Ottolenghi Chelsea — Restaurant in London

I usually do not complain , however , the experience I had in Ottolenghi Pavilion Road was very disappointing. Me and my sister came in and asked table for two. The waitress told us to leave contact details to join the queue in the system, so we did. We then came out and walked to other side of pavilion road and received a message to go back , as table was ready and was going to be held for 10min. We came in and joined the queue again for the waiter to escort us to the table and it looked like , he gave the table to ladies that just walked in. When the turn came to us , we have showed the message and he told us to wait 2min. However , almost 15min passed and we still were waiting . When I have asked what is going on and why 2min isn’t really a 2min. He then said that 2min means that the table could be free once people will leave the table and it really looked like people were still eating and the food was still served to them. So I have asked him why people who received the message were escorted straight away and the ladies who walked in before us without booking were given a table and we still have to wait for God knows how long. The waiter then just easily told us that we can leave if we want. So my question is , why have a booking system in place instead of the live queue if customers still have to wait on the live queue after receiving a message?

Me and my sister used to work in many restaurants before and we know how the system works and it really looked he just gave our table away to the ladies that just walked in. But at least be apologetic about it. However , instead , we have been told to leave when actually received a message to come back and enjoy the meal .

The waiter name was Tom(British blonde man). I go to other Ottolenghi branches and really enjoy them. However , I don’t think I want to come back to this one anymore . It is a Shame that one person can actually destroy the whole image of the...

A disappointing experience - not because of the food, which was quite good, if a bit under-seasoned - but because of the poor treatment we received from the staff.

The staff member who took and fulfilled our order did not mention anything about cutlery for our takeaway order. Since we planned to eat straightaway on the bench outside, we took the cutlery which sat by the sugar/milk station for coffees. This seemed logical enough to us. We were then quickly told by another staff member to ask for takeaway cutlery from the original server. Fair enough, a small misunderstanding!

All fine, except that multiple staff members then loudly discussed me and my wife, sneering at the utter stupidity we displayed by picking up the wrong fork and knife. They glared at us, rolling their eyes - we heard “cutlery, cutlery” floating from their not-so-whispered conversation towards us. Even after we went outside, they continued to look at us through the window, clearly galled by our ineptitude.

Their disdain for our presence was felt strongly. I guess £50 can’t buy decency over a small misstep.

On that note - paying £50 for two bowls of tasty veggies and a cup of soup is fine, but at that price point, we’d have much preferred that the person who handled our food wasn’t visibly ill.

It is a shame, as we are avid home cooks who enjoy Ottolenghi’s books. We made a point of coming here for our first meal in London after a long travel day. With better service, it could have been 4 stars; with some...

After 20 minutes of waiting time ( which is fine), we have ordered our breakfast. People next to us who came 5-10 minutes after, started their breakfast and they have ordered main breakfasts such as eggs, etc.

Our drinks and ready cakes where ready waiting at the counter to be served but all staff were very very busy serving take away customers.

Their main objective is to serve take away customers and leave in dining customers to their own.

When I told this issue to the manager she said if I keep talking this situation with her, the food will be more late.

I had to ask for the check as I didn’t want to stay more over there, she said there is no need to pay the check and I realized that the only thing they brought for almost half an hour was tap water:)

Overall, the experience was poor and I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone. The lack of customer service and communication was unacceptable and I was very dissatisfied with the way the situation was handled. It is important for restaurants to prioritize their customers and provide timely and efficient service.

PS: I couldn’t rate the food as I didn’t had the...