Carpaccio Carpaccio
Palomar

Palomar

34 Rupert St, Soho W1D 6DN, London, United Kingdom

Steak • Tapas • World Cuisine • Mediterranean


"Modern Israeli Cramped, Hurried, Rip Off Joint My partner and I are a laid-back, unfussy, not unfashionable, professional couple living in the heart of London (South Bank , who have been eating out in Central London regularly since we were students more than 20 years ago. The couple who joined us at Palomar earlier this week might be described similarly, save that they’re from North London. They also eat somewhat less than we do and are more into the catch-ups than the food. We usually go to places with a prix fixe menu at lunchtime. These are usually not so heavy on portions and calories, have nicely complimentary dishes, and quite often are something of a bargain. Our unpleasant experience of Palomar was as follows: on arrival on time for our 2:15pm late lunch we were nicely greeted, but rather heavily invited to cloakroom our coats etc, which we declined, to the evident bewilderment of the greeter, leaving us a little uncomfortable; we quickly understood the greeter’s reaction, however – the restaurant is largely a narrow corridor bar with bar stools, with a tiny dining area proper of half a dozen or so tables at the far end (think of a thermometer, and you’ll have the shape right , with no room to swing anything in the corridor or dining room; we very closely seated to another table, and had difficulty taking off our coats and indeed getting seated, despite none of us being more than medium framed and sized (so anybody who is any sense XL or beyond would be very uncomfortable ; we had hardly taken our seats when we were provided with the a la carte menu and offered still and sparkling water (which it later transpired was not free, if it wasn’t expensive ; we had to ask for the prix fixe menu, which made us feel a bit awkward; we ordered three inexpensive cocktails, recommended on the prix fixe menu; we had hardly received our cocktails, when we were asked to place our orders; upon doing so, we were informed that because one of us was eating off the a la carte menu, we all had to; we indicated there could be no justification for such a policy (implicitly other than to rip-off customers , only for one of the waiters (we had four during our time there! to say he did not make the rules and it was standard practice elsewhere, to which a few of us replied ‘rubbish’; I suggested we drink-up and move on, but as one of us wasn’t in the best of health, we had much to catch-up on, and none of us wanted unpleasantness, we ill-advisedly carried on, as all of us wish we hadn’t at the end; without invitation, another waiter attempted to make suggestions as to what we might order from the a la carte menu we were obliged to use, before we asked him to come back after we’d had time to think about our re-order; we ordered 3 starters (2 x baba ganoush etc, and 1 x anchovies , served without any bread (obliging us to order something to go with it, namely a bready cakey sweet thing at £7.00 recommended by the waiter, which wasn’t great , 2 very small chicken mains (which came totally unaccompanied too , and 3 sides our friends were happy to make do with; the house bottle of wine (at £33 arrived before we’d finished our cocktails, and our glasses were rather too quickly filled, almost after every sip, so that we had to stop drinking it for a while; a waiter told us at just before 3pm that the kitchen was closing for savoury dishes; at just before 4pm we were asked to vacate our table for the ‘evening’ service; and our bill of about £170 (less cocktails included a 15% service charge. Of course, had we been able to eat off the prix fixe menu we’d have ordered more food, a second bottle of wine, and spent a lot more money. So that’s some consolation. Needless to say, we won’t be back."

Amarone Edinburgh

Amarone Edinburgh

12-13 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, EH22AF, EH2 2AF, United Kingdom

Pizza • Kebab • Pasta • Steak


"This restaurant has lovely decor and a lot of potential but had a number of issues. Firstly when we arrived it was very busy with staff running around looking rather clueless, we assumed that maybe there was a lot of new staff and that there...were some unavoidable teething problems which we didn’t overly mind. Our main course however was served to us without cutlery and we had to call our waiter back over to ask to be given some, you would think they would have looked to see if we had this, but no. The food was nice but nothing to rave over and we did expect more from a restaurant like this, didn’t feel it was worth the premium prices. Secondly we ordered wine with our mains and as a young man who is not typically known to ever have worn lipstick, lo and behold on my wine glass before even drinking out of it was a rather large lipstick smudge (photo included). I am aware from working in the hospitality industry that dishwashers do sometimes struggle to fully clean lipstick from glassware but usually when polishing or bringing the glass to the table someone should notice, which leaves me to wonder if it had even been cleaned. We then told the manager about the problem who was very apologetic and did immediately replace the wine and the glass which at least made the experience slightly better. We were however disappointed that when we received the bill that no discount had been applied and that the 10% service fee was still included. We payed our bill and left feeling displeased. Although this restaurant has potential this unpleasant experience has put us off and I doubt that I’ve will ever return."

Gaucho Richmond

Gaucho Richmond

The Towpath Richmond, Greater London TW10 6UJ, TW10 6UL, United Kingdom

Meat • Kebab • Steak • Drinks


"We’ve eaten here before a few times and really enjoyed it. Usually the staff are incredibly knowledgeable about both food and wine and really engage with you during the ordering process. The staff today were dismal by comparison. One woman started arguing with me when I asked to move tables because we were directly in the line of a heater and it was making me uncomfortable. We moved table (eventually) and got a different waitress who was nice enough, but clearly overstretched with the few tables she was looking after and it took a ridiculous amount of time to get anything, to the point of being annoying. The loos were absolutely disgusting which shocked me at an establishment which charges very very highly for its services. The dirty waste units are jammed up against the side of the loos and the loo seats (two out of three someone was in the third loo so I couldn’t check) were broken and slung off to one side where people have tried to sit on them without their legs touching the waste unit, to the point where the loo seat has snapped from its hinges. The loos are also bizarrely low to the ground and were not clean. The food was good but not exceptional, which it has been on previous visits. It wasn’t all bad the Maitre ‘d was his usual great self and very sweetly brought over a little Happy Birthday plate with a candle and some nice chocolates for my partner. The bill was extremely expensive bread, one main course, a mid range bottle of wine, a few sides, two ice creams and some water cost £175. I don’t mind spending a bit of money for a special meal, on occasion, but this wasn’t worth it and we will think twice before going there again. We took off the 12.5% gratuity which added nearly £20 to our bill because we didn’t think the service even remotely deserved it. In fact, our first waitress made me so angry that had it not been a special dinner for my partner, we would have left at that point. The only thing that might tempt me back is that we have had three previous good experiences, so perhaps it was just a very expensive duff night."