Pied a Terre review by Tony Roberts
Dined here on Saturday 27th with family. Arrived 30 mins early with the intention of enjoying pre-dinner drinks in the upstairs bar. Was very suprised to find it empty and devoid of any ambience whatsoever. Some gentle background music wouold not have gone amiss. No matter, soon our fellow diners arrived and the company was enough to lift the atmosphere. Small mistake by the waiter bringing the wrong drinks and having difficulty understanding what a "beer" was, but i digress..
Onwards and downwards to the restaurant, we were seated at a fantastic table, possibly the best in the house. The main dining room is quite small, but the surrounding tables are not too close at to make one feel intruded upon. I'm not sure how couples seated on the wall to the left would feel, but certainly the tables for 6 were well spaced.
We were treated to a selection of amuse bouche which were very good, but then inexplicably forced to wait nearly 90 minutes for our starters. I've no idea what would take so long when there must have been aroun 40 covers maximum at any one service. Luckily we were sated with multiple offerings of bread, which, to be fair, was delicious. When the starters did arrive, it was (almost) worth the wait. Food-wise, this restaurant is undoubtedly michelin star quality - the poached oysters were superb. Mains (30 minuteslater) were delicious again, the concentrated flavours of the various veal cuts somethign I will always remember. The venison was equally good and particularly tender, though i found the turbot over seasoned. Top marks all round for the food so far.
Sadly we were let down again with more inexplicable wait times for desserts (which i did not sample but were appreciated by my companions) until we could not take it any more and some gentle chiding began, which did bring our coffeees to the table quick, but then... it's coffeee! Why we were waiting 15 minutes after finishing desserts is beyond me - perhaps they wnt the experience to last? We were getting close to 4 hours at this point.
It's hard to see past the terrible slowness of this restaurant, which is a real shame because the food is remarkable and the service, however slow, was unobtrusive, pleasant and polite. Unfortunately, it left a bad impression on an otherwise lovely restaurant. If they dont speed things up next time the guide dines there, I feel they'll deservedly lose at least one of those coveted stars.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Overall rating 
Food 9 | Service 5 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 6
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