Ottolenghi Islington — Restaurant in London

Disgusting attitude. This was the third time we went there and we decided that we are not going again as the staff are unnecessarily and passively rude. The waitress greeted us and asked how she could help and we politely asked for a table for 2. She checked her tablet and said that she has a table available until 7pm. It was 5pm at the time and we said that’s ok as we were not having dinner, we were having cakes and coffee/drinks. When we said this, she immediately changed her mind that there was a table available and asked us if we would mind sitting in the stools ( only one stool was available btw as the other two were occupied, plus that area is facing the wall and it is not really to sit there - it is if your are taking a take-away and it is more like a waiting area rather than an area to sit and enjoy a cake and few drinks) . My answer was yes and i smiled( meaning yes we mind as i found this very rude to ask us to sit there when there were MANY available tables and while she initially said there was one until 7pm) she said that she would clean a table for us and asked us to wait( in the meantime to look at the cakes) we waited for 7-10 minutes for no reason as there were many available tables and nothing to clean ( she could have had us sat anywhere - the availability was like 85% plus why was it taking 10 minutes to just wipe a table? ) and it wouldn’t make any difference if we had sat in one of the other available tables and there wasn’t any need to wait for the specific table to be cleaned. I understand that maybe the policy is to keep the tables for the people who are going to dine but she had us waiting there for almost 10 minutes when the place was almost empty. And sorry but who is dining at 5pm!?? We found her whole attitude very unreasonable and passively rude. We left because we wouldn’t wait there like idiots when we were seeing that there was no need to...

I'm a big Ottolenghi fan and cook his recipes v often so I was looking forward to eating at his restaurant when visiting the UK and booked at Islington before going to the Almeida Theater. The place is surprisingly cold, the atmosphere is unnecessarily pretentious and the counter isn't as beautiful as I expected (no profusion of appetizing cakes, colorful yet tired-looking salads). The waitress acts uninterested and is almost rude as mentioned in previous comments. The waiters are diligent enough but so quick to place your orders then bring the food then take the plates off as soon as you're finished that there's a cafeteria feeling that doesn't match the menu's prices. Why can't we take our time to eat and then rest a little before ordering something more? Doesn't give Mediterranean vibes to me. As for the food, it's utterly disappointing. Not fresh enough (stale bread, focaccia and cakes and it seemed the lamb had been microwaved rather than freshly cooked because it was so hard to digest), sometimes bland (unripened peach + dry cakes) and uninspired. The wine was also too heavy and lacked of subtlety. The portions are of course v small. If these are supposed to be tapas, then price the plates accordingly. Long story short, it looks like a profitable albeit ungenerous business that's meant to amaze today's globalized bourgeois and I certainly regret being fooled as a bourgeoise...

I had heard of Ottolenghi from a New York Times article, so I expected it would get busy on a Saturday morning. I timed it well by getting there as soon as it open and had my choice of seating and by 9am the place was getting closer to filling up. The atmosphere of the restaurant had a Scandanavian/mid-century modern feel to it. There's 2 communal tables in the middle and there were a couple of families with young children there which made the atmosphere even more enjoyable. Service was attentive but not rushed. I ordered the shakshuka which I would describe as a North African version of chilaquiles. It was perfectly done. I also got a pastry to go so I could have it later in the day. It was fantastic as well. The only reason I didn't give the place 5 stars is that I witnessed a person next to me order their eggs "over easy". The server didn't know what that meant but made sure they put a note indicating they wanted eggs "over easy. The eggs came back "over hard". In my opinion every line cook in the world should know how to fry eggs in the 3 common styles "over easy" "over hard" and "sunny side up". However is you order what's on the menu, I don't think you'll go wrong, and the menu items are a big part of what makes this...