Deluxe manna — Restaurant in London

Dear Deluxe Manna/Manager,

I’m writing to share my recent experience at your restaurant — unfortunately, it was a disappointing visit and a repeat of a poor experience I had there previously.

I came based on a glowing recommendation from a friend, not realising until I arrived that I had already been to your restaurant once before, several years ago, and had a similarly negative experience then. I decided to give it another try, hoping things had improved. Sadly, that was not the case.

We arrived shortly after 5 PM when the restaurant was very quiet. We were greeted poorly by a young male staff member (approximately 21 years old) who showed no manners or warmth. We were first told to sit at one end of a row of tables, then asked to move to the other end. The table layout felt cramped — we were practically elbow-to-elbow with other guests. Eventually, we were seated in a corner.

We placed our order: two oxtail dishes with plantain, one with a large Jollof rice (mine) and one with a small (my friend’s). We paid upfront to avoid any confusion. Shortly after, the server returned to say she forgot to add plantain to my friend’s order, and they had to pay again separately — a small but unnecessary inconvenience.

When the food arrived, the same server noticed that my portion of oxtail had noticeably less than my friend’s. She took it back and added more, which I appreciated — but this should have been checked before the food left the kitchen. Presentation and consistency matter.

Then came the drinks — two strawberry daiquiris. My friend could see them being made at the bar. The same young male waiter who greeted us earlier delivered them, but accidentally spilled both drinks all over our table, and some even got on my food and almost on my clothes. I was completely frustrated by that point. He apologized, and new drinks were made — but no form of compensation or goodwill gesture was offered for the inconvenience.

Overall, the lack of customer service, attention to detail, and basic professionalism was extremely disappointing. Nothing appears to have improved since my last visit three years ago, and this experience only reinforced why I never returned — and now, won’t again.

I hope you take this feedback seriously. There is clear potential, but customer service and professionalism need to be...

If I could do 0 stars I would to be Frank...

Went to this establishment for a friend's birthday dinner - it was a 10+ person reservation.

Staff took forever to take our orders... the food itself took OVER 2 hours to arrive at our table (we had a section with 3 tables for our party)

The meals came out warm.. not Hot - and came out sporadically, leaving 1 or 2 people on a table eating and the rest without any sort of food.

They were taking orders for items that were out of stock and not relaying the information to us that the said items weren't available - they just never brought them or said anything at all.

(I and my friend ordered the Crispy Calamari STARTER and was brought Shrimp whilst being TOLD that we ordered it when we clearly didn't.... and this was as i was finishing my MAIN COURSE - my friend had only just recieved his and we had ordered the exact same meal)

They proceeded to have bad attitude and customer service to a specific person in our party who had ordered a bowl of Jollof Rice and Chicken Wings and had not received it, whilst our whole table, by this time, had already eaten (2 & 1/2 hours for rice and wings?!?!?!?!?)

Then the food...

The Jollof Rice was the best dish out of everything we ordered... (which was expected honestly)

The curry goat I had received was a mixture of oil, fat and bone... the lamb was the same (minus the oil) (I wish we had taken pictures but honestly the food wasn't worth it)

The plantain was cut to the size of door stops and rubbery (and thats being generous)

Considering the reservation was for 8pm and we only received our food after 11pm - I was annoyed.

Top that with sub par food, yet a nice looking establishment - was aggravated and confused.

And then to be almost charged double what I actually ordered was just the cherry on top. (I ended up paying what I should have paid, but that's not professional at all)

0 out of 5 stars, won't be coming back.

It's a shame I actually have to give a star in the first place - honestly didn't even want to pay after the...

After hearing sooo many raves about this place and recommendations from friends and family, I finally decided to go and see for myself. Booked a table for 2 people. Got the restaurant, met a bouncer/security guy outside, told to wait outside, we booked for 6:30pm....Got there 10-15min late, but restaurant was fairly empty with plenty of seats indoors, it was too cold 🥶 n drizzling outside (winter), there was no way I was sitting outside. Bouncer goes in restaurant while we wait outside, my guy takes his sweet time flicking through the books to find our booking. Then proceed to give us a table right next to the entrance door, of which I declined, 1....people coming in and out would be disturbing us.....when I go to any restaurant I like to eat n enjoy in comfort and not be disturbed by other entities going on around me. 2....it was too dogone cold 🥶 to be seated right next to the main entrance and the table was waaaay too small.

He then shows us another 2seater table, which he himself said but its a smaller table. We declined the 2nd seating. We finally got a round circle table in a corner next to what I assumed was a kitchen.....NOPE, it was right next to the toilet 🚻 🤦🏿‍♀️🤦🏿‍♀️🤦🏿‍♀️. It was a nice private table in a corner, I was hungry and just wanted to eat so.....

We waited 10mins before someone came to us with the menu I had to ask for the menu.....another 10-15min no one to take our orders at this time I thought it was a self service restaurant where you go to the bar and place your orders 🤦🏿‍♀️🤦🏿‍♀️🤦🏿‍♀️🤦🏿‍♀️

Loooong story short 😃😃😃, the services could do with an improvement, it wasn't that busy infact it got very busy around 9pm on a Friday.

The food was great 👍🏾, finger licking good.....the drinks 🍸 Omg, I ordered a margarita 🍹(Strong) 😋, you can definitely taste the alcohol in it, which is how I like it 👌.

Ordered a sharing platter for 2, but I came for the fish 🐟 dishes 😋, so naturally I had order the fish.

I would return and just hope that the...