Chef's Compliments — Local services in London

We booked chef's compliments for a birthday celebration which the meal would take centre stage. after months of planning we were left frustrated and most definitely not impressed the whole experience. The canapes were CO-OP bought spring rolls (remnants left in the freezer) the main was average and didn't look very appetising, the desert was CO-OP ice cream (again left in the freezer) most definitely not gourmet fine dining or Michelin star food as advertised, and i quote "with only the freshest locally sourced high end ingredients used throughout our dinner party services, prepared from scratch by our team of experienced chef's" I wonder if trading standards would be interested in the mis representation of the service we were sold…. Nowhere did it say CO-OP spring rolls for 9 pounds per head!! After we contacted the owner the response was less than satisfying, we were offered a small discount on a future booking and as you can imagine we are never going to use them again and warn others not to do so, if the night you are planning is important to you I would advise against the use of chef’s compliments. So in summary, nearly £1000 spent and an extremely bad taste left in our mouths.

update- I agree not all chefs have ice cream makers but there are many artisan ice cream makers near and around the area... at the least haagen dazs ... not co-op's ... i'm not against co-op's vanilla ice cream its actually very nice just not what we expected when we paid nearly £1000 for a gourmet meal.

Thanks for the stock response great use of copy and paste! ... discount on future bookings that you know full well we will never use. We have taken this as a lesson learned ... burnt by a chef haha who'd have thunk it! and FYI i'm not Lucie ... just another less than...

I have nothing but unreserved praise for Chef's Compliments and their cooking session - the whole team was outstanding. I received, as an Xmas present, an afternoon of cookery training at home - and the whole afternoon was an absolute delight.

My booking was handled by Darryl, who came up with interesting ideas for the menu, but was also prepared to 'flex' his ideas - for instance, we switched out one 'main' for a dessert, and the menu was flexible enough to allow us to prepare a fish-based main course for a pescatarian diner, as well as a main with meat for the meat-eaters.

On the day, Chef Bonito arrived 5 minutes early. He came fully-prepared with all of the equipment we would need, and he was a wonderful teacher. He worked expertly and calmly with me (very much a 5 out of 10 skilled chef, on a good day!) and my two teenage kids. Things were explained clearly and in a kind manner - patient, despite our lack of skills, and with excellent and engaging teaching. And the product of our labours was simply wonderful - light and lovely gyoza, full of fresh vegetables and zingy ginger; a delicious main of toulouse sausages and a lentil & veg stew (with sea bream for the fish-eater) cooked in a stock and wine reduction; and a decadent burnt basque cheesecake.

Chef Bonito tidied as he went, had all the ingredients, had all the skills, and is a brilliant teacher as well as a lovely man. What a great gift and what a great day. You should book this session - you're in for a real treat.

Thanks to Darryl and Bonito for...

We had a poor experience with chefs compliments. Chef Kim was booked to cook for 9 guests 3 courses of fine dining with canapes. She texted in the afternoon to say she would be starting our dinner party half an hour later than we had agreed. We were served shop bought frozen spring rolls for a canapé. Dry beef for our main and a soufflé which was more of a dry sponge for dessert served with co-op brand ice cream. When we raised our concerns with Darryl he told us this is normal procedure and offered one free canapé course on a future booking as way of compensation. We paid almost £1000 for the meals as it was to be the highlight of a 40th birthday celebration, and will obviously not be booking with them again. So his token gesture was arrogant and insulting The companies website clearly states "only the freshest locally sourced high end ingredients prepared from scratch by our team" Co-op ice cream and frozen spring rolls (which were left in our freezer) does not meet the...