Courtfield — Restaurant in London

If I could give a lower rating I would. We arrived at an expected busy time at 8pm on Friday night. I’m not sure if they were understaffed for the night or that’s just their usual routine but they had just the one girl working behind the bar taking orders, pouring drinks, clearing tables and going downstairs to the kitchen to collect the food and serve it out to a dining area of 50+ people.

After waiting 30 mins to get to the front of the bar I ordered a steak sandwich and lasagne only to be told they had “run out” of both these options. With a queue a mile long behind me I quickly grabbed a menu and picked out nachos with pulled pork and grilled chicken with seasonal vegetables.

I fully prepared myself to wait over an hour for our food but to my surprise within 20 mins the waitress was standing next to me with her hands full. I took one glance at what she was holding and I knew exactly why we didn’t have to wait the whole hour.

The nachos with pulled pork and I use the term ‘with pulled pork’ very lightly was a few handful of nacho cheese flavoured chips thrown into a bowl with a tablespoon of guacamole and sour cream flopped on top. I literally had to dig through the chips to find any trace of pulled pork. I think I counted three bites of my meal that contained some trace of meat.

The grilled chicken with seasonal vegetables and I kid you not was a tiny 100g piece of chicken breast with a slice of cheese on top that had looked like it was melted by going in the microwave for one minute. The seasonal vegetables was so clearly a packet of frozen vegetables they had probably picked up from the M&S across the road.

An hour later I’m writing this review already feeling the signs of food poisoning coming on. I can’t stress enough to never go here for a feed. If you’re hungry it’s...

We made a reservation for dinner at 9:45 pm because the website didn't allow us to book earlier and only let us select the dining room (upstairs). We arrived on time, although we would have arrived earlier if we had known what awaited us. We hadn't even sat down yet when the waiter told us we couldn't order main dishes, only small plates. Despite the website saying the kitchen was open until 10:30 pm, we insisted and he told us it was only until 10 pm, but that we couldn't order any anyway, so regardless of our reservation being made in time to order, they weren't going to serve us main dishes. Once seated, we wanted to ask for some recommendations on starters and without letting us even speak, he told us to go order in the bar. He was clearly more interested in the football game than in working. The atmosphere was good. The food was tasty. The Karaage Sticky Chicken was incredible, and the portions were good, but as an experience, I wouldn't go back or even recommend it. Perhaps there shouldn't be incorrect information on the website about kitchen hours, or if so, some warning should be given when making the reservation that despite booking for dinner I won't be able to dine, and ultimately the service should be better, friendlier. Maybe the game influenced it, but he didn't even ask about the name on the reservation, nothing, he sat us at the first empty table he saw in the pub (downstairs) and that was it. If it weren't for the time I would have left. Clearly one more or one less customer wouldn't have mattered. Without this experience with the service, even if he had kindly explained to me that there was an error with the kitchen hours, just because of the chicken, I would have...

After a bad customer service experience at a nearby pub, my husband and I decided to try the Courtfield because of the "Victorian Dining Room" on the second floor. The decor is absolutely lovely there, the service was absolutely DREADFUL. I ordered a water and my husband had a pint. I was slightly ill and had the tomato basil soup which was delicious, and my husband ordered a medium rare steak. Now, this dining room has about 10 tables and could easily seat at max capacity, around 40 people I would say. While the room only had about 5 tables seated (including us) there was only ONE waitress to take care of the entire room. I was a little surprised but dismissed it, assuming since it was past the peak dinner hour it must be normal.

Our food arrived about 15 minutes after ordering and that was the last we saw of our waitress at our table. My husbands medium rare steak was very well done and I was nearly to the bottom of my water glass when I discovered there was a lemon seed stuck to the bottom of it. I suppose I can't complain that my drink ran dry (after all, I was too disgusted to have more) but it would have been nice if the waitress had at least come back to inquire if the food was cooked properly.

When we received the bill the waitress had written in large block letters, "SERVICE CHARGE NOT INCLUDED." This was good because if it had been, I would have been demanding a manager to remove it. I cannot believe how terrible the service was and I'm still miffed that my husband left the two pounds that he did. I would not recommend this place to anyone who expects even half decent...