Tofu
The Refuge

The Refuge

Oxford Road, Manchester I-M60 7HA, United Kingdom

British • European • Vegetarian • Contemporary


"Excellent! We spent around four hours here on a Tuesday afternoon sampling their food, savouring their coffee and scabbing their free wifi! I 'll start with the basics. The Refuge is conveniently located on Oxford Street just a two minute walk from the train station. The casual seating area is huge with plenty of places for different sized groups to sit, there 's even an Apprentice Style boardroom table. The vibe is very relaxed but when I entered I noticed a lot of business people (or people clearly working). The decor is fantastic, as mentioned its a huge open space but the dark wooden finish makes it feel close and comfortable. The lunch menu isn 't huge but they clearly want to keep things simple and do them right. I had the beef burger accompanied by skinny fries and it was delicious. Just the right consistency so you could pick it up without it falling apart. It was generously topped with salad and the 'posh big mac ' sauce finished it off nicely. If you want to eat you 'll have to head through to the dining area as they don 't serve food in the lounge beware this was very busy, even on a Tuesday, so you may need to book in advance. After lunch we headed back to the lounge area and had a coffees while we chatted. The coffee was great, I had a flat white which was just off on the good side of bitter. We also ordered snacks later in the day the Almonds cooked in bacon fat are a must try that might sound gross to some people but just wait until the bacon flavour hits your taste buds! To access the free wifi you 'll need to sign up wth your email address but then it 's all yours. I haven 't even received a spammy email a week later. It 's really hard to fault The Refuge the staff were attentive without being too in your face, which I suppose is important when people are using their premises for business meets! All in all a really great experience and a lovely place to spend the afternoon working."

The Fable

The Fable

52 Holborn Viaduct London, EC1A 2FD, EC1A 2DY, United Kingdom

Beer • Steak • British • European


"A group of ten of us went here last night for our work evening out. First impressions were good the place looked really nice, and it was packed (not so good if you are into any kind of social distancing). However, once we were seated for dinner next to the main bar area, it became apparent from the incredibly loud dance music that this was not going to be an evening of easy conversation. I like to think that a basic requirement of going to dinner is that I can enjoy some conversation but that was far too much to hope for. It was like being in the middle of a nightclub or bar where to have to really shout and strain to hear someone. Things got so bad that the waitress simply could not hear me to take my order. When my colleague 's order came it was completely wrong which was no surprise. We asked for their music to be turned down several times but that was just not possible by the looks of things because of the huge bar area next to us that they cared about more. Overall, the food was good, but the evening was totally ruined by the stupidly loud nightclub music. I do not exaggerate when I say that several of us left with sore throats and lost voices. If the management is reading this then I don 't want a stock robotic reply underneath we are very sorry to hear that....... kind of response because we made it clear that the music was stupidly loud several times. The next time I want to sit and eat in the middle of a nightclub then I 'll just go to Pret for a sandwich and just take it into the middle of the dancefloor of my local. It 'll be a lot cheaper for sure."

Papa John's Bournemouth

Papa John's Bournemouth

7 Holdenhurst Rd, Bournemouth, BH88EH, United Kingdom

Sushi • Pizza • Cafés • Asiatic


"Well, I was staying away from home due to work and found this Indian restaurant (I do love Curries so looked out for one . Yes, the girl taking orders (I presume the owner's daughter was friendly and very helpful, and the service was quick, probably because there weren't many people in there, but that did surprise me because it was Saturday night. Upon arrival, I sat down and disappeared into the chair (no springs! moved to another seat only slightly better. Had poppadoms, tasted awful but they came out after around 30 seconds so maybe they were yesterday's? Chutney, mint yogurt etc were the worst I've had, very bland, even the onion was watery and tasteless. I wondered how good the main would be. Omg, I hate to say this but it was honestly the worst curry I have ever tasted and I was very disappointed. As other reviews have said, it was dry chewy chicken chunks in a paste. I ate half of it and just wanted to get out of there in the end, got the bill then suddenly they had a power cut! Lights kept flashing on and off as the owner repeatedly kept resetting the breaker which just kept tripping out. The card reader for payment stopped working so I was stuck. After 5 mins the owner brought out candles! Somebody in the restaurant offered to help the owner, and after 20 mins got the lights on. (I hope he was rewarded with a discount but I doubt it very much! I eventually paid but they wanted the itemised receipt they gave me after I paid, but I needed it for work, but eventually sorted it (they let me have the last cm of the receipt! . I left the run down front porch area with two doors, couldn't close the first door, it wouldn't shut. Then the owner just slammed it behind me and it shut, which I thought was a bit rude as I was still there in the porch looking at him! I went through the second door onto the street and the door handle came off in my hand along with that long rod bit as well. Then the Indian owner came running out and took it from me. I couldn't stop laughing all the way home. Will I go back? Absolutely not!"

Mien Tay

Mien Tay

45 Fulham High Street, London SW6 3JJ, London, SW63JJ, SW11 5TQ, United Kingdom

Soup • Meat • Seafood • Noodles


"When you dine out, it’s not just about the food but the experience as well. While we enjoyed the food (though perhaps a bit on the salty side) our experience at Mien Tay was quite poor. While the tables around us got their food within ten minutes, we were left waiting for more than 30 minutes for our meal to arrive. We ordered a couple of beers, a starter, and a main. However, from the moment the order was taken to its late arrival we were not once visited by our server – never to say that the food was going to take a bit of time nor that it was almost done. Just silence. The beers did arrive 10 minutes after we placed our order, but given they were just bottles even that seemed late. The water we asked for never arrived, which proved to be problematic given the over salty fish. We had specifically ordered a starter to allow the lengthier cooking time we assumed for the sea bream. This, apparently, was lost on the staff. We were actually just about to walk out in disgust when the food arrived. When I expressed our displeasure to our server, he simply said “I just work here, talk to the bar downstairs.” Hardly an acceptance of fault nor any attempt to make up for the extremely lengthy delay. We raised the point again at the till as we were leaving, but we were simply brushed aside: “the fish takes a long time to cook.” There are so many Vietnamese restaurants in the area. Think carefully about choosing this one if you care for a timely meal and for properly being waited on."