Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK) — Restaurant in London

Great service from one staff member, but disappointing management behavior

I visited the restaurant on Friday, June 27th, and was warmly greeted and seated by a lovely young woman with a lip piercing. She was extremely kind, took both mine and my partner’s orders, and even recommended my partners burger that we ended up loving. Her service was attentive, friendly, and genuine truly the highlight of our visit, and the reason I’m leaving this review.

However, during our meal, we noticed she seemed to be managing almost everything on the floor by herself greeting and seating guests, taking orders, and cleaning tables all while the restaurant was fairly full. She was clearly doing her best to stay on top of everything and serve everyone with care.

What really left a bad impression was when a woman who appeared to be in a managerial role an Asian woman approached her in the middle of the restaurant and criticized her, saying customers were complaining and she needed to check on more tables. The young woman calmly explained she was trying to manage it all but needed help. The manager raised her voice slightly and kind of dismissingly walked away mid conversation. The entire exchange happened in full view of customers, which felt very unprofessional and unnecessary.

To make it worse, the Asian woman and another male staff member were both standing near the food station, she was taking food to tables while he appeared to be packing and handing over orders to Uber Eats drivers. It really didn’t seem like two staff members were needed in the back section, especially when the front of house the part customers see and experience first was clearly struggling. It felt like poor prioritization, as the dining experience for in-house guests should come first.

It was uncomfortable to watch in fact, me and another customer even looked at each other awkwardly during the exchange. It was clear others noticed.

While the food and our personal service from the amazing girl was great, witnessing such poor treatment of a hardworking staff member really took away from the experience. GBK needs to be more mindful about who they put in managerial positions that kind of behavior was not professional at all and reflected badly on the entire team. Honestly in my personal opinion, the girl with the piercings showed far more leadership, professionalism, and customer care than anyone else there. If anything, she’s the one who deserves to be in a managerial role or a raise bless her.

5+ star for service by the girl. 5 star for the food that was recommended to us. All in all 2 star altogether one for the food and one for the service...

Arrived late afternoon on a Tuesday, with barely anyone else already dining.

Mentioned it was my birthday, barely got a 'happy birthday'.

Ordered two cocktails, but received the wrong items. Instead got a milkshake. After we told our waiter, they replaced the missing cocktail and said that we can keep the cocktail and that they'll remove it from my bill.

Asked for water, it didn't ever arrive.

Burgers came in decent time actually and were tasty. However if we needed anything, even ketchup, the staff were just chatting by the kitchen, not being attentive at all.

After we finished eating, and I mean very clearly finished eating, and they left us at the table without even a second glance for 45 MINUTES.

So that means for almost an hour, my dirty plates were just sat there. I couldn't even get someones attention to order another cocktail. Then finally after literally getting up to be like, 'hey can we at least get the table cleared, or some napkins', I found the staff crowding around the one other table in the restaurant singing happy birthday with a little treat.

Now, I didn't go in asking for the whole 9 yards because it was my birthday. It was a lowkey affair, I just wanted a smile, a greeting, and the same service I'm used to at GBK. But I barely got that, so when I saw the staff singing I was so unhappy. I'd been sat with my half eaten burger for the whole time, almost begging for someone to just bring me free tap water and the 8 staff for 2 tables were all in one corner having a blast when it was my birthday too. I was so disappointed.

Then my friend notices me almost in tears, goes to the manager, who brings out some little donut things and sings HBD to me. Would've been great, if the table had been cleared, and I'd had water and all if all of this didn't seem like an after thought.

As a reminder, the restaurant was not busy at all.

Then we got charged for the little donut things, that milkshake from earlier was on our bill and I still didn't get any water. Took ages to get the refund for the milkshake.

The table was still filthy when we left too. I couldn't even go to the toilet to wash my hands because it was disgusting.

Throughout the experience, I kept seeing all this staff gossiping in the corner, barely paying attention to our needs, and honestly it really ruined the whole day for me.

The one day in the year where I should at least feel a little appreciated by the staff. They couldn't even manage the bare minimum in regards to properly caring for paying guests.

This has soured my thoughts about this venue.

Will not be...

Walked into GBK Westfield shepherds bush at roughly 7pm on Saturday 29th June and was seated pretty quickly. A young lady took our order and drinks came swiftly after. While waiting for our food I noticed the table next to us had all staff coats, bags etc... just left on the table beside us, which I thought was odd. (Surley they should have somewhere to put their belongings) An older lady waitress came beside us on the table where bags and coats were with a tray of knifes, which must have just been washed as she was wiping them to put away. As she got up to place the knifes in the draw a few dropped which she picked up and placed on the till where the draws for the knifes are kept. I watched the older waitress put all the knifes away and to my surprise also placed the knifes that dropped on the floor into the draw with the other clean knifes. When I told her she had put dirty knifes that fell on the floor in the draw she said she didn't. I didn't say anything more but noticed she rushed over to her manager to inform him I said something to her. When he came over and I told him, he immediately said no she didnt however, when i told him to look back at his CCTV footage, he kept telling me he will investigate the matter, how the food hygiene is 5 stars and they are very clean. The whole time he was speaking to me the waitress continued to fill the draw up with more knifes, so I asked the manager why he was allowing her to continue putting knifes in the draw why not tell her to re wash them as now she doesn't know which are dirty, he shouted over to her and got her to bring the knifes out the back. To which I said I would like the bill. In all if you want to eat food from this place where cutlery is dropped on the floor then given to you to eat then go ahead, I will not be eating...