Natural Kitchen — Restaurant in London

Enjoyed the food, but didn't like the service.

A woman at the door - blond long hair, I think - stared at us as if we were travelling salesmen, before letting out a reluctant greeting ("hmm, yeah... hi") and cursorily showing us towards empty tables. Perhaps we should have taken the cue and left there and then. But we were too tired to walk further away from our hotel upstairs so we sat down. The aforesaid woman must have communicated very poorly if at all to her colleagues about our arrival because we had to sit at our table for several minutes without even a menu with us, before we had to proactively ask for the menu. The waiter who received our orders was kind enough, although he never asked us if we meant tap water when we ordered water, and charged us for a bottle - upon leaving only did I notice there were lines of bottled up tap water ready to be served. If they want to call it some sort of an "upselling" technique, they should realise it is a very cheap trick and only leaves bad impressions. No one checked if we liked the food while we were eating either, although towards the end of the meal a waitress eventually noticed that my partner's beer glass was empty and asked if he wanted another one. He wasn't going to order a refill if nobody asked, so kudos for them for getting this one on the bill as well, ha! When we left none of the women at the door gave us any goodbyes which confirmed my uneasy feeling at entrance. The fish and chips and falafel salad were full of flavor and the ingredients seemed very fresh. The portions sizes are quite big and the prices are similar to the other restaurants in the area.

However, if you want an overall pleasant experience, please go elsewhere.

Edit) Since the response from the establishment found it "offensive" to read my remark about deterring Asian customers from visiting this place, I deleted the sentence. Although there are things such as organizational culture and doctrins, we as himan beings in a social setting do not always act and think according to them even when we are part of certain organization. Rather, we see that many people prefer (or unconsciously choose) to act according to personal beliefs and whims, which cannot be entirely controlled by the organization, nor it shoulf be. Aside from the differences in observations I will just say this in place of my deleted sentence: Regardless of the customers' races or nationalities, I wish the restaurant could show sympathy and good manners in its service, starting from the moment the customer enters and ending at the moment the restaurant checks the review a month...

The food was very good, but I had a terrible service experience here.

I was staying at the DoubleTree right next to where Natural Kitchen is located and I had seen the excellent reviews so I went there while waiting to check into my room at the hotel. It was not busy when I got there.

The staff ignored me while serving other tables, all of which had guests that arrived after I did, except for the one table that was the only one occupied in the outside seating area when I arrived.

I assumed at first that it might be common for hotel guests to wait at these tables before check-in without wanting anything to eat, so I asked 2 different times if I could see a menu and order a meal. Each of these times, I had to walk up to the counter inside to find someone to speak to because the staff did not come to my table at all. And each time they said someone would be with me shortly but that didn't happen. I also asked whether it was self-service, just in case I'd missed that. It wasn't.

Eventually, the tables around me were filled and each time someone/a group arrived, they were served fairly quickly. After waiting some more, I went in to make an order at the counter.

Once I was done eating, I had to go inside again to pay at the counter, because once again my table was completely ignored except when the food was brought out.

I did enjoy the food and it was beautifully presented.

This experience was in stark contrast to the service at the hotel (including its restaurants), where the staff were friendly and responsive even at very busy times so of course I did not go back to Natural Kitchen despite how good...

Been sitting here with an empty cocktail for 30 minutes, have been done eating for 15 minutes, it’s not busy, why should I have to flag someone down to check on me? She’s standing there not overly busy avoiding eye contact. Requested a well done steak, but a good cook should know there is a way to make it well done without causing it to chew like rubber. Also got the crackers and hummus appetizer and I only got 2 crackers with an over abundance of hummus. Finally flagged her down to ask for my bill and another cocktail. It looks like there is a “discretionary” service charge of 12.5% automatically on my bill .. I asked what that was for (didn’t think a tip was warranted and I’m typically a good tipper) she didn’t know so she had to go ask. Someone else just came out to explain it to me and told me it was optional so I asked her to remove it because the service was horrible and so was the steak. She removed the service charge, no apologies. I had high hopes for this place as the menu looks amazing. Unfortunately my 1 hour drawn out experience here was not amazing. Outdoor atmosphere is...