Cottons — Restaurant in London

I come today accompanied by my mother who comes regularly to add. She wanted to take me for a meal since the roast option has been added to the menu, But added to me before we went how we need to ask for the potatoes to be cooked more and make sure the veg is “honey glazed” as these was two things she wasn’t to happy with when dining a few weeks ago. Apon arrival I walked in and wasn’t even greeted I was looked at until I said “Hi I have a reservation” was seated and placed our order. The girl who took our orders I must say was really nice and had a smile on her face at all times. When placing our order with her we asked for our “roast potatoes” to be actually roasted as they wasn’t last time and to make sure the veg is actually honey glazed also not just steamed/boiled veg. Our drinks come first which the Pina colada was curdled as it wasn’t made fresh, asked for some assistance and explained how the drink is curdled and the area manager or deputy manager names “Gabriel” if I’m correct was arguing back and fourth and wanted to do nothing to helped after arguing he walked away. My mum got up and went to the bar herself and asked the bar man to make again as curdled. And she also asked to see where it had come from and it was just in a jug waiting to be poured out, not freshly made to each customer, cream, alcohol and juice will curdle after a while, and shortly after was presented fresh ones which was perfect, and then our food followed shortly. Straight away the veg was far from honey glazed they was wet and bland, the “roast potatoes” at first was hidden under our chicken and when we scooped them out at first bite they was raw inside still. The cabbage was also raw. Got the deputy manger to come back over to complain about the potatoes he argued there’s nothing wrong with them when we specifically asked for them to be roasted more, without even asking us he removed the whole plate of food and walked away without saying a word and 10 minute later come back with the same food reheated which made it taste 10x times worse and the potatoes was the only fresh thing put back on the plate which looked even more raw than before, if I’m honest they was boiled and looked pan fried on one side not roasted what so ever. When coming to pay I had once again raised it to the deputy manager and he wanted to hear nothing and eventually walked off until I asked the store manager who come in not long before we was paying to explain all of this who was accommodating and apologised for the way we was treated by the other manager Gabriel. I was made to feel in the wrong as a paying customer and felt uncomfortable throughout the whole time of my...

Had lunch here. Went back after having quite an enjoyable NYE dinner. I was really looking forward to it!

Side note::: I've been to Cottons Camden prior to the NYE, I can't say that Cottons Camden got me from "Hello" either but the staff were great so much so that it made me go back and the second time the food was better.

So because of the NYE at the Vauxhall branch, I decided to revisit for an afternoon lunch date. The greeting at the door and seating was flawless.

It took a minute to have the drinks order taken - I didn't fault them for this as they had quite a large group for lunch.

One server opened a hand basin tap(the one at the foot of the stairs), filled a pitcher with water, and brought it to our table - to drink! Lol! You'd think they would ask, "tap, still or sparkling?" before they would do this.

Then server came so late to take drink orders by that time we had decided on drinks, starters and main course. Despite us verifying that we want the starter first (because she asked - it really shouldn't be a question - the answer is in the name; it's A STARTER), we were brought our starters and main courses together.....so now the table is crowded with food and we look like a pair of gluttons.

Tried to charge for an item that was ordered but never received and tried to overcharge for items. When brought to the severs attention - it was met with attitude... like "what do you want me to do, you want the manager?"

The food itself did not live up to the hype.

Cons:

Rice and peas was dried out, and the peas didn't burst during the cooking process - so it was hard. Roti skins were more like crepe and had no caribbean authenticity to it - even tho it was on the menu as dhal roti. Curry goat was quite 'fresh' - their cooks/chefs need to learn how to properly wash and marinate this before serving. Coleslaw was like something you would buy from the grocery store - awful. Staff checked into work, went directly behind the bar to start mixing drinks, and didn't even wash his hands Some of the servers had extremely long nails - the kind that should not be close to serving food.

Pros: The restaurant is situated in a lovely area Cocktails were ok Jerk chicken and wings were ok

I would not recommend this branch of Cottons and would not...

AVOID AT ALL COSTS - wish I could give 0 stars, the manager here is absolutely rude and some of the staff have no clue what they're doing. Unfortunately had a terrible experience at the Vauxhall branch where they had a waitress who didn't know how to use the card machine, firstly she didn't know how to split the bill but we worked it out for her she seemed really young to be fair, and we then tried to pay separately on our cards. They then charged me twice after having random staff randomly coming over and saying to use my amex card as you get a £5 cashback so I was like why not!, anyway the waitress weirdly walked away with the machine, I had gotten the notification from my app that the second payment had gone through. After all the staff acting a bit shifty they then return and say the payment hadn't gone through when it had, and looking back it must've been an issue with the paper in the machine, maybe it ran out. Anyway the manager proceeds to come and start shouting at us, being extremely rude and even threatened to ''call the police'' unless we made yet another payment. I just couldn't understand how they were being so rude when it was THEIR MISTAKE?! In hindsight I wish we just allowed him to do whatever, anyway I ended up having to pay for the third time using a different card this time which thankfully I had to hand, and them just saying ''well if we do charge you twice just call us tomorrow and we'll refund you'' making it seem like it was such an easy process. It was more the principle and how disgusting and rude he was being to us to be honest.

Lo and behold, as I told them the payment did go through by the very next day and I was charged twice and then I contacted them and no one picked up, I emailed and sent all the receipts and proof etc (thank goodness I kept it!) and still nearly a month later they haven't refunded the money or even gotten back in touch! Just all seemed a bit dodgy to be honest. I have since managed to get the money back from my bank after sending them all the proof, but yeah just a really unpleasant experience here and the food wasn't even that great on top of all that. My first time here & will definitely not be...