which put one waitress' nose firmly out of joint. Finally, we sat down (under a vast heater) ready to order to be told (from a choice of only 4 mains, all £23-25) that the beef was off. This left - chicken, fish and a veggie option. Since all of us bar one wanted beef this was not a good start. Curiosity and disappointment getting the better of us, we asked how the beef was prepared? We were told it only came with garlic as highlighted on the menu (in part the reason for asking). Potatoes, no chance. So, £24 for fillet of beef with garlic. What's the chef (management) thinking? AND surely you cater for all table bookings, & if left with a surplus of stock/food, you refridgerate and add to the menu the next day as specials. Especially if you are catering for Sunday lunch, a busy session, & one that as mothers day will inevitably be chocker?

Scallops x 3 as starters were perfectly presentable (again from a choice of only 4, all £11+).

Mullet as a main was good. 3 x poussin on white beans & chard were all utterly flavourless, almost overcooked, and minute. And with about as much meat on them as half a supermarket chicken breast (4 for £4). Pitiful. So for the money - a shameful rip off. This was by now well after 4pm.

The pudding menu, on blackboards as you enter, read like a dream, and had been something to look forward to for all. Sadly and in consistent fashion, we were informed that all puds were finished bar two choices. The waitresses were far from apologetic. Only one of us bothered; rhubarb ice cream.

So for 3 starters, 4 mains, (most of which were as said not a first choice) and 1 pud, plus aperitifs and 2 bottles of wine (cheapest white and red, nice reisling, ok rioja) the bill came - to £250 !!!!!! (£30 added service, naturally deducted.)

It is worth saying that we were overcharged for our aperitifs by £2 head / each.

A cafetiere of coffee (cost to the restaurant £0.25) was given "gratis" when I highlighted all the problems. Sadly, there was nothing to go with it, other than raiding the tea house next door for a bland and relatively tasteless danish and flapjack.

In highlighting all the problems, I was also told the restaurant did not do 2 sittings for lunch, so why were we told the polar opposite when booking and forced to sit down so late in the afternoon?

Worst meal in years. And as a special B'day lunch, for which parents had made the effort and travelled some way, it was miserable. They clearly have no idea how to run this kind of operation; and it would seem, having become a purportedly fashionable venue, it has all gone to their heads from the allegedly creative (read awkward) chef, right down through the staff.

I think Michael Winner has been banned? I guess I will be too now. Not that I will lose any sleep over this. But he was it seems right in any review. AVOID at all costs. There's so much better elsewhere, but on a positive note, the venue inside the nursery is in itself great, and the best and for most of the time, the only thing going for it.

Nb. The nursery inside and outside is equally P for Pricey. £1200 for a wrought iron garden bench; plants all OTT. Really cannot see the appeal of being so openly fleeced at every opportunity.
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D. Whitcombe, London.
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 4 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 0
Monday, March 19, 2007

We read a number of reviews about Petersham Nurseries and were looking forward to the food. We arrived at 1.45pm (after travelling for over an hour) only to be told that they had sold out of savoury food in the cafe. In the adjacent restuarant whilst there were plenty of seats, both inside and out (it was a fantastic spring day), we were told that the restuarant was fully booked. We left hungry and very disappointed.
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Overall rating
Food 0 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 0 | Value for money 0
Saturday, March 10, 2007

My mum came to visit me from Italy, and I decided to take her somewhere different, as she loves food and is often hard to please.

The food was excellent; we shared a nice mezze of unusual dips and misticanza, served with soft rye bread; the pagnotta with vegetables was delicious, with very tasty tomatoes and courgettes; the girolles with polenta were superb, with the polenta better than some I have eatenin Italy before; the dessert was a nice blackcurrant, lemon and verbena jelly, very nice, albeit too much on the sugary side.

The only two issues I had were

a) the prices: it is lunch after all, and 65 pounds for a starter, two mains and a dessert, with no wine, was a bit excessive. However, this was balanced out by the lovely settings and atmosphere.

b) I had booked a table for 1.30 pm, but as we were on the train, I realised we were running slightly late. I called to tell them we would be between 15 and 30 minutes late, and they assured me that the table would be there. When we arrived though, they made us wait for 5 minutes, then told us our table had been given to someone else, and made us sit in the cafe' for 15 minutes until another one became free. Disappointing, especially as I had warned them in advance and they had my mobile number. It may be the price to pay at an in-demand eatery, but it still showed a bit of carelessness in customer services.

I would recommend it for a nice special lunch, followed by the walk back into Richmond along the river.

However the value for money and the location make it a non-regular in my list.
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Fran
Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 5
Friday, September 01, 2006

Nice rustic ambience, good food well cooked but horrendously over priced. peach on ice = a peach cut in half for £7 are they having a laugh! Tues 8th August
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Emma
Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 3
Wednesday, August 09, 2006

Horrendously expensive- trying to copy the pricing strategy of River Cafe, with much cheaper food- Food simple and good -but not worth the outrageous prices charged.Interesting setting,but very hot on day we went.
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E.M.
Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 3 | Value for money 0
Monday, July 03, 2006

not bad food-but grossly overpriced for what you get
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S.B.
Overall rating
Food 6 | Service 6 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 0
Tuesday, February 14, 2006