KOL — Restaurant in London

Still no reply received - 3 years on.

KOL I want to make this review as helpful as possible for the team and clients that decide to come here by pre-warning you of a couple of issues I faced. I booked the restaurant for a table of 2 (the night before) and there is a charge of £70 PER person on a 48 hour cancellation policy. A 48 hour policy is totally unwarranted - Stuff happens in life and your guests can not predict it. None the less, went ahead and booked for 930pm the next day. The next part is unbelievable. I was running 15 minutes late but my guest was already on the table. I received a call at 9.45 from reception stating: If I did not arrive in 5 minutes they would cut my dishes down from 9 courses to 6 courses. I explained my guest was already on the table so begin serving the food now (the 9 courses) and I am around the corner there would be no issues. They said that was not possible as there is a licensing issue (false information: It is just that their entire team leave at 11pm sharp).

I arrived at 9:50 and my dishes were cut down in spite of my guest trying to order but they refused to serve the table until I arrived. Its their policy they stated. We waited another 30 minutes for food after I was seated. A 6 course meal is NOT enough food for you unless you have eaten dinner elsewhere and are popping in for a snack. This is not my attempt at humour - it is a fact. Cut asparagus pieces and a bit of soup is classed as one course as an example. They simply refused to serve us the 3 extra courses which meant we were both had to have another snack later.

The wine list. No Australian or Italian White Wine. Staff promoted an odd selection of quirky wines that had an apple printed on the label. I asked if they have apple in the wine? Ofcourse not! Wine doesn't have apples in it, its from Slovakia! SILLY of me to ask 😃. I tasted it and sent it back straight away - tasted vinegary like Kombucha. Food arrived & none of it was explained in detail. The serving team lacked the empathy to explain anything correctly and we could not hear them. They spoke so fast. I would constantly ask them to repeat. On the 3rd time of repeating - I just thought, forget it, I will just try it. I had to ask for a menu, and read each dish as they served it. Another Tip: Keep the menu with you at all times so you can cross reference and learn about each dish yourself.

The Toastada (one of the courses) was so hard it was not fun to eat. The Main Dish I opted for was Pig Cheek (Tired of octopus). But the preperation galled flat and failed. Some of the cut pieces just had 100% fat on them.

The tortillas are served in a leather pouch with exactly 5 in the leather pouch. Yes makes sense for a table of two! These were quickly eaten as nothing substantial was served in any other course. 15 Minutes after we had finished our dinner, a server asked us if we would like more Tacos! I explained we had already finished 15 mins ago. Note to management: the leather branded pouch for your tacos, as quirky as it may look on social media, does not help your serving staff monitor your client's tacos quantities and refills as it is hidden from their view.

And finally, at exactly 11pm, all the staff ran into the kitchen got changed from uniform into casuals, and exited through the restaurant with their rack sacks on passing our table - I have never ever seen this in any fine dining establishment. Staff generally leave through the back of the kitchen. It is a courtesy and if it is not available, then must always have the courtesy of allowing guests to leave first.

KOL thinks that social media & insta will cover all of the gaps and flaws in their service because of their social media marketing. They believe they can treat customers like they are visiting a doctors office but hospitality (and lack of it) will always catch up. Being egoistical to customers that are your early supporters is not a good look. Good luck, but the experience was memorable for all of the...

Everyone makes mistakes and this is an addendum to a previous review. It is rare these days that businesses take customer service seriously (I'm looking at you, airlines), but KOL did an exemplary job of making up for a pretty egregious error. Unfortunately, I could not take advantage of their offer, but my sister, who was there the night we were denied food, was able to go with a friend. Here is her update:

A couple of weeks ago, we visited the Mezcaleria at KOL for a post-theatre late-night dinner and, unfortunately, had a very disappointing experience (my brother’s detailed review is below). However, after posting the review, the General Manager, Tony, reached out with a sincere apology and a genuine desire to make things right. I returned last week with a friend for a complementary evening—and it was a complete 180° from our previous visit. The service was attentive and warm from the moment we walked in. The drinks were perfectly balanced and absolutely delicious. We sampled almost the entire menu (only skipping two of the tostadas), and every single dish was outstanding. The standout dishes? The empanada was so good we ordered a second round, the quesadilla was rich and flavorful, and the churro was the perfect finish to the meal. My friend, who just relocated to London, was equally impressed and will definitely be back. Though my brother couldn’t join this time, I’m confident he’ll want to return based on this experience alone. I deeply appreciate the effort the team made to turn things around and create a truly memorable evening. It showed real care, professionalism, and a commitment to excellence.

