Chez Lindsay — Restaurant in London

A very average and pretty underwhelming dining experience. Those who praise it so highly need to venture out more and experience really good food and service if they think this place is ‘befitting Royalty’

Here’s what I liked:

• I liked that I made the decision not to have a main course.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

• Not particularly welcoming.

• No bread offered. First time in a French restaurant I’ve experienced this.

• Uncomfortable seating and not a well thought layout. Why the covid screens still? Unsightly, ineffective and out of place now.

• Really disappointing fish soup. Warm, not hot. The croutons were clearly not fresh and from a packet. Lacked crunch. Tiniest portion of cheese and rouille. I’ve hand on heart had better from a jar (and wouldn’t be surprised if this was as well)

• The Sea Bass should have been served on a bigger plate and it seems to have been fried and then put in an oven. Average at best but the new potatoes were a tasteless waste of space.

• The ‘pomme frites’ were soggy and not particularly crisp. Clearly frozen. Ketchup was some cheap brand and not particularly nice either.

• Usual heavy mark up on sparkling water.

Overall a disappointment as I had been looking forward to trying this Richmond restaurant.

Do I recommend going? NO Will I go again? NO Was it good value?...

Disappointing and overpriced, this was our first visit and we won’t be back. The service was a little cold - no smiles and not particularly friendly. The staff were attentive at topping up our champagne but the speed of taking our food orders was slow and the mains felt like they took an age to be served. I was also served the wrong soup at the start.

The champagne was the highlight of our meal. Both starters were ok, but we’ve definitely had better French onion soup and baked Camembert. The main courses were mostly a big let down and at £27.50 each far too expensive for the quality of cooking. The chicken with sauce was enjoyable, but unfortunately the accompanying potato fondant was completely raw and inedible in the middle which spoilt the meal. The confit duck was a huge let down - small, extremely dry and over cooked. My partner ate it purely out of hunger rather than enjoyment.

They removed a coca-cola from our bill for the raw potato fondant. This was appreciated but I expected a better gesture than this in all honesty.

We skipped desserts and headed to Five Guys down the road for a burger afterwards, as we left hungry and...

I came here for my birthday, service was spot on and my 1 year old had lots of fun. The seafood is spot on and the French onion soup is very good too so recommend that and the mussels and crab. Surprisingly the grape juice was also a winner - we're glad we got the large pitcher. A good alternative to those who can't/don't want to drink alcohol. My only issue were the mains, my partner ordered steak medium rare but it was more medium. I ordered the duck confit and it looked like it'd be deep fried too much, the outside was dry and stiff. Inside, it wasn't any better, as it was clearly overcooked and very salty! It was almost like eating cured duck. My potatoes were also overly deep fried, very oily. Even with the pickled veg, it was hard to eat. It seems the meat station failed this day as everything else was on point. Very disappointing considering the mains were not cheap. I recommend appetisers but avoid mains as they seem...