HALFCUP BARTS SQUARE — Restaurant in London

On a recent visit for brunch I ordered the savoury pancakes. I noticed immediately the egg (particularly the egg white) was a bit more undercooked than I would like to eat (quite snotty) so set it to the side but tried to ignore it. The dish in general was quite poorly balanced and the elements didn’t mesh together (maybe would be better with crispy bacon or a different type of chilli sauce?). However, in the stack of pancakes the biggest one was at the bottom and when I got down to it I noticed it was actually raw in the middle with runny liquid batter. We struggled to get any service at all but when the server was collecting our plates she asked if all was ok - my partner politely said that actually no there were two instances of undercooked egg (the egg itself with runny white, and the largest pancake with runny batter) which is why my plate was only half eaten. The server said ok I will speak to the manager and went off. She returned some time later and, with no apology or anything brusquely told us they’d comped our coffees, and walked back off again without any response from us. We then continued to struggle to get any service and were waiting for about 20 minutes trying to get someone to give us the bill/let us pay to leave. When we paid, again no communication other than asking if we were paying together or separately.

The food as a whole for our group was pretty mid if you ignore the cooking issues, but with the raw egg and raw pancake it was clearly bad.

The service though was absolutely awful - I was left feeling like the server was mad at me and thinking I was trying to get something for free or complaining for the sake of it - that wasn’t the case at all, as I ordered the food and ate about half around the raw bits I’m obviously happy to pay for the same. We never asked nor expected any discount but thought it was important to flag that actually there were two quite serious cooking issues which they might want to flag to the kitchen team to be wary of.

This has left a sour taste in my mouth and I don’t think I would be willing to go back,...

Food and drinks were tasty and good portions. However….. I prebooked a table for 2 Got a message one hour before asking me to confirm (automated I think) which I confirmed After eating our food the waitress came and told me and my friend that they needed the table back (she was apologetic and friendly) as it had been an hour and made it sound as though this was usual practice. It wasn’t quite an hour- probably 50 minutes at this point! We were confused as other patrons were there before us and still at their tables so not clear why we were singled out. Also there were many vacant tables. Spoke to another member of staff upon leaving ( obviously asked to have the bill minus the service charge!) and let them know my views. He was apologetic and suggested that member of staff was quite new. One of his other suggestions was that the other table had more patrons and as such would have longer to sit there. Anyhow of course we left and despite one staff member offering to get us some free takeaway hot drinks as a way to apologise we politely declined and went to the Happenstance in St Paul’s and had some cocktails and was there for 2+ hours to continue to enjoy our catch up. It’s the half cups misfortune to miss out on the cocktails and the service charge we happily provided to the other restaurant/bar. The half cup missed out on £40+ extra revenue. I’m a Londoner who eats out in London regularly and this was probably the worst experience I’ve had. Thank you for making us feel so unwelcome. Avoid avoid avoid if you would like a catch up with your mate and don’t wish to be rushed. A one hour window for a booking (if in fact true) should be stipulated in the booking reservation (it wasn’t) as London isn’t short of good places to eat and we would have chosen somewhere else to...

This is a local restaurant right between a very wealthy estate where people mostly don’t mind how much they spend for a breakfast

Even though Half Cup is always more expensive than most breakfast places in London , still it is literally downstairs for me and I used to enjoy there

Recently, I have realized that some south asian owners took over the restaurant and honestyl when I saw the Indian chefs/owners/waitress thought the taste, service and the menu was going to be much better

But not only the quality of food has gone worse in time ; the most frustrating one they started to use some really cheap tricks

My friend arrived 10 mins before me and already ordered; then an Indian waitress girl came to get my order

When I complete my order she randomly asked “would you like avocado with the meal?” which was really completely irrelevant with my choice of food

At my own neighborhood, the restaurant I ve been so often; so felt safe to approve what she offers first. But; then kind of sensation that I know how it works very well in asian restaurants those tricks I checked the menu

Adding few slices avocado is £4.50 , while Wholefoods sell a whole avacado for £2.50

Then our breakfasts arrived and she brought a small plate of smoked salmon for my friend next to her mince & egg plate =)

When I questioned her weird breakfast choice; my friend said the same girl asked while she was busy with her phone and somehow manged to add smoked salmon on the bill which is extra £5.50

Me , my friend or any other customers in that area wouldn t think about extra £4 - £5 ; but principally I refuse going places try to cheat customers by some small or bigger tricks.

Shame...