Le Bab Covent Garden — Restaurant in London

Update on 12/07:

Upon reading the detailed answer provided by Stephen below, I have got in touch with the team to let them know that I appreciated his answer to the idea behind naming the fried chicken "Turkish Korean". I liked the creativity behind it and was pleased to see that they were very aware of the technique Koreans use to fry their chicken. I also liked that they take customer service so seriously. I am therefore updating my review below and would encourage people to give this a try. Stephen has also offered me to go back to have a free meal which was very kind of them, I will pick a date and go back with a friend soon.

Originally written on 11/07:

Came here for dinner with some friends on a Tuesday evening. We had made a reservation beforehand for 6pm and were glad we did because it got quite busy after 6:30pm. I was the first to arrive at the restaurant and the waiter greeted me with a friendly smile.

Once my friends arrived we ordered food individually, I went for the small hummus and small Turkish Korean fried chicken. To be honest, I had thought this place was a Middle Eastern place or at least has Middle Eastern influences so was very surprised to see fried chicken on the menu branded as "Turkish Korean". Like what does that even mean? It felt like more of a fusion place to me. The hummus was good, flavourful with the bean pesto on top and I enjoyed it. The fried chicken was also crispy and the batter wasn't thick even though it's not Korean fried chicken. For someone who is a fan of Korean food it's a little hard to process the different elements they have infused into the fried chicken but this wasn't to say it wasn't good. It's flavourful and not dry at all, just wish it had more chicken meat to it compared to the batter ratio.

Service was good, the waiter who took our order had a tendency to interrupt us halfway through ordering which was a little annoying. Overall, it's an okay place but definitely not one for me to re-visit soon. Not sure why people love it when there are so many authentic kebab places all around London for half the price...

No doubt the food here is great but Le Bab Covent Garden has overcharged my friends and I when we had dinner at their restaurant last week. We were first offered the set dining menu when I made the booking but I declined it and asked if we could order from an ala carte menu instead which they agreed. I was in contact with a person named Hira.

Once we got there, we had to wait for our table even though it was 10-15 mins past our booking time. We were fine with this as we understand its a busy day. Eventually they told us that the previous guests are not leaving and that they would offer us a table outside instead. We agreed as we were really hungry and just wanted to eat. When we sat down outside, some hummus was brought to our table and we mentioned that we hadn't ordered that. It was then taken away and brought back and we were told that this was meant to be for us. We were confused but after making it clear that we didn't order it, since it was brought to our table again, we assumed it was a gesture for the inconvenience of having to sit outside on a slanted table, with loud music from the neighboring buildings because our table wasn't ready. As we ordered from the ala carte menu, hummus was not part of our meal.

We were then all charged for the set menu instead of the ala carte meals that we ordered. I have emailed them twice since this incident and asked for the bill to be recalculated as they have overcharged us a lot but I am just being ignored now and not getting any responses. Such shocking and disappointing behavior for such a well known and established restaurant! I’m hoping to get my money back but if I don’t please check your receipts when you pay at this restaurant! You might end up being overcharged like my friends and I.

Update: They said that they emailed me but i haven’t received anything. You have my phone number with my booking, please contact me via phone if the email isnt...

I should have saved myself the trip and stayed at home and put £40 on the log fire. Good job I was with good company because the food and the service was poor. I saw the meal being freshly plated up but from the moment I started eating, it was lukewarm at best. I don't know if this was because of the sauce slathered on it. I did tell the person attending us who spoke to someone else but nothing else was offered to us. Another worker said later on that most of the food had been eaten which wasn't true. The person I was with finished their plate but I left just over half of mine and almost all the chips.

For some reason, a piece of paper was put under the shawarma eaten by the person with me but not mine. They ended up picking up bits of paper with their meal🤷🏽‍♀️. I needed someone to remove it but couldn't get anyone's attention. The staff was gathered by the cooking area looking away from their customers so I had to get up off my seat to attract someone's attention. Given how empty it was, it's a shame that the staff was not wholly attentive.

Service I judge as poor because nothing was offered to us to remedy what I had complained about and worse still, service charge was automatically added to the bill. All the man serving us said was ' I'm sorry you feel that way'.

The place was almost empty when we arrived and maybe that should have been my cue to find somewhere else. I should also have read some of the recent reviews which spoke of poor service.

I think I was more annoyed about the service than the cold meal and even though I agree that I should have said something straight away, there should still have been an attempt to remedy the issue.

Like I said, I wish I'd stayed at home and burned my money instead.

I gave it two stars instead of 1 because I came about 2 months ago and the food seemed a bit better and the service was so...