Penelope's — Restaurant in London

Wow, I have just paid a fortune for a courgette and service so bad it makes Faulty Towers look amazing.

I'll start with the good stuff - the music is amazing - if you like Israeli style partying, this is the place. I really enjoyed the dancing and vibe which is really good and would definitely come back BUT just for dancing and drinks.  I would absolutely never eat here again.

If you eat everything you're fine (albeit tiny portions), however if you have dietary requirements, forget it!  I'm vegan and I think this review would be useful to either vegans or anyone coming in a group with a vegan friend.  I have not in years seen such appalling options. (By the way the staff don't seem to know what vegan is - they kept telling me I could have the celeriac which comes with CHEESE).  It makes it even more shocking because it's an Israeli restaurant, and Israel has the best vegan food in the WORLD.  So there's really no excuse for this menu.  I mentioned it to the staff and they said "no look at all these options".  The options were an aubergine for starter and a courgette for main. WOW, how creative and original.  Some vegetables.  No protein, nothing.  And as for dessert, my only options, in the 21st century, were fruit or sorbet - how fun!! (not).  ANY of the cakes could easily have been made vegan.  And it would be SO easy to have some delicious vegan mains (with protein!! something other than some vegetables).   So for main I got the courgette and it was 4 tiny pieces of courgette rolled up with sauce.  That's it.  Nothing to bulk it out like couscous - LITERALLY just 4 pieces of courgette and sauce, all for the bargain price of £24.  That must have been made of one courgette (if that!).  So basically I paid £24 for a courgette.  I could get better vegan food in McDonalds.

The service, I don't really know where to start. The manager did give us champagne to apologise, but it was so, so shocking.  And even after all the problems, there were STILL problems!

My friend asked for red wine, and was given white wine, TWICE!  (after stating the error, they did it again).  Her starter showed up 15 mins AFTER the rest of our group had FINISHED our starters.  The staff served all our courses to the side of the knives and forks (what on earth!), and even one waiter, served the final person (it was obvious it was for her as the rest of our group had our food),  by putting her food in the middle of me and another girl on the other side of the table - just bizarre!  Side note, after my friend complained about getting the wrong wine twice, the waitress said "it's not my fault".  Most people with even an ounce of customer service would have apologised profusely and done something about it.   I then mentioned to the manager that the lack of vegan desserts was shocking in this day and age and he said he could offer me sorbets, so I said no thank you I just won't have dessert.  And then after the starter, a sorbet shows up for me!  We were laughing so much - we hadn't even had mains yet AND I had said quite clearly that I just wouldn't have dessert and then dessert (that I didn't ask for) turns up before the main meal! This isn't even the half of it, there were issues at every point in the meal with at least 5 different members of staff so it wasn't even as if it was just one person.

In conclusion, if you eat everything, you'll probably enjoy the food, just be prepared for ridiculous portions and to pay a fortune for it but, if you are vegan , do NOT come here unless you enjoy being served a courgette for dinner and watching your friends eating delicious looking desserts (vegetarian, but not vegan, for the avoidance of doubt as the staff don't seem to have a clue), but DO come for drinks and...

We were greeted by a greeter who was anything but pleasant although the restaurant was completely empty all the servers greeters were somewhat anxious as if they were expecting not dinner guests but impending doom. We were hastily seated by the first anxious greeter and another shorter someone came to our table without introducing himself yelled at us who sat you here. He was so angry but we could not understand his question and were all shocked. Few minutes later person who seated us came back and asked if we were ready to order and we told him our experience with the short guy and he sent the guy back to come hastily apologize and shake hands with me. First he never introduced himself ever but wanted shake hands with me for yelling at my family for being seated by his colleague. I had to go wash my hands as I do t know why I shook his hand just before eating. As we ordered to food we were warned the food was not kid friendly. We ate everything and it was delicious but everything were too expensive for the quality or the portions we proceeded to thank the chef for her cooking. Although minutes earlier she spent time chatting with the short guy and other servers and served them something different to taste. She never turned to our table the three small kids to acknowledge that we thanked her for the food. All in all the atmosphere is gaudy middle eastern chic and furniture and decor like a metal bathtub filled with disco balls are all irritating to eye and all personal Either underpaid or never trained to be nice to customer and treat you like necessariy evil to be tolerated. Except Christian who came to rescue our night everyone is hostile to customers no proper greet no proper good bye while you are leaving make you feel like a nightmare for a restaurant. Unless you are the boy friend of the richest man from Turkey I.e see Nusret it is akin eating to vomit. I just want to take ipecac to...

We visited this restaurant on a Saturday night. As soon as we arrived we were seated while we waited for the rest of my table to arrive. Although the rest of our table was late and we take responsibility for this and repeatedly apologised, the assistant manager Mario spoke to us and warned us to 'expect bad service' as the restaurant was expected go get busier. As someone who has worked in hospitality for over 3 years this is not something that should be said to customers as it gives them premeditated expectations of your service.

Our whole table finally ordered and we ordered straight away. The food ended up coming out very quickly so the service was not bad there. HOWEVER, one of my friends got burned with a hot plate as her food was served in a metal bowl. When she spoke to the assistant manager Mario about this he said that it was her fault for not anticipating it was hot because it is clearly metal. This was an absolutely outrageous response in my opinion and not one that an assistant manager should uphold.

When it came to getting the bill, the friend who got burned asked for her portion of the service charge to be removed as she was very unhappy with the service. Mario was again not understanding of her wishes and while shouting at us, told us 'this is a restaurant this isn't McDonald's'. Again, this is completely unacceptable and customer satisfaction should be a priority which it clearly isn't.

Overall i would rate Penelope's a 2 out of 5 as the atmosphere and waiters were great but the manager himself did not deal with any of the situations listed above appropriately. Due to this i would not...