Bistro Bardot (The Turk's Head) — Restaurant in London

My review proves that decency and willingness to address certain issues privately does get you nowhere these days.

My husband and I visited the restaurant on 7/11 at 1pm. We were not greeted warmly, the service was indifferent at best. We ordered a starter and a main each. As soon as the starters came, one of the waiters started cleaning leaves and dirt with a large brush around our table. So the air straight away got very dusty and the experience of eating was ruined immediately.

The mains came, but to my disappointment, my vegan burger wasn’t just bad, it wasn’t a burger. The chef boiled some quinoa added a few cauliflower florets, grilled this mass for a minute and put it between two buns with lettuce and tomato. Needless to say that the assembled so-called burger fell apart immediately, becoming an uneatable pile of mess on the plate. After trying a few bites I couldn’t eat it.

My husband finished his meal, we asked for a bill and here I made a mistake not raising a complaint immediately, the waiter asked why I have not eaten my meal and I said wasn't hungry. My mistake!!! I should have refused to pay for the non-burger on the spot. But as the day went my dissatisfaction haunted me and I decided to write to the restaurant sharing my experience, I was polite and suggested that it was just a one-off mishap and I want a refund for my main only and for the service (inappropriate dusting ruined the experience).

My email was sent at 3:15 pm (2 hours after I had food) and around 5 pm (4 hours after I had food) I started not feeling well, my stomach was upset and I had an unpleasant evening.

Today (Mon 8th Nov) I was expecting to receive an email from the restaurant, saying sorry that on this occasion they didn't do their best, apologise, issue the refund for my meal (didn't ask for the full bill refund because it wouldn't be fair). But nothing came by 3 pm. At this point, I got upset (bad service, bad food and then mild food poisoning) and wrote again politely notifying that I was not feeling well after eating in the restaurant and asked again for the refund. Almost immediately got the rudest response from the restaurant accusing me of being a liar. A liar! In writing! Also, the email had no signature, still have no idea who responded to me. They even haven't bothered to look at the receipt, I did eat my starter and tried the main, this is the only food I had that day and this what caused my stomach to be upset.

I can not add my 1st email because of the limited space but adding the 2d email.

Hello,

It is quite disappointing that my email was not answered. Further to the issues I mentioned yesterday I was not feeling well after lunch, which I suspect was linked to the food I ate at your restaurant.

Please get back to me as soon as possible confirming that the refund was made otherwise I would have to request a full refund from my credit card company.

Regards, Irina __ Dear Madam

I got not respect for threatening emails , and I will certainly not reimburse somebody who is lying , sick? Really after saying you didn’t touch your meal?! Shame on you , I advise you to got your credit card company reimbursing you as I will certainly not do it. Up to you to post some nasty comments also on Google , it will be my pleasure to answer your nasty messages.

Best regards ,

This type of communication is unacceptable full stop towards the person who spent almost £60 for 4 dishes and 2 bottles of water, towards a woman, towards a non-English woman. This is a sexist and racist attack on a customer.

I would take my complaint further, no one calls me a liar. I have a receipt where you commit to 14 days refund, I have a paper trial with my concerns and your rudest response. My credit card provider will cancel the bill and the fact that the restaurant refuses to take responsibility for the spoilt starter and uneatable main would be reported to the authorities.

It is still room to apologise, issue the...

I and my partner arrived and were shown to a table which clearly needed a clean and the waitress having noticed my look explained she hads not had a chance to clean it - she was clearly not coping but the restaurant was not busy. She stated she had been at work since 8am (now about 4pm) and I felt a bit sorry for her. Taking our order was extremely slow. I went to the bathroom and there was no soap so when I came back up I told her and got a shrug and told I dont have any (unacceptable) and returned to my table where my partner had his meal in front of him and after a short while I said just eat yours but the point of going for a meal together is you eat together and having chosen meals where we could have a bit of each others and just one meal being brought out I didnt feel was good but when the waitress saw our unhappy faces she tried to blame my meal not being on the table was because I wasnt there - I explained that unfortunately I needed the bathroom to which her attitude was diabolical. My partner had nearly finished his and I was extremely annoyed and the look of disgust was on my face she brought a glass of wine out to rectify the issue which didnt as I would have liked my food. It was so long for my meal to come I didnt want it and was fed up. When I asked for the bill I explained quietly and politely that I didnt wish to pay the service charge to which I received comments like I gave you a glass of wine to makeup for it to which I replied I would have preferred my meal at the same time as my partner and not 20 minutes later to which again this was blamed on me going to the bathroom and which I tried politely to discuss this and she clearly could not cope with serving a few customers (it was fairly quiet) and became loud and rude and saying about the wine being compensation for the lack of service and I should therefore pay the service charge I was extremely annoyed and said no to which her reply was well its not my business so giving you a glass of wines not my problem.

Diabolical attitude and service and would not eat...

I came into the cafe on a Tuesday with my mother. After seating we sat for 20 minutes with the previous customers dirty cups and plates, they served our food and the dirty plates remained until we were half way through our meal.

I ordered the TH burger and chips, when it arrived the burger was served on a roll that had been purchased from the local bakery, as someone that has lived in the area for 25 years I am accustomed to the bakery and know their buns. When I order a burger I expect it to be in an actual burger bun, not a roll that is used for sandwiches. The burger itself was under cooked and very dry, the chips were clearly the budget ones that can be purchased from the local best one shop on wapping Lane. The only thing that tasted fresh was the pickles. I made the mistake of asking the waitress for vinegar that was served to me in a bowl. I find it ridiculous that they feel it is acceptable to charge £9.00 for a meal that would cost £2.50 if you walked through to the local shops.

I visited this place before in December last year, I was treated with contempt as I have a strong East London accent and was not seated for over an hour, I also ordered their parma ham roll and asked them not to put aubergine in as I do not like it. They served me a dry roll with a slither of parma ham and then charged me £6.00 for this.

The menu is limited and I will definitely not be visiting here again. As someone from the local community I will advise anyone to stay away. The cafe tries to be pretentious and markets itself as high end, but the food, service and menu shows a...