Original review - truncated due to word limitation.

Shockingly terrible customer service! Kol had been high on my list of restaurants to visit, after I saw it on the "50 Best" list. I understand ratings are subjective, but figured it must be something special. I lived in Texas and California before relocating to Europe 10 years ago and have visited Mexico many times and am always on the hunt for great Mexican food. It had not worked on previous trips to book at Kol, but this time, I made it work in our schedule for a 10:15 after theatre table in the Mezcaleria. The website clearly says the kitchen is open until 10:30 and my confirmation (shown below), again restates this. You can also see on their own published menu that there are a few dishes served even after 10:30. We headed straight to Kol from the theatre and actually arrived shortly after 10:00. We were seated promptly in the Mezcaleria, then things quickly went south. We were completely ignored for the first 15-20 minutes we were there. Because we arrived early, we were not too alarmed by this and waited patiently until we were finally acknowledged. The waiter brought us a drinks menu and we had a friendly conversation with the table next to us who had just received a round of food. Drinks took longer than one would expect, but they were brought and still no food menu. We thought, OK, they are in no rush and we will enjoy our drinks. We were then ignored again for 15-20 minutes, as the waiter and other staff seemed to be preoccupied with talking with a friend who had just arrived with a party of four. Finally, after we had finished our drinks and were getting hungry, we had to flag down the waiter and ask for a food menu. It was then that he told us the kitchen was closed and we could not order any food. We pointed out the information on our reservation and on the website, but he said it was not possible. He did comp our drinks, but I didn't go their for a free cocktail, I went there to experience the food at one of the "top" restaurants...

Updated for December 2023: my previous review still holds, but I wanted to add how much I appreciate the staff for the small details: remembering where we sat before, recognising us as we walked into the restaurant, and ensuring we had different wine/mezcal pairings than before.

KOL takes the crown as my favorite restaurant in London, and 4th in the world. The two month long wait to get a table was worth it.

Let's start with our entrance - the host and hostess were both cheerful and checked us in quickly. We were brought to our table (which was such a comfortable little both right next to the kitchen!) I really enjoyed watching the chefs at work. You'd think sitting next to the kitchen would be loud, but the environment was so peaceful.

Service wise, everyone was attentive and patient with our questions about the food and drinks. I want to highlight the sommelier. We didn't know much about mezcal, so we decided to go with the mezcal tasting. The sommelier was incredibly knowledgeable as she gave us a background on how each mezcal was made. Portion sizes for the mezcal tasting were perfect. I thought I would pass out afterwards, but her pours were perfectly sized for me.

Finally to the food - I couldn't rate it higher. We began with an amuse bouche of a bit of a spicy mezcal soup. It was strong, but I've never had such high quality mezcal where I didn't gag afterwards. We then moved on to a tequila and a mezcal margarita with their restaurant name in the ice cube! I highly recommend the mezcal margarita. The last small starter was a little waffle sandwich with enoki mushrooms.

Now to the bigger starters: yellow pepper with creme fraiche, and scallops with a cucumber. They were both light and refreshing to prepare my palate for the larger dishes. I usually adore scallop, but I think this was one restaurant where the scallop wasn't my favorite. The scallops flavor tasted a bit bland next to the cucumber. I still liked the dish, but not as much as I was expecting.

The next two dishes were two of my favorites: langoustine taco, and the wagyu tarte. We had to squeeze this citrus juice from the langoustine's head onto our taco. It was such a fun dish - I was absolutely playing with my food. The wagyu tarte was an add on, but absolutely worth it. The beef was cooked very slightly so you could taste the flavor of the meat.

The next dishes were vegetable dishes - one that surprised me and one that was a crisp break from the heavier tastes. First, the kohrabi was refreshing and cooling. Next, the purple carrot was actually quite heavy. It felt like eating meat, but it was a vegetable. The sauce was very heavy.

Next up were our mains: a wrapped fish, and the pork cheek tacos. Both were savory and I wished we had another! The pork cheek came with several toppings like mushrooms to pop on top.

Finally, our desserts were each light, but full of flavor to end the meal.

I couldn't give a higher rating for this restaurant. We had an amazing experience and will...