Boulevard London — Restaurant in London

I wish to express my gross dissatisfaction with Boulevard, Regents Park, London.

My family and I made a resveatiom for 1pm on a Saturday. Their website clearly states pre-booked reservations will be prioritised over walkins. When we arrived, we were asked to wait because there was not a table available. Clearly they had taken on far too many walkins and not prioritised their reservations. We were left to wait nearly half an hour for our reserved a table, because they had given it to other people.

Secondly, we ordered the food and asked for our hot drinks to arrive with the food to avoid them from going cold. This simple instruction was not followed, the drinks arrived 25 minutes in to our ordering. We thought the food would follow shortly. However there was another 20 minute wait for the food. During this time, the drinks had gone cold. We waited nearly 60 minutes for our food.

Sadly, when the food arrived, the eggs appeared cold and they were not very tasty. As we had already waited well over one hour for us to be seated and have our food, there was no time for us to ask for another set of eggs to be made.

Due to all of these problems that we had incurred, we asked to speak to a manager. A gentleman came over to our table. We listed all the reasons why we were unhappy with our visit. However he responded in a very abrupt way, saying,”one minute please”, he then ran to the back of the kitchen and did not return to us. He proceeded to serve other people. Approximately 10 minutes later, a female waitress came over to us, and asked us to tell her our concerns. We listed the problems we had encountered during our visit. We were shocked to receive the response from her.

Firstly, she never apologised for the inconvenience that was caused. Instead, she blamed it on the pandemic and how they were short staffed on that day. If you are shortstaffed, then greed should not get in the way and so many wak ins shouldn’t have taken priority. They could have worked on a merely reservation only basis during the pandemic, as many small businesses have done. In addition to this, we have been dealing with this pandemic for two years, therefore this should not really be an excuse for the poor customer service that was provided to us on that day. Lastly, we thought this was incredibly disrespectful as she did not realise she was speaking to 2 members of the NHS; if there is anybody who understands the meaning of overworked and understaffed, it is us.

She then began to get very defensive, asking that’s why we didn’t tell her the eggs were called when they arrived as it would’ve taken her two minutes to make more. If it would have only taken two minutes to make fresh eggs, why were we waiting for 60 minutes for a food. She then ended the conversation by saying or she was able to do was remove the service charge. We then reminded her that the service charge was optional and we were not going to pay this anyway. She persisted to be aggressive in her manner and refused to take off any more money from the bill. She said, “ you received the food, so you should be paying for the food.”

Overall, this was a very unpleasant experience for us I am telling you all in advance so nobody goes to this restaurant. They are rude and aggressive in a manner and their customer service is appalling. I can guarantee if I went to a well established reputable restaurant in central London, and this happened to me, I would have received a sincere apology and a gratuity of some form. Not met with a rude and defensive response from a waitress with poor communication skills.

It is not our fault as the customers if the incompetent members of staff failed to do their job. They should be able to fulfil the needs of the customers. I hope all those reading this makes a...

Three attempts to eat here, all of which were failures.

First attempt, paid and booked online. Turned up to the venue and it was closed!

Second attempt, the restaurant was shut unexpectedly for personal reasons (which is fine!).

Third attempt, paid and booked online. Checked beforehand what time the restaurant closes - 11pm... Yeah that's a lie! Travelled from Kent to NW, only for the kitchen to be closed!!! It was about 1845 - my booking was for 1900.. yet you are able to book up until 9pm online. Now you must be thinking "why didn't she check beforehand?" The first time this happened I emailed the venue, sent a dm via Instagram and called countless times (over 50!!) No one ever answers the phone though.. Second time was understandable - due to the circumstances. Third time well again no-one ever responds and the booking allowed us to book up to 9pm and online says its open until 11pm. Absolute waste of time and money travelling here twice, to be highly disappointed. When I went to the venue last week and was informed the kitchen was closed, after a few minutes the guy walked off. I then called him numerous times to simply ask if there was a bathroom I could use but he ignored me (I travelled far!). Would rate it 'ZERO Stars'.

In the end we ended up at the O2, which would have been easier for me to get to had I known that this would happen yet again!!

We had a great time at Gordon Ramsey's Street Burger at The O2 later that...

A massive Thank you to the amazing Hebbah Shaban for putting on a fabulous iftar meal with such flair and panache at the newly opened Boulevard London.

Warm and relaxed vibes High quality freshly made and delicious authentic traditional Iraqi and Lebanese food Reasonable prices Friendly and welcoming staff with impeccable service Indoor and outdoor seating available

We were a smaller group of women and sat down to break the fast together indoors which had a lovely family feel. We then moved outdoors to carry on chatting with some homemade Arabic desserts. We left at closing and there were still lots of people around, so the area is relatively busy that time of night, especially during Ramadan and with the restaurant very close to Baker Street Mosque.

The attention to detail is second to none, every single aspect of the restaurant has been planned and executed with style and polish. Boulevard boasts a very tasteful and comfortable interior, with lots of chic marble, gold and nude pink. Similar to the sophisticated Elan Cafe but more intimate and cosy. Pretty much every corner is insta friendly!

Tip: Book before you go because it’s becoming more and more popular and spaces...