Barshu

We had 4 people in our party going for lunch. The ambience was good and the air conditioning nice on a hot day. 3 out of 4 dishes were very oily. Prices are very high compared to other restaurants. We wouldn't recommend it.
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Brent - View all reviews by this user
6 Overall rating
Food 4 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 9 | Value for money 2
Friday, July 02, 2010

It's one of those restaurants with very mediocre food and prices which absolutely do not merit the price paid. Have been there a few times and each time service and food seems to be getting worse. As a lover of spicy food, I found their water boiled pork slices both tongue numbing and tasteless. Vegetables were over seasoned, salty and full of MSG. Overall, for the price, which came up to about £25 per head for a table of 6, it was a huge disappointment.
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TheSparklingVampire - View all reviews by this user
2 Overall rating
Food 2 | Service 2 | Atmosphere 2 | Value for money 1
Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Very expensive for what it is!! Almost £30 for a fish dish, I could get a whole lobster in a fancy restaurant. £2 per head for tea - what a joke! Service charge discreetly added on, so secretive it wasn't even itemized.
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me
4 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Monday, March 22, 2010

We visited BarShu after the reopening and our expectations were fulfilled. Fantastic food in a friendly surroundings and at a more than reasonable price. I noticed that perhaps the level of spiciness may be have been moderated to accomodate westerners taste, which I am glad as initially some of the dishes were too much for me. I hope this does not compromise the Chinese clientele; certainly there were plenty of "locals" when we dined there.

For me BarShu is a must whenever in London. A gem.
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Susana - View all reviews by this user
9 Overall rating
Food 10 | Service 9 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 9
Sunday, March 07, 2010

Very pricy, and I can see now why the restaurant wasn't busy when we had dinner last night at 7pm.

We had a very small portion of food, we ordered just one main dish with plain rice for my boyfriend, and only an appetiser for me as on diet, plus tea, the bill came as £35, food wasn't great either.

I wouldn't recommend this restaurant to anybody, avoid it if you can.
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Jing
3 Overall rating
Food 1 | Service 7 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Went with a friend after hearing this was a good restaurant. The food was tasty, although pretty salty and quite a bit overpriced. The place feels nice and quite fancy, but the service isn't nice or fancy. Both courses were taken away while I was still chewing.

When the bill came we were overcharged by £16. This was hard to establish as there is no proper breakdown in Bar Shu, just a set of numbers scribbled down on pieces of paper and stapled together. For a restaurant whose staff wear microphone headsets this low-fi approach to billing seems a bit out of place.

After questioning the charge, another piece of paper was brought for £10 less, but we received no explanation. The waiter simply brought it and walked off. After a very difficult conversation trying to establish why there was still £6 too much, we managed to extract from him that it surprisingly included a service charge! Getting the figure without the service charge meant another long wait, after which the waiter became impatient and rude: the card reader was snatched out of my hand after I'd entered the pin, and he wandered off with the reader and my card in it, while we waited. My card and final receipt were handed over to another waiter to bring to me.

Nobody explained why we were overcharged and nobody apologised.
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Billy K
3 Overall rating
Food 5 | Service 0 | Atmosphere 6 | Value for money 2
Friday, January 29, 2010

The new Barshu has out done itself, with refined Chinese decor, and great food to match.

It is a pricey Chinese restaurant (especially in comparison to some of those across the street in Chinatown) but worth every penny. Dishes are on the firey side - so be prepared. The sea bass soup is a special treat.
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- View all reviews by this user
8 Overall rating
Food 9 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 6
Thursday, January 21, 2010

It was the 20p-charge for the carrier bag that pushed us over the top.

We had high hopes for our second visit to Barshu. We had fond memories of the sizzling, lip-numbing dishes we'd enjoyed here before. But as we perused the menus we started wondering... were these prices the same as before the fire? We decided that providing the food was good, we could afford to splash out a little and we'd just be careful with what we chose.

We ordered one glass of house wine and five dishes, two of which appetizers, one main and two vegetable dishes (for the vegetarian). The appetizers were as wonderful, subtle and deliciously spicy as we remembered. When the mains arrived, the vegetarian options (water spinach and 'bear's claw' beancurd) were of similarly high quality. However the water-boiled pork in a spicy sauce was drowned in oil. Still, we thought, four out of five isn't bad. We couldn't quite finish everything we ordered so we asked for the beancurd to take away.

And then we got the bill. At first we thought they'd mixed our bill up with a party of four at the neighbouring table. But then as we studied the various scraps of paper, we unfortunately realised the bill was about correct. It came to just under £60. You may wonder how one glass of house wine, two appetizers, one main and two vegetable dishes came to £60. Okay, so we knew the food was pricey but it still came to more than we were expecting.

Then we saw the £7 for the glass of (extremely mediocre) house white. We queried this and they confirmed that, yes, that was indeed the price and furthermore, the reason we had not been offered a smaller glass is because they only do one size. So be forewarned that you won't get a glass of wine in Barshu for less than £7.

But the best was yet to come. There were two mysterious charges left at the end of the blll, one for 50p and one for 20p. Not much to worry about, you might think, but after the £7 glass of wine, we were on a higher state of alert than usual. When we asked what the 50p was for, we were told "Ah, that is the container for your packed food". Us: "You charged 50p for a container to take your food away?". "Yes," our waiter replied. "So what's the 20p for?" we asked. And with a straight face, he told us: "That's the charge for the carrier bag for the container". It must have been the stunned look on our faces because a few moments later the waiter offered us the bag for free and duly crossed the 20p off the bill.

Perhaps the restaurant thought this generous gesture would encourage us to return. If it was just the £7 for the glass of wine, we may have returned in a moment of desperation, and maybe we could even have forgiven the 50p for the container, because we might just be able to re-use it. But, despite the very good food, the 20p for the carrier bag was just too much and we won't be going back....
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Rizwan and Karma
6 Overall rating
Food 7 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 3
Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Barshu is very disappointing and rather overhyped. Foods were average but INCREDIBLY SALTY. There are better Chinese restaurants in London than this one. Too pricey and to add insult to injury, they charge takeaway box and bag for doggy bag. Pure greed!

Pity Fuschia Dunlop is their consultant. Doesn't do her reputation any justice. If I were her, I’d keep that quiet.

We put this one visit down as experience. The only saving grace was the service and atmosphere were pretty good.
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AL
3 Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 0
Friday, November 13, 2009

Meal 29th October. Food excellent. Service good, and friendly.

I note the reviews below. I should have read them before I came to England!

My bill at 90 pounds for two surprised me. My rough estimate was 60-70. Couldn't get any clarity so paid up. Would have been worth 60-70 but not 90 pounds, and left a bad taste (pun not intended).

Would definitely recommend but would suggest notetaking with the order.
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John Darracott
7 Overall rating
Food 8 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 3
Sunday, November 01, 2009