All reader reviews by superfoodie

The Capital

On 9 Dec 09 when we visited, we were told that new menu kicked in with the new chef starting, which in itself is not a problem - despite the Chef who earned it 2 Michelin stars leaving, if he is replaced by someone as good, or even more innovative and exciting, one can only look forward to see what it would be like. All one can say about the new chef experience is, that if the quality of food we witnessed and the menu served (coupled with absolutely appaling service, but more on that later) continues, then just watch those Mich stars disappear!

Disappointingly, despite booking weeks in advance, and dealing with the hotel/restaurant staff the week in question, and even confirming booking on the night, no mention whatsoever was made of new menu, or that the only choices that will be opened on the night would be a 5 course degustation or plain a la carte. No famed good valule 2 or 3 course fixed price a la carte advertised on the internet was available, and no apologies offered despite confirmation to the contrary on email a week before. We opted for a 5 course degustation, which was neither interesting, nor exciting and in places, simply awful. The best dish was a starter dish of porkbelly, truffle mash/cream/soup blob, and tiny langostine (although not sure how the latter actually fits into that picture at all as it was served on its own without any accompaniment or anything that would marry it into the rest of the dish of the porkbelly). Unfortunately, the aforementioned and rather good pork belly was a tiny cube of 3x4cm. Every dish, including the rather soft and well cooked roll of lamb was oversalted (and this is from someone who is rather fond of salt!) Grilled seabream served with minestrone soup type texture was ok, but not anything that one would expect from a great Michelin establishment. The "surprise dishes" as one of the waiters has put it, were useless and without any link to anything, desserts awful, with some sort of cream, icecream gelatto and (green) jelly creation, half melted, it looked terrible, did not excite the pallate leave alone imagination. The second dessert of some sort of cake and banana icecream was something that one would find in a HomeEconomics repertoire. Perhaps the best dessert option was the petit fours that came with our coffees...

Now to the service, Basil Fawlty would have looked an utter professional in comparison. By far the most appaling service I have witnessed for years! No dedicated waiter serving the table - we have counted that we had encountered at least 9 different people in one evening, many of whom have asked us the very same question that his/her predecessor has asked only minutes before. Champagne ordered never appeared, and had to be asked for twice, bread basket not refilled/offered through the degustation, water not refilled without asking (several times!).

The choices of the £55 pp accompanying wine menu to the £70 degustation was not only bad value for money but just plain bad. Not one interesting or exciting wine, and the Saint Emillion offered, probably something that I wouldnt make gluhwein with. That is when the degustation wine was actually poured with the dish that it was supposed to accompany (yes, we did have to ask!). To top it all off, the service was painfully slow (with staff running around all over the place, no enough of them, without dedicated functions, bumping into each other, it's no suprise), so with1930 dinner, last dish did not arrive till 2330, coffees after midnigh. Sad really, considering it's stellar reputation over the years with the previous chef.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 1 | Atmosphere 5 | Value for money 4