GAZETTE CLERKENWELL — Restaurant in London

The manager reneged on a special deal the restaurant was doing - and only told my sister when she was presented with the bill. Yep, he just changed his mind! Instead of 50% off food and full price drinks as advertised (we had wine and cocktails), he decided to make only half the food 50% off. It was very humiliating for my sister. I do not know why he chose to do this, and I didn’t even know it was possible! If I didn’t witness it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it as it was completely outlandish behaviour. Beware when attending this restaurant - they might change the price as they’re handing you the bill.

ADDED 29 January:

Thank you for your response Walter. I must be clear that we were entitled to a meal at 50% off. We arrived and started ordering before 3pm. We had a big order and were TOLD by the waiter to place the order in two sittings so that he could get the first round of food out. At no point during service were we told that anything we were eating was not a part of special deal - we found this out when we got our receipt. The manager gave us three different explanations as to why he had done this (none made sense). He tried to say we placed two separate orders - despite providing one bill with everything on it. Then, finally admitted it was because we had been there too long. It was clearly his choice and decision to only take 50% off half the bill. He finally said he would do some of the food at 30% off after more than 10 minutes of back and forth (demonstrating he had the power to rectify this all along), and my sister accepted in order to put an end to the situation. Might I add, during that back and forth we didn’t raise our voices, we only tried to explain that this had to be a mistake. It was a total shame as we were planning a family gathering and up until the incident we thought it might be an option for the event. Walter, I am happy to email you directly to give you all the details as there are many that I am leaving out here, given that you are a young business. However, I think it is important for you to know what kind of experiences your...

We spent around £170 dining here and left a £15 tip, which is roughly 10% - a fair and generous amount in our view, as the service was good but fairly standard. The suggested service charge was £28, but as it’s discretionary, we chose to tip what we felt was appropriate. To our surprise, the manager Santino questioned why we had only given £15 and said, “Oh, so you don’t want to pay the service charge?”—a rude and unprofessional remark. We politely explained that service charges are optional and that we had still left a tip. If they didn’t want to accept the £15, I was happy to take it back. The manager’s response? “Yeah, go ahead, feel free to take it back if you want.” We were shocked by the lack of appreciation or basic courtesy.

Despite the manager’s dismissive attitude, we still left the £15 tip because we wanted to recognise the staff’s effort. The food was good, but the experience has been tarnished by how we were treated. We’re always happy to leave a tip for good service, but the manager’s actions and attitude were not acceptable.

We are also in the same industry with over 30 years of experience in food and beverage hospitality—so we fully understand both the importance of customer appreciation and how professionals should conduct themselves. This interaction fell below...

What a great place to have dinner! It is also open for breakfast & lunch.

We eat here frequently and always enjoy the food & atmosphere.

BRYAN, SIAM and head chef MOHSEIN,, are very professional, kind, caring & ensure we want for nothing.

The food is excellent, & amongst our favourites are the onion soup, oysters, salads, for starters, followed by the chateaubriand, caesars salad & risotto. The burger is also very tasty.

Desserts are delicious as well, we tend to choose different ones, however the lemon sorbet is the best we have ever eaten.

It is very easy to park right outside after 18.30 & only a short walk from...