Bagatelle London — Restaurant in London

To begin with, I don’t give 1 star lightly so hopefully the following explains. We were a party of 8 coming together for, what we hoped for, would be an experience as non of us been at Bagatelle before but heard it supposed to be very good. The table provided to us was at the corner (round sofa table with a couple of chairs). This was just about ok, but certainly not on the ‘comfortable’ side taking into account we were 8. Menu had plenty of options (some dishes can be ordered as started or Main) and prices on the very high end of this type of restaurants. We ordered food (mainly tuna and beef tartar as starters and 3 portion of Seabass on the grill at £90(!) a piece and no, it wasn’t just been pulled from the ocean) and wine/cocktails. The food was OK but in my opinion comes well short of the price tag attached to it. Nicely presented, taste fine but nothing more than average good. The main issue was around service. It was very very slow. There are plenty of waitresses around, all seems professional but everything we ordered, main orders or later add-ons, took too long. One of my friend had a little bone stuck in her throat- nothing serious but we asked for a piece of bread to help her ‘get it down’ - even under this circumstances, it still took them time to deliver a prepared piece of bread. Now for the main reason - we ordered the table for 19:30. 6/8 of us were sat at 19:40 and place our orders. At 20:45, we were asked to leave as there are other guests waiting for our table. Really?!?! Seriously?!? No offer for desserts, quite a rude request taking into account that it was just about an hour since we sat down and it was their slow service that didn’t help but I do find in an astonishing request, especially when there were other, free/unoccupied tables around!! Bagatelle does not featured in Tripadvisor where I am one of the top reviewers and have almost 27,000 readers. Lucky them but I wonder why.... as you will see, most 5 starts provided with no narrative and around the same time. My one star goes to the security guy (a polish gentleman from Krakow) who was very nice, welcoming and even prevented a minor accident when alerted a guest parking to be careful from a hidden post. Bottom line - don’t think they will see us back anytime soon. With the massive options available in London for a top class restaurants - no need...

Came here on Saturday night for a joint birthday celebration. Confirmed with the restaurant on Friday night and also paid a £750 deposit before even getting to the restaurant. We made our booking via a friend who is close with the senior manager so we believed our booking was very much secure.Upon arrival a man greeted us very unprofessionally dressed to tell us our group has not met the dress code of classy and elegant while himself wearing a leopard print leather jacket that was studded. We was a group of mid 20 year old girls dolled up to the nines ready to celebrate a birthday so very much met the dress code requirements. We have already attended bagatelle before and had a great time so we very much know what the restaurant expect of us in terms of clothing. He was extremely rude , unprofessional, nasty and patronising. I’m quite shocked to believe that a restaurant like bagatelle would want such a person working on their door representing them. The security working that day was very kind , understanding and also vocalised how much he disagreed with his leopard print wearing colleague. This man who we spoke to on the door told us the manager had made the decision however we had not seen a manager at all the only person to have seen us was him. He failed to explain who it was specifically who didn’t meet the requirements and also refused to get the manager as he then proceeded to decide to tell us the manager wasn’t in ? We then spoke to another guy on the door who later admitted they gave the table away. So upon reflection the first leopard print wearing male was completely lying and making up excuses , clearly quite happy to make 5 girls feel awful about themselves to make his insecure self feel better because he can’t admit the restaurant just has simply let the table go. I cannot believe this has even happened to us and I’m utterly disgusted at the way we was treated especially on a birthday when we was very happy to spend money in their establishment. So clearly to sum this situation up unless your are pally pally with the owners or happy to spend tens of thousands don’t even bother trying to book a place at...

If I could leave 0 stars I would. Having arrived at 7:10pm for our 7pm reservation (still within the 15 minute grace period), one of our party was refused entry due to wearing trainers. Whilst annoying, it was understandable as the dress code does state no ‘athletic wear’. Said party member had attended last year wearing trainers and hadn’t been turned away which is where the confusion had started. Explaining this to the hostess at the door she helpfully replied, “that was last year, this is this year”.

We began to make arrangements for our friend to change his footwear as it was a special birthday celebration that we didn’t want to ruin by someone having to leave. Whilst making the necessary phone calls, two of our party were accused of being ‘intoxicated’. When asking the bouncer why he thought this he replied, “I can just tell” and that when we were allowed entry he suggested that, “we eat some bread and drink some water.”

Meanwhile, a couple arrived and were greeted by the hostess and bouncer. One of the couple was wearing a pair of black, ankle level, high top style trainers with studs. The couple were granted entry without hesitation. Confused, I asked the staff as to why that pair of trainers were fine to wear but not the ones our party member was wearing. The bouncer then explained that the gentleman was wearing “sneakers not trainers” and “they were Louboutins” and that they were fine for entry as “you wouldn’t ever wear them in a gym”.

By this point, we obviously felt incredibly unwelcome. For unknown reason, it seemed the staff were seeking for any reason to decline us entry. Our friend’s birthday night plans had been ruined and the experience was everything that a special celebration shouldn’t be.

Takeaway message:

1. athletic wear is acceptable, even though on their website it says it is prohibited, as long as it is designer
2. the staff (blonde lady with tattoos and bouncer with dark hair) are rude, hostile and incompetent
3. avoid this place like the plague if you are wanting a fun night out where the staff will treat you with an...