bonbon Fulham — Restaurant in London

A deeply unpleasant experience from start to finish. After being seated we had to wait nearly 10 minutes for a server to bring over some menus and then another lengthy wait to have our orders taken. We ordered 2 bagels, 2 salad bowls, a side of creamed spinach, 1 pasta and a child’s pasta and after another 15 minute wait we were informed that one of our choices (chicken salad bowl) wasn’t available so would have to choose something else. By this time we had been there for over half an hour. 20 minutes later we had not received any of our food and one of our party checked in to see how much longer it would take. The chef was incredibly abrasive and rude, totally unapologetic and combative. When the food finally arrived, an hour after we had first sat down, it was as average as the service had been. The bagels, one of which needed to be immediately boxed up as that member of our party had to leave, had just 3 pieces of salami. The bagels themselves had been toasted but not recently; the bread was cold and hard. The falafel was raw, and the pasta had a sheen that suggested it had been left on the side for too long and was cold on the surface. At this point, we complained about the quality of the food received so far (still missing one salad bowl and the side) and the chef became incredibly aggressive. Bearing in mind we had a toddler with us, this was a deeply unpleasant and upsetting turn of events. In the end, we had no choice but to leave as the chef seemed as though he were about to start a physical altercation with one of the members...

As a resident along the same road, I've seen bonbon grow from a single unit deli shop offering sandwiches and simple but authentic and delicious Italian pasta classics, to a double unit, café-bordering-restaurant, with a beautifully designed outdoor seating space that is always flourishing with customer activity. Not only did bonbon utilise the somewhat random next door unit to expand its floorspace (in between lockdowns), making much better use of the previously strange space, it has created a local community hub in this area along Wandsworth Bridge Road. It's always enjoyable walking past on a sunny day to overhear the chatter of happy customers, whether they're enjoying coffees and croissants, wine and wraps or cocktails and Italian cuisine. The lovely Italian owners have established themselves as a recognisable duo within the community, taking up the unofficial role of Italian Grandpa and Grandma for locals (whether they know it or not!) Service has always been with a smile here, and the additional waiters and servers they have hired through the years have always been very welcoming, kind, and helpful. I'm a massive fan of the bonbon wrap with prosciutto ham, I can hardly go two weeks without one - the salty, savoury, spicy, fresh, tasty balance is the perfect hangover cure and packed full of sun-dried tomatoey goodness. Bonbon has outlasted hundreds of similar businesses that have come and gone along the road in recent years and I think I speak for the community when I say, we hope it's...

Really disappointing experience at this cafe. We sat outside and the waiter wasn't at all friendly. We ordered a bagel and chips, and it took about an hour to arrive. They didn't come outside to check on us once. When the same waiter eventually brought the food, he actually asked if we wanted any cutlery. I asked for some ketchup, and I'm not joking, he bought out an empty bottle, which I then had to take back inside and ask them to change. The food was average to poor. The bagel was ok, and the chips were pretty poor. Quite a lot of them were just oily and soggy.

I saw them bringing food out to other tables one meal at a time. The table next to us waited about 5-10 minutes between the first meal arriving for one of the customers and the next for the other.

At the end when I went to pay, I said I didn't want to pay any service charge because I thought we didn't have very good service. At this point the older gentleman asked why we wouldn't pay in a pretty defensive way. He didn't really apologise at all, but did remove the "optional" service charge after I'd justified why.

The only friendly person was a young girl behind the register who actually smiled and seemed very polite.

All in all we definitely won't...