Bayroot — Restaurant in London

My husband and I ate here last night. The four stars are just for the food. If I rated on service, it would be two.

For starters, I would make a reservation as it gets extremely crowded.

We arrived around 8:45pm, having made a reservation. It was jammed and the place seems understaffed as it took a bit for our waitress to arrive at our table, which hadn't been properly set. My husband asked if a chicken dish was boneless and the waitress (a young, dark, curly-haired woman) just gave a blank face. She didn't know the word bone. Seriously. Anyway, he then decided to gamble and ordered that, the kibbeh, the lamb and pine nut parcels and the Lebanese potatoes (basically covered with a tasty, orange spicy sauce). I got the falafel, tabbouleh, spinach, sumac and pine nut parcels and a piece of the grilled halloumi with courgette.

Now be prepared to wait... And wait again. And wait longer. The table next to us actually complained about the food wait as they paid their bill which should have been a harbinger for us. It also seems the restaurant does a brisk delivery trade so the kitchen cannot handle both this and live patrons.

Okay, now our food finally arrived. And it's delicious. I mean dang, delicious. Incredibly fresh, crispy and lemony tabbouleh. The parcels were stuffed with spinach and had a lovely cinnamon aftertaste. I never thought the combo would be so excellent! The halloumi and courgette were also grilled excellently. But.... I never got my falafel. Also I had to put my own silverware on the table from another as the waitress didn't set my table.

The kitchen also brought the wrong dish over to the couple sitting on the other side of us and tried to convince them it tasted better than the dish they ordered.

For dessert, we got the date mahmouls, which were small, butter-like cookies stuffed with date paste. They were also delicious and as we were the last ones in the restaurant, the kitchen offered us a few more on the house.

I would return here again on a weeknight or for takeaway because the food is that good, but not on a weekend. It's a shame the kitchen and staff can't get their...

We used to really like this place and came here regularly since it first opened, both to sit down and to take away. To be honest with the lack of good dining options in this part of Camberwell, beggers can't be choosers and so even though the decor leaves much to be desired and the open kitchen means your clothes always smell when you leave here we were just glad to have a place with tasty lebanese options at reasonable prices. Went in recently for a take out and was horrified to see that they have massively increased their prices, with my usual takeaway increasing from 21 to 30 quid! That's pretty hefty for a take-out for two people, especially given that we are vegetarian. To add insult to injury, I had to wait 35 minutes for the food even though the place was completely empty - the kitchen seemed distracted and were moving at glacial speed, with deliveroo drivers hovering at the back door and waitresses running around like headless chickens. The atmosphere among the staff seemed really negative and like they were all arguing with each other. To top it all off, the food quality seems to have declined, the pita was dry and most of the other dishes were too oily and either over or under-seasoned. When raising prices by that much you really have to offer the customer more, either in quantity or quality or creativity or atmosphere. But improving none of this and then suddenly charging West End prices for your dishes is the kind of thing that makes you lose loyal local customers. Please do...

Below average would be a compliment. Ordered a 'create your own platter' and drinks with excitement only to be quickly disappointed. After 30 mins my girlfriend asked where our drinks were and the manager had completely forgotten about our drinks order (despite only four tables being served). Our food was given too the wrong table which the staff assured us wasn't ours. That order was then brought over to our table from the previous table with bite marks in the lamb chops, half eaten bowl of fries and only one piece of bread left. The waitress seemed flabbergasted that we were horrified and reluctantly took the order back. The manager apologised and brought us our humus and bread (which we'd been waiting almost an hour for) and a free babaganoush. A mother with her kids next to us also complained about her order coming out different times. She was still waiting for her food after her kids had finished. She told us this was her second visit and second time she was disappointed. When our food finally arrived it was below average at best. The lamb and was dry and poorly seasoned and the halloumi and mushrooms skewer had no mushrooms, the chicken shawarma was just a chicken thigh. Not much better that the dirty kebab house up the road next to Tesco Express and at 3 times the price. Walked past Bay-Root on a Friday evening and wasn't surprised to...