Electric Bar & Diner — Restaurant in London

We visited The Ned for the first time yesterday during their exciting collaboration with Interstellar. Booking through OpenTable was straightforward, and I appreciated the option for pre-payment. I also noted that it was my mum’s 50th birthday celebration, hoping this would be acknowledged in some small way. Unfortunately, the service at the start of our visit didn’t meet expectations. Upon arrival, the two front desk staff appeared to be in training, and we stood waiting for a while before being acknowledged. After providing our reservation details, I was disappointed that no one wished my mum a happy birthday — especially since it was mentioned in the booking notes. We were seated in a lovely booth, but again, the message hadn’t been passed to our server, so we were treated like regular diners. While this isn’t a major issue, it did feel like a missed opportunity to make the experience more special. On a positive note, the food was excellent — definitely lived up to the buzz around the collaboration. We were disappointed to miss out on the brisket, which had sold out, but Jack, our server, was fantastic throughout and handled the situation with grace and professionalism. Overall, while the food and ambiance were great, the lack of attention to the celebration was a letdown. We’ve had more thoughtful service at places like Beast and Goodman when celebrating special occasions, and I expected a bit more from The Ned given...

We live locally, in the City. There’s a lot of food around…but we occasionally opt to pop down to the Ned. Tonight we gave the Electric Bar and Diner a bash for dinner (normally it’s a weekday meet-up-for-lunch spot for us).

£174 for two, but that included five cocktails (there aren’t many to choose from on the menu, the majority were old fashioneds. The quality varied from passable to bad…suspect a deviation from the bourbon we initially selected).

I won’t leave a detailed review for the cheesesteak my partner took (small), but the 3 meat bbq combination I took was delivered luke-warm and got cold fast.

Meat 1 - The brisket comprised 3x thin slices of reheated beef, seasoned externally. Tasty, but cold and tough.

Meat 2 - The wings were wings, so ok. Majority were of the “tiny drumstick” variety.

Meat 3 - The ribs were just plain bad - zero flavour in the meat itself, just doused with sauce for a finish. Also stone cold.

The coldness seems to be a function of the metal tray used to serve the food. This is an obvious heat sink - somebody is going for style over sense here, and it sort of dealt the big blow.

I said at the outset this is a review from tonight, i.e. just after leaving. I gave some polite feedback on the coldness to the waiter at bill time, and he took it well and professionally took it to the floor manager. Hopefully the manager takes things on board - this place should be GOOD…right now...

I’ve visited the Electric Bar and Diner at the Ned several times for work and social. Latest visit was a date with my fiancé.

Service is always very attentive and friendly. The drink selection is extensive, with some beautiful beers, wine and cocktails. We enjoyed an Old Fashion cocktail. It’s worth going a little off-piste. The burgers are just that, delicious burgers. But some were less ordinary, like Devilled Eggs, which were stunning. The Electric Ruben sandwich is impressive, and the Honey and Chilli Fried Chicken is extremely tasty.

The atmosphere was good, with live music from the Nickle Bar. They even seemed to have an entertainer walking around for the kids when we were there on a Saturday night, although I haven’t seen that on previous visits, so that it may have been a one-off.

It’s not cheap by any measure; a portion of pastrami fries is £10. A meal for two with a cocktail each will probably set you back a £100, a lot for a “diner” but not crazy by the Ned standards. But if you can make room in your budget for it, it’s well worth it...