La Moda Restaurant — Restaurant in London

Since I cannot reply to your message I will place it here.

I am writing to formally respond to your message regarding my recent booking at your restaurant; and to express my clear dissatisfaction with the handling of both the event and your follow-up communication.

To begin with, when I called on the Monday prior to the booking, there was no mention of needing to submit a pre-order, nor was I told a deposit was required. In fact, I explicitly offered to pay a deposit over the phone and was told it was not necessary. I was simply asked whether I preferred seating upstairs or downstairs. That alone reflects a lack of structure on your part, not mine.

A few of my guests arrived before 5:30PM and were seated, but it is entirely unreasonable to expect them to order food before the rest of the party had arrived. We made it clear (through my cousin) that several guests were delayed due to heavy traffic in Kingston and Feltham, and I personally explained this again upon arrival. You acknowledged it and didn’t raise any issue at the time.

While we waited, we took a few group photos; a completely normal part of any birthday celebration. When you asked us to place food orders first, I politely said we would wait for others still in transit. You accepted this at the time. Once everyone had arrived, we ordered food and drinks, with mains placed shortly after starters, not spread out as you are now suggesting.

The real issue was your underpreparedness and poor service: • Guests were told they could not order double burgers due to your lack of stock. • We had to request a single milkshake multiple times, and it was only ever for a guest — not me. • Food and drinks were sent to the wrong tables, despite all guests remaining seated when orders were made. • Your claim insinuated that the restaurant was busy is false, the venue was visibly quiet. The bar had two staff members, and the service delay cannot be justified.

Furthermore, you played music that was far too loud, and multiple complaints were made — yet no real action was taken. When I tried to adjust the volume myself, the iPhone behind the bar did not work, so I had to involve a manager to turn it down. Even after the birthday song, the music remained excessive.

Then there is the matter of the cake. I explicitly stated I did not want a cake and that I do not consume milk. Yet a milk-based cake was brought out anyway, after I said no. That is completely unacceptable — especially when you’re now trying to claim I drank a milkshake. I didn’t.

Additionally, your website clearly states that bookings for over 5 guests with food and shisha allow for 3 hours, yet you claim we overstayed. Even if we did slightly exceed the time, the restaurant was not busy, and our presence caused no disruption whatsoever.

As for payment, I covered the bill using funds sent to me by the guests who left early. The server assisting us told us everything was settled, and at no point was I informed of any outstanding balance. Attempting to now claim otherwise is dishonest.

Let me also be clear: your team was dismissive throughout the evening. Concerns were raised repeatedly and consistently ignored. I was left feeling embarrassed, upset, and disappointed — especially since some guests had travelled long distances, including from the Midlands, to be there.

The only thing you’ve taken responsibility for is accepting a booking you were clearly not capable of handling. Instead of addressing legitimate concerns, your message focuses on shifting blame onto me and my guests, when in fact, your poor organisation, communication, and service were the root of the problem.

This experience has made it clear that your venue lacks the professionalism, hospitality, and operational readiness to host large group bookings. I sincerely hope you take this as a wake-up call to improve your systems, staffing, and guest communication moving forward.

I will attach the image of the empty restaurant taken on my camera since catering to less than 16 guests was a...

⭐ 1 star

Not worth the journey or the hype.

Completely disappointing

This restaurant was chosen by my friend for her 18th birthday – not my pick – but she had high expectations. It looked promising at first: nice decor, stylish menu, and a location just outside Kingston. We assumed it would offer a premium experience.

I travelled nearly two hours alone to get there, expecting a great evening. Unfortunately, it was a complete letdown from the moment I arrived.

I got there around 5:40–5:45pm, and despite the restaurant opening at 5, it was completely empty by 6pm. Big red flag. I walked in, looked at the open kitchen – no staff in sight. A sign said “Wait here to be seated”, but no one came, so I had to seat myself and head upstairs alone.

