FU:DIZM Tapa Room & Restaurant — Restaurant in London

This was a really disappointing visit. We had travelled quite afar for a weekend in London. Having done quite a bit of searching and based on great reviews I booked a table here with a friend for the 9 course tatser menu. Saturday 13th November 2021 @ 7.30pm.

When we arrived at the place (Pheonix Bar) we were greeted by the security guard and then the supposed manager. I assume the manager oversees the Phoenix Bar not the restaurant. For clarity, the eatery is a long standing 'pop up' in the Pheonix bar. As a guest coming in for the first time you don't know this and no one explains.

We didn't get asked for our names and were promptly directed to a table in the corner by the window. A table with two seats parallel to one another with barely any room to move. Nevertheless we were looking forward to the food. We waited for someone to come and greet us, to ask if we wanted drink or simply some acknowledgement that we were there.

We waited around 15 mins before I went to the bar to speak to one of the staff. I asked if we should order drinks at the bar or wait for a server. The bar staff didn't know and had to ask the 'manager' who advised that I should wait at the table. And so we waited a few minutes and no one came. We could see other guests also waiting to get someone's  attention. After a while we had had enough and proceeded to leave.

At the door the 'manager' asked why we were leaving to which we explained our experience. The manager said that the 'concept' was that we would wait at our table and food would come out periodically. No sh$t sherlock.

I get that Jon might be a one man band and his food is reportedly exceptional and Michelin worthy but people don't go out to eat just for the food. They also want an experience and decent service. And when you're going out with the possibility of spending between £100 - £150 you don't expect to be sat twiddling your thumbs for over 15 minutes without so much as any acknowledgement.

This was a such a disappointing and frustrating experience having planned our visit to London for some time. Luckily London has lots of restaurants so we didn't go hungry.

We didn't meet him but I'm sure Jon is an excellent chef and his food is great but he is let down by the apathetic Pheonix bar staff and the fact he...

We visited this place for the 6-course tasting menu from TimeOut. Unfortunately our experience really did not match the reviews I see here from other people and was outright weird.

The venue itself is not a proper restaurant. It is boarded up from the outside and from a quick Google/Instagram search basically seems to be a kind of glorified strip club. As if to confirm this, throughout the course of the dinner we saw a number of drunk men leaving the basement, one of whom wasn’t wearing any trousers. Presumably this is also why we were asked to write down the postcode and phone number of every guest at the entrance (slash security guard room).

Onto the interior, the unisex” bathroom is simply a men’s bathroom with the urinals blocked by a wet floor sign. The bathroom is also open, so every 5 minutes we would have to pause our conversation because of the extremely loud hand drier. This is all not even mentioning the horrendously dated taxidermy and mishmash of pictures on the walls.

The service was also unusual. There were several men in charge of the coat hangers (???) mostly doing nothing, and several bored bar staff. And yet, all the food cooking and serving seemed to be done by a single cook.

Despite the expected 6 courses we were served 4. I suppose we should have questioned why the dessert was served so early on, but to be honest, we were happy to have the excuse to leave. The service still took about 2 hours, and food itself was not anything special. Two of the three savoury courses we had were dumplings that could have easily been purchased frozen from any Asian supermarket.

At the end of the night the restaurant lost electricity and the payment system was not working - so at least we didn’t have to face the awkwardness of declining the...

Extremely disappointing and uncomfortable experience. The place is extremely odd, full of taxidermy mounts and strange decorations - which is a personal taste, I guess. We were asked personal and invasive questions throughout the dinner by the owner, for no particular reason other than sharing country of birth. My partner had to return two spicy margaritas because the waiter put so much Tabasco it was not possible to taste them - the third one was also spicy but we let it go out of exasperation. We went with the TimeOut offer for a 6 dishes course - and except the dessert, which was tasty and good, all of the dishes were dull, of mediocre quality and poor taste. The chef (who was serving our dishes) even had the unoriginality of putting the exam same piece of chorizo and padrón pepper in two dishes! Either they modified the menu for TimeOut offers to make a poorer experience or they're absolutely crazy to think they can charge 65 pounds for that. Honestly, the 28 pounds we paid was expensive for what we ate. After this experience and really looking forward to leaving, it turns out that the bottle of water was 8 POUNDS. I've been in Michelin restaurants that don't charge such a ridiculous amount for a bottle of water. Oh, and FYI, it's a "member's club", which means you have to give them your telephone number and postcode in a piece of paper at the entrance, stating everyone's names - guess someone needs to check data privacy regulations because I shouldn't see the name and details of the people in the place with me! Extremely poor experience and really not recommending it. You can eat in many greater places for 50...