"…but that seems a long time ago now. After my last rather disappointing visit a little while ago, I thought I’d give it another go. Didn’t have a reservation but the friendly staff member 1 got me a table. It was the only table without a candle or light, pretty dark there, I thought they would bring me a candle once seated but that didn’t happen. Small details… The entire service brigade seemed exchanged, I do like a bit of continuity, in particular when they used to have excellent staff and front of house who even knew what my first drink would be and what cocktail I’d have after food. I always wondered why there was such a high turnover of excellent members of staff, they certainly are an asset to the business, it seems strange. I ordered lamb koftas which I had in the past, also some crushed potatoes. The wait for my £9 cocktail was rather long, after perhaps 30 minutes it was eventually presented by staff member 2. I then waited for the food. 1 hour 10 ! for the two rather sad looking kebabs put in font of me by staff member 3. Potatoes were a no show, I waited another 5 minutes for them and decided not to let the kebabs get cold. The £11 kebabs were very dense and chewy, the pickles required a chisel and I am sure it said cauliflower on the menu but that was missing too. The kebabs from years ago were tender and succulent, pretty much the opposite of what I had now. It reminded me of the burrata that once was really good but then became uninspired and dull. Once finished, staff member 4 asked ‘can I take these?’, referring to the plate and cutlery, without asking if I liked it. I had enough and asked for the bill. The bill still had the potatoes on it so I asked for them to be taken off. While waiting for the amended bill, staff member 5 came with some potatoes. So they didn’t forget them as I had assumed. I said “sorry, these are about 20 minutes too late, I am already in the process of paying”. Also, the £5 potatoes didn’t look crushed, they just looked like boiled potatoes to me. There were occasional problems with Kiln in the past, once I had badly undercooked fish on two separate occasions, I even contacted the place via Messenger with a picture and the reply was “we won’t reply via social … you can ring us” which I thought was very inappropriate, it’s not ‘social’ and I used that from of contact because I didn’t want to write a bad review as I really liked Kiln, then. Based on the pic, I would have been petrified if that had been my restaurant and I didn’t even get a ‘sorry’. Anyway, I won’t go back, I used to wave the flag, now it’s chaotic, the food has gone downhill dramatically, I also find it too expensive for what it is and where it is and I think that the monstrosity of a new bar has ruined a lot of the old cosiness."
