JRC Global Buffet — Restaurant in London

I’m appalled by how we were treated for my mother’s 60th birthday meal tonight. An occasion that was supposed to be happy and enjoyable was ruined by staff, mainly Cyril who has a smile on her face whilst ruining the evening for my mother. Disgusting.

I called on Friday 17th May to enquire if the birthday girl would be free as we were looking at restaurants for my mum. I confirmed VERY clearly with the person I was speaking to that my mother’s birthday is a few days AFTER we would be booking but would she still qualify for their free birthday meal? I asked twice. she said ‘yes, yes that’s fine, just bring the ID so we can verify that your mothers birthday is on the day you say it will be and she will get her meal free’ I asked her to be sure and she said yes she is sure. With that information confirmed, I booked Global Buffet Ilford on 28th May for my mums 60th birthday gathering for 19 people.

Upon arriving tonight, we were told by Cyril that actually my mum, who has been looking forward to her gathering since May actually has to pay for herself, with no apology, no empathy that she ruined the start of a special occasion before we had even entered the food hall. She took our money without hesitation and even charged her for drinks. Cyril was serving us told us, ‘that’s our policy’. I explained that the person on the phone told us to bring ID as proof that my mums birthday would be a few days later and she said ‘oh yes that was me’ - are you lying to my face Cyril? Your lack of customer service skills is appalling. You upset my mother so much by your manner, speaking to your colleague in your own language in front of us without even bothering to hear what we had to say, is disgusting.

I asked to speak with the manager to which Cyril very quickly replied, ‘he is not here’ - how convenient that a floor space is running without a manager. I asked for his name to which I was told he is called Tony. Well, Tony was no where to be seen tonight.

You’ve created a horrible memory for us for my mother’s 60th birthday and I deeply regret that my family paid JRC £551.00 for the evening. Not only did we walk into the food hall upset and angry, the food was barely served, reheated and dried. The sushi was stale, not fresh. Absolutely tasteless… It was disgusting.

I saw a member of the Chinese station cooking team use the toilet and not wash her hands. She just simply left the restroom after using the loo.

Not ONCE, did a member of staff come to check up on us, ask if we were ok or if we needed anything. Not once. That’s a party of 19 paying people - £551.00 that I wish we gave to a business that doesn’t lie to get customers.

Cyril, you are a liar. The fact that we were lied to, is disgusting. You ruined the evening for my mother. May no one treat your mother the same.

If anyone is thinking of visiting this place or even worse, doing a group booking - DO NOT. Don’t waste your money, give your money to a hardworking, honest business. This place is going down the drain, you can tell by their numbers and their attitude. I for sure, will...

I visited JRC on Monday 15th September with my 8-year-old daughter. We come here at least once a month because it’s her favourite spot (mainly thanks to the chocolate fountain). At eight years old, her palate is exactly what you’d expect. Adventurous in spirit but limited in practice. She doesn’t like much, but what she does enjoy, she truly looks forward to. In particular, the vegetable maki rolls.

Unfortunately, the experience this time left her feeling uncomfortable and unwilling to return. The “chef” (or rather, the sushi counter gatekeeper) seemed to have taken a personal vendetta against a child enjoying her food.

The very first time she approached, she politely took two rolls, only to be barked at with an “enough!”, as though she were attempting to empty the ocean with a spoon. I reminded her that JRC proudly advertises “All-you-can-eat BUFFET” and encouraged her to go back for more if she wanted. Even so, she never took more than five rolls at a time, hardly an act of culinary theft.

Instead of doing his actual job. Which I believe involves making sushi, not policing children’s plates this man huffed, puffed, rolled his eyes, slammed tongs onto the counter, and glared angrily at my daughter each time she dared approach. That’s not hospitality; that’s intimidation and aimed at a paying child no less.

When I raised this with the host, I was told he was the “supervisor” for the sushi chef and that this wasn’t even the first time complaints had been made about him. Apparently, his behaviour is a recurring theme. Yet, no apology was offered and nothing was done to improve the situation. The man carried on with the same hostility.

I want to stress that we are always polite and respectful to staff. We’ve never had an issue before. Even in complaining, I remained calm. What’s upsetting is that despite highlighting this behaviour, it was brushed off. My daughter left feeling unwelcome in what used to be her favourite restaurant.

I paid for her meal. She was not eating out of this man’s personal pocket. So for her to be made to feel like she had no right to the food was appalling. A buffet that punishes you for going back for seconds is not a buffet, it’s a contradiction.

On a positive note, the pizza station staff deserve credit. They are consistently kind, helpful, and welcoming, especially to children. They go out of their way to assist and make the experience enjoyable, the complete opposite of what we experienced at the sushi counter.

Overall, the food variety remains good, but the atmosphere matters just as much as the menu. Sadly, this incident has soured the experience, and my daughter now refuses to return. Looks like it’s off to Royal Nawab around the corner instead. Where I imagine seconds, thirds, and fourths are not only allowed but encouraged.

If JRC truly wants to be “family friendly,” maybe start by making sure children feel welcome and not like they’re being cross examined at a...

I am seriously not the type of person to be leaving reviews on peoples restaurants but this time it was genuinely so bad that I had to share my experience. I visit this every couple months for for celebration dinners. At first it was actually really good, however, as I kept going the quality just kept getting worse and worse to the point where I was starting to grow tired this place. Today was my last straw. I will never go back there again. First of all the entrance was genuinely horrendous. The escalator was so dirty and the top had all sorts of trash leaves. The front just wasn’t presentable at all, and thats the first impression new customers receive for the restaurant. It was never this bad. The food isn’t too bad, but for an authentic global restaurant the only good food there was the American food. I cant speak for the noodle, fish or egg dishes, as i cant have them. The food didn’t taste or smell fresh and some of the dishes were not clean properly – knives and forks had food particles stuck on it and glasses had limescale. As a person who has a lot of allergies and allergic to fish, I decided to go try the maki instead (sushi but without any fish. It just had vegetables or avocado inside). I was glad that they had such a selection that cater to my allergies, except the tongs used to take the sushi had fish pieces stuck to it meaning that there has been some sort of cross contamination between the fish dishes and the non-fish dishes. This is not good for people who have allergies such as mine and also reduces the selection that people have. The fruit wasn’t sweet – in fact it didn’t taste good at all, my friends who took fruit didn’t even finish it. The worst part of this whole place is how unhygienic it is. Other than the limescale and dirty dishes, the bathrooms were an absolute disgrace. I can tell that is not regularly cleaned as the base of the toilet when you close the lids literally have particles everywhere all over it. They smell absolutely horrible and the dryers were so disgusting. every time I go there at least one of the toilets are always out of order. I seriously don’t believe I’ll be going back there again. If you do consider going, I suggest you look out for these things yourself and decide if you really want to go back. Do not wash your hands in the bathroom – wash them in the two sink basins right outside of it, and use the hand towels. If you have allergies, make sure you look out for the utensils used to pick it up, as they may have been some cross contamination between foods. I highly doubt this place will change as other people have also complained about this and have received the same generic message. I won’t be surprised if I receive the same generic, copy and pasted message myself. I will not be recommending this to anybody, and I won’t be surprised if I get food poisoning tonight. good night everybody, wish me luck. Not my...