Pierre Victoire Soho — Restaurant in London

One of the worst restaurants I have been to.

The food was mediocre at best and overpriced.

The service was appalling. We were initially placed at a very squashed table for 4 crammed in the middle of the restaurant when we arrived at 6.35pm. We asked if we could have the table near the bar where there is more space but the staff member said that table was going to be put together with another table for a reservation of 6. Well those 6 people never showed up and the table was given to another group of 4 after us.

3 of us had ordered a starter instead of a main (1 had a late lunch and I think the other 2's choices speak how attractive their main menu was). The restaurant forces each customer to order at least one main dish or 3 starters. We were not informed of this when we made the reservation nor was it written anywhere on the menu. The waiter only told us after we finished ordering. We explained that we could change our orders to 3 mains but one of us simply can't eat that much. Then the waiter fetched someone who we thought was the manager (but we found out in the end she was just a more senior waiter) who insisted we all had to order a main or 3 starters each. She gave us a lecture on how when you book a table at a restaurant, you are expecting a meal. Why on earth would someone make a reservation at a restaurant and only order a starter, such a ludicrous idea!

We then asked does that mean we are not welcome. The "manager" said we were "taking this the wrong way" and repated the whole lecture, insisting it is common decency to order a meal at restaurants. She further "explained" that they are a busy restaurant, there are many people who would want our table and so if someone only ordered a starter it would be unfair to people who wanted to book this table and were going to order both starter and main. When we pointed out that this policy is not written anywhere, the "manager" replied that this desn't need to be written because most restaurants in London have this policy, basically implying that we don't have common sense.

Excuse me?! Firstly, yes I have not eaten in "most" of the 20k+ restaurants in London but I have lived here for close to 20 years and has been to my fair share of eateries. We have seen restaurants with a minimum spend requirement and menus that requires you to choose at least one option from the main section but they have all made their rules clear beforehang and there are plenty of restaurants that don't tell customers what to order! Secondly, you are not that busy, as the empty tables in the corners evidenced!

Eventually the "manager" allowed for 3 mains and 1 starter. The starter was served on time but the rest of us waited close to 50mins for our mains! When we chased at 7.30pm, the waiter said they were waiting for us to finish the one starter we had ordered. So you expected us to have the "decency" to order a full meal to boost your revenue but you failed to ask us if the mains should be served earlier knowing full well that no main would follow that 1 starter and the rest of us only ordered a main? Even after we chased and asked for the mains to be served, we still waited 15 more mins until we were served at 7.50pm!

Everything else was so slow that we cannot help but think it was done on purpose as the tables around us who came after us all finished and left way before we did - we ended up leaving at 9.30pm, this is not because we enjoyed the evening!

We did not withhold the 12.5% service charge because we wanted to leave and didn't want to make a bad evening worse by arguing with the staff but we did voice our unhappiness with the actual manager. He apologised and said he will speak with the waiter in question but took no actual action to compensate us which is consistent with their approach of money before customers.

I will not go back to this retaurant which I suppose is is good news for them sinve they have so many people who are just dying to...

Myself and partner booked this restaurant for our anniversary. Lovely aesthetic, always appears and gives off a lovely ambience - our experience was quite the opposite.

-Even though our anniversary was stated on the booking, we were sat on a table which was directly joined/next to two loud women. As we walked over to the table the manager (?) pulled the table away from theirs and had to remove their drinks/menus. It was not ready to be sat on. There were also multiple other tables set for two around but we were ushered and served so quickly we didn’t have a chance to ask to move.

-Food was average. Great vegan options but the server didn’t care much for my allergens. Served two courses in under 40 minutes and felt uncomfortably rushed for them to get the next table in. I was still chewing my last mouthful when the waiter removed our plates after our main course - outrageous.

-Tables were too close together and waiters kept walking in between our table and the next, with a little under a foot in between. I have a back issue and they kept using my chair back as a pivot - I verbally told them to stop and they walked away without acknowledgement.

-We had only one glass each from our bottle of red when we finished our main course, and we were bothered twice to order dessert. I politely told the waiter we wanted to wait and enjoy our wine, and he walked away with an attitude both times.

-Being sat next to the main walkway we were constantly being banged into by staff and other guests, and I then decided I had endured enough and got the manager's attention.

-When I addressed that we were unhappy and that I wanted to remove the service charge from our bill, he then decided to argue back with me and my partner. Completely unbelievable! By this point we had been in there just over an hour, and he asked why we hadn’t mentioned it before - our response to this was the staff were rushing around, that they either gave us too much or not enough attention and as mentioned above, barely a moment to think with being rushed and ushered. He then demanded proof on my booking for showing we had mentioned it was our anniversary, of course I happily obliged and then he continued to aggressively argue claiming it wasn’t on his booking notes. I simply stated that this was not my problem - I had proved him wrong and he had lost his temper.

-We got the bill and for five items and 1 hr 15 mins, it cost £88 without service charge. The manager then stormed outside and smoked a cigarette after I had made the payment.

I understand that they have a set menu (suitable for theatre guests) and there's certainly some urgency to get the courses out so they arrive on time to their show, but this was from 7pm - there should be a change in service after the set menu time finishes, and it should be conducted with less hast. Hugely dissatisfied with the customer service, and the false ambience it appears to provide. Disgusting behaviour from the manager, and a lack of planning even with notes on it being our Anniversary. I have worked in customer service for over 10 years and I would never have dealt or spoken to a customer the way that he did with us, and I certainly would have tried to make the situation better rather than argue back. With the cost of living crisis, meals like these are a treat and expensive - to experience this lack of competence at this price for five items and a poor attitude, it was highly disappointing. It is a great shame, as we are locals and have been keen to try the restaurant for a while, but due to our experience, we will not be returning, and would we not recommend it, especially for a...

I’ve personally dined here multiple times and found their food quality and safety standards to be excellent. Perhaps it’s worth reassessing the cause before leaving such a damaging review. And let’s be honest—you won’t find a better duck confit at that price in the heart of London. This place offers genuine value for money, and it’s a shame when reviews like this overlook that entirely. It seems some people are more interested in seeking compensation or stirring up drama than leaving a fair and thoughtful critique. A touch of personal responsibility and perspective would certainly go a long way!

That being said, I’ve noticed a pattern in some of these reviews—people complaining about wait times when they didn’t even bother to make a reservation, others leaving bad ratings simply because the restaurant was fully booked, and now, someone claiming food poisoning from a starter that miraculously “kicked in” before they finished their main. Seriously? Fifteen to thirty minutes later? That’s not how food poisoning works, Mr Filippi.

Food poisoning is certainly unpleasant, and I’m sorry you felt unwell. However, scientifically speaking, it’s highly unlikely that symptoms would appear so quickly after eating your starter. Most foodborne illnesses have an incubation period of several hours to even days, depending on the pathogen. Blaming the restaurant without considering what you ate earlier in the day—or even the previous day—might not be entirely fair!

Restaurants work hard to provide great service, and baseless claims like this do nothing but harm good businesses. A bit of personal accountability...