Ergon Deli — Restaurant in London

I had been to Ergon previously and had a great food experience although service is always a little hit and miss. The staff generally don't look very happy, which is quite indicative of what kind of place it must be to work.

We waited 55 mins for a table yesterday (at a 12:45 arrival time) and that is a typical wait time although painful. I had brought my out of town niece to brunch for her graduation so it was meant to be quite special.

We ordered the eggs that come with a simit like seseme seeded bagel and Greek yogurt, black Americans and also the granola pancakes. Firstly, the wait time was absolutely not okay. We waited around 25 mins for the first dish to arrive but then a further 35 mins from ordering for the pancakes to arrive. This isn't Michelin level cuisine. It's eggs and pancakes. We were informed that there was only one chef working and he had 50 orders to get through hence the wait. Whilst I can have sympathy for the chef it means that the restaurant is very poorly managed and resourced which must place a lot of pressure on the workers hence they never look happy. In fact, we were told that our waitress was 'stressed'.

The poached eggs were a disaster. They looked like they had been made by a novice and not a chef. They were all stringy and poorly formed and not the quality they are usually. They arrived stone cold. I explained to the waitress that the eggs were cold all the way through to which she replied 'yes because they're on top of Greek yogurt and we can't heat the yogurt up'. She seemed completely reluctant to exchange our dishes for hot ones as they should be served and she had to call the manager. This is when the manager said that the waitress was stressed. The manager was nice and understanding (hijab wearing lady) and she quickly agreed to bring fresh dishes. When the fresh dishes did come the eggs were cold again but we didn't bother to mention this again in case we had to wait hours for the next dish. As the eggs were cold, and the bread also didn't seem as fresh as it usually is, in fact it was stale, it was not an enjoyable brunch at all. The eggs should remain warm. The Greek yoghurt should also not be fridge cold.The bread should also be toasted or at the least served warm and not dry and cold.

It's a very popular restaurant with people from the middle East, but I would say there are much better restaurants for brunch in the vicinity where you don't have to queue in the rain for an hour, where food is served as it should be and the staff look happy. Please sort out your resource issue. I should not have to pay over £50 for two plates of bad food just because you only have one chef and limited waiters and waitresses. The pancakes were nice but after waiting 35 minutes for them we were done and had lost all appetite.

Will not...

I came here twice in my 5 days trip -The first time the food was delicious and we were served by a girl with dark hair, Her service was good and she is nice and smiled (The whole experience was good) And that's why we decided to visit again..

The second time, the food was delicious, but we were served by a girl with tied blond hair, Her service was not at a good level and she was rolling her eyes & angry and not helpful when we order i ask for eggs without toppings and she told me to just choose from the menu she can't create a new menu for me !!! (I didn't like the way she responded to me) also she could have responded in a kinder way It's just eggs. I didn't ask for a new creative dish..

The first time I paid for the service because everything was good, but the second time I didn't want to because it didn't meet the required level. The strange thing is that the waitress raised her voice and asked me, “Why don’t you pay for the service?” As soon as I spoke, she said to me (first! calm down and gesture with her hand)!!!!

She called the manager and the manager also investigated me why !!! They shocked me with the way they asked questions so i didn't answer I just said it's an option and I don't want to pay for the service.

This is the first time this situation happened to me in UK, as if they were forcing me to pay in strange ways and create scenes to make me uncomfortable which made me not want to come back again and will not recommend it to anyone.

*Paying for the service in UK is optional, not obligatory, and in this particular way!! If you want to add service to the bill, make sure before, that you hire pleasant and respectful waiters...

TL;DR disorganized service and mid food

I went at 11am on a weekday. I joined the line along with other customers who seemed to be confused about the system. Later on, I found out about the website to join the online waitlist, which marked the beginning of chaos for 2 hours.

The app had an estimated time left feature, which turned out to be super inaccurate. There were 3 tables of my group size in front of me. As time went by, the estimated time fluctuated between 40mins and 50mins. It never really decreased much, and even went up several times. Right when I was about to go somewhere, I got the message that my table was ready.

When I got there, I noticed that the place was packed with dine-in customers as well as people ordering items to go. It seemed that staff were overwhelmed by the situation and they didn’t really know what they were doing. It took 10mins for me to get seated cuz I kept on getting different instructions.

After I finally got seated, which was right by the line of customers ordering to-go food, I waited another 5 minutes for the server to bring the menu. I didn’t even get to fully read the menu cuz the server pressured me to give her an order asap.

I got one of the most popular items, which came cold in 10mins. I understand that the Greek yogurt is supposed to be chill, but even the poached eggs felt like they were left in the fridge before being served. Overall, the food was mid. Definitely not worth the hassle.

After I kept on asking for the bill, the server neglected my request (i saw them bringing the bill to people sitting close to me earlier). I was annoyed and went to the...