Olives (V)
Greedy Cow

Greedy Cow

2 Grove Road, London, E35AX, E3 5AX, United Kingdom

Steak • Burgers • Mexican • Steakhouse


"We had an 8pm reservation and arrived a couple of minutes beforehand. Despite being able to find the reservation in the system, there was no table for us until 8.20pm. In the meantime, another party with a later reservation came in and was seated. I appreciate that their party was larger and was therefore given the larger table that became available first, but still think it reflects poorly on the restaurant that they weren’t organised for a booking. The staff were polite and briefly apologetic but didn’t seem too bothered by their error. The food itself was good. We had tempura prawns to start, which came with a delicious dipping sauce. I then had a fillet steak for my main course. I ordered rare but what I received was more akin to medium rare and even medium in parts. Only the very middle was rare. This might be due to the ‘tall’ nature of the cut (see pictures). The medium rare ribeye was good. The sides were huge. We barely finished the truffle chips between us. The mac ‘n’ cheese was OK – I would have preferred it without the crumb topping as in my opinion it has no place in the dish. It was described on the menu as having this though, so I knew what I was getting myself into. The service was mostly good, though there was one member of the wait staff who seemed a bit out of their depth. They were very young and I think perhaps new. Luckily it was very quiet (I think we were the last table seated that evening, so by the time we were onto our mains, the place was dead) so this wasn’t much of a problem. There is just one toilet, an accessible bathroom and baby change combo. I was disappointed to see the emergency pull cord tied up out of reach, rendering the bathroom unsuitable for some disabled customers. The bathroom in general was not overly clean and in need of refurbishment. In my experience, the place is not deserving of the current 4.3 star Google or 4.5 star Trip Advisor ratings, but has potential if management can sort out the issues listed above. I would like to score 3.5 but as this is not possible, I am going to round down on this occasion."

28-50 Marylebone

28-50 Marylebone

15-17 Marylebone Lane London, W1U 2NE, United Kingdom

Soup • Steak • Seafood • European


"We had high expectations for 28-50, and chose it for our one night in London. Sadly, it disappointed in every way. Although they had 30 by-the-glass options from many different regions, the majority of the offerings were a sad representation of mass-produced product. The service, though, is what really destroyed our experience. I try out wine bars in every city I visit as I’ve been in the wine business for 20 years, and put on dozens of tastings a year. This place was the bottom of the, err … barrel. The evening started fine enough with a decent cheese platter and passable. Chablis. But the strong start went rapidly downhill from there. One member of our party ordered a red, a simple Bordeaux, which was served lukewarm. It is unforgivable for a wine bar to not keep their wines at the proper temperature! But the biggest faux-pas came when the second glass I ordered, the Tuscan blend, showed up with a very low pour. It was certainly less than 2.5 ounces. I asked the server if they thought I had asked for the 75ml taster size, and instead of replying, they sent over the sommelier, Simone. He looked at the crappy pour in my glass, and said “let me check for you”. We just assumed he would return with the bottle and top it off correctly, but instead he went back to the bar and played around for several minutes with the glasses and pourers. He returned and proclaimed, “that was my mistake, I gave your companions too much wine in their glass”. (Believe me, NONE of the pours were generous). The four of us (three who are also in the hospitality business) were entirely dumbfounded that he would think this was the correct way to deal with things. From that point on everything went downhill. The food was borderline inedible. Seared tuna was just a mushy piece, with no sear. The tomato salad was made with low-quality tasteless produce. The steak was equally low-quality and incorrectly cooked. We left so much food on our plates, but the undertrained servers just swept them away, never asking if there was a issue. So this is the place to go to if you want bad food and boring offerings of wine priced 4 times what it would cost retail, some served at the wrong temperature, and get ripped off by underpours. Most of the wines on the list are $20 bottles sold in the supermarket. For example, La Crema (by Kendal Jackson) for Pinot Noir, or Lucas for Bordeaux. Other anemic offerings (although served at the correct temperature) were the bland Nebbiolo and Super Tuscan. Their highest priced, top-shelf wine at 28 a glass, is a ultra-modern Bordeaux by Kendall Jackson, Lassègue which tastes more like a cheap Napa Red. Those of us in the wine industry consider that wine a joke. As is 25-80."

Demiro's

Demiro's

Unit 26 Mermaid Quay, Cardiff, CF105BZ, CF10 5BZ, United Kingdom

Steak • Pizza • Italian • Spanish


"Friday evening 19th October and we visited this restaurant for dinner. It is located in Mermaid Quay and overlooks Roald Dahl Plass and the Welsh Millennium Centre. We did not have a reservation, so luckily they were able to accommodate the seven of us. We were greeted at the door, warmly welcomed, and shown to our large circular table. We were presented with the menus, there was the a la carte menu as well as a set price two and three course menus and the drinks menu. This is an Italian, Spanish and Welsh flavour to the food served here. While we decided on what food to order we ordered some drinks from a friendly good humoured waiter. We finally decided on what to order which was a range of starters including garlic mushrooms, chicken liver pate and homemade soup. My starter, the soup, leek and potato was delicious. Home made Welsh faggots proved to be rather popular with a number of us ordering them. It was unfortunate that there were insufficient faggots for us all so a couple of us reselected the chicken breast. When our food was served it was delicious the chicken breast was succulent and tender and the faggots were very much appreciated. There is certainly a sense of the theatrical, dramatic and the zany about the decor here. From chandeliers, Greek statues, theatre curtains, unusual lights and other oddities, they all added to the atmosphere here. We really did enjoy our evening here, reasonably priced, quality delicious food, attentive and amusing staff and the over the top decor."