Draughts - Waterloo — Restaurant in London

Simply cannot recommend. First off, the £15 reservation fee is actually an entry fee, it would've been nice if I was made aware of this. The venue itself isn't up to much, if you sit in the main seating area, great, you'll have music, staff, games, toilets and a good vibe. If you're seated in the side area, not so great as you'll have none of these, throughout the night on my many trips to the "other side" I came to refer to our side as "the dead zone". The management needs to sort this out, we paid the same price as everyone else but had a rubbish experience, seriously, put some speakers in there if nothing else, as soon as you leave the main area the vibe dies instantly, they must be aware of this? And the table service there is pointless, we had to go out to order as we hadn't seen a member of staff for the 30 minutes that we'd been there, but had seen a few staff just hanging out in the other side when I went to the toilet, it wasn't even busy at this point, maybe 25% full.

The food was okay, nothing special but no real complaints, it's mostly fried fare. We only had the nachos & what was effectively scampi, along with 2 glasses of wine, 2 beers & 2 coffees... It cost £75 plus the £15 entry fee, which I think is just too expensive. Then there's the whole selling point of the restaurant, I thought a games based concept was a pretty cool idea, but in reality all you end up doing is looking blankly at a wall of board games searching for something that grabs your attention, you'll do what 90% of guests did, you'll play connect4, Scrabble or something similar that's familiar to you, it kind of crushes the concept once you realise that. As for the staff, I'm not keen on complaining about staff for not smiling or showing enthusiasm but there really is something in this, how on earth are you seeking to create a vibe if your staff are half-dead? Bookings are for no more than 3 hours, and so 15 minutes or so before the end of our session a staff member let us know that we were almost up. We had about 5 minutes left when my wife went to the toilet before we leave, whilst she was there the staff member came back and told me that our time was up, it was bang on the hour, I said "sure, my wife is just in the toilet", I stood up and and had another gulp of my drink, I didn't realise that he was still stood behind me waiting for me to go, I said to him "she'll just be a mo", to which he responded "yeah but you need to go now"... that's just plain rude, and it's not like anyone was waiting for the table, no one was waiting, I know as I had to go to the reception area to wait for my wife, and the restaurant was no more than 2/3 full anyway. And the final thing, when my wife came back she told me that she had to use the disabled toilet, which had a CCTV camera in it! It was being used to store their COSHH cleaning equipment and had barely enough room for her to sit as an able-bodied person, so what hope a disabled person has is anyone's guess. There were other gripes such as the hand dryer not working or the diry plastic envelopes that they put cards in for some card games. Just for clarity, I never write reviews, but this place was a consistent stream of disappointments, it really was. Seriously, stay at home, get a bottle of wine, order a pizza and whip out your own board games... You'll have more fun, save money, have no feelings of being mugged off and you won't have the...

To be honest, it didn't libe up to expectations. Booking experience: 10/10 easy and quick Arrival: 9/10 was a bit of a kerfuffle with the table seating and the staff member was a little unfriendly to my friend when we were just trying to position the table so we would have room for the chairs that were being brought over. Drinks: 9/10 quite expensive but the AF Mule was refreshing and delicious. The glasses were nice. Games: 7/10 this is the main reason for anyone being here and you get an automatic charge added to your bill which is noted at time of booking so wasn't a surprise. I do think £7.00 per person is a little pricey, but I understand that many of the games are super expensive and you can stay for a while. If you're really into your board games and you go with the intention to play a specific game then this is the pace to be. I found that for a mixed group of friends/colleagues it was a little difficult to get the focus for any real game. We ended up playing Exploding Kittens whilst waiting for our food - there were several versions and boxes available but both boxes we looked in only had two exploding kitten cards and there are supposed to be four. We figured it out and just used the ones from the other box...but that took two boxes out of commission for the rest of the patrons. The cards themselves were so gross - most were either really sticky, dirty or had plastic covers on them as a repair/preserver but this only served to make it difficult to shuffle them and also for a game where you have to remember what is in the pack for your 'exploding kitten strategy' then the plastic covers were a bit of a give away for certain cards. Some of these more well used games could be replaced more often. Food: 5/10 the menu looked great and I was pleased with the options. One of the group had the massive plate of Nachos which looked great. Others had a mixture of small plates and tacos. The baja fish tacos were very disappointing. Basically one small fish goujon (the type you can buy frozen in Tesco) in each taco. Not enough on my opinion to justify the £12 price tag. I had the cauliflower tacos which were plentifully filled unlike the fish ones, but the batter was a bit soggy and the slaw was tasteless. It wasn't the nice crisp, fresh taco flavours I was expecting. Staff: 9/10 apart from the initial person who came across a bit unfriendly, all other staff that we interacted with were great. Some good recommendations for which ges to play. Death by Coconut was a winner.

All round though a bit of a disappointment. Would recommend to friends that I know that are really into thier board games, but probably not for someone like me that likes board games but isn't going to get £7.00 worth of entertainment...

My friends, we need to have a serious conversation, one that’s long overdue.

As a society, we must move away from parmesan fries.

They are not working.

In kitchens and restaurants across the world, hospitality staff are quietly ignoring the leftover parmesan that remains untouched on the plates they clear away. It clings to nothing. It falls through the cracks. And yet, we persist. We’ve been led to believe that any cheese works with fries, and that simply invoking the name “parmesan” lends a dish sophistication, even legitimacy.

But let’s be honest. Parmesan doesn’t belong on fries.

If you’re feeling especially misguided, you might double down with “truffle parmesan fries.” But that only compounds the issue. Because here’s the truth: parmesan is not designed (chemically, structurally, or spiritually) to cling to the humble fry. Parmesan was born for a different purpose: to elevate pasta.

It belongs on dishes like Spaghetti alla Carbonara, Risotto alla Parmigiana, Eggplant Parmigiana...

There, it shines. There, it melds, melts, and makes sense.

But when you scatter it cold and dry over a pile of fries, and then charge two extra quid for the privilege, you’re not innovating: you’re cutting corners. You’re serving a broken promise.

If you won’t take the extra step to melt the cheese, if you won’t reheat or bake the dish after the parmesan is applied, then stop. Please, just stop.

There are better options. If we care about flavour, texture, and integrity, then we should be turning to cheeses that actually work with fries.

For example: Aged cheddar, which melts beautifully and adds real bite; Gruyère, rich and nutty when melted, a dream for loaded fries; Blue cheese, for those who want boldness and depth; Mozzarella, when you’re going for gooey, indulgent comfort.

These cheeses don’t just sit on fries: they become part of them.

It’s time we stopped pretending parmesan fries are anything but a culinary mismatch. Let’s stop wasting good cheese. Let’s stop disappointing good fries. And let’s move forward, together, toward a more coherent, more honest, more delicious...