Kinaara — Restaurant in London

I booked an afternoon tea for two adults and brought our 2 Yr old for his birthday.

We arrived 15 minutes early and was greeted, told to wait in the waiting area because there was a large group coming in before us.

We sat waiting for a while, only two couples came in after us and we're greeted and seated.

We carried on waiting a while, eventually we decided to get up and leave, as we were walking out someone else came up behind us and asked if we have been seen. I explained what happened but the person seemed disinterested and said 'I'm here now follow me' The original guy who greeted us still not in sight.

We sat down and I sent an email of complaint to Kinaara's booking in email, outlining the issue and that I was on the verge of leaving as I'm appalled with the service.

Eventually we had our afternoon tea, I was not impressed, two different sandwiches, 1 tiny scone each. I am more disappointed in the fact that Meridian have stopped doing afternoon tea as their selection and portions were appetising. Not to forget the freshly made scones that were big and two each.

I was given free water, two extra sandwiches and two extra biscuits on request, for my kid.

I mentioned in the booking that it's my kids birthday, as I packed up to leave, the waiter asked me stay as they had yet to come with a treat. A plate with 4 tiny chocolates and two jelly like sweets on a plate with happy birthday written and with one staff singing happy birthday, which was sweet either way,

However in comparison, Meridian would put a slice of cake from their afternoon tea menu and majority of the staff would come to sing happy birthday.

At the end I was apologised to by the original waiter who was meant to come back to seat us, he stated he got busy with the other group. As I had a headache I did not entertain this as there's plenty of staff who could have taken over to seat us, its not nice waiting in the waiting area and seeing other people walk in and be greeted by other staff who are then being seated. Also to mention the added time cost to my car parking fee...

Being an Indian style afternoon tea, it's nice to see some Indian twist on some of the food selection, the tea menu was boring and no karak chai? The sandwiches could have been a selection of three with some chutneys, two freshly baked scones one plain and one with fennel seeds?

Only two desserts were appealing, I did glance at other tables and saw they did the same thing I did, most of the desserts were tasted and left and the amount of jams and clotted creams exceeded the portion of two tiny bite size scones which were also left on the tables hardly used.

Overall not a great experience, definitely disheartening as Meridian was my go to for Afternoon tea but as they stopped and it's now in Kinaara, it doesn't stand up to the same level or even exceed Meridian. I am sure the chef is the same but the reduced selection and portion, it's not worth it, especially for the price.

Unfortunately I can't see myself going back. I will have to find a new favourite...

AVOID mediocre food and extremely slow service.

First of all, the booking experience was like pulling teeth. Trying to get hold of the restaurant manager was painful and stressful and took almost a week. We originally were told that for a party of 10 we would have to prepay. It was frustrating to find out that we didn’t actually have to prepay as there was less than 10 adults ( which I had written in a number of emails).

Coming on to the actual experience. Firstly, we were previously told that we could order a number of items for the children off a separate menu. However, on the day we were advised that only nuggets and chips were available which is extremely limiting. Secondly, it took over 45 minutes from when we were seated to being served any food. This astounds me as they were aware of our arrival and it is a set menu! Our savoury food then arrived and to our disappointment our tea did not. We had to chase a number of times. It was not until after our savoury food was finished did our tea actually arrive!

WARNING They place their spoons in a ridiculous place in the handle of the cup. A number of us spilt our tea because of it. When I mentioned to staff they said it happens to a lot of people. Why not change it?!

We then ordered juices for our children which took an exceptionally long time. We chased over 3 times, one of the children in particular was very distressed which made our experience even less enjoyable.

The service was painfully slow and we had plans afterwards which we had to reschedule as we were running so late. We went well past the 90 minutes suggested by the website and this was not due to our enjoyment!

Finally, we did not receive anything to mark my sister’s Birthday, which was discussed in detail prior to our arrival. When I mentioned it to the waiter I was told that it was ready but we had no time for it. I explained how disappointed we were with the service to which he shrugged and said there was a rush. Also known as 3 other tables to be served!!

We received a very insincere apology with no attempt of making it up to us. We definitely will not be recommending or returning again. I have since emailed the restaurant manage with another insincere apology - how disappointing for a restaurant in a...

Ongoing building works outside aside, the Peninsula has everything going for it. The location is fantastic, the views are lovely and the atmosphere inside the restaurant is delightful, possibly because it was mostly empty for the duration of our meal. We used a voucher from Virgin but genuinely felt that the pricing was reasonable without it. Booking was difficult- for whatever reason there are a lot of phone agents that are hard to understand handling that side of things. At first we couldn't get through at all. We were eventually told to call later in the week because there was a convention at the hotel. It wasn't the best customer service that we've encountered, certainly. I was able to make a substitution which I did appreciate, and I also loved how painstakingly each dish in our seven course menu was plated. I suppose that I just feel style is no substitute for substance, which was lacking. We grew tired of each dish being drowned in au jus or sauce until every bite was a wet mess instead of leaving more textures in play. Tender I can appreciate, but the softness of every dish, being whipped or pureed made me feel like the menu is catered to a much, much older patron. Enjoying the foie gras, I had hardly enough time to appreciate the attention to detail before our waitress returned- she had forgotten yet another jus and on it went. Our "cheese course" was a single mozzarella stick served with honey olive oil and another dip. Having read great things about the cheeses on offer in the restaurant, I could only laugh. Hoping to end on a high we awaited our dessert which was unfortunately just another pretty but ultimately soft and bland banana pudding. I waited all evening for something that I could really get my teeth into but it never arrived. It's possible we just chose a less thrilling taster menu night, but for an occasion it was very...