Bar + Block Steakhouse London Aldgate — Restaurant in London

Truly one of the worst restaurant experiences in my entire life. I came here with 2 of my female friends last Wednesday 19th October. Firstly, we were seated, decided what cocktails we wanted pretty much immediately, but were sat waiting for 20 minutes for anyone to even come over to our table to take our DRINKS order - despite getting the attention of and waving to the waiters quite a few times. Please let me stress - the restaurant was relatively empty. There were maybe 2 or 3 other tables of couples and business men having their dinner post-work (we ate fairly early, from 6pm) and these customers seemed to be prioritised. This immediately had my back up as it seemed we were not being prioritised due to being a group of women in our mid twenties.

We ordered our food after yet another long wait, and it was honestly shocking how low the quality of ingredients - and overall cooking and presentation - were. For a restaurant claiming to be a high end steak and grill house, it was just so bad. My two friends ordered steaks which were tough and chewy to the point that they gave up on eating them. I myself had the mixed grill, and it was laughable. Completely unseasoned and undercooked chicken wings, another steak too tough to really enjoy (despite ordering rare) and a sausage that tasted like it was bought from a supermarket’s super saver own brand. Really cheap tasting - to me, this was a lower standard than I would expect from many high street cafes even. It was the epitome of bottom of the barrel, CHEAP motel/hotel food. Perhaps unsurprising given that this restaurant is housed for some reason within a Premier Inn?

However, these were not even the worst issues that we faced that night. I cannot express how truly appalling the state of the Women’s toilets were. There are no words. There was a cleaning sign outside the bathroom door for the entirety of the evening (indicating that women should not go in there to use it - where then were we expected to go?) and it reached a point after checking back to see if it had disappeared, where I became so desperate that I went inside regardless. This was a massive mistake. Each cubicle was worse than any festival toilet I’ve ever seen - packed to the brim with diarrhoea and just general disgustingness. I was speechless and honestly felt like throwing up. What’s worse is - this did not get cleaned ALL evening. It was just left there. We had to ask for the disabled toilet to be opened for us each time we needed to go - and given that the waiting staff were busy ignoring us already, this was a difficulty within itself.

Overall, just no. I never want to even look at this restaurant again, let alone...

Visited Thursday 11th December. Our first day in London staying at the Premier Inn next door so decided to try the restaurant. Not sure if we were just unlucky, but can’t understand all the good reviews for this place. There was a festive menu and a standard menu. We were seated and given menus by one member of staff before another came to take our orders. When we all ordered off the Christmas/festive menu we were told that NOTHING on the festive menu was available. The member of staff did apologise and say the first person should have told us. He then went on to advise us what also wasn’t available on the standard menu!! At one point someone joked that it would be quicker to tell us what was available. So we eventually ordered. It was NOT worth the wait. With two of our party receiving chicken kebabs on a bed of burnt, rock hard bread we asked if it was possible to have more bread. The server came back and looking quite embarrassed advised us that to now had gone and there was no more. We didn’t want a replacement meal, just some decent bread. We skipped desert as most of them were also unavailable. I don’t know if the restaurant was experiencing problems that day or they just didn’t order enough food?? There was no explanation given. The only good experience was the server, who I forgot to ask his name. He was from South Wales and I’m sure you’ll know who was working on that day. He was lovely, despite being in an awkward position regarding the lack of menu options. Unfortunately, we didn’t learn our lesson and we made the mistake of going down to breakfast the next morning. We were there at 10:20am and got told in no uncertain terms by a female member of staff that breakfast finished at 10:30am!! As I had my elderly mother with me I asked if there was anything available, pasties/toast. Again, I received a sharp no! I think some of your staff could use some customer service training. Terrible all round experience....

First of all I greeted to a manager who seated us to the table he looked like he couldn’t even be Bothered to be working tonight then I was sat to my table and brought the wrong menus as we booked specifically for valentines we then waited ten minutes to be asked for drinks even though the restaurant was empty the starters were lovely so we thought the rest of the food would be nice but we was wrong my steak and my girlfriends steak was completely over cooked like eating a hockey puck the chips were not beef dripping at all they was cooked in beef fat but chargers extra for them then finally 30 minutes after hearing a table saying how dry there food was and a table to the left just receiving there drinks after 15 minutes He took our plates and didn’t even ask how our meals were I had to inform swami that the food was unacceptable and that I wouldn’t be paying £37.50 for a steak I barely ate he tried arguing and not resolving it after 3 attempts of the receipt he finally came back and at this point I wanted to leave as working in hospitality my self and running my own kitchen as a head chef I am appalled by the service I received from here no care by the waiters and swami even came back and told me I couldn’t speak to a manager because he was one !!! He lied as I spoke to the person I was sat down by he told me he was actually the manager staff who work here don’t care about people who eat here it’s just one in one out I want my money back £80 for a meal which we barely ate is a disgrace completely ruined my valentines with 0 compensation or care from anyone Thankyou bar and block for...