PIRANA London — Restaurant in London

I‘ve been wanting to visit for months as I try all the new restaurants in the area and thought my legal qualification and birthday would be the perfect opportunity. I called in April to secure a booking for May. I was told May bookings would be available from 1st of May, so I set a calendar reminder, so I wouldn’t forget. On the 1st of May, I called. I was met with an advisor pretending no tables were available for Sat 31st May. I explained that I had already called in April already and suddenly tables appeared and she was able to book me in. She told me I had to pay a £95 deposit pp, to cover the guests who would be attending and mentioned that this would only go towards food, which was fine. I was asked to make the payment within 48 hours to secure it and I did. My friends and I had been looking forward to the occasion all month, especially my sister in law who recently gave birth to my nephew and was excited to have her first night out. My friends and I all arrived, my friends on time, myself and my cousin within the 15 minute grace period due to traffic and issues with parking. Unfortunately, my sister in law and sister who were travelling together arrived at 8:50pm, 5 mins past the grace period, as my SIL had to accommodate my nephew - which is not unusual with newborns/new mothers. They called to say they were parking up and I had notified the member of staff at Pirana. I was then approached and told that the table would be released - despite it being unoccupied, the 2 hour limit on the table and the deposit paid. I asked why and was told that although we were on time they could not seat an “incomplete party” at a table - which is nowhere in their long list of terms and conditions, nor does it make sense as the majority of the party had arrived and people don’t always travel together. This showed a complete lack of consideration for nuance/emergencies that may occur - as it had in our case. The waiter told us he would look to see if he could seat us at the bar instead and I explained the situation with my sister in law and told him they were literally outside of the restaurant but were delayed due to her having to accommodate my nephew. As we tried to reason with the advisor, having an amicable discussion a rude gentleman called Andre came over and asked to interject. I told him he could and he proceeded to ask: “Do you want me to help or leave your sisters outside?”. At this point I could see my sister in law and sister were outside of the restaurant and were waiting to be let in. This literally came from left field, was unprovoked, rude and unwarranted, as we were already having an amicable conversation with the advisor prior to that. He then proceeded to open the door, hold his arm out and asked us to leave for no apparent reason. I have never been so humiliated in my life. We were so shocked as nothing had happened to warrant such. We had all travelled an hour (some longer) into London for the occasion - so could not understand what was happening or why. Upon sharing this experience with others, I’ve been told that the staff have racist tendencies and normally treat people this way. I’m absolutely appalled at the service my friends and I received and feel guilty for even suggesting such a place. I was on the verge of tears, as I had been planning the celebration for months and was excited to celebrate with loved ones. It was also quite hurtful and shocking to see that the member of staff at the front desk, Erica, found the situation amusing. Note, Andre decided to apologise when he realised the incident had been recorded. I honestly wouldn’t recommend this place to my worst enemy. The vibes were horrible. All the members of staff need extensive customer service training, particularly Andre. I’m shocked that this is supposedly a “high end” restaurant. There are many other great restaurants in London that I would recommend such as: Bacchanalia, Colony, Novikov, Gaia Hakkasan, Yauatcha, Sumosan Twiga, Sexy Fish, 34 Mayfair (Anything Caprice holding) to name a few. Don’t waste your precious...

The food was excellent - that's where it ends

The service is surly, and the wait staff look down on you unless you are buying endless bottles of champagne (which start at £700)

From the moment you walk in, there is no greeting, just a gruff request to hand in your coat and bag because they are not allowed inside (not unreasonable, but it would be easy enough to be polite about it)

At the start of our meal, the waitress mentioned our 2h reservation limit, which was a good reminder. We ordered all of our food in one go, with 90mins remaining on the reservation time. We asked if it was a good amount of food, she said it was spot on, and we received no indication that this would not be possible in the time we had

The food came out in dribs and drabs with long waits between dishes. At one point there was more than 30min wait between dishes. When the next course came I asked the waitress if we would be ok for time given the time limit she had mentioned, and the fact that the food was so slow. She said yes yes don't worry

Then as the mains were served, as soon as they put the food on the table they said "you are already over your reservation time you have to eat and leave in 10mins". It was 9.30pm and half of the restaurant was still empty around us

When we said that the food had only just arrived the waitress told us that she had already extended our table and there was nothing else she could do. When we reminded her that we had long waits for up to 30min between dishes and even checked if we would be ok for time, she said "yeah the kitchen was busy" (the restaurant was half empty)

Either you are a restaurant with a 2 hour time limit who prepares and serves food promptly, OR you have a leisurely service and extend the time limit. You cannot impose a 2 hour time limit if you are unable to serve a meal in that time

Eventually she offered to speak to a manager, and he came to see us. He was able to be more gracious and offered us time to finish our food, and a space at the bar for drinks and desserts - and a round of shots. Whilst he no doubt has more discretion than his team, he did also have a much kinder and understanding attitude than the lady who served us, who was stern and rude

After moving to the bar, we saw our table was empty for a full additional hour, and the one next to it for 30mins. At the bar we asked for dessert menus - which were not received. When we eventually received them after asking again, then nobody came to take our order. We had a couple more drinks and finished our night. If the weather was nicer outside, would have left before this

I'm sure this place could be a fun night if they fixed their attitude and service. But unfortunately will never...

Horribly rude lady in the restaurant spoiled our night out. Very aggressive Nigerian lady. (I’m Nigerian myself …) there are better Mayfair establishments who treat customers better to be honest. The manager did apologise (our bill for 4 people was over £2,000 btw) owing to the wines etc. so imagine being spoken to aggressively by the toilet attendant. And what lead to this you ask? I was at the sink, adjusting my outfit and reapplying my make up. I had used a hand towel to wash my hands once and I kept it next to my bag because I wanted to reuse it as I was still adjusting my dress and so on. I didn’t want to keep taking new hand towels and using them, hence why I kept the same one to reuse it. Economical right? Well, not according to the aggressive toilet attendant. She grabbed my hand towel without even asking me if I had finished using it and chucked it into the receptacle. She did it the first time and I said nothing even though I was slightly annoyed. Why would she do that without even asking? I washed my hand a second time as I had been using my hands to style my hair and I did the same thing. I kept the hand towel next to my handbag as I wanted to use it one more time before I left the restroom. The toilet attendant watched me do this and proceeded to do the exact same thing that she had done previously. She grabbed the hand towel and chucked it in the dustbin! Again, she didn’t bother to ask me if I was using it or not! At this point, I had to ask her why she kept taking the hand towel without asking me? I explained to her that I wanted to reuse them! Her response? Well