Homies On Donkeys — Restaurant in London

No homies afterall. I have a rule not to write a review when my experience is negative. Breaking it only because I see a phenomenon here. I have been a local in Leytonstone for the past 12 years. I have seen landmarks changing managements, places popping up and closing down, eventually having great coffee at more than one shops.Yet, I was never sent off when tried to walk in twice to a new place at a spot where the friendliest businesses used to be. I am not a stranger to London and I am not at a stranger at all to London's food scene. I understand that the team behind this place has gone a long way. If I trust the reviews and the publicity, I understand that the food may be good as well. It might be a pity I will never taste it though. The second time I tried to walk in, it was early evening and the place was literally half empty. We were 2 people. We were told it wasn't possible to tell when a table could be available. Maybe after a couple of hours. I explained I am a local and therefore asked how far in advance I should book. The response, with an attitude, was "just check online, we are fully booked through June". Mate, please, read the area. We are in bloody Leytonstone. I have walked in at multiple restaurants on a hype in London and had a lovely meal at their bar even on a Saturday night. Not sure what the policy at Homies on Donkeys is, not sure what the attitude was for. I genuinely wish the best to the business but I would kindly ask them to respect that in Leytonstone we are truly homies. We call the business owners by their names, we get to become friends and support them in good and even challenging times. So, we went to Filly Brook instead and we had a...

I was very exciting to hear that HoD were coming to Leytonstone. Unfortunately, the restaurant claims of being ‘fully booked’ or ‘busy’ are simply unfounded. The restaurant chose to occupy a huge space on the high street and then split the space in two. ONLY HALF OF THE RESTAURANT IS EVER BOOKED. The other half of the space is kept for ‘drinks’ - read empty of customers, but tables stacked with the empty plates from the other side of the restaurant. As a long term ‘Leytonstoner’ it’s sad to see such a large space wasted. Either the staff are not capable of running that size of space and can’t be trusted if they made use of it, or it is a deliberate ploy to create a sense of exclusivity. Just to be clear- this place sells tacos. A street food.Apparently, hit and miss given the other reviews on google- I wouldn’t know, whenever I have tried to get a table, I have been barked at by the maitre d’ with an angry glare and arrogant ‘we’re busy’. A bit odd, as I am sure they would have made more money from me than the stack of plates in the empty half of the restaurant. This has been the same response whether it is lunch time on a weekday or weekend. Once, I got as far as a drink at one of the free tables, devoid of crockery, on the ‘other side’. Unfortunately, the cocktails are run of the mill. Could we have a butchers in this space next? Maybe the guardian could review that too, as long as the butcher has the good sense to have a few influencers on the payroll first....

Haven’t left a restaurant review in a minute but man this place was a disappointment. I made a reservation to get a bite before an event down the street. The server was kind at first, the drink arrived quickly. Because it was happy hour the restaurant was empty, but for some reason they sat a couple directly next to me. I was about 1.5 feet away and could hear every word of their convo like they were speaking directly to me. I don’t mind a noisy restaurant generally, but having to listen to one loud conversation without any other chatter to drown it out can be pretty irritating (especially if you have some sensory issues like I admittedly do). About 80% of the tables in the place were empty so I eventually asked if I could move to another. The server asked another employee and gave me a new table across the way (which did make a big difference for me). But apparently my request annoyed the server and so I was ignored for the rest of my meal. I waited 10 mins after finishing my food for her to take my plate away, and another 10 -15 to get the check which I eventually had to ask for.

In addition to sort of feeling punished for what I think was a pretty modest request, the food wasn’t very good. The refried beans tasted overwhelmingly like bouillon cubes, and the carnitas tacos were too salty and tasted like butter (which is overkill since that cut of meat is usually super high fat). The drink was nice, but the food was def a British take on...