Megan's at the Old Town Hall Restaurant (Richmond) — Restaurant in London

DO NOT GO HERE IF YOU ARE MUSLIM

Long story short - I was served pork and was told it’s vegetarian, specifically asked the staff member if what I was ordering is safe for halal diet and asked what n’duja was and she said it’s a spicy sauce.

On 9th March 2024 I visited the restaurant and told the waitress that we can only eat halal food and cannot have pork. One of the things we ordered was loaded fries (with fondue and n’duja) we asked what n’duja was and we were told it’s a “spicy sauce” and we were reassured that it is vegetarian (it is actually a spreadable pork paste), we double checked with the waitress twice.

Around the same time I suffered an allergic reaction on my skin, which resulted in blisters. This was an allergic reaction but at the time I could not figure out what it was in relation to, as to my knowledge, I didn’t eat anything that I hadn’t before. It now makes sense that it was a result of the pork.

Recently I visited the restaurant again (28th April) and ordered Turkish eggs, the waitress told me that this dish wasn’t suitable for halal/vegetarian diet as it contained n’duja which is pork. This made me realise that during my last visit i was negligently given false information and fed pork! I queried this with a waiter when I paid the bill and again, he told me that the loaded fries did not contain pork and it was suitable for vegetarians (clearly more than one staff members are not trained well and this is not common knowledge about what their items contain - very unsafe!). I pushed back and asked if he can double check with the chef/manager because I have been told that n’duja is pork so I need reassurance.

The manager came to my table quite a while later - not sure how long it was but I had to flag up to the waiter 3 times that I am still waiting. When the manager arrived he informed me that it was unfortunately pork in that dish, he did not apologize once, just said he will train staff for the future, but there was no apology or sign of remorse. He also tried to say that it is common knowledge that n’duja is pork - clearly it isn’t if 2 of your WHITE staff members didn’t know this then how can you expect a Muslim to know!! If I was vegan or possibly another religion, maybe he would have been more apologetic but as a paying customer, everyone should be treated the same. The LEAST he could have done was refund the service charge we paid as clearly their service is horrendous considering the fact that our dietary restrictions were compromised.

I just don’t understand how you can advertise yourself as serving halal meat therefore allowing Muslim customers to feel welcome, and then not take due care and attention in differentiating between halal and non-halal food. It is also quite deceptive to have pork in a dish named “Turkish eggs” - Turkey being a Muslim country. It feels as if they are intentionally deceiving Muslims, by gaining Muslim clientele whilst not taking proper care.

I have been feeling extremely distressed and having difficulty sleeping with the thought that I have compromised my...

I came on a Sunday with two friends. They took 30 mins for someone to come to take our order. We were quite hungry at this point. We asked the waitor about the sharing plate for x2, first if he can make it for x3. He said no, he suggests we get this and another main to share. We told him that two of us don’t eat beef and asked which parts of the platter contain beef. He said the burger and this other meat. We asked if we can replace the beef with anything else, he said no. As there was only 2 things containing beef, there was still chicken and lamb kofta on the platter so we ordered that and another main to share. We ordered falafel hummus as a starter and brownie for dessert too, and tap water. We told the waitor to bring whatever is ready first. 40 minutes had gone after our order was placed and we didn’t even receive the tap water, or starter. No one was coming near our table and it was hard to call anyone. We eventually stopped a waitress to get us tap water. After some time we stopped her again to ask her about our started. She asked if we asked for the food altogether, we said no we said whatever was ready first. She brought the extra main we ordered. Shortly after, the platter arrived. I wanted to double check what parts have beef so I asked the waitress, she said the two meats and also there’s beef in the lamb kofta. We were shocked as we were not told there’s beef in the lamb, and we only ordered the platter as there were a few non beef options. We told her this and she called the manager. The manager came with a lot of attitude and was arguing with us saying we’re wrong and the waitor did tell us about the lamb. We heard what the waitor said and he definitely did not mention the lamb. So we said this was not true and she kept arguing saying we were wrong. After back and forth arguing, she started talking about halal meat. I’m not sure if she understands that Hindus not being able to have beef and Muslims only having halal meat are two different things. I’m not sure why she kept mentioning halal, it had nothing to do with us. We never asked if it was halal. She said eventually, she will have to take the lamb kofta away and swap it for some halal lamb. We asked if it contained beef and she said no. The starter came and she brought a small plate of shredded lamb. She didn’t eventually take the lamb kofta away like she said she would. The food was very average and wasn’t great. It tasted a bit funny. Everything was tasting weird even the falafel and hummus. The flavours were not right. We were so hungry that we just ate it at that point. They brought our brownie and that was the only thing that actually tasted okay. It definitely was not worth £75 for all of that, when i eat out and i’m paying all of that, I expect the food to be tasty and the service to be good. Was disappointed and won’t be...

A crushing disappointment for a highly anticipated culinary experience. Walked in today 24th April, no reservation required with a dear friend for a lovely hearty brunch and catch up in a pretty setting. chose this place as we are former Richmond residents and wanted to catch up locally. Expected a higher calibre of service and food. Was very unimpressed with the server Kevin. when I made my order of mere pancakes with extra fried eggs, I stipulated twice that the " Egg should be well done with no runny yolks at all" He asked if I would like hash browns on the side, I said "why not" as I was in a devil may care mood... and didn't mind the upsell of hashbrowns. Though I was disappointed when the food came (to be fair quite promptly)to see that my eggs came not well done with runny yolks, specifically what I had asked not to happen, I didn't want to be rude and send the food back so i ate it and pushed the yolke to the side, not the end of the world though annoying to not have been listened to. . The waiter Kevin returned and asked how the food was, I mentioned that the eggs were runny and he just shrugged, I said that i had asked for them not to be, and instead of apologising for the error he quite rudely and frankly said and i quote " well i was distracted by how much food you were orderining I was just like!.... go girl" a rude and uncalled for comment. Deriding me for ordering a side of fried eggs with my main!? insinuating that I was some kind of gluttonous swine, when I had only asked for Fried eggs on the side and it was his idea to upsell the hashbrowns. Not professional completely inappropriate, frankly I couldn't believe the gall. A simple acknowledgment or apology for the misgivings would have sufficed rather than being chastised for my appetite as a paying customer. Additionally he gave us our bill and there was a cappuccino on there that we did not order . I pointed it out and once again instead of acknowledging the mistake or apologising he simply said " I'll take that off" and blamed the table before us.... very poor representative of Megans and soured our experience. I will be telling the story of the sassy, acerbic and rude waiter at megans Richmond for some time and advising people to give it a wide berth. Food was average, tiny shavings of pistachio on the pistachio pancakes and , long bananas not chopped up, bacon over done. Would have been better off going to Bill's a short walk away and half...