Chateau — Restaurant in London

I rarely leave reviews, but felt I should warn other customers of Chateau from my bad experience I had today. My wife, toddler daughter and I was hoping to enjoy a drink and cake to celebrate my daughters birthday at Chateau. I dropped my wife and daughter off at the cafe first in order to find parking myself. My wife ordered a drink and the cake, but after 15-20mins, I could still not find parking, so I told my wife that we might as well take the cake home to celebrate instead. When my wife came to pay for the bill, she was expecting atleast the drink will be 50% off as per the eat out help out scheme. However, the staff told her that she not only had to pay full price for the cake (as it was essentially take away- this I understand) but she had to pay full price for the drink as well as she did NOT CONSUME ANY FOOD in the cafe!! My wife tried to explain to the waitress that the eat out help out scheme did say that venues that sign up, should offer 50% off up to value of £10 on food OR non-alcoholic beverages, but even after the waitress called the owner, they still insisted she pays full price on everything. They claimed it was only selected stores that offered 50% off on beverages ONLY WITH FOOD. My wife reluctantly paid.

However once she returned to the car, I found this was quite unfair. NO WHERE on the government website does it say that you are required to eat food at the venue before you get discount on non-alcoholic drinks. There is no selected stores option, you either join the scheme or you don't. If you do, you should uphold the discount whether the customer orders non-alcoholic drinks only OR with food. This experience really soured our day and I just want the owners to know that we will definitely not return.

*To reply to owners comment, my wife went in and inquired about cake take away, but then when staff said it was not eligible she was also fine with sitting in and ordering, as I said to wait for me to find parking. The refund was not "on the spot" as the owner claims, even when my wife was paying she informed the staff in a friendly manner that the scheme should cover drinks, the owner was called and still refused to apply the scheme discount. It was only after my wife returned to the car and I went in to discuss this unfairness that the owner was called the second time and a refund was finally given. So please can the owner not claim this was "on the spot". The conversations was not pleasant for the customer or staff but would have been cleared up if the owner got it right in the...

We went for the first time on Saturday 12 March 2022. We were seated comfortably in the back corner beside the fish tank. A friendly staff member approached our table, and asked if it was our first visit. We said yes as we’d always assumed they’d just sold cakes, desserts, and coffee. But that a friend had told us that full meals are now available in the evenings. She told us this change had occurred four years ago… Intrigued I told her that I’d had a career in advertising. Immediately she said they’d tried advertising in local media but it hadn’t worked. I explained that I wasn’t trying to sell her advertising but just reflecting on how strongly the original Chateau Dessert brand name and fascia had been embedded in my mind. I was also surprised to discover that the menu is Lebanese and wondered how the name ‘Chateau’, being French, related to that cuisine? Perhaps a new brand name would help increase awareness and attract customers? She said that there was a French influence in Lebanon and a well-known wine called Chateau Musar. And that the owners wanted to stick with Chateau as they have other business under that name. At this point I gave up and focused on ordering… The food and service was good. The chef was introduced to us and seemed genuinely interested in what we thought. Stand-outs for us were the mixed seafood prawns and calamari. For me the decor is what would prevent me visiting again unless I really wanted Lebanese food. There’s a preponderance of cheap plastic flowers hanging from the ceiling, and the lighting is harsh. Grilandia in Turnham Green Terrace suffers from the same two things. Perfectly good food let down by...

Visited here for first time and must the savoury food I had was very nice however, venue let down by poor service.

When arrived was greeted by a very nice Waitress, Ruby who was friendly and very efficient however unfortunately her shift ended and the waitress who took over was awful. 1st she didn't bring us any cutlery with our food & when asked for the she returned with them but no apology for her error. During the hour I was here she dropped countless glasses and bottles everywhere then it appeared she did not know how to operate the card machine when it came to pay.

The other issue I had was with some of the other clientele there who were rude and arrogant. Someone behind me kept slamming her chair into the back of mine & no apology. The other issue was another customer decided to rest their bike against the table which made it very difficult for staff to serve tables properly. Management should have addeessed this as the is ample bike parking very close by.

I heard the people on table next to me complain that the cake they had was dry, "the driest cake I've ever eaten" was the exact words used by the customer yet the same waitress offered no apology for this.

As I said the savoury food I had was very nice however I very much doubt I will return as 1st impressions count & overall mine was not a...