Gordon Ramsay Street Burger - Covent Garden — Restaurant in London

I'll split this review into two sections: negative and positive.

Negative

1. My wife wanted a standard buttermilk chicken burger, so we asked if we could get the chicken and avo burger, but sub the chicken breast for a buttermilk chicken thigh. We were told no, that's not possible. So instead we had to order her the butter chicken curry burger without the coconut tikka yoghurt, lime pickle and mint. Seems a lot easier to just sub out the breast for a thigh. My wife said that she wanted a simple buttermilk burger with lettuce and mayo and the server just looked at her like it was a strange request, no offer of a solution or alternative item.
2. I ordered the raspberry mojito which states on the menu that it contains raspberries (as it should) - Pampero Rum, lime, mint, raspberry, soda water. There were no raspberries in my drink, it was a raspberry syrup - two totally different things. Also, I have never had a mojito that is served with large cubes instead of crushed ice, as this one had. Additionally a woman on a table opposite me ordered the same drink shortly after mine was served, and hers looked to have raspberries in the bottom of the drink, when I asked the waiter to clarify, he assured me that it didn't and said "I dont know, maybe she has more syrup in hers than yours". My drink looked like a squash mix, hers looked much more like a cocktail. Surely all drinks should be served the same - same ingredients, measurements, garnish etc. Wouldn't order that again.
3. The men's toilets were disgusting - toilet paper on the floor, in the urinals and dead drain flies around the sink, lots of water all over the sink sides. I mentioned this to the waiter as our food was served, he apologised and said he will have someone look into it.
4. We ordered a side of onion rings that didn't quite arrive with the rest of our meal. Took a bit longer than I would have liked, in fact, when I turned around to ask the waiter where they were, he was bringing them over. So not the best service.
5. 15% service charge!! How are you applying the same service charge at a burger joint as you do the fine dining restaurant at the Savoy hotel? That's just insane and unfair. Discretionary, but automatically applied to your bill - taking advantage of the embarrassment of having to ask for it to be removed. 10% fine, 12.5%, maybe - but 15%?!? Service definitely didn't reflect the encouraged charge.

Positive

1. I went back to the toilet after my meal and was pleased to see that the tissue on the floor and in the urinal had been cleaned away. The dead drain flies and messy counter were still there though, so not a complete positive.
2. The food was delicious, hot and fresh. I had the next level burger with the cheese skirt. It was juicy, fresh bun and pickles. Absolutely amazing. Would certainly order it again, and recommend it. Same goes for the sidewinder fries - crispy, well seasoned, hot and delicious. I also had a side of wings with hotter than hell sauce, and they were amazing. The sauce was very spicy, which is nice, usually when restaurants say they are hot its like a buffalo spice level, but these were very spicy. Enough kick to make my nose run, but the flavour was still there.
3. The waiter that sat us and issued our bill (different to the waiter that took out order) was friendly, smiling and welcoming. A very nice server.

Overall - Great food and reasonably priced. But the drinks and overall service are a bit lacklustre. I would return, but perhaps try a different location and will certainly be asking for the service charge to be removed and leave a tip at my discretion based on...

We visited on a rainy and windy Saturday night at around 19.30. We were greeted at the door by our server in a rushed manner asking for a table for two. He paused a little before confirming that he did indeed have a spare table. I'm not sure why there was a pause, as there appeared to be at least 6 spare tables throughout our visit.

He walked us to our table and before I had even removed my coat and sat down, he asked what we wanted. This was difficult as we hadn't even seen what was on offer on the menu. I asked what beer was available and he started to reel off a few and I made out from his English IPA, so I said I would have one of those. My wife asked for a mulled wine.

We then sat down and tried to read the menu - which was difficult as the lighting is poor and the menu is on brown card with a 6 or 7 point font size. I hadn't brought my reading glasses, so tried to scan the QR code on the table, to find the website very slow to respond.

Before I had even read the menu, the server returned with the drinks and asked us what burgers we wanted to order. My wife had seen the festive burger on the menu and since I couldn't read it I asked the server what was in the burger. He looked at me as if I had lost my mind, so I explained that I couldn't see the ingredients. He then very quickly started to reel off some of the ingredients in broken English. English isn't my wife's first language, so she didnt have a clue what he said, so I tried to relay them more slowly and clearly to her. By this point the server seemed to be getting frustrated, so I took a guess that my wife would like the ingredients and went ahead and ordered the festive burger for her. He then asked if she would like bacon and cheese on the burger, to which she said yes assuming it would be included in the £18 burger price. He then asked what kind of fries she would like and was pushing her to have the loaded fries, so she accepted this offer - we hadn't been given time to read the menu fully at that point. Again as I hadn't read the menu I asked for a burger with bacon and no cheese and what he called standard fries.

The service was fast and our burgers arrived very quickly, so no complaints there. The food was nice, but nothing more special than other burger places such as Honest Burger or GBK, but a lot more expensive. Personally I don't think the price is warranted and is relying on the Gordon Ramsay name.

The seating where wewere placed felt a bit cramped and there wasn't much room between my body and the table (and I'm around 12 stone, so not exactly fat). The music was a tad too loud, but it was possible to talk to each other with slightly raised voices.

Overall the experience left is feeling we were being rushed, like we were on a conveyor belt and they wanted us in and out as fast as possible. The staff were attentive, but not having time to read the drinks menu before ordering was a bit annoying. I would not return to this place again as I don't think the food is worth the price.(In total, just over £70 for two burgers, 2 lots of fries and 2 drinks) Instead I would recommend walking around 100 metres around the corner to Honest Burger where the food is half the price for the same quality and the seats more comfortable.

I have added our bill so that you can see a...

Despite the purchase of a gift experience online as well as the ticket which states the amount of burgers and fries and unlimited/bottomless sodas. There was almost a denial of the soda due to the paid amount. At this point we are almost of to a bad start. It's not about the soda it's about false advertisement from such a huge brand establishment. There should not have been a discussion about being denied a soda and how the denial of such soda is unacceptable. The soda should have been given it states it on the ticket as well as this is what was paid for.

However in the end the soda was granted with the amount of the voucher being exposed to the gifter due to the explanatory of said soda dispute.

Please not this is not the fault of the ground staff as they followed the protocols of the company before the resolution.

Although it became uncomfortable to ask for the second glass as was only given one and then to have to re explain.

With that out the way the redemption of the paid voucher was on the way with additional food orders from us.

The wait was not long although I had better due to this being on the side menu the hot sauce chicken was amazing, full of flavour and chicken was cooked just right.

The choice of burgers on the menu left curiosity to try majority of them as they all sounded good.

The burgers we did pick were fantastic right size full of fresh ingredients, it sure went down a treat both the meat and chicken.

Chips were lovely stayed warm.

There were some confusion as one of the sides came out with the main which did not give enough time to eat however said experience for this somewhat works.

After some time had passed one of the sides ordered did not arrive which left to an enquiry.

In the end it was best to have it for take out.

Atmosphere for the time was good, the main member of staff was helpful and friendly. The others not so much could just be the time of day, nothing to serious to damper. At end of day the authenticity of the experience with the overall food price etc was spot on.

Would we go back most likely. Hopefully to a better experience due to the multiple misunderstanding.

Pictures will follow...