The lighting and music were decent, and they let us change the playlist, which was a small plus. But the atmosphere felt off – way too quiet for peak dinner hours. Menus were already on the tables and it was essentially self-service.

Service? Honestly, poor and unprepared. One waitress for a group of 10+ people. She was sweet but not fluent in English and clearly not trained to handle a large party. There was no one else working the floor, which made the entire service chaotic and stressful.

Over 30 minutes in, we still had no drinks, no starters, and constant communication issues. Orders were constantly wrong or delayed. Just one example: we ordered two calamaris – they took over 40 minutes. Drinks? Some people received theirs after their main meals. It took about two hours for everyone to get their food.

Excuses from staff were endless – that they had only one chef, that the grill takes 10 minutes per burger, and only one person was also handling drinks.

I ordered a burger and chips, and while the food itself was okay (chips had peri-peri seasoning, burger tasted fine), others weren’t so lucky. The birthday girl didn’t eat her food because it was bland - lamb . People were losing their appetite from waiting so long.

To make it worse: • They ran out of waffles before dinner even started • Four people tried to order double cheeseburgers – only two could, because they didn’t have enough beef • Staff literally suggested downgrading to single burgers or sharing • Drinks went to the wrong tables, and no one seemed to know what was going on

We stayed from about 5:30pm until 9pm – almost 4 hours for a basic meal. They gave us a free milk cake to try to make up for it, but the birthday girl couldn’t even eat it due to being lactose intolerant

We asked them to lower the music so we could do a birthday trivia moment – they turned it louder instead. No accountability, no effort to accommodate.

No tip was left (understandably), and some guests walked out without paying. The birthday girl was charged extra to cover the unpaid meals. Final straw. Summary: • Empty restaurant at peak time = red flag • No front-of-house staff at arrival • Understaffed and poorly trained service • Long delays and wrong orders • No stock for basic items (waffles, burgers) • Poor communication and planning • Guests left unhappy and some unpaid • No accountability from management

This place did not deliver on even the most basic expectations. Would not recommend.

It's sad that we saw other positive reviews and we didn't have a similar experience.

Almost felt like prejudice due to being a predominantly...

Attended this place on Mothers Day just gone, and to say we were disappointed as a family would be an understatement.

Firstly there is no parking, so having to park in Tesco sets the tone. As soon as you enter the restaurant you're hit with the putrid stench of Shisha (so potent it catches your throat and we had children with us)

Then we were ushered to a table by a lady who had absolutely no clue as to what she's doing (I say this because a worker in a black and white floral shirt kept having a go at her, in their native tounge) so we ordered drinks, kids ordered milkshakes £6.50 each madness! And we orderd diet pepsi which arrived in these minuture glass bottles 200ml costing £3.50 each, criminal if you ask me!

We then ordered out starters and mains, to which the starters came out prompt and to be fair was actually ok (houmous & lamb) we ate whilst inhaling all the second hand shisha air, and whilst doing so it was becoming more and more evident that this establishments priorities are definitely geared towards being a shisha bar rather than a restaurant (and the food would soon confirm this)

So we finished our starters and they took our side plates, and what seem a lifetime breathing in shisha air our mains finally arrived, it consisted of a mixed grill, separate lamb chops, chips, rice, houmous etc.... would you believe it if I told you they set all the food on the table and just left us sitting there with no plates!!!! And it took us 5 mins to get their attention as they were all pandering to the shisha customers who were clearly their priority.

Long story short, the food is absolute trash! And I say this as a very well travelled person, and having a very very diverse multicultural immediate family who cook and eat all sorts of food, the meat here is hand on heart something you'd expect from your local dirty gresey kebab house, just tasteless and bland.

What I'm gobsmacked about is some of the reviews on here stating that the food is sublime!!!!! Thats actually borderline comical, but I now realise the people leaving these reviews are probably the shisha customers who come there for a smoke and a quick kebab in their tracksuits! This place had potential, but a restaurant, it definitely is NOT, this place is a tacky glamorous shisha bar that sells bland meat. Oh and...