Bar + Block Steakhouse London Sutton — Restaurant in London

Where do I start..... our party of 8 had booked a table for 7pm. We arrived early so I ordered a round of drinks from the not very happy young lady behind the bar. I gave her my order she tapped a few keys on the till and said " that will be £30 " to which I replied "Isn't it customary to serve the drinks before asking for the money ?" She tutted turned around and got our drinks ready. Should of realised then how the evening was going to progress.

7pm came and went so we told a member of staff we had a table booked for 7, they went off saying ok. We finally got taken to our tables at 7.40pm, I say tables because although at the time of booking (Which was done in person by myself) I asked if we ask could be seated at a long table, I was assured it wouldn't be an issue.... well clearly it was because they pushed three circular table together, as you can imagine three round tables really don't fit together very well.

So we are now seated and the waitress takes our drinks order went away then came back and took our starters and main orders. We ordered various steaks cooked to different degrees. So after 30 or so minutes the starters started turning up, unfortunately three of them were barely warm and had to be sent back. We ordered another round of drinks whilst waiting for our mains to turn up, we asked about our drinks four time and after 20 or so minutes one of our party went to track them down. Still no mains to be seen !.

So finally our mains arrive 2 hours after we were seated and out of the the 8 of them they managed to get 2 right, yep they mixed the orders up. The Salmon was very dry and burnt. The well done steaks still had blood coming out of them, the rare one was well done and we didn't have a single fork between the 8 of us for the main. You honestly couldn't make it up. At this point I called the waiter over incidentally he wasn't the one who took our initial order but was unluckily enough to be the one who bought the incorrect food to our table. After much apologising from him he admitted he had been called in from the beefeater restaurant to help out and didn't know why things were going so wrong. I told him we'd honestly had enough and wanted to speak to the manager. Eventually the manager did come over after a lot of searching. We told her about the delays in seating us, long wait for our drinks, having to get up to find staff, warm starters ( she said "we always serve the chilli beef warm" I did laugh and mention they should really heat the food to a safe temperature before serving it to avoid giving the customer's food poisoning. Getting the mains and sides wrong. I said the chips I ordered were over cooked and the replacement ones weren't cooked on inside. I showed her both sets of chips on the table and she said" oh thats because we use two different fryers" .... again I made a suggestion of setting them both to the same temperature may help.

We spent a good 15 or more minutes talking to the manager about all the issues but she couldn't really offer any reasonable explanation as to why the service and food was so bad. She squash our bill but as we hardly ate anything and only had two rounds of drinks at the table was really the least she could do.

As we were leaving a party of 4 behind us asked me what was the problem, so I gave them a brief outline and low and behold they had exactly the same problems as us as well as another couple in the booth next to them. So that was 14 fifty plus adults who were treated exactly the same and won't be returning to this venue, and in this day and age of social media I doubt it will take long for the reputation to get around.

As a side note one of the ladies at the table of four was organising the M&S Christmas dinner at your venue... safe to say they will be looking for...

We have visited Bar + Block tonight and after reading previous reviews from other guests I can understand their comments and sympathise with them. Our experience was not so great, but I will give this place a second chance. Maybe they were just too busy tonight to keep up with quality food and quality service. Not that being too busy could end up being an excuse, but the kitchen staff and the servers might not be that experienced. This at least was my take away from the night. We arrived at peak time, the bar was busy and many guests started seating at the restaurant area. It took 10 minutes for the staff to take our order, and another 10 minutes to bring one bottled juice and one tap water. The four members of staff appeared to run back and forth and seemed to lack coordination. We ordered simple food from the children menu and a burger. The started from the children menu (carrots and cucumbers in tatziki sauce) arrived after 20 minutes. The carrots looked like they hadn't been washed and have definitely been prepared hours in advance and left sitting in the kitchen. 15 minutes later the main courses finally arrived. The child pasta (spaghetti bolognese) was quite disappointing. Another reviewer have mentioned that the pasta isn't fresh, and I don't think that we'd expect that it would be freshly made by hand but freshly cooked for sure. Without doubt the pasta had been definitely reheated in the microwave, I'm not sure if perhaps it had been cooked during the lunch service. All the spaghetti were glued together like a ball. As for the burger, the patty was the only thing that was warm, as the bun, the pulled beef and the fries were just lukewarm. The fries were of the type that you just would not expect to see in a stakehouse, they are the style of fries that one can get at mac donalds. The burger however was tasty, even if completely burnt around the edges. Perhaps the grill was too hot. Finally about the dessert, the pancake was stone cold. My child loved it regardless, but to me this meant that they don't care too much about serving quality children's food after I have seen the starter and the pasta. All in all, it has been a bit disappointing as an experience, perhaps I have had higher expectations and it is a pity because the place could have potentials. I will give it another try maybe during weekdays when it is less busy and I hope that tonight was coincidentally not a great night for...

Returning visit. Went in november when Bar + Block had just opened. The evening was a disaster. Meal for 10,orders came one at a time over an hour period ten of us only 6 meals had arrived with 4 being incorrect. So I put that down to the company not the management nit training staff correctly and chefs were not qualified to work in a primary steakhouse. So 6 if us have now returned 2 months later to give the restaurant a second attempt. We pre booked for an early Saturday( 4 Jan 2020) We were welcomed by the manageress Olive and shown to our table by our waiter Dani (very warm and friendly Italian man) A couple of starters were ordered after our drinks order was quickly taken and served. Scallops with chive mash were perfectly cooked,along with salt and peppered squid. Mains obviously were steaks and one surf and turf(a very well prepped lobster tail) My fillet as requested was rare with a good sear and arrived exactly as requested,others had a medium and medium rare fillet and one mixed steak option . All prepared and served promptly and together cooked superbly. Sides were garlic mushrooms,sweet potato fries and triple cooked fries. All good but you can tell machine restaurant supplier for the fries/chips . Dani the section waiter was always between his tables checking in that all his clients were satisfied with meal,drinks,etc. The manager came over also with a couple of cocktails she had herself prepared as one as she stated hadn't been made for a while so wanted to make one personally. After the desserts were ordered the chef even came over to check in that steaks were all as requested. Desserts were a crumble,sticky toffee pudding,and chocolate bomb(restaurants most popular) Good size portions lovely fruit crumble and very good rich chocolate desserts,churros. We found out since our first visit some staff and chefs had been replaced which showed through 100% in atmosphere and meal quality. I would definately recommend giving Bar + Block a try but do note the get very busy later into the evening. I thanked our waiter manager and chefs(I as always say thanks to the actual cooks as at the end if the day they are the staff who prepare your food) Superb eatery very much improved. My fillet was one of the best I have...