Grounded London — Restaurant in London

GROUNDED BOW: Me and two others visited on a Friday early evening. The place was 3/4 full and had a nice bustling atmosphere. Two of us ordered the breakfast royale and the third ordered the Jerk chicken burger which came with chips and a portion of truffle mayo chips to share. The coffees we ordered were an oat latte, an oat chai latte and a matcha latte.

Food and drink: To say the size of the breakfast was highly disappointing would be an understatement. There is only one slice of thin sourdough toast, with two very small poached eggs and hollandaise sauce on top of a decent portion of smoked salmon. It was served with a small lettuce salad that was quite heavy on vinegar. Although the breakfast tasted very nice and was served hot, it was not very filling even for those who eat small portions. I had ordered the truffle mayo chips as supplementary to the meal but was disappointed as the flavour of truffle was not at all present and the strong vinegary taste of mayo overpowered the dish. My companion complimented the Jerk burger, saying it was well-spiced and flavourful. All the drinks were excellent. The coffee beans used a lovely mild taste that was not overpowering. food: 8/10 portions: 5/10.

Service: The servers were very friendly and the manager came and paid attention a few times to our table. However, two incidents caused issues. When the coffee was asked to be heated up, we were discouraged by the server to do so. But when we insisted the old one was discarded and a new one sent to us, with no word as to if it was complimentary or not. The manager let the payment go only once we insisted that we hadn't asked for a new coffee, which was a miscommunication. As another reviewer mentioned, we felt very rushed. We were asked many times whether we were ready to order and as soon as we had finished our coffee after our meal, the bill was brought immediately and we felt expected to vacate our table and leave despite only having sat there for less than an hour. 6/10

Pricing: For the quality of the ingredients and the provenance of items such as the coffee beans and the eggs, it would be expected that the pricing would be on the higher end. However, for the portion size that they are serving, I don't know how they would maintain this pricing structure as it is long-term.

Location: The venue has been finished to a beautiful standard. The décor, soft furnishing even the exposed brickwork all made it well worth the visit. Perhaps because we visited on one of the coldest days of the year, the café was extremely cold inside despite the manager telling us all the heaters were on. The part of the seating that was closest to the door was rendered unusable due to how cold and unheated it was there. 7/10

Overall thoughts: This relatively new café is well worth a visit, the coffee, ambience of the location and overall service...

Arrived on Sunday afternoon, joined the small queue only to be completely ignored when it was our turn to be seated as the manager passed straight by us and seated the woman behind us who’d just arrived with a pushchair? We were further ignored until we enquired why, only to be told ‘she has a baby’? This seemed odd so I asked again why we were ignored and priority was given to the person behind us to which we were then again told ‘she has a baby and she’s waiting for two people(?) Still not really an explanation when our full party of two was here, had been waiting before the ‘priority’ customer and we were ready to order and eat? At no point was an apology given only ‘she has a baby’ and ‘you’ll only have to wait a bit longer’, why we were having to wait at all is still a mystery.

So eventually we get seated and order and some 45 minutes later our food arrives. Lady with a baby has only just been joined by one other person, they order and are served a mere 5 minutes after us?!?

But oh dear I have a slice and a half of my French Toast so wait patiently to get someone’s attention and ask where the rest of it is, the manager is too busy getting broody and fawning over anyone with a child, I consider borrowing one just to be acknowledged. Eventually a waitress comes over and I ask where the rest of it is and I’m asked if I’m sure I haven’t eaten any? When we establish I haven’t she says she’ll get me another but I don’t have another 45 mins to wait so it’s taken away, then brought back and I’m told if I want to eat it they’ll take it off the bill…by this time it is cold.

My partner is eating his then finds a hair under his sausage..and no that’s not a euphemism. So we once again try to get a waiters attention, we eventually do, advise him of such and he says he’ll take it away, and he does…..then nothing, no apology, no we’ll get you another one, just left with the plate.

So we wait…then after a period of time manage to get yet another waiter and ask what is happening, they don’t know….. …and this saga goes on, and on, the manager has vanished probably exhausted from trying to manage her self styled crèche on top of a restaurant, meanwhile the staff have no guidance from her, yet follow her lead of no apologies and no real explanation for any of this hot mess!

It’s a random location in Bow, just save yourself the drama and go somewhere else… unless you have a kid, then they’ll meet your every...

Very disappointing experience. I've been a regular at the Whitechapel branch for years, so when I saw the branch in Bow, which is a 3 minutes walk ok Google maps for me, I thought brilliant!

How everything went downhill thereon.

I've tried to go and eat in on 2 occasions in the past, but on both occasions, I've had to wait. Which is fair enough as they're always busy in the Whitechapel one and for a good reason, best breakfast locally.

First time, after waiting for almost 20 minutes, we were seated on a table of 2. As that's all they had for 2 adults and 1 child (5 year old) he apologised and said we can wait longer for other tables but that wasn't the issue. There was a dog sat right on the bench seat and another on the floor next to a couple?? There was 4 dogs in total in there. So the whole point of halal food, yet dogs are allowed and expected us to sit on dogs? No issues with animals especially dogs, but they take priority in this 'halal food' establishment. Found this strange. Perhaps the market they chose in Bow is different, even if they state they want 'exclusivity'.

2nd time, 2 of us. Our food came nearly 10 minutes apart. What was the point in us coming together? Aside from that, breakfast was decent.

3rd time. Tried the take away, to collect condsidering I am a 3 minutes walk away. Biggest and worst of all.

Ordered 2 sausage breakfast and a pancake one meal.

Cane home and food was cold. No exaggeration. I waited a while, so not sure if they forgot or what has happened here. The beans is usually a masala type they make, but this was just plain beans microwaved. Guys really??? Sour dough bread was the size of an apple. One of the rashers was so underdone and the drinks that we got, one chai and another hot chocolate was a disaster.

The hot chocolate was just watery with milk. Run out of hot chocolate powder? That's my normal drink in the Whitechapel branch and when eating in, it's the best around, so I know the difference.

The whole breakfast was a disaster especially when you pay almost £60.

I wasn't initially going to give any review after the first 2 experiences due to their other branch, but after this take away, I had to.

Many good reviews here and long may it continue. But for me, that's the last of the Bow branch. Avoid getting take away...