Juniper & Co Bar and Kitchen — Restaurant in London

After a relatively stressful journey, as my flight was delayed, I decided to sit down and have a proper meal. The service was slow, but they were quite busy so at first l accepted this. I ordered a pot of tea and 'The Juniper & Co Gourmet Burger - 100% British beef patty, house burger sauce, crunchy Juniper slaw, and 'Sussex Charmer' Cheddar fondue in a 'Paul Rhodes' brioche bun, served with hand-cut potato wedges' - when this arrived it was underwhelming. Both the burger, the bun, and the enormous 'wedges' (which looked like a large potato cut in 3) were cold, as was the fondue sauce, which was like glupe/glue. I took one mouthful and called someone over to send it back. The lad said he would inform my server - whoever that was? I then waited, and waited and waited. After being ignored for about 40mins, eventually l asked an older waiter for a menu, he seemed quite annoyed and seemed to have an attitude with me, why, I have no idea. He almost threw the menu at me. l ordered another pot of tea, and a chocolate moose - my thought was that it's quite difficult to get that wrong During this time, I spoke with what I assume was a manager, who was very polite, very apologetic and seemed surprised by the service/attitude I had received and said he would be back with my sweet shortly, which he was. When it came to pay the bill, I assumed the burger would be removed and I would just pay for the tea and chocolate moose, but the older waiter, who obviously didn't like the look of me simply said 'no bill' as if he was the one who had done me a favour! Whilst I was glad that given the frankly awful service and awful burger, I wasn't being asked to pay, the attitude of this chap seemed very odd. The manager who dealt with me was respectful and polite but by this point I was hugely...

Juniper & Co dedicates half a page on its menu to telling its diners about the cheeses it uses from local suppliers. Sad then that the truffle Mac and ‘cheese’ tastes as though the macaroni has been dipped in the blandest béchamel. Either the Sussex Charmer that they claim is used is extremely insipid, or they left it out the day I came, or they used it in such minuscule quantities that it made no difference. Someone should taste the stuff they are serving. Mac and cheese should taste of cheese! Fault lies with recipe design rather than kitchen, I think. One of us ordered the cheese platter where they did manage to put some cheese! Waiting staff didn’t know which cheese was which, though, and I was initially told one was goat which turned out to be cow. Of course, there is a world in which none of this matters, but if you pretend to care on the menu then you should at least follow through by training your staff properly, particularly as the cheese suppliers may be hoping to present British cheeses in a positive light. Service was haphazard - was left waiting for half an hour after mains were cleared before the dessert menu was offered. Not great when you’re trying to catch a plane. Bottled sparkling water fine and so was cheese plate, so extra...

Juniper & Co manages to achieve all the joy and taste of plane food before even getting on the plane. I ate what I ordered because, like everyone else here, I was keenly aware of the time restraints and lack of other options, and hate wasting food. The staff seemed nice and polite but couldn't make up for the let down in the food, especially at the high price point that comes with knowing they have you trapped. The establishment clearly spent more time listing brands on the menu than making sure they could produce a decent plate of food. I ordered the Eggs Florentine and an orange juice. Perhaps to make the description more accurate to what you will receive, they should change the poached egg to hard boiled in a bag and orange juice seems like a generous description for something that tasted like it had only ever seen a picture of an orange in passing. The hollandaise sauce was there but only visually, if you closed your eyes you'd be hard-pressed to tell what it was. If the goal was to make sure people know they are in an airport, mission accomplished. If you find yourself here, perhaps opt to eat...