Grillshack Steakhouse & Cocktail Bar — Restaurant in London

I don't often leave reviews, but as our visit to Grillshack was one of the worst dining experiences I've ever had, I just feel I need to share it!

We chose Grillshack as it was local to the hotel where we were staying, and the menu looked right up our street. Everything started okay. We were welcomed by a friendly guy and were seated straight away. We didn't have to wait that long for waitress #1 to take our drinks order, and then shortly after to take our food order. Unfortunately, the drinks took a good 15/20 minutes to arrive, with the food following on a further 15/20 minutes. We finished our meal and then had to sit there with the dirty plates for a good 15 minutes before having to flag down waitress #1 to collect them, despite the fact she walked past our table several times and could see the empty plates sitting there. We ordered a couple of desserts and cocktails and she left without collecting the plates, so we had to flag down waitress #2 to collect them. We then had to wait an age for the desserts, so ended up canceling them as by this point we just wanted to leave. To be fair to waitress #2, she was very apologetic for the poor service, and we were okay with it as they did have a party there and we did enjoy the food.

HOWEVER, this is where things take a nasty turn. We got the bill, which was £142.70, and paid using Apple Pay. Just as we were about to leave, a very arrogant waiter approached us informing us the payment didn't go through. I checked my phone and could see that the payment had left my bank account and showed this to the waiter. He practically ignored me and proceeded to put the amount into the terminal and insisted that I pay again. I calmly protested as the money had left my account and hadn't been declined, but he wasn't having any of it and kept rudely insisting that we had to pay again. I kept refusing, and he kept insisting, but to keep a long story short, it escalated into a huge argument in the middle of the restaurant, and the waiter refused to let us leave and blocked the door until we paid again. I was in total disbelief at how we were being treated as I continued to show other members of staff that I had paid and that the money had already left my account! Eventually, another guy came out, read back the amount to me for confirmation, and said it had gone through and it was all good! There were no apologies from anyone that we were made to feel like criminals, even from the arrogant waiter, so I just left in complete shock at what just happened!

Safe to say we will never go back there if we were to visit...

Went here on Sunday .Never Again Disappointing Really was looking forward going and pressured my family to come to .We we’re shown to a table straight away and about 5 minutes later given menus .I was pleasantly surprised at the full menu that catered for my whole table and the lunch time offer .Ordered drinks 10 pound for a margarita not a bad price drinks arrived and the stem of the glass was very warm but the drink was delicious.Ordered starters and mains .Starter arrived for 3 of us but my partners was delayed .The waitress was apologetic and explained that it took a bit longer to cook ,Surely the kitchen could have worked out the timings of there dishes .We finished our drinks then his starter arrived.So ordered a jug of margaritas for the table .The barman plonked the jug on the table with no clean glasses ,when we asked for glasses he took 1 water glass of a table and put it next to the jug our waitress saw this and went to get us glasses no ice no salt on the rim and plastic straws in the glass .My partners starter was a chicken Shish whither soft taco but was a tortilla cut in half .whilst he was still eating our waitress arrived embarrassed and asked if she could bring the main meal out .I said no as he was still trying to eat his starter .When he finished the main came out without the table being cleared of starter plates .My rob and chips was good but the other 3 meals were disappointing his mixed grill was inedible as was over cooked even though the waitress asked how he would like it he never ate anything other the first bite .The enchiladas were dry on the outside and looked like a burrito with dried cheese on top .As the restaurant was now starting to get busy he went up to the bar and paid the bill when he complained the waitress said next time she would offer him something.There will not be a next time .There was 3 waitresses working but only 1 that seemed to be serving the other 2 were up by the bar the whole time and hardly interacted with...

We lived in Islington for 2 years and used to come to former Mexican restaurant Desperados very often. Mexican food was amazing. Last week we went to Grillshack Steakhouse as we saw they still had Mexican food but we didn't have a great experience. They have the same plates as the former restaurant so we decided to do a repeat. We ordered the fajitas and chimichangas, so really dont recommend getting either. The fajitas came out sizzling as expected but the restaurant added some sweet sauce (maybe bbq sauce?) to it, so it did not taste like your usual fajitas. It looked greasy and dark, not the usual yellow/ orange fajita color. Chicken was served in large triangular chunks instead of the thin fajita slices and it tasted really weirdly sweet and a bit burned. The guacamole portion that came with both plates was equivalent to two tea spoons size each and it looked dark as well. It didnt taste fresh. I mean, you can see from other people's pictures here it is not enough guacamole! Also the served sour cream was very soft, almost liquid. Loads of cheese though. Chimichangas had a massive amount of cheese everywhere, a lot of cream inside of it and the rice came out yellow as if we were in an Indian restaurant? Honestly, I didnt have any stomach issues afterwards but food did not look great. I wish I had taken a picture before we started eating. If you go to the more recent reviews on the Desperado restaurant here, you will see people reinforcing the same complain as I, on the choice of spices to the Mexican food. Staff was very friendly and nice. It took 40min for the food to come out. Also must comment on the choice of music of the restaurant as it didnt have a theme, they played 60-70s movie songs together with more recent Adele, so that was quite confusing as well. We havent tried the grill bbq food, but from reviews here seems its good. Just please dont offer Mexican food in your menu if you are mixing up...