Paradise by way of Kensal Green — Restaurant in London

NIGHTMARE!!!

From the moment I booked 5 months prior to my birthday event, I booked over 25 guests for dinner and then for a boogie straight afterwards. After guests confirmed their dinner options they all responded and selected their menu choice, but a link was not sent for them to make payment, which I then had to chase only to be told I was given the wrong menu. So I had to share a new link for my guests to choose from a different menu which wasn’t the greatness.

On the day of the event I went to set-up only to find out there were no names to help indicate what guests had ordered (please note this is a set menu) so that meant I had write up guests names and seat them accordingly. I was also informed the day before which was a Saturday of what my guest had ordered where one of them was incorrect and the member of staff via Design My Night was unable to assistant me however very apologetic. Back to the day of the event I went through the setup with the projector screen with the manager of the venue whom came across very helpful and friendly. Fredericka whom I believe is the head FOH reassured me everything will be ok regarding serving food to guests as I was now running late to get back. I asked for the food to be served at 4pm and this was not done as the venue stated all the guests had not arrived and some of my guests were instructed to go downstairs to make their orders for drinks etc. Please note there was a bar spend of £1000 which also include the food but my guest was told to go downstairs and pay for their drinks as they had no staff to serve my guests which obviously had an impact on my bar spend. Moreover, when I arrived which was 1.5 hours late some of my guest just got served their starters and some of the orders where mixed up. So this resulted me going on to the mic to help front of house team to find out which guest order what meal. As this event was broken into 2 parts dinner 4-6pm and then 7- 11.30pm some of my dinner guests did not receive their desserts due to the delay of trying to established who was having what and the fish and chips meal took over 30-45 minutes to be served which I felt so bad for seeing other guests eating and them still waiting.

My Deposit. It took over 3 weeks to get my deposit as no one was available at the Paradise to take my call due to their opening hours and when I did go down to the venue and spoke with manager he was very patronising and did not listen to my disappointment regarding the service I had experienced he was very dismissive and patronising and even lied to my face stating a guest of mine came to him saying they did not receive some of their meal so that would have an impact on my deposit refund and when I spoke with his front of house regarding this she confirmed this was inaccurate information. He never once apologised and was more focused on me arriving late to my own birthday, which I was considering to cancel as my Father was rushed to hospital 2 days before the event. The waiting staff were lovely but inexperience and not enough of them on the day. One of the team member Faye offered to pay for a meal to apologies for my experience as she saw I upset I was, which I may add she was not even working on the day. I thought this was sweet and considerate but I declined the offer.

I will not be attending the Paradise again due to this reason which is really sad considering I've used this venue for 2 previous birthday bookings and this was the WORST experience ever. They need better management team and more staff who...

2.5 if it would allow-

A frequenter of this well known gastro-pub, it usually sets a culinary standard in North West London; having heard the management and kitchen had moved on from a couple of years ago, I wasn't expecting the same olympian standard in regards to food, and in turn we were conservative with our order.

However, the food only formed a mild part of our experience tonight, having arrived ten minutes early, the host and us agreed that we would wait outside for him to let us know when our table was available, no problem there; the only issue being he simply forgot about us (as the only couple waiting outside FYI) after taking the initiative to re-enter the building (15 mins after our reservation time, excluding us being keen beans) he thought it appropriate to stroke my partner on the shoulder in the pain of remembering his lapse in memory, no doubt a friendly and innocent gesture, however, totally uninvited and out of proportion considering his full face covid mask/visor, and the national pandemic.

Once sat at the wonky table (which restaurant doesn't have a wonky table?) and next to the ladies loo of which one was blocked, it was essentially the restaurant I remembered, tastefully and originally decorated, with a continuation of welcoming (if a little inattentive) staff.

Our starter arrived, and without any doubt, it was a supreme culinary announcement for the evening and largely put everything back on track (the BBQ Beef, which the waitress described beforehand perfectly, even with her mask below her nose)... however this wasn't the end of the starter.

Onto the mains, and having sprung an elaborate lunch earlier in the day at a neighbouring pub, we went for an obvious house burger (each). 10 mins into these mains, another waitress delivered a ramekin of mystery sauce, not knowing what it was for, and being dark green, we felt correct in questioning its purpose to which the waitress's response was; 'I don't know, the kitchen said, this is for table 3'... It wasn't on the menu and perhaps it was for the starter we had half an hour ago (Gherkin ketchup?).

Anyway, carrying on, a tasty burger later we were ready for pudding and were sorely disappointed by a "panna cotta" we simply didn't understand. Grey, gritty (not including the added accoutrement/garnish which was totally valid), it wasn't what we were expecting nor familiar with, nor able to identify. For any Disney fans still awake reading this; in this case, the grey stuff was not delicious.

A popular place it remains, considering this was my favourite restaurant in London a couple of years ago, I would give the other mains and the Sunday roast another chance before definitely drawing a line under Paradise...

I know The Paradise really well, and yesterday I bring my girlfriend there for dinner. It was one of the option as venue for her birthday party, unfortunatly is defintley a big NO.

All staff friendly but a bit unprofessional as the girl was ALSO struggle to open the wine. I could make some comments about the service but it is from a professional point of view as I worked in the kitchen for many years.

The food was quiet unsalted and with no flavors, we ordered Seafood Cannelloni with lemon grass dashi and gremolata. The stuffing was complete separate and who knows how to make cannelloni knows that it shuold be a nice compact stuffing. Dashi sauce shuold be an explosion of flavor in the mouth espacially if it is with the lemon grass, it was look like a vegetable watery stock as it was completly liquid, no flavor and unsalted. Gremolata? Well we can discuss about it.

Château briand if someone know what it is well defintley is not what we had yesterday. Château briand is big chunk of fillet of beef, the central part of the fillet, what we had yesterday defintley was not a fillet but a sirloin. CHATAUX briand if it is offered to customers shuold be cut in front of them and not from the kitchen and straight on a board, like this you can not see what it is. Well this time it is been served to 2 people that worked in the hospitality sector for many years.

The funny part, when the manager asked some feedbacks we share our thoughts in the most friendly and polite way as we didn't want anything offer or any discount. The answer to this was really ridiculos as he does not how to manage a compalint. He said that he never tried the food and then he asked straight away if we wanted a the bill, we still had the wine to finish and we were thinking about a cocktail. AFTER that we finished the wine he offered to us a shot, we paid and sadly we left.

Fanatstic venue but the food shuold be a bit REVIEW and think that a lots people nowadays know about the food sometimes more...