French Fries
Maison Francois

Maison Francois

34 Duke StreetSt James's, London, United Kingdom, SW1Y 6DF

Pub • Wine • French • Brunch


"Bit of mixed evening slow start and bad ending. BAR Great decor but perhaps as we came earliesh (5pm? was not fully staffed so had to flag down the server to take our order.  OK cocktails but nothing special.  No bar snacks.  We felt ignored.  FOOD  Absolutely great brasserie cuisine.  The chops especially nice as seasoned to perfection and sliced off the bone.  Fun retro (1980s desert trolley with drawers.  Again excellent food all around. WINE Charming sommelier who listened and recommended a surprisingly and smashing white!  STAFF Heaps of them but not sure they are very well organized.  Friendly but cater and pander (very very obviously to regulars and celebs.  Made us feel abit 2nd class honestly and we definitely were not the staff's priority.  DOG POLICY  None on website BUT a medium/large poodle nearby us was allowed and it barked and barked loud enough for the entire dining room to notice. The owner nor the staff took any proactive action to resolve this.  Our dessert course was absolutely ruined for 30 minutes.  We did mention to manager and he said he would look into the policy but did not take any action at the time.  We love animals but they belong at home not in a restaurant we paid nearly £300 for dinner!  Utterly unacceptable.  Per Covid this would never happen.  RECOMMENDED Absolutely NOT unless you are a dog lover, lesser royal, cast member of Made in Chelsea or a posh regular who lives round the corner "

Marco Pierre White Steakhouse, Grill Southampton

Marco Pierre White Steakhouse, Grill Southampton

Grand Harbour Hotel Southampton, West Quay Road, United Kingdom, SO15 1AG

Tea • Steak • Grill • Cheese


"Unfortunately very disappointed with the meal we had here on Saturday2 Sept 23. Having been in the past we were really looking frwd to our treat at this hotel and a meal at the 'Marco Pierre White ' steakhouse. After placing our order for the fillet steaks we not only had to wait 50 minutes for any food to arrive (we were seated as it opened so not many other diners were there) but then the under average meal arrived. The Koffman fries were absolutely inedible. They were burnt with grease coming out of them and most were small burnt ends and looked disgusting (see photos). We mentioned this to our waiter when he came to check and he offered to bring new fries. We waited another 10 minutes for these to arrive but by then our steaks were eaten as they were getting cold. The waiter should of taken our plates away and got rid of the old fries, but instead he left them on our plates. The new fries were not alot better and we didn 't eat many due to the meal now being ruined! The waiter then bought us the bill. I just couldn 't believe we were about to pay nearly £80 for a meal that was utterly disappointing. I made an error here by paying the bill in full then thought I would go and speak to the manager. This was a big mistake. After waiting another 10 minutes to speak to someone the manager came over and said all she can offer is 20% off next time we visit. I told her this will not be happening and we won 't return. She said nothing else can be done and didn 't even offer a refund of the chips. I was disgusted and told her that if I had known this I would not of paid the bill at all until I had spoken to her, I felt dubed and angry, we even paid the service charge, added without us asking. As the restaurant manager surely she would have a small amount of discretion to offer something back to us??? I really don 't think it was to much to ask for? She just said she couldn 't offer anything else, which I don 't believe for one minute. I asked how I can escalate this further and she told me I can speak to hotel reception. We went back to our room and decided to ask for the manager when checking out in the morning. I spoke to the guest relations manager when we checked out, to be fair he did listen and take down notes and my contact details. He assured me he would look into this and come back to me. He accepted the restaurant manager was wrong in not dealing with this the previous evening. After 5 days of no contact from him I emailed to chase it up, then another 2 days (1 week had now passed) I decided to email the hotel chain direct to pass on my complaint and gave them all the details in an email. Two hours later I finally had a response from the guest relations manager. Although he apologised I was refunded just £13! From an £80 meal, absolutely unbelievable. Due to these circumstances and the way it was handled I cant recommend this hotel or steakhouse and will definitely not be returning. This is a restaurant backed by a 3 star michilin chef hence you expect good service and quality food, especially for the higher price you pay, seems like we were just paying for the name! Very disappointed"