Jean-Georges at The Connaught — Restaurant in London

I hate writing this, but if management reads these, I think you should pay attention here!

Your restaurant is beautiful and has nice views out the windows. The wine list is extensive, your menu looks great, and your team tries to provide great service. You have everything it takes to be great, but you're simply not.

Highlights: your somm Veronica is truly exceptional, so is her colleague from France, but I did not get his name sadly. She made our visit one to remember. Talked openly about wines she loves, educated us, made us feel like family. She is your greatest asset currently. He also did a great job and let us try another dessert wine that he wanted to contrast with what we were drinking. Drinks and wines by the glass were great, food is good but not exceptional. Dining room is really pretty and nicely lit. Our server could not have been nicer, but he was clearly new at this and a bit out of his league. I realize we dined on a Monday night, but you should never have your B-team on site for dinner at a place with your reputation.

Lowlights: Without any discussion of the menu and prior to us even receiving our drinks or any bread, the server asked "are you ready to order", I was honestly a bit taken aback! You did not give us any thoughts about the menu or ask if we had questions, nothing to help us along here. This was a big miss. Amuse came out and it was excellent, did not even clear that plate and our appetizers were delivered. Never bring food to the table before clearing the last course, this is common knowledge and far inferior restaurants do this better than you did. It also immediately made me feel rushed. Server trying to get our order quickly, then food showing up rapid fire. I had to ask for the entree to be slowed down and the server said he would wait 5-10 minutes to put it in. 25-30 minutes later he comes back and asks if he can fire our entrees? In my mind, I'm thinking we already agreed to this and I don't work here so don't bring me issues. Just do what we discussed, not hard.

Finally, when your restaurant has few diners on a Monday night, don't seat all the customers next to each other. You seated 2 different parties of 2 across from us when there were 10 other tables you could have put them at. It created a bottleneck in that hallway and people were having trouble getting through there. Rookie mistake by the people who seat your customers, think it through, space people out, create a bit of privacy.

I don't think we will be back, but we did enjoy certain aspects of the experience. Again, our server was very personable but is not ready for the job due to you not training him on what excellent service looks like. Thanks again to both Somms, they made it worth being there! It would have been a 3 star...

Not a great experience. Arrived 30 minutes early to meet a friend for drinks and dinner and there was literally nowhere to sit in the cramped and gloomy lobby. Had to stand around feeling self conscious with the largely male staff glancing at me suspiciously. They seemed to relax when I joined the queue for the bar just before my friend arrived. Had a good 20 minutes' wait to get a table. By this time I had been standing for nearly an hour.

Once seated, felt rushed to order by the waiter. It is impossible to read through the overlong and pretentious cocktail menu, particularly on a mobile (due to Covid you scan a bar code to download the menu). Cocktails are pricey even for London. The bar is comfortable and attractive, but there are better in London.

My friend nearly had the last of her Martini taken away prematurely and we were hassled twice about ordering another drink. We had only been in the bar about 30 minutes at this point and the cocktails are upwards of £20. I explained we had a dinner booking for 7.15pm. Shortly after, at 7pm, another member of staff approached and said, "Ladies your table for dinner is ready ". We were literally being removed from our bar table whether we liked it or not.

Food was poor. I ordered a crusted salmon with leeks dish that sounded great (£32) but was unpalatable. When asked by the waiter if I'd enjoyed it I politely said unfortunately not, but it was taken away without any further comment. Friend's lamb chops were 'just OK'. Cheapest bottle of wine we could find was £65 for a pleasant but ordinary Beaujolais. We didn't order a pudding. When we paid the bill the member of staff asked if we had enjoyed the meal. I said, 'I'm afraid I didn't'. Finally this particular man apologised and offered us free desserts , which we couldn't accept as my friend had a train to catch. But at least someone had made an effort at good customer service.

Ambience is also lacking. A young couple arrived, was seated but decided to leave within minutes. There's a very corporate feel to the restaurant and it has little atmosphere. Staff seem tense and pressurised to turn tables. Possibly the 10 o'clock deadline (Covid restriction) for ending service had something to do with it, but it was a very disappointing evening. Sadly won't...

We met old friends who flew in from Miami. One of the two is in the hotel industry and picked JG for dinner. We almost left within 10 min of sitting down due to the attitude of the service. Abrupt and cold. The wine menu arrived and was more like war and peace. Keep it simple guys, we are discerning customers but are not there to read a huge wine menu, either that or employ a sommelier. The bread basket that was delivered to the table was impressive to look at but not freshly made bread. Ether do it right or leave it out. I ordered minted pea soup with a manchego foam. When the soup arrived in small jug that was poured at the table it was cold and so garlic-y it tasted of nothing but garlic, cold garlic. I did not complain as it was apparent by then the service it was not going to improve and it would not be worth the effort. Thankfully I had kept things simpler by ordering the mushroom pappardelle which again was cold and nothing I could not have prepared at home with ease. I did not partake of any sweet or cheese course knowing the odds of improvement over the previous two courses were slim. Those who did order a sweet course were duly disappointed. We waited a further 30 after finishing our dinner for the bill. I had to get up and hunt down a staff member. Had the place been packed at any point in the evening this all could have been explained away. But it was at best 50% occupancy during the busiest part of the evening. Not one of our party would ever return again. This is pub grub, take a chance on a cute pub and dive in, save yourself the higher priced...