FishWorks — Restaurant in London

Zero stars.

We tried to have a family dinner at your restaurant last night in Covent Garden at 5pm, for my son's birthday. Having been before and loved it we thought this was a great pick for his birthday. He ordered the steak and lobster for his main. Unfortunately when it arrived the steak was full of gristle. Chewy and completely inedible. And the lobster had no meat inside? None. We called the waiter over and told him it wasn't edible could he please take it back and bring us a menu to pick something else thanks. He took it and apologised.

Next thing woman with long matted curly hair wearing a long black light nylon coat aggressively approached my son WITH the returned food platter and demanded to know why exactly he had returned it. I stepped in and told her we know good steak as we eat it quite often and this was just gristle. She kept going with her aggressive behaviour demanding to know how he had asked for it to be cooked, he responded well done. This quitened her and she literally stormed off with the plate. Didn't bring us a menu for a while. Then never came back to ask what he may want instead. It took so long, he decided he didn't want anything. She then approached asking what he wanted he said nothing. She said "oh I've taken that off the bill for you", then left.

We decided we'd had enough of this aggressive childlike behaviour so we asked for the bill. Again she was rude and SO aggressive to my son directly!? Saying "oh by the way I asked the chef about your steak and he said it's meant to have fat around it so there was nothing wrong with it actually!! And the lobster this time of the season may or may not have meat inside so actually we cannot control that!!!" Her eyes were popping out if her head she was so angry. My son replied "I know the difference between steak fat and gristle. And don't expect me to pay you £46 for a lobster with no meat in it. It was disgusting". I told her that we eat out in good restaurants most nights and know what good food is, and this was definitely not good food. She backed down and apologised and we paid our bill. She didn't acknowledge us leaving just turned her back as she was clearly very angry.

In the current climate I would imagine you need all the good staff you can get. She's not it. Won't be returning. And definitely wouldn't recommend this place to anyone to be abused by some ignorant woman who can't wash her hair.

Vile behaviour towards a child on his birthday. Which she solely ruined.

I want a response from your Area/Regional Manager to discuss her threatening...

First Class Dining Experience from entry to exit. Meet and greet was by courteous staff members and we were shown to a comfortable window seat table with plenty of room to dine. Not hemmed in like other restaurants. After being given menus and time to choose, we ordered drinks, cocktails, wines and table water along with a selection of Breads, Olives & Dips. We then ordered A Whole Lobster Thermidor as a starter with sides for two of us to share followed by orders for guest one Seared Yellow Fin Tuna, guest two Cod Fillet and guessed three Oven Roasted Sea Bass, all meals with additional sides. The Lobster was cooked to perfection and along with the sauce tasted delicious. The Tuna requested cooked rare melted in the mouth with the added crunch of the mixed seed crust accompanied with lime & soy dressed rocket and side of pan fried spinach. The Battered Fillet of Cod with Chips & minted peas was far beyond the taste of your standard fish & chips experience. The Sea Bass was chosen filleted and did not disappoint. The skin was crisp and the flesh was moist and tasty with lemon thyme & olive oil, cooked to perfection and not a bone in sight, the taste was exquisite and accompanied with sides of spinach and chips. We all left clean plates and ordered further drinks leaving us no room for the choice of desserts on offer. As we left the restaurant for the theatre we vowed to definitely return again one evening and stay a little longer so we can sample the dessert menu too. We all send our compliments to the chefs, the staff and the management team for providing us with the most outstanding dining experience and we cannot wait to return and do it all again. Thank you all so much, with kind regards from Karen, Linda & Elizabeth xx Tuesday...

The food is excellent. I had the whitebait to start, seafood linguine main, and crumble for dessert. My partner started with the prawns, had the tuna main, and the cheeseboard to finish. Only issue was there wasn't enough custard on the crumble, leaving it quite dry.

The service was poor.

We were left with dirty plates for far longer than we should've done, and when the starter plates were removed they were replaced thirty seconds later with our mains. As I said, we were sitting with the dirty plates for a while, so we did have a gap between courses, but more attention should've been paid. We were also left with the water bowl from finger rinsing, that my partner had used with her starter, for the entire meal.

We had to ask for cutlery three times, the first being when the main was served. When it came to dessert, I asked for cutlery for the second time, and was given two soup spoons to eat the crumble. My partner had the cheeseboard, but no cutlery until we asked a third time. The waiter then brought over a knife and fork. No sign of a cheese knife though.

There was definitely a lack of care and attention, which is a real shame as the food was excellent.

We had wanted to go here for a long time and so this was my partner's birthday dinner. It's disappointing to come away with a negative opinion. We may well give it another go, but it will be a while.

I had also indicated that this was for my partner's birthday when I made the booking, but no mention was made in the restaurant. I'm not one to go after a freebie, but if they weren't going to make something of her...