Bradleys — Restaurant in London

Very disappointing experience at Bradleys yesterday.

From the time of our arrival the waiting staff basically ignored us - 10 minutes after we’d sat down there was still no offer of drinks or anyone to talk us through the menu. When the waitress did arrive to take our orders she seemed almost offended that we hadn’t decided yet what we were having; again, no offer to talk us through the fish of the day or answer any questions - not even a friendly “no problem”, just a surly threat to return shortly. When she did later return she refused to help one of our party decide between two dishes, and didn’t explain when we ordered spinach as a side dish that two of our main courses already came with spinach. Bread was served grudgingly.

When the starters arrived the waiters stretched across the table to serve them, and did so again when they served our drinks and later the main courses. Two different waiters tried to take our wine order. When the wine arrived it was then taken away again for 10 minutes whilst we ate our main courses; once it was finally poured it wasn’t then topped up until all our glasses had been empty for some time (well into the dessert course).

Again, when it came time to order dessert, the waitress was surly and unhelpful, and had in the meantime seemed to have been rude to various other couples in the restaurant.

If all these general problems hadn’t been bad enough, the whole black sea bream main course was under-cooked and pink in the middle. We considered sending it back, but given the food quality at Bradley’s is generally so high we decided that the fish must be fresh enough that it wouldn’t matter. This rapidly turned out to be a mistake.

What makes this all the worse is we have been to Bradley’s several times before, and have always previously been impressed with the standards there. Judging by how empty it was on a Friday night however, I suspect we’re not the only ones to have been disappointed...

Lovely location in Swiss Cottage near Hampstead Theatre. Nice menu and good service overall with a nice ambience. We had the set 3 course dinner at £40 each, and this surprised all of us as it was actually very good and certainly not that inferior to the a la carte menu choices. We had fish soup, Schnitzel, and creme brulee and cheese combinations.

The only word of advice here is do not book a table at 730pm as we had to wait for the pre theatre crowd to leave the restaurant before we could sit down and we had to wait for at least 25 minutes so I suggest booking at 8pm. This would have been 5* overall if it wasn't for the issue of the long wait at the beginnig AND the attitude of the Manager, who was obviously rather stressed, as he was very rude to his staff and didn't seem to mind shouting at them in front of customers.

I found this rather uncomfortable and completely unacceptable. Recommended for the food alone, and as long as the manager is not feeling stressed, you will have an amazing meal and a surprisingly...

Great atmosphere, decent service, and wonderful plating, however if you're vegetarian or vegan the food is bland and the combinations are poorly done. An entire salad was bitter with only two shavings of Apple to sweeten it up. The pear was mushy, and lacked purpose on the plate as it was entirely bland as well. No dressing either to balance the salad. The courgette was okay, but for 8.50£ I expected an explosion of flavour and something uniquely done. It was also served lukewarm meaning poor timing in the kitchen with the other plates coming to the table. This would be great for a middle of the road restaurant but not yet worthy of Bradleys "entrance...