All reader reviews by Gryphgal
Bertorelli (Soho)
I was interested to read that the last reviewer said that they were kept waiting in the bar while a table was "being prepared". It seems to me that this restaurant uses all the tired old tricks to squeeze just a little more profit from each punter.... So, for example despite a booked table and a half empty restaurant our party of 6 was asked to "wait in the bar, while our table was 'prepared'"! Since we were happy to stand in the foyer we actually got to our table quite soon, but I imagine that if we had gone to the bar the table would not have been "available" until we had each downed a drink or two...once at the table an abundance of "free" breads while waiting to order meant that by the time the less than generous main portions arrived we were (supposed to be) too full to notice that they were somewhat lacking. My grilled italian sausage on canelloni beans, was quite literally white, with the barest of crosshatching grill marks on one corner - in a word underdone. the cheesecake had the overly sweet, processed flavour of the very cheapest of supermarket £1 cheesecakes - I am not suggesting that it was, just that it needed to be a LOT better before it would qualify as restaurant quality. We asked for (tap) water. After 1/2 hour wait I got 1/2 a glass! Am I overly cynical to imagine this as another tired old trick to get you to drink more wine? I asked for more water and got it after another 1/2 hour - again 1/2 a glass full - what is WITH the rationing?! We did not actually dispute the 12 1/2% tip added to the bill, because the waitress was actually very pleasant and it seemed wrong to penalise her for the shortcomings of the restaurant.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Overall rating 
Food 2 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 7 | Value for money 1
OXO Tower Restaurant
My Canadian cousin & his wife treated us to a meal here. We wanted them to have a wonderful experience during a very short visit to London...The view was fantastic but sadly the food was a little mediocre. Looked good but just did not come up to scratch! I had asparagus where the stems were woody followed by Halibut which should be fabulous but somehow just was not. My partner had much the same experience with only the lemon and pine nut dessert coming out well. A further shock in this day and age was that there were THREE instances of pate de foie gras on the menu - does anyone actually eat this stuff any more?!! I have no worries about being a carnivore but systematically hurting animals (the poor geese) in order to make sure they have diseased livers & then calling the result a "delicacy" is off the map in terms of acceptability.
Friday, May 08, 2009
Overall rating 
Food 2 | Service 8 | Atmosphere 8 | Value for money 2
Valentine's Day offers at restaurants all over London - 
