ATESH Grill x Bar — Restaurant in Epping Forest

I came here for a 40th birthday dinner in a group. The decor and ambience is lovely and we were told by our waitress to order from the set Christmas menu which is 3 courses and a drink for £45 which seemed reasonable to me however I was very disappointed with actual sizes of the portions and I found the dishes unimaginative. I visit Turkish restaurants often across London and the humous and dips are not proper starters and should not be sold as individual starters. My sister ordered Taramasalata and I halloumi. The halloumi portion wouldn’t even fill up a child and there was not dip to go with it. My sister had just taramasalata with a tiny bit of cucumber and carrot. It came with bread for the table which meant nothing to me considering I got no dip with mine and had to dip my bread in to my sisters starter. It was no where near worth £51 which by the time service was added what the bill per person came to. They had an entertainer singing and she was very good and they had dancers too so the atmosphere was great but there was no personal service due to the fact that it was way too loud to get the waiters attention and they were very busy. We asked for an extra side of couscous but it never came. My meal came with rice but there was hardly any rice, perhaps one spoonful. A number of my party kept banging their heads on the light that hangs low from the ceiling. I told the waitress about this and all she could say was that she has also banged her head on it with no apology or concern. The 3 stars that I have given is for the...

I was impressed by the excellent service, the high quality of the food, the easy-enough access and the decor of the place.

All the servers were very polite and courteous and clearly focused on providing good service.

The quality of the food was really high; every portion was just the right size. The starters where light enough to not fill you up before your mains arrived, and the bread was light and warm and didn't fill you up.

The mains where of excellent quality - although I personally am used to more stronger spiced foods. The quality of each item, the chicken, the lamb, salads, and potatoes was exemplary and care had clearly been taken when creating these items.

The deserts where all rich in flavour, but not overpowering - perfect to wind down after a lovely meal.

The wait time between each serving was acceptable, and we'd spent a good two hours at the venue which seemed to fly by,

Finally, given the amount of food and quality of service we received, we were pleasantly surprised by the bill which was lower than we were used to paying - we had paid far more and received far less. They had definetley earned their service charge.

I'd happily return again and try something different from their menu, just to try out all their options.

Thanks for a...

This restaurant was recommended to me by my sister, who has visited this restaurant in the past, to celebrate my son's 21st birthday. We went on Thursday night and were greeted (not quite the correct word) by the rudest manager/waiter....not sure what he was. The other male waiter was very pleasant and has good customer service skills but the grey haired one was rude and arrogant. Asking for onions was like trying to get blood out of a stone and then asking to have my rice pudding warmed up was a major problem because he stated twice 'it comes cold!! He also got the nice waiter to bring out the onions and later bring me my warm dessert! I'd understand if they were busy but we were one of only two parties....the other group had 7 round a table may I add. It was clear to me that grey haired guy wouldn't want us to ever come back, perhaps because our party consisted of black and asian people. Overpriced with a £30 service charge! Oh and I've never had a pint colada served in a martini glass with hundreds and thousands stuck around the rim of the glass!! The food was bland too! I would never recommend this place to anyone and definitely would not return!! We should have gone to Gem of Essex as...