Kitchen Table — Restaurant in London

Very low value for money for miniature food really. I paid the price of the tasting menu £195 when booking online. When I arrived at the restaurant, they presented two menu at £195 and £265 in the uncomfortable, poorly lit lounge, where they served the snacks and petit fours. I had an impression that the portion size was rather small from my preliminary "research" online, so I opt for the £265 menu (turned out not a scrumptious meal anyway). Considering they served one seating for 20+ guests in one evening and still got the remainder (drinks and service) of the bill wrong (charging more than order), I couldn't convince myself that the service was professional at all. They did rectify it in the end but it took quite a long time as they decided to serve other guests the bills before they got back to the incorrect bill.

I had to bend over to eat the snacks and petit fours and the space was so tight and busy that I never got one quiet moment to enjoy the food. They served the main part of the tasting menu in the open kitchen with counter seating. The high chairs were also very tightly packed. I was literally eating with strangers elbow to elbow and the high chair was squeezed between two. And the space behind the high chair was too narrow for a passageway for both staff and guests. I really didn't enjoy the chair I was sitting on being pushed and bumped into while eating.  Open kitchen was also very small and the "show" could hardly be seen as I could only see the servers' back around the food preparation bench. The headroom was low and the space felt compressed.

I did not have the wine pairing or soft pairing and preferred to order drinks from the drinks menu. Staff were busy serving guests with paring order and did not even offer me the drinks menu until I asked for it. Anyway, many things went wrong, and I didn't see the need to keep writing here...

The food was ok, with some very nice dishes, but rather of tiny portion to taste each dish properly. I wasn't hungry (wasn't feeling satisfied after a supposedly scumptious meal either) when I left and then I woke up hungry the following morning at 4am, unusual to have a stomach wake-up call this early.

For open kitchen experience, instantly I have a couple of London restaurants in mind that put up a better show and immersive experience at this price or cheaper. I wasn't a fan of moving around the restaurant for different part of the tasting menu and the tight space in the dark lounge and the counter was a deal breaker to return.

Oh I also ticked the option to receive a printed menu when booking online but never got one. This little touch of unveiling the key ingredients was a common strategy in a lot of restaurants, too. I always enjoy the details and effort they put in it, but this was lacking here even though they provided the...

Sensational service thanks mainly to Daniel and Alex.

Expected a lot, food really missed the mark. For a two star level especially. Oyster w granita nice opener, but playing it v safe. Crab pleasant but not memorable and lacked texture. Tomato - absolutely top notch 2 star dish. Has everything. That’s where the meal peaked for me. Scallop caviar supplement dish, again leveraging amazing ingredients, was good but not memorable. AbiT one note the way cucumber notes interact with the scallop.

Trout - one slice of trout sashimi size was completely tasteless as was the hollandaise. Really really missed the mark. Whole dish lacked flavour and texture.

Bread course which was a brioche was totally average, sub par for 2* imo. Especially when a chain in London like Aux Merveilleux de Fred casually sells a way better one.

The curry like noodles dish that followed has tons of interesting flavour, but that’s all it was - it felt like scraping the bottom of a curry plate with some interesting candied notes. The noodles themselves were a mushy and lacked any taste.

The agnolotti with goats curd and onion consommé. Were pleasant, safe flavour combo seen it done many places - also imo the onion doesn’t really match the rest of the dish.

“Main” slice of pork with tiny sauce portions on side. Pork lacked any flavour, dish lacked texture.

The tiniest quantity of food for a main course I had anywhere in recent memory.

Both deserts were super solid. Fig - memorable and perfectly balanced. The lemon cake - texture wise was spot on, flavour wise ok but unmemorable.

Petty fours super solid.

I’m a very experienced diner would say whole experience taking 4 hours is unduly taking up diners time. I’d wait 20min for plates if they were absolutely knocking it out of the park flavour wise however on this occasion most of them were ordinary and nothing more.

As an experienced diner at multi star places have to comment on quantity of food. It’s inexcusably too little, we had the 10 course menu. Left hungry.

Daniel gave us 11 star service on a 10 star scale and made our night memorable.

Maybe caught the resto on a night off but have to say whole menu feels like quickly put together lacking the depth of concept typically expected of the high standards and reputation set by Kitchen Table itself in the London dining scene. Happy to reconsider on...

Not the best intimate open kitchen dining experience let alone a 2 Michelin Star.

The restaurant reminds you that it has 2 Michelin Stars from the entrance to every corner in every room. For the price of £250 per person we were greeted with TAP WATER upon arrival.

I personally think that the purpose of an intimate open kitchen dining experience should be intimate and interactive. But the only interaction we had was the introduction of every dish when it’s presented, then the head chef pulls out his iPhone and starts replying messages on about 5 occasions throughout the night. The rest of the time we were left to watch the chefs run around and the head chef picking food with his fingers and eating them, then playing on his phone. I understand that head chefs need to taste the food but the proper way should be done with a clean spoon or fork every time, not the fingers that’s been playing on a phone that has millions kind of bacteria and germs on, let alone that you shouldn’t be on the phone in the first place.

The food overall is decent, not the best I’ve had, not the worst I’ve had. Total of about 20 different bite size courses/dishes (including the appetisers and all of the different desserts). All of the courses had lots of flavours it was like a rollercoaster for the taste buds but then nothing really stood out in the end. Well maybe the main course Duck, because it was the worst dish of the night for me. The bill was just over £600 for the 2 of us, and we didn’t order any drinks. For this price, I really expected much better.

My girlfriend really hated the main duck dish and took only one bite, but no chef or waiter came and asked why. Well I thought this was the whole point of this intimate open kitchen dining experience? Where we discuss the cooking and the food?

Kitchen table has been operating for over 10 years and gained 2 Michelin stars from 2021. From this experience I feel that the head chef / owner has really lost his passion on gastronomy and cooking. All I see is a tired chef who’s probably overworked himself and has turned his passion into a money...