Kitchen E20 — Restaurant in London

As a resident of Stratford who often laments the lack of nice places to eat in the area, the opening of The Stratford Brasserie was welcomed news. My excitement and curiosity even compelled me to book a table ahead of my arrival to ensure I wouldn't miss out on this new culinary experience in my neighborhood.

As I told my fellow diner who accompanied me, I usually put restaurants I haven't tried before into one of three categories: good, bad, or confusing. The Stratford Brasserie straddled the latter two. We arrived at a beautifully decorated lobby which - at first glance - had all of the trappings of a high-end restaurant. We were greeted by a hostess who we asked if we could be seated for brunch. She replied the restaurant would not be serving brunch until next weekend, and that we could have lunch instead. This would become a point of contention later in the story.

The terrace outside was nice enough but was organized in a way that made it difficult for servers to pass through the rows of tables. My fellow diner and I were enjoying a pleasant conversation when we were interrupted by the realization that it had been nearly 20 minutes and no one had come to take our drink order. What was odd, was when we finally did flag someone down, three servers came to us and all stood awkwardly by as one took down what we wanted. Now, this was a running theme of the meal. For lack of a better word, everyone who worked there seemed to be doing so almost hesitantly, like they were unsure what they were doing was right or wrong.

After we got out drinks (took 10 to 15 minutes), it was another 10 minutes after that for our food order to be taken. I ordered the sweetcorn and truffle soup to start, and a burger for my main. My fellow diner took the Cacio e Pepe linguine. Like the drinks, the time between when our order was made and when our food was brought was noticeably too long. Pacing of food and drink in any restaurant is key. When The Brasserie has billed itself as an upscale establishment, it was surprising how much this missed the mark.

As I waited for the starter, I decided to explore the lobby of the restaurant to enjoy the ambiance we experienced when we first arrived. I climbed the stairs to the mezzanine section of the restaurant and was greeted by a tastefully decorated bar that looked like a perfect place for an after-work drink. Descending to the lobby, I went to the restrooms which like the experience thus far had its "imperfections": as if operated by a ghost, the middle sink would turn on as soon as you entered the bathroom. The excitable ghost sink was, however, was balanced by the temperamental sinks that refused to work. And where the hand dryer was supposed to be, there was only a hole in the wall with a wire sticking out of it.

When I returned to our table, the food had yet to be brought. But as we waited, we were noticing that not only people who arrived after us were getting their food, they were also getting what were clearly breakfast foods delivered to their table when we had been told the only menu available was lunch.

After this revelation, my starter arrived. The presentation was beautiful: the pastry puff in the middle of the bowl was surrounded by swirls of green oils. For the instagrammable moment, our waiter (almost comically) slowly poured the hot liquid in the bowl, creating attractive eddies of yellow soup and green oils in the bowl around the pastry. The taste of the soup left something to be desired. The soup itself was bland at best, unexpected when the truffle is probably one of the strongest flavors you can add to a dish. And the puff was cold in the center.

After another lengthy wait, our mains arrived. Both were pretty good, but not "fall out of your chair amazing". Overall, I was disappointed by the experience - but at the same time, I will go back. It felt like it's the Brasserie is still ironing out the kinks of being a new restaurant, and is deserving of another...

Never have I had such a disappointing experience from a resturant before. Me, my husband, my 2 year old daughter and new born son went for an evening to the Stratford Brasserie for some food and drinks. We were sat down and ordered an orange juice, pizza and fries. We were going to order coffees and pastries after. The juice came straight away and we waited on the main meal which we actually just ordered for our little girl because she was hungry.

While we waited. I decided to change both childrens nappies for which I needed the disabled toilets as they have the changing tables. It was locked. I went back after 10 minutes and it was still locked, a couple at a near by table told me some other people had been waiting to use the toilet too and maybe I should ask the staff to unlock it. I went to the bar and asked a waitress if they had intentionally locked the toilet.. she pointed to the toilet and said someone is coming out now. But there were 2 people who walked out swiftly with their heads down. A young man and woman. The waitress was very embarrassed and apologetic and told me that this doesnt usually happen but because they were busy that they were not keeping an eye on the toilets. She directed me to other disabled toilets which was fine but I was still very unsettled by what I had seen.

After changing nappies on a different floor of the hotel, I came back and saw that our food still had not arrived. It had been well over half an hour and we noticed 2 other tables who came after us had both been served their food so we asked the waiter who took our order where our food was, he said he would find out but never got back to us as he was running around for other tables. I then went and searched for the manager who said he would chase it up. But again no one got back to us with an explanation or our food. It seemed like no one cared. So we left money on the table for the orange juice and we left with a hungry little girl and soo dissatisfied.

Going out with young children causes enough anxiety on it owns but going to a classy place like this you feel like you will be looked after. This was far from the case. I did not feel safe having ny children there after the toilet incident as I could only imagine what was going on in the toilet where I was going to change my childrens diapers. And staff who pretty much forgot about us. It was very upsetting. I did not get to relax. I did not get my coffee and cake. My evening was ruined, all because we chose...

Nice chilled vibe experience. Prices were same as other restaurants, ranging from £10 to £15. I ordered a sicilan sausage pizza which cost £15. Our drinks was a ginger beer and a peach jasmine drink that cost £3 each.

Plenty of sitting places, space was huge and felt luxurious. Even though it was part of a hotel, it felt like a luxury restaurant. The decor were nice as well as the mood, colour, vibe and aesthetic designs as they were all matching.

Our drinks and food came on time, we didn't wait long, perhaps 15mins I believe for the food to be served. Waiter was very nice and polite as they served with good attitude.

There were 5 of us and we had to merge our chairs together, luckily the manager or waiters didn't say anything negative regarding what we did.

There is also a nice complementary music that plays in the background to lively the mood and make it relaxing. The music though, is turned off around 11pm. Everywhere was also clean, our table when we took over the table and seats were clean to standard.

The taste of the pizza was very nice, it has authentic taste as it is fire oven baked. The drinks not so much, nothing special. The seats were also very comfortable, and some of the seats do support and gives relief to your back, especially if you have back pains.

Apparently they also do live jazz at certain days. I would definitely recommend this place if you want to impress a girl, this place is perfect for dates, especially with the live jazz music. Of course friends and family can hang out, but due to the vibe, this is more of chill hang out vibe restaurant. Well, that was the feeling I got when I...