Chino Latino — Restaurant in London

Well where to start?

Me and 1 friend visited tonight, to check out out a venue for my birthday in the next week or so, what me and my friend found was this was not the place due to the attitude we were given from the staff from the moment we arrived. We were treated like we were a disease by everyone. I work in Catering myself and I would NEVER treat a customer the way my friend and I was treated tonight simply because the customers are the ones paying my wage. I am glad I came and did my homework and it was only me and 1 friend and not the party of 20 people I invited for my birthday, that would have been even more embarassing from my part. I even had to apologise to my friend for asking her to come here tonight.

This is how our evening went.

We arrived at 6.10pm for our 6.15pm dinner here. The lady at the front desk was rude and tried to make out we were late by saying "oh your here for 6pm dinner?", when we clearly told her, upon arrival, our reservation was at 6.15pm. No idea why she insisted it was at 6pm and why would we show up 10 minutes late if our reservation was really at 6pm, even when we corrected her, no apology etc, (she) looked at us as if we were the ones who said the wrong thing.

Secondly, we were put at a table for 2, which we were fine with as there was only 2 of us. But the problem was, the table was at a place was placed where there was little walking space, meaning whenever the waiters walked past us, to get from kitchen to the other side of the room, one of us had to keep moving around so the waiters can get past. They could have put us at another table for 2, but they didn't instead we were put at a table furthest from anyone when the other tables for 2 were "empty" until when we left.

Thirdly, when asking for the drinks, the waitress didn't even know what I asked them for as she had to ask me like 4 times about it and it took her and (I think) her manager to help understand what I asked for. In the end I didn't even get the martini I asked for as I just went with a lemonade and that was just as bad when that was served. Why? Because I asked for lemonade and the waitress brought me tonic water and my friend noticed it (as I was sitting on the sofa side and my friend was sitting on the chair and the waitress was serving from the outside (eg from the side with the chairs) and my friend noticed she brought tonic water and we pointed that out and the waitress insisted tonic water was lemonade!!!!!

Fourthly, whilst we were deciding our food, my friend could not eat certain food eg spicy food and was checking what was in a dish, with the manager (I think it was) and she made out we were extremely stupid and basically pointed and made out we were stupid and that they were small dishes and we could have added it with sushi or something. My friend mentioned she can't eat certain food as she doesn't even like sushi and we only came here for dinner (as I wanted to check the venue out for my birthday dinner). Me and my friend felt really really stupid because of the way we were treated. As there are people who also came in before and after us who had a "better service" than us as the waiters was attentive to them whilst we were basically ignored.

To make it worse we were probably sitting there for half an hour before we managed to get someone to come over to us to get us our bills as we were basically ignored completely except when we were ordering and when we had our food delivered and yet others had the waiters checking up on them regularly.

So to everyone else be aware, watch out as the waiters/waitresses may and may not be bothered with you during your time here, depending if they like the look of you. I am just glad this place missed out on being the host for my party of 20 people for my...

Wow, that was a very disappointing experience (23/12/2023), haven't been so disappointed in a restaurant in YEARS!. First, when you enter the hotel you get hit with their EXTRA STRONG parfum in the air, wow someone went crazy on the streinght and was so uncomfortable fortable just breathing, like when you go toa small toilet and spray for 5min a room deodoriser, you could taste it!. We had the coldest welcome from the hostess at the entrance of Chino Latino. We arrived at 12:45 pm for our 1 pm lunch booking. We were told with a 'I couldn't care less attitude,' while she finger-tapped on her computer screen to show us the time, that it's too early, and the restaurant is not open yet. What restaurant is not open at 12:45?!?! But then asked if we could sit at the bar and wait and have a drink. We were told yes, and that was it—no escorting, nothing.

Arrived at the bar, and it was quiet just another 4 people with drinks already and we were ignored by the barwomen for 15 minutes while she was on her mobile phone. We had to call a few times for her attention. The cocktails were good, though. Then we were taken to our table, and the gentleman waiter didn't introduce himself or properly say hi. He couldn't care less for us; he was cold and nonchalant. His station was next to our table, but we had to scream for his attention as he was away with the fairies staring at the ceiling the all time. Attention should be on guests even more when the restaurant only had three tables.

Then we went to the buffet, where names, labels, and allergens were missing (one of our guests is vegetarian and the other has allergies). So we had to ask twice for what it was, and the waitress had no idea. Then we had to wait more to get the signs out. She was apologetic, but come on, if you do a buffet, labelling is the minimum, and also, the team should know what they are serving. Worst part, was when we got to the dessert station, all of them were still hard frozen and the staff had to get them out and replace them with unfrosted one, so not even made on site.

The restaurant had an amazing view of Big Ben, and that was it. The restaurant is soulless, and lacks personality and warmth. Feels like an airport lounge!

What a shame Park Plaza Riverbank and Chino Latino used to have high standards back in the days when it was on the ground floor. What happened?! Also, don't you train or manage your staff? Put one star as the food was okay, one star for the view. With the price of the brunch and the drinks (cocktails are overpriced; this is not the Savoy), we ended up spending so much money for a very low-quality lunch/service. Would not recommend to anyone to go until they start caring for their offering and guests. If you don't, then don't do a brunch and close that restaurant and keep it for breakfast service only. They have ruined our Christmas...

Worst customer service ever. Staff doesn’t want to work. We arrived very excited for the bottomless sushi experience. We had to wait a couple of minutes to be seated but that’s ok. One waitress came asking for our main dish and I asked for the drinks menu and she never brought it, I had to stand up and go to the bar and ask another lady for the drink’s menu, she said that she was going to take my order at the table and asked for me to sit down, the table right next to us arrived after us and they offered them drinks and brought the drinks first. After a good 10 minutes the waitress arrived asking for our order but without menu, after bringing us the menu we Order a cocktail and a juice, it wasn’t fresh juice and cocktail was nice enough. We waited for I don’t know how long for the main to arrive and they even brought the main to the table next to us first. We, again, had to call the waitress and ask for our main and if it was going to take long, by the expressions they made at the bar we realised that or they forgot about us or they gave our mains to another table. Then, the mains arrived…. I have no words to express the disappointment. We ordered the duck pancakes and the pancakes came in a plastic bag!!!! Like, they couldn’t even take it out of the bag after microwaving it!?!?! We saw other tables that ordered the same and it was without a bag!No apologies for us having to wait that long. I asked a third waiter for the bill and he completely forgot, he was playing with the tray spinning it around while we waited for more than 15 minutes for the bill. At this point I had enough and decided to go to the counter and pay there, the second waiter stopped my partner asking if we payed and after he said that we where going to pay at the counter the lady rolled her eyes after he turned around. When we got to pay the bill they even asked what drinks did we have because apparently no one put them trough. The only positive: the place is beautiful with a view to the Thames, the sushi was tasty, sashimi was fresh and gyosas where really good and the blond girl that sat us...