Ubiquitous Chip — Restaurant in Great Britain

I took my girlfriend and parents along to Ashton Lane today as wanted to treat them to a nice Sunday lunch. I had previously booked Ubiquitous Chip as the reviews were great and I have always heard good things. Booking process was easy and lots of times were available so getting a table was seamless. As this was booked through Open Table it did warn me that there was a £25 charge for no shows and needed a credit card guarantee.

Upon arrival we entered the restaurant where there was a small queue and waited about 2 minutes. One customer was stood in front of me but was lingering so the staff member called me forward and sent us upstairs to be seated. I felt like the lingering customer could have been better dealt with as it was clear she was not happy that it appeared I had jumped her in the queue.

We were seated quickly and the waitress asked if we would like any drinks. This was an open statement rather than each of the guests being addressed so my father felt like he wasn't really offered the chance to order. To start my mum had the mussels which she said were good and a great portion size. We also had the bread with shallot butter and flatbeard with hummus which was pleasant.

For mains we all ordered a chicken roast. The breast of chicken was delicious and well presented but salty. The carrots were served chunky which I liked but the potato serving was a bit tight given the money you were being charged. The roasties looked and tasted like frozen shop bought potatoes which is poor. The greens were extremely salty which it takes alot for me to say but it was too much for me. The Yorkshire puddings were OK but nothing to write home about.

The desserts were chocolate mousse and frangipane item were again were both satisfactory if not amazing. The cherries in the dark mousse were extremely boozy which some may not like.

After hearing alot about Ubiquitous Chip, I cannot help but be a little disappointed in the service and food which was received. It was not terrible in any sense but given nearly £200 was spent I had hoped for more. Staff engagement was very minimal and no staff member in particular stood out. Hopefully this is useful feedback and can be used for...

I had a great experience with the tasting menu here a few years ago. Unfortunately the food and service have now really dropped below what you'd expect for a £75 tasting menu.

The food was the kind of competent I'd be happy with at a upper mid-range restaurant, but wasn't the level I'd expect from a tasting menu at this price. The dishes didn't come together very well, and flavours and ingredients just didn't have any wow factor.

Similarly the service was fine for a normal restaurant but not for this price point. It took 2.5 hours to get through the tasting menu (with no extra dishes), and we weren't eating slowly. After the first two courses came out promptly, we had half an hour waits between courses. Even the desserts which have minimal preparation time (and by that time the restaurant was half empty) took 15-20 minutes. This really killed the enjoyment of the food. We had four different servers across the evening, which doesn't build the attentive and personal service you'd expect from this kind of experience, and might explain why no one seemed to notice how long we were waiting throughout the evening. Drinks were also slow to be served, and a glass of wine was served with cork in it. That was resolved quickly once pointed out, but shouldn't happen for a £20 glass of wine served by a wine specialist. Everyone was polite but it just didn't feel like staff were invested, so I would guess at this being a pay / training / management problem. Unfortunately we didn't have a chance to feed any of this back as no one asked us how everything was while paying the bill.

This is more personal preference, but we also found the restaurant very loud and playing bassy electronic music wasn't the best atmosphere to be able to appreciate good food.

It's a nice space with a lot of potential but sadly just doesn't feel like it's being run with the passion and heart of a lot of other places that do tasting...

My daughter and I were in the restaurant Saturday night (14/9) to celebrate her 30th birthday. We made this clear upon making the reservation, and repeated this to our first server. The Chip came very highly recommended, and we arrived with high hopes for our special occasion.

We chose the tasting menu, which was delightful in terms of food quality, and the chef made thoughtful accommodation for food allergy. We were very happy with our meal.

We were quite disappointed, however, with service. It was clear our servers were changing over the course of our meal (not fewer than four). This resulted in extended delays between courses (some pause is expected, of course, but this was beyond).

We ran out of table water; it was not replenished. Our last server (very long dark hair, never offered her name) often couldn’t remember what she was serving.

Most disappointing, my daughter’s birthday was completely ignored—and there were at least two other birthdays in the restaurant that night, so this was a glaring omission. We had hoped for a simple candle in her dessert service—not an unreasonable expectation, by any measure.

After this, our server disappeared entirely.

We sat at the close of our meal, waiting for our bill for not fewer than 25 minutes. Literally we were the last to leave the restaurant. We could EASILY have simply walked away without paying, so ignored we were. And when our server finally realized her neglect, she offered no apology whatsoever.

We departed an empty restaurant past midnight as a result. (Our reservation was for 8:15.)

I want to emphasize our appreciation of the kitchen’s efforts. We enjoyed our food. The wine steward was also quite lovely.

I wrote an email directly to the restaurant with this very message, but my email was...