Gordon Ramsay's Boxwood Cafe review by Wayne
Where: Boxwood Cafe
When: 18/04/2008
Looking at the below reviews.....maybe my partner and I arrived on a bad night when we went! Or maybe Stuart Gillies has spent too much time away from Boxwood to open "Plane Food". Don't get me wrong, I'm no food critic but I do enjoy good food. This is just my personal opinion and experience.
Where do I start? I was quite excited to be dining at one of Gordon Ramsay’s restaurants, since I follow his TV shows and read his autobiography. I like his style and standards that he sets in his kitchens. Unfortunately Boxwood Cafe didn't have these standards that Gordon proclaims he has in his restaurants.
When making the reservation, my girlfriend noted to the staff that we were celebrating my birthday. We were seated at what could quite possibly be the worst table in the entire restaurant- literally against a big pillar, leaving us wondering what the restaurant looked like exactly, becuase our view was of chipped paint and bread boxes. Our waiter (who didn't even introduce himself) was very blunt and seemed to be in a rush every time he spoke to us. Instead of asking what we would like to drink, he simply barked at us- "Drinks?!?".... We felt rushed from the moment we sat down, as if he was trying to get us in and out so he could have another table, despite there being 3 other vacant tables directly surrounding us. The food was mediocre at best; my first dish was the Tagliolini with langoustine. As you may know, Gordon isn't one for mountains of parsley but this dish had just that. So much in fact that I scooped a pile to the side after my dish was almost finished. Our other starter was the beetroot salad- nothing spectacular, with so many different variations of ingredients, that the best description of this dish would be confused? The suckling pig was next on the table......this was what I was really looking forward too. You see, I live in Italy and "Porchetta" happens to be one of my favourites. I was impressed by the size of the portion but it lacked flavour and wasn't very tender (considering it's a young piglet). The other mains was the Halibut- again, decent portion, but completely lack luster and tasteless. Our local trattoria could teach Boxwood a thing or two about simple fish dishes, nothing fancy, but overflowing with flavour! Because we were celebrating my birthday, and to this point were completely astonished at the quality of food (and lack of service), we decided to give the benefit of the doubt to 1 dessert, the caramel apple tart. After 1 bite, the plate was pushed aside in sheer disgust. The caramel had been overcooked and lent a bitter, burnt taste to the entire tart. The waiter after about 20 minutes came over after just noticing the dessert virtually untouched and told us he would "check" to see if it was indeed unsuitable. The manager returned a few minutes later, agreeing that it was burnt and took it off the bill- never mind that all along, a special birthday plate was sitting on a tray never being delivered to me until we were ready to leave with a marshmallow and a candle. All in all, what we thought what would be an unforgettable evening, and an experience we could revel in and look back on- was the absolute worst meal we had our entire holiday weekend!
I'm sure that Gordon's "baby"......Claridges, never suffers this sort of standards of service so why should his other restaurants? Maybe with all the US shows, chocolate line and computer games that he's involded with, he has no time to get back to basics.
All in all....If you want a Gordon Ramsay experience, avoid Boxwood and wait the six months to be seated at Claridges or Petrius.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Overall rating 
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 3
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