Balfour St Barts — Restaurant in London

We held our wedding reception at Balfour St Barts in late November 2022 and cannot recommend it highly enough. Matilda the events coordinator was responsive, positive and offered great suggestions throughout. On the day she worked with our florist (Ribbon and Rose) to make the venue look amazing, she was then a calm presence throughout the day/night.

The chefs and kitchen team did an unbelievable job. We had 90 people for the meal at our reception, and our friends/family are generally quite "foodie". We also had a fair amount of dietary requirements be it vegetarian, vegan, lactose intolerant - everyone was well fed. Whether people had duck/scallops, beef/sea bass or one of the vegetarian/vegan options, if there is one thing our guests have consistently said about our day, its that the food was amazing. Several people have said to us its the best food they have ever had at a wedding - its definitely the best food I've ever eaten at a wedding.

The bar staff - you all contributed so much to our day, having fun with us and our guests. Everyone had a smile on their face and, despite not knowing us aside from the few times we had popped in before our wedding day, seemed genuinely really happy for us which we were so touched by. It felt like you were all a part of the party and that definitely contributed to us all having such a great time.

To all the team at Balfour St Barts, thank you so much.

If you are reading this as you are considering having your reception here, you will not regret...

I brought around 40 people into this pub as part of an organised pub crawl, but was really disappointed with how we were treated. I ordered a drink and paid contactless — the bartender confirmed the payment had gone through and took the card reader away. About 20 minutes later, he came over to say my card had been declined and asked me to pay again.

When I did, the second price was £2 higher, and when I queried it, he said it was a service charge because he “had to come and find me.” I pointed out that it’s the bar’s responsibility to check that payments go through, not the customer’s, but he refused to see my point of view.

He also told me he was the manager, but when I challenged the charge, he admitted he wasn’t — he was only the acting manager — and I then spoke to the actual manager. Unfortunately, the real manager was quite condescending, clearly not interested in resolving the issue, and just wanted to get rid of me and my group. He kept saying “thank you for bringing it to my attention” in a dismissive way and made no effort to put things right.

Given how much business our group brought in, this was a really poor experience. I definitely won’t be returning and wouldn’t recommend this...

Just had the most awful lunch at this bar!

We weren't provided with drinks menus so had to order our beverages blindly not knowing the costs or full range of options Even though the restaurant was relatively quiet we waited over 45 minutes for our food to arrive. I ordered 'Braised duck pie with creamy mash' and got a tiny metal container of duck and gravy with a tiny bit of mash on the top - this was £12!!! Someone else ordered the chicken pie which he described as 'chicken broth with a lid on' My colleagues ordered burgers and chips and got a total of 5 chips (they were thick cut but really? 5?!) Speaking of the burger (£14) my colleague ordered rare and it came well done Another colleague asked twice for extra mayonnaise and ended up physically getting up and chasing after the waitress for a third time before she got it. We had to wait a long time again for the bill to come and when it did we had a confusion because the waitress realised one of the card payments hadn't gone through and there was a further 10 minutes trying to sort that out.

Will be avoiding this pub at all costs...