All Bar One, Battersea

Went there last night (a saturday) for dinner and drinks for seven of us. Got a table fairly easily as it was only about half full. It was our waiter's first day on the job, and to be fair to him it was obvious he hadn't been trained properly. I've only been there twice and I knew the menu better than he did. First of all the drinks order came back completely wrong. A pint of Starpromen came back as a pint of cider with ice, and he didn't know the difference. Taking the food order was a bit laborious for reasons I've said. When the food arrived, it was half of one person's meal, followed 5 minutes later by three burgers, one of which was one we hadn't ordered. Mine was fine but the other two were stone cold. Two more plates came out a few minutes later and were the right ones, leaving two of our party without any food. He took their order again and disappeared off to the kitchen. By this point we were pretty narked off and went to see the manager.

He was rude straight from the offset. He said if food was cold we shouldn't eat it and should send it right back. All well and good but we'd been waiting a long time and didn't want to trust them with getting that right, so the people with cold food ate their's. He was defensive and arrogant, not a good manager at all. He said he'd "sort something out" on the bill but was totally non-specific, and said he'd go off to chase the food. Some 15 minutes later the last two burgers arrived and the waiter said our drinks would be free. Unfortunately the food which had just arrived was also sub-par; the buns had clearly just come out of the freezer as they were very cold to the touch on the outside.

Anyway between that and the fact that one of our party had had her bag stolen there the previous week, we will not be going back. We paid for the drinks and left, to go and be treated much better at the Fine Line over the road. All Bar One = Abominable.

25 May 2008 11:09

Hydro, Battersea

Good service, interesting food (try the mix n match "English tapas" on a weekend), and a nice atmosphere. Make sure you don't accidentally wander into speed dating though...

3 Feb 2007 12:52

Dark Horse, Camberwell

I used to go to Blake's before it closed and was pleased to see an alternative to the Phoenix / BRB spring up. Haven't been there in the evening yet but have been twice for lunch.

So; nice interior, comfy seats, plenty of space. Nice selection of drinks, and good service. It's usually deathly quiet though so I'm worried as to how long they can stay open at this rate! However without the revenue drain that was Blake's "fine dine" restaurant it could still be viable.

Two things: First, the food is a bit expensive and they could do with giving you some free nibbles whilst you're wating. Second, the portions are stingy for the price. Chunky chips quite nice but you only get nine of them with your burger. I've heard good things about the giant mushroom burger for veggies too. See you in there Friday lunchtimes =)

3 Feb 2007 12:51