Gaucho Sloane Avenue — Restaurant in London

It is with much sadness on this occasion I have had to leave a one star review for my reservation at Gaucho. I have been to Gaucho Sloane Ave before for brunch, and also to the Broadgate restaurant.

However, I attended Gaucho for brunch at 2pm on Saturday the 27th October 2018 with my partner. My partner is a vegetarian, as much as I appreciate that Gaucho is an Argentinean steak restaurant, we have been here in the past and they have accommodated her needs. On arrival at the reception we reaffirmed my partner was a vegetarian to the visible disgust of the receptionist.

After being seated in the restaurant, our waiter came over to explain the process that we had two hours of "all you can drink and eat", once again my partner advised the waiter she was vegetarian. Usually in the past with Gaucho this is where the fun starts. Drinks begin to flow, food gets ordered and you sit back and relax (bare in mind you are spending close to £140 for this brunch for two people). 15 minutes passes by and we finally get our first drink. A further 20 minutes passes by before we get our first dish, a bacon sandwich and eggs florentine for my partner. Slightly disappointed at this stage, but as it's busy I let it slide. After finishing the first dishes. It takes a further 10 minutes before we get the attention of any waiter. Where we ask for a top up of drinks and to clear our plates. Another 10 minutes goes by and we get 2 more drinks and order some more food, by this time I must say I am very frustrated at what is happening. The next dishes arrive, a caramelized onion dish with cheese and sourdough for me and "smashed avo" on sourdough for my partner. Unfortunately the smashed avo had been sprinkled with bacon, of course not very well thought out even though we had explained on 3 separate occasions my partner was a vegetarian. The food once again wasn't the greatest and was left on the table for another 15 minutes until taken away and another dish ordered. I ordered a steak and eggs, and my partner at this stage wasn't fussed on eating anymore. Again we waited over 15 minutes to be offered more drinks whilst waiting for our food. When the steak arrived it was cold and the egg was burnt to a crisp, this was the final nail in the coffin. I asked to speak to the manager and we settled up early and left.

All in all an extremely disappointing experience at Gaucho. Bare in mind we only had 2 hours and were paying almost £140. In 75 minutes we had 3 drinks and 3 dishes. Completely unacceptable given the price of this brunch compared to our previous experiences. An unfortunate afternoon, however I don't believe I was the only one to complain.

Hoping for better results should we...

Well I went to trip advisor this but strangely no TripAdvisor profile.

Now I eat at alot of very good restaurants and now gaucho has always been good quality and reasonable in most I've had so as I was in the area we thought we would try it.

Firstly the greeting was amazing lovely woman, the bar area also lovely as was the waiter.

Good start.

Onto our food. 2 out of 3 meals were okay, nothing that would blow you away but okay, more like a miller and Carter to be honest........ youd eat it but wouldn't recommend it.

Now the 3rd steak wow. Medium rare..... it was basically still alive.

The waitress was lovely and asked when he'd taken his first mouthful how it was, to which my friend said okay thank you (hint..... okay isnt good). Then as he got more into it and in the dimly lit lighting you could see it was literally raw, I've seen blue steak more well done.

Once we had finished and his steak was left looking like a pile of some sort of afterbirth the waitress asked how it was to which I said his steak was massively undercooked but ours were okay.

Her manager came out and questioned why we said it was okay earlier but now we have an issue..... could he cook it more........ I laughed and said because he was asked when the first mouthful was in his mouth so hadn't yet experienced it and you can change your mind hence 3/4 left mangled on his plate clearly inedible and to recook that bit of meat was frankly a joke.

In all my experiences of restaurants and its extensive I have never had a manager come over and try to make you feel like you're in the wrong for a bad meal. We were given £15 off and my friend a beer which to be honest was a joke as the steak should of been taken off the bill in its entirety but would I really wanted is "sorry this wasn't good enough how can I make it up to you"..... I didnt want anything not even a discount but just an apology.

Management should take a visit to the ritz, ting, aqua shard or ramsays grill for training on member servicing. If you'd like this I can arrange it with the GM of aqua...

The food is delicious and the service in the restaurant is fantastic. Our waitress was extremely well informed and friendly and really helped us understand the menu, which I really appreciated.

I give two out of five stars due to the experiences I had tonight (Friday 23.11.18) in the bar area which have completely spoiled my experience of the lovely restaurant. There was one person serving in the bar all night and her service was appalling, before and after our meal. After our meal, we moved to the bar area for a drink and after this we wanted to order another. We waited for quite a while for the server to appear, but she never did so I went to look for her. I found her in the restaurant and asked her if I could order another drink. I was told that it was too late and that I should go to a "proper cocktail bar" if I wanted a drink. She was abrupt and rude and completely dismissed me so I told my group we had to leave.

However, another server then approached our group and told us we could order drinks in the restaurant and bring them back to the bar as we were walking out the door so I don't understand why I was told I couldn't order a drink. I feel very embarrassed and angry to be treated this way in front of a group of friends who were visiting a London. Between four people we spent £400 in Gauchos and were made to feel like a complete inconvenience to this one member of staff. When we tried to order drinks earlier in the night, we were told that we should order wine and beer and not cocktails........in a cocktail bar.........ok!

I'm so disappointed that a nice night out could take such a sour turn due to one incompetent and rude member of staff. I would urge Gauchos to train their staff more completely and I would recommend that the public choose another venue for drinks because this is not the place to go. But don't be put off the restaurant...