The Cornelian Staines Riverside Brasserie — Restaurant in Borough of Spelthorne

Excellent new place in Staines.

Went on 28th Sept 2024 for dinner - a total of 11 of us. A nice big restaurant good high street location. The place was busy. Booking on weekends is advisable. Parking is little difficult but not impossible.

Firstly the service - being part of such a big group one would expect the service to be a little bit slow and quite often with mistakes - but not in our case. All our food arrived promptly and virtually all together. Our server Georgia very friendly and very attentive.

The menu itself is not overwhelming. There is enough choice for pescatarians (like me) and meat eaters. Unfortunately for vegetarians the choice is limited. I am sure they will add few more dishes as time goes by.

A variety of starters were ordered by us - garlic butterfly prawns - out of this world highly recommended, mushroom arancini, salt and pepper squid, cauliflower wings, Malaysian chicken skewers, some daily specials.

For the mains we ordered Caribbean Coconut Monkfish curry, pan fried Hake & Champagne Sauce - absolutely delicious, Ribeye and again some daily specials.

My partner is vegetarian and loved everything she ordered - for starters asparagus (without the ham) very tiny portion but nice. Her mains was a Halloumi Mixed Grain Salad which was very tasty and filling.

For dessert I had Biscotti cheese cake with ice cream which had the right sweetness and right portion size. My partner had Toffee and Walnut cake with Ice Cream which again was very tasty. Tried a bit of Saffron Pear dessert which was very good and popular.

In terms of quality and taste of the food it was superb. Very fresh and it was obvious that the ingredients used were of very good quality. The portion sizes were generous and nicely presented. Not a single person in our group had a single negative comment to make.

Overall highly recommended restaurant which I would love to...

Well it all started with me booking a table here for my wife’s birthday on July 16th. After getting a confirmation email we duly arrived to find out that not only the restaurant closed, it didn’t even open until Friday 19th!! So it really confuses me when I see that diners have left reviews from weeks & months before they were even open! I decided to bite the bullet & book another dinner for last night (9th August) we arrived & were given our menu of which my wife’s was literally covered in either coffee Staines or food! We ordered a bottle of wine, our starters & main courses. After 10mins the waiter came back to us telling us that they hadn’t any of my wife’s starters left! OMG, it was only 7.45pm on a Friday evening, surely they should cater for what should’ve been a busy weekend! So she ordered a Prawn Cocktail… We then had to endure a 45min wait for our starters! Unbelievable! Which my wife had noticed had been on the kitchen bar top for quite a while.. By then we had nearly finished our bottle of wine. My wife then noticed that other diners were being offered a cocktail menu & drinks menu which we weren’t! So we thought that if you don’t like wine that’s it! It wasn’t only us who had a very bad experience at The Cornelian, the lady on the table next to us asked for a pudding which should’ve been warm but arrived cold! Needless to say when we finished our mains, which was quite tasty, we asked for our bill, told the waiter EXACTLY what we thought of our evening & promptly exited the premises…. DEFINITELY NOT going back to that place...

I've visited this restaurant twice, and on both occasions, we've thoroughly enjoyed the food. The portion sizes are generous, and it offers excellent value for money — truly one of the highlights.

The service has been warm and friendly, with a young, enthusiastic team who are polite and welcoming. However, during both visits, we noticed that some staff members lingered a bit too long during check-ins or casual chats. While we value friendly service, the frequent interruptions made it difficult to fully enjoy our conversation. A more balanced approach — attentive yet respectful of guests’ space — would really enhance the experience.

Our most recent visit was a bit unusual. Several waiters asked us to leave a review and mentioned they would receive £10 for it, which felt a little pressuring. One server also made a comment about internal staff dynamics involving the acting manager, which came across as unprofessional and detracted from the overall atmosphere.

That said, I would absolutely return for the food and value. I’d especially like to commend our main server, Cameron, who was a standout — consistently polite, professional, and friendly. He struck the perfect balance of being present without overstepping, and his service made a real difference to our evening. I hope he's recognised for it.

I’m sharing this feedback in the spirit of being helpful. With a few small adjustments to service boundaries, this restaurant could easily become...