Forest Wines — Restaurant in London

Nice wine, extremely rude owners.

We have been buying wine from here for years now and used to live locally, buying mainly from the wonderfully knowledgeable Sophia (as she worked most days in the customer facing role - probably with good reason.) We spent around £100 in the shop several times a week during the first lockdown and did all we could to support the business.

Despite the fact that we have now moved, we decided to continue to support the shop and have made orders of wine. We then made a large order for our anniversary weekend 10 days before it and it never arrived. We were in contact with the shop but the owner refused to send a replacement for the weekend as she said it was 'out of her hands' and down to UPS to sort it out and that it would 'arrive eventually'.

Eventually, we did receive our order but it was clumsily wrapped and one bottle short. The owner agreed to replace the one bottle but by that point, our anniversary weekend had passed. When I spoke to the owner, I asked her if she appreciated that we were valuable customers and she advised that we should simply 'shop elsewhere'. Obviously they are doing very well out of the...

Richard Fosters cuisine I could not fault! He curated an incredible menu and held up the kitchen on his own.

The wine is always delicious, sadly I didn't feel looked after at the end of the meal. I booked a table of 3 for my girlfriends and I. Paid £15 deposit per person. One friend couldn't make it as she lives in Winchester and her partner had been admitted to hospital with a slipped disk. I had taken the courtesy of calling around 5pm (they open at 3pm) to inform them that the 3rd seat wasn't needed. Despite spending a considerable amount of money between the 2 of us, and purchasing a further 3 x bottles of wine, only £30 pounds of my £45 deposit was removed from our bill.

I appreciate that place setting charges protect businesses, but as a local resident, having spent a further sum in 3 bottles of wine, I was upset to not be taken care of for the sake of £15. Even after raising it with the owner/manger and she refused. This experience has certainly put me off spending money there again. I doubt I'll be going back. I will be finding where Richard...

A disappointing first experience at Forest Wines. Went in to buy a present for friends. I know nothing about organic wine and the male assistant/owner didn't engage with me at all even though I obviously needed help. He just stood behind me the whole time waiting whilst I searched. This felt really uncomfortable and made me feel that he was worried I'd shoplift. His only comment was to ask me to replace my mask because I'd lowered it due to steamed up specs. Eventually I chose something, pretty much at random. The nice explanatory label around the neck of the bottle, which my friends would have appreciated, was removed (I didn't notice that until I got home) and my bottle wasn't even wrapped in tissue (a minimum requirement at £17 a bottle I'd say).

All in all I didn't feel welcomed or valued at all. Customer service is everything in this sort of business. Sadly I wasn't impressed and will go somewhere...