Brooke — Restaurant in London

As a local visiting since the restaurant was recently re-opened, we were excited about our first experience at Brooke. We left so disappointed… It didn’t start the best when they didn’t have a high chair for our 8-month old. Not the end of the world, but as they allowed her at our table in her pram, assume this was not a anti baby policy, just that they didn’t have any (there were no other babies taking up other chairs). We first ordered a round of Bloody Mary’s. When asked if one could be extra spicy the waitress responded, ‘no, they come as they are’. When asked again, she explained they were already spicy so didn’t need anymore spice…this started a really strange experience. When ordering food, one guest who doesn’t eat bread asked if she could just get poached eggs and bacon (which were being served on various dishes). They pushed back saying, ‘that wasn’t a dish on the menu’, which might be fair enough, so she then asked if she could get the Eggs Benedict (which was on the menu), minus the bread and sauce (and happy to pay the full price of the Benedict). This was also declined as, ‘it’s not a dish on the menu..’. Reluctantly she had to then order something else. When the meals came, someone that did order the Eggs Benedict was expecting bacon and it came with ham. He explained the mis-understanding on his part and asked for a side of bacon (again, happy to pay for this, plus two of the other dishes ordered came with bacon). Amazingly again, they refused to bring a side of bacon as…’it’s not on the menu’. Astonished at what we were hearing, it was then when we asked for the bill minus the service charge. To their credit, they didn’t charge for the Eggs Benedict, but if that’s what they’re being credited for, they’ve got bigger issues to come. The sheer arrogance and lack of flexibility from the management and or chef/s is something we’ve never experienced before. Particularly in this climate, and in a highly competitive area and market, they’ll do well to last 6 months if our experience was anything to go by. Good luck to them if they want to run it that way, but we’ll stick to our other spots....

Let me start this by saying I had high hope for this place given the hype created around it. Well done to the marketing team. After being seated, we were given menus.They appeared to be appealing and full of promise. There were four of us, two vegetarians, a warning if you are a vegetarian there is very little on offer which is shocking given that it is 2023. We had a few drinks. The negronis are great, and so are the bloody merries ! We asked for a shandy, which was met with a firm NO. Now on to the food, we were looking to order all the vegetarian dishes on the menu given they were few and far between. We requested for the burrata dish to be served without the lardo. This was met with a firm NO again by our server Erica, who carried an attitude and a half, which did not help. She was very inflexible and gave us the impression that the kitchen is not willing to accommodate any requests, a great way to win peoples customs. We also ordered two roasts, when asked how we would like them cooked, one was medium rare, and the other medium. The medium was yet again met with a firm NO. We can only do rare, medium rare or well done. Why offer the choice if you have fixed options ? To add to this, it took them 1 hour 45 minutes to get the roasts and gnocchi. Upon arrival, I was appaled at the serving of actual meat it must have been just about 100 grams of meat. I am being generous, especially at the price point I was expecting to feel satiated, not looking to go home and eat. More so we ordered fries, which Erica said we would'nt get because the fryer just "broke" which I know to be untrue as I say other patrons eating fries that were delivered a few minutes before, at this point it felt like a bit of a wind up. All this for £150 which is shocking. The quality of the food is fantastic, but the protion sizes are just unjustifiable. All in all, mostly fizz with no pop. Will not be going back or recommending this place to anyone. Unless you are only after...

Having walked by this restaurant numerous times and read the reviews for their Sunday lunch we decided to give it a go in the hopes of finding a new local restaurant. When we arrived there were 4 tables occupied. A waitress came and we ordered a beer, a glass of wine, some olives, the cod and the duck salad; as well as requesting a second glass of wine to be served with the cod. Not a complicated order. Our beer and wine arrived but no olives. Having finished the beer the gentlemen ( I am assuming he was the day manager) came to ask whether my husband would like another to which he replied Yes --- this appeared but still no olives so we asked again for them. They were served and within 2 minutes our food appeared, without the second glass of wine. My husband enjoyed his cod. My duck salad was tasty enough except there was a large chunk of hard, bony grizzle and a 2 inch bone in it!! When we had finished the gentlemen appeared to ask if we had enjoyed our meal. i described the above chain events to which he replied "I am sorry to hear that." I expressed my disappointment in the service. Maybe this was just an unfortunate chain of events but during our visit there was absolutely no customer service and equally no attempt to engage in how to improve things. Given the number of other restaurants in the area they truly need to do better if they...