No 197 Chiswick Fire Station — Restaurant in London

I have eaten here twice before and enjoyed it a lot, however, my visit last night was somewhat tragic.

I was given a dirty wine glass. After telling the waitress and asking to change it, she proceeded to stand in front of my friend and I and inspect it carefully for what felt like a lifetime. If it is dirty enough for me to complain, just go and change the glass without question. I wouldn't make it up now would I?

Once I had received my new (slightly less dirty) glass, we waited a very long time for the wine to be brought to the table. I had to pretty much scowl at the waitress behind the bar to jolt them into action.

Waitress then accidentally launches the wine bottle as she is pouring, smashing the glass and spilling wine everywhere. When trying to move my things she kept telling us "not to touch anything". Sure love, I will just let this red wine spill all over my personal belongings eh? She was however, very apologetic.

4: Food... Firstly, my friend found a dirty "food expiry" sticker in his salad. The only plus was that the date on said salad was the following day so at least we knew his salad was good until then! We also ordered a side of truffle and cauliflower Mac and cheese and it was completely rancid. Neither me or my friend are fussy eaters but this thing was inedible. You would have been better off buying a Tesco's own brand microwavable meal. Absolutely no taste whatsoever. For the first time in my life, I sent food back to the kitchen.

At this point, despite my friend and I remaining incredibly composed and polite, the waitress called over the manager. She apologied profusely for the wine and the inedible food and told us she would give us the wine on the house. She then came back again and said she would give us pudding on the house also.

I felt she handled it really well and accepted her apology. Given what she had said, being a thoughful person I chose not to use my 25% gift voucher (which would have reduced the bill even further). I said to my friend that we could come back another time and give it another try.

Sadly, upon receiving the bill, the wine had been left on the bill. I told the waitress and she bluntly told me that it was just the pudding that was on the house. I asked nicely that she check with the manager. She came back and frostily put the bill on the table again. This time, the wine had been removed but the dessert left on. She also had the audacity to leave the 12.5% service charge on the bill.

By this point, I realised that I was so worn down by the experience, that I was willing to pay to just leave the place.

Guys, if you are reading this, you probably should have just given the meal on the house (or at least honoured what you said you would do to pacify us). I do not think I will be returning again, even with my gift voucher.

To all others; you have...

Overall if i could go between 3 and 4 stars thats where i would land this one. Location, decor and ambience all satisfactory to good. The service itself needs fine tuning. I visited here as a group member for a business dinner meet inter branch. We was seated well, not squashed or cramped but more wide and spacious also the internal decoration was pleasant and appealing. Sadly the service was a bit hit and miss depending on staff member. First round of drinks one group member was left hanging even after repeating his order 3 times and another group member also repeating the order ...... Not a big problem in my eyes as everyone has a off day.

However when a member of our group politely asked a staff member who was on service if we could have another bottle of wine for each section of the table he spun around while she was mid sentence and walked off🤷🏻‍♂️ The bottles, Yes the bottle was delivered....but why attitude ? We was on a company bill so was not very bothered about how much we spent. 🤣

Other than that service wise i couldnt see any issues, the gathering was fun and we did have a good experience......sadly untill the actual pre-booked menu choices arrived.

Out of a group of roughly 17 people only 2 ate a substantial amount of what was on the plate. Mussels for those that had mussels were enjoyable but a little tough. Thats forgivable. The chicken a bit dry and hard to take down. But it must be said the amount of food as in main/sides did seem a very small offering for the amount paid.

I have a standard for venue's where i decide to attend for the first time and decide i will review them.....The burgers. If a kitchen cannot do a burger right, i lose all hope for the more extravagant items on the menu. And unfortunately i was very let down,. Tiny little patties that tasted boiled and watery seemingly stacked to make them seem bigger or to meet a weight threshold but then why not just make one patty that size/weight? To me that says bought in.......and sorry if you run a pub/bar/restaurant but cant make a decent burger theres a problem.

End of day: setting good. Service needs improvement. Food needs improvement And thats why i can only go between 3 to 4...

My wife, two year old son and I had breakfast here about two months back. It was an odd experience as there are lots of places to go in London where the service is excellent and the food very average (maybe easier to train front of house staff rather than those in the kitchen) but this place was the opposite.

We arrived early on a Saturday before most other people and asked to sit outside. The waiter almost sighed like a teenage girl and muttered something including the phrase ‘if you must as there isn’t much room’. We were pretty taken aback as there wasn’t much we asked for other than to simply sit outside and for the life of us couldn’t work out what his beef was as it was empty save for one other table.

We took our seats and a very put upon waitress gave us menus and took our orders. I asked for a large coffee if possible and it was as if I’d asked for a kidney. We could almost hear the internal eye-rolling followed by the phrase ‘we only do one size’. No problem other than they took enormous pride in serving my wife a massive latte and me a thimble full of very nice coffee. The waitress then remarked that she could have used the larger cup and filled with hot water to make mine a bigger coffee. A real epiphany even though that’s exactly what I’d suggested.

Already irked by the staff the piece de resistance was when my son put a Peppa pig sticker on their genuinely weathered outdoor table. No hyperbole here but the waitress actually tutted, ripped it off and barked ‘don’t do that’ as if we were all errant children and this was her own antique family heirloom. It really was something I’d never seen before.

The food arrived and I’d have to say this was yummy if very expensive - a smashing fruit bowl, amazing poached eggs and smoked Salmon and a granola bowl for my wife.

If you couldn’t care less about being treated like an unwelcome rash and simply care about the food then this is the place for you. It’s not for us though - a real shame as all they had to do was not be completely rude to paying customers. Simple enough but a real challenge for...