Bank Food & Drink — Restaurant in London

Worst experience. Avoid!

They have spent a pretty penny on the place and the business opportunity is clearly there but the execution is so poor from soup to nuts! In fact It’s horribly pretentious, with poor service and average food.

Having been telephoned twice to confirm the table there was huge confusion when we arrived. After some debate and no apology we were shown to our table right by the speakers which were at nightclub volume. The restaurant was almost empty as we arrived early that evening (no traffic). So they moved us to another table.

Soon you begin to realise there is something wrong. It’s the amateur staff clearly lacking is training, walking around with small covers over their mouths but nothing over their noses. For many, English is not their first language and so through the mouth cover, over the music, it is virtually impossible to hear them. Question. Have we abandoned proper face masks when service food? This is clearly a corporate policy considering the number of staff with tiny mouth covers. They might as well not bother.

We ordered and our starters came really quickly. Our friends thought the food was poor and ours was bland but just about ok. We asked for some bread which as delivered as four small pieces, totally stale and subsequently charged to our bill at £8. Clearly ridiculous.

It’s really is nice to be going out now, we enjoyed our time with our friends but after an hour we noticed the main courses hadn’t arrived. So we asked and I think our waiter said ‘it’s busy’ which was unhelpful. Another 30mins later still no food and frankly we our appetite had waned. The place by this stage was overfull, noisy and we noticed few had received food,. So we gave up.

The manager arrived to exclaim ‘five or six tables arrived at different times’. I am really not sure what this was meant to be? An excuse, pleading, mitigation? We asked for the bill and of course we were charged for the little we had had with service on top. No recognition of the issues the restaurant was clearly having. Any management with proper training would have adjusted the bill to reflect the lack of main meals two hours after arriving but instead they were happy to see us leave.

It is such a shame they can’t get the basis right. The menu is small and narrow. The staff need proper training. The kitchen should be able to produce meals from a small menu but sadly can’t. The place looks impressive but fails at every turn, they rely on repeat customers locally but sadly we would never return. A poor experience and if they don’t drastically improve, this place...

We booked a mal at 8pm on Friday 31st December 2021 in the hope to have an early dinner and be home to celebrate new years with our family. No where during booking was it mentioned that there would be a fixed menus for new years so we booked. The next day we found out there was a fixed menus which had items on it we could not eat due to datary requirements. We were charged £20 per person so a total of £80 deposit upon booking which we thought is fine since based on their normal menus we would be likely to spend around £60 per person. We tried contacting the restaurant within 12 hours of making the booking.

Out of 4 of us 3 are vegetarian and don't drink alcohol. The New years Menus only had mushroom based dish for the main and we have someone who couldn't eat mushrooms due to medical reasons.

The new years menus was priced at £140 per person and under normal circumstances if you were to order the same items separately on any other day the total would have been around £60 per person.

We phoned the restaurant and explained the situation and were just told that there was nothing we can do or its the booking company you have to speak to.

We spoke to the booking company who said to email the Restarant so we used the booking email address on the website which doesn't go though. We then tried phoning again with no luck.

I wouldn't have minded if it was clear that New Years was the set menus only, then we could have made up our own mind if we wanted to have it or not however this was completely unacceptable to thrust a menus we can't eat at us and charge us more than double what it normally costs.

It is a shame as we were planning a few get togethers the following weeks in early January which we were planning on having hear. As you can imagine we changed the location of these gettogethers and probably won't go...

Bank is a beautiful restaurant that is stunning to the eye with friendly staff and good service. Sadly after five visits the problem has consistently been the quality of the food allowed to leave the kitchen, although plated well ive sadly recieved very overcooked and dry food every time.

Upon my first visit I tried the bank cheesy burger and again plated beautifully but the burger was so dry and overcooked despite my requesting it to be not to well done.

Upon my second visit I tried again and asked to have the burger cooked medium to eliminate the dry issue from the previous visit however the burger again was dry overcooked and had no juice. I sent it back to the kitchen after one bite as it was so bad and opted to stick with drinks for the remainder of my visit, I was still charged for the plate I sent back.

On my 3rd I tried the chicken and had the same issue of overcooked food, plated well but chicken dry and over cooked and hard to chew due to this.

Visits 4 and 5 I had the lamb and both times was cooked well but the dauphinoise potatoes on both occasions were very bland and dry, it was obvious the side is fully cooked and reheated for service as apposed to par cooked and finished for service with fresh garlic cream as is standard in most high end restaurants.

Again the staff are amazing and the venue is beautiful but the lack of care and attention to the food really lets the place down and I believe is the thing that prevents additional stars being awarded.

Due to this I only now use the venue as a bar and go there solely for drinks.

I have several friends that also work in professional kitchens that have had the same issues. The food quality is sadly equal to that of a good pub restaurant and not the high ended establishment that the restaurant could be if this...