Homeslice City — Restaurant in London

I'd give this place 0 stars if I could.

A group of nine of us arrived just before 9pm and we were sat down smack in the middle of the restaurant, impossible to miss.

After waiting a while to be served, we got a round of drinks. I ordered sparkling water which to my surprise, came in a restaurant-branded STILL bottle. It didn't taste or feel like sparkling so drew this to the manager's attention. He seemed uninterested and pointed out "the glass has bubbles". I told him it was no good, and his blasé comment was "maybe it's just flat". Undeterred we ordered 5 pizzas for the table and waited.... and waited.... and waited.

Tables that had come in considerably after us were tucking into their pizza, while we waited and waited.

After an hour we questioned where our food was, and they huddled over in a group looking confused and looking over at the table with bemusement. One of our group went over to see what was going on, and they said that the cook has lost our order. By this time it was past 22:10 and late.

They said the food would be ready in 10 minutes. No apology, no sorry, no nothing.

We said we didn't want the food anymore and walked out. Only then did the manager spring to life and follow us out to say we had to pay for our soft drinks.

We said that these should really be on the house for the inconvenience but he wasn't having it. We paid for our drinks and said how is it possible that nobody spotted that the main table smack in the middle of the restaurant could have gone so unattended that nobody spotted we'd not been served anything.

He shrugged his shoulders and went about his way.

This left a very sour taste in our mouths and will be removing the restaurant from the suggested places our large insurer takes clients, hosts events and otherwise throws ample business to.

The management and staff need some serious customer service training.

Can't comment on the actual food itself,...

Tuesday night 9pm dine-in experience for two was disappointing.

As we approached the staff at the entrance we waited whilst they finished what appeared to be a casual conversation. Upon finally being acknowledged, we were promptly shown to a table.

For context, the restaurant was approximately 1/2 to 2/3 full with 4 members of staff on the floor.

Note: the flooring choice results in an uneven surface, this meant that our table was rather wobbly. Padding a table leg with napkins did not resolve the situation.

The interaction with the staff member who showed us to our table was lovely when we actually received any attention. We had to wait at least 15 minutes before we were able to place our order.

Upon doing so, we were informed that one of our desired pizza types was sold out "just 2 minutes earlier". This felt like we may have received our first choice of toppings had they come sooner. We did receive a discount of £2.50 from the total amount, but it may have been an adjustment to reflect the half and half toppings we ultimately chose - mushroom and margherita.

Our drinks and pizzas came in good time and they were tasty. The pizza size is large and the crust itself is very thin. So while it appears like a daunting portion size at first, the slices themselves feel lighter upon consumption, which resulted in feeling comfortably full by the end of the meal.

Getting our bill was a struggle once more, with servers meeting our gaze and then promptly staring straight ahead and going about their other tasks.

When we finally received the bill, we ended up going directly to the cash register to pay, as we did not want to spend more time waiting.

The interactions were pleasant enough, but the lack of attention detracted from the overall...

At half price in September this was a great deal for some huge pizzas.

The poor rating aims to a) reflect full price value and b) provide a counterpoint to what I believe is an unjustified rating of 4.3

One could tell that our pizzas were based on archetypes that were once amazing, and I’m sure to someone who hasn’t tried proper contemporary pizzas they would be quite exciting. However, the execution just wasn’t up to standard. The toppings certainly took some interesting risks - at least they would have been interesting some years ago before Homeslice had become a profitable and professionally managed chain. Instead we were met with pizzas that looked great from across the restaurant but were disappointing when close. They were clearly designed by someone who had a great vision but with major constraints to ingredients, staff time and quality control.

I find it frustrating that places like this are given amazing star ratings because they are a lot better than something like a pizza express, yet are ultimately lacklustre if you’re looking for something truly original.

Homeslice feels a bit like Toy Story - sure it’s fun and at one point had an interesting perspective to bring to the table; but the fact that people still go crazy over what has now become a cash cow undermines the ability of new independent restaurants to support originality.

I wish for a restaurant rating system that could really separate the wheat from the chaff. And I’m afraid in this case, Homeslice City is undeniable chaff.

It if probably my fault for not realising that a restaurant called “[chain_name] City” was always going to be chaff.

Needless to say, I shall be going back before the end of their half price deal. But never...