L'ETO Notting Hill — Restaurant in London

I had a very disappointing and shocking experience at this café. The service was extremely slow despite the café being slightly empty, the prices were high, and, judging from my experience and from other reviews, there is a serious attitude problem among the staff. I believe the short and skinny male waiter we got stuck with has misogynistic attitudes towards women based on the way he spoke to us on this day.

Upon entering, we were told to sit anywhere but when we took seats at the back of the café, we were told the area was closed and that we had to move. We thought nothing of this and ordered. The waiter did not ask for our allergies, and my friend had a reaction to the walnuts in the honey cake (honey cake doesn’t normally contain nuts, and some of the allergens were blocked by the stand holding the information card). We informed the waiter about this, and he did offer a replacement dessert, however, he showed no empathy and did not ask if she was alright.

We decided we wouldn’t be paying the service charge when the bill came due to the extremely slow service. We asked the waiter to take off the service charge, and he suddenly became strangely abrasive. It is not a mandatory charge, so we were within our rights to remove it. This was a very absurd reaction. We tried to ignore his change in attitude and asked to split the bill. When we checked the receipt, I noticed he had charged us for the honey cake instead of the replacement dessert (cheesecake), so I highlighted this to him in case he had made a mistake. Instead of just explaining that he charged for the honey cake because it was cheaper, he was very rude and condescending and said, “that costs more, do you want me to charge more? Do you want to pay extra?” while tilting his head. By the way, I've looked extensively at photos online and this is not true at all, the cheesecake was cheaper than the honey cake. So this waiter lied.

After this exchange we were very confused and surprised at how he just snapped. This is such abhorrent behaviour. It was as if he got a kick out of being a bully – not sure if he was trying to overcompensate for his short stature. We did not expect this kind of behaviour from the staff at an establishment like this. We were both very excited to finally visit this café but now I don’t think we will be returning. I wish I had asked for this waiter’s name so I could have made a formal complaint against him There is a clear communication issue as well as highlighted by the lack of information given about seating and the failure to ask for allergens. It will be disappointing if no action is taken against him as people as unprofessional as this should not be working in a customer service environment.

Edit: the waiter’s name is clearly Noyel, as evident by the many fake reviews he has been asking friends and family to post on his behalf…...

Horrible experience!!! Walked in with my partner today in L’eto Notting Hill on Westbourne Grove to have coffee and some food. Our waiter ‘Elsei’ didn’t greet us or give us a hello or hi and when we asked if we could have a table for 2 he said “yes” and no real interaction of where we could sit so we just asked if we could sit at the table that was empty. We sat down and we received only drink menus and no food menu. My partner asked “may we also have the food menu please” and our waiter Elsei only said yes and as he returned with our menus I asked if we can have 2 flat whites please and Elsei asked in the most abrupt and disrespectful manner “ is that it?” I then simply said: “for now, thank you” and our waiter instantly responded with “you don’t have to be rude and arrogant “ I was extremely surprised and asked him how I was rude, he continued in front off all the customers the raise his voice and continue to say I was rude, and had an attitude. My partner was also shocked by this waiters outburst that she simply asked “are you serious we only asked for 2 flat whites and this is how you respond” and Elsei continued to call me rude and when I said that it is uncalled for to treat me so disrespectfully and that his responds was absolutely uncalled for he continued his outburst. We grabbed our jackets and asked to speak to the manager away from all the customers as we got so humiliated in front of everyone. We explained our situation to the manager and asked if this was the norm and the managers respond was that he is just busy and has loads of food orders. We explained that this is really not a manner to treat customers, specially as we go there regularly and we got extremely disrespected for absolutely no reason. The manager did say she understand and that this should not have happened and she would talk to this waiter (Elsei). I truly hope that they resolve this and train their staff better. It is absolutely uncalled for that I go to L’ETO for some food and be treated in the most disrespectful and humiliating manner. Regardless of your role as a waiter, manager, professor or whatever your job you have, just treat people with some respect. And common decency. I will not be going back to L’ETO! Absolutely horrible place! Elsei is absolute the worst waiter and I’m surprised that an establishment like L’ETO hires someone so disrespectful like him, you really should train employees better. This place does not even deserve 1 star and if I could I would even remove...

Edit: The waiters name is Noyel. I can see since this incident (his rude and intimidating behaviour towards me and my friend, and making a BIG mistake by failing to ask me about my allergens which could’ve killed me - allergens are not a joke) he has gotten family and friends to leave fake reviews supporting him. This is very disappointing and embarrassing from Leto and shows a clear lack of accountability from management and staff. I will be further escalating my complaints as the way this has been handled has been poor.

I am very disappointed by the poor service I received today. I was served by the short male waiter who failed to give his name and who made a mistake that could’ve killed me. When taking our order he failed to ask me if I had any allergies, and served me the honey cake containing walnuts which I am allergic to and didn’t realise had walnuts in until after I started eating it and developed an itchy throat.

When asked to change the order, he had a lot of attitude. He did not apologise for his mistake, and claimed that it was my fault despite the menu not listing the allergens for cakes. He did not ask me if I was okay and did not apologise for his mistake despite me visibly having an allergic reaction to the food. The service was very slow and it took them a long time to clear the table and bring out the bill

When asking to remove the service charge due to the poor service and the waiter making a mistake that could’ve killed me, he became aggressive and slammed the card machine and receipt on the table. I was speechless and felt uncomfortable and unable to defend myself in case he became aggressive towards me. This waiter displayed misogynistic traits and in 2025 this should not be how you treat women

There are multiple reviews about the poor service and this is something that needs to change, especially after today considering that I nearly died from the mistake made by the short male waiter. Please provide your staff with customer service training and teach them that it is not okay to act hostile and aggressive with customers. Please educate them on asking about allergens and make your allergen information for cakes available on the menu. There are numerous reviews about poor service, so training your waiters is something that should be a priority to prevent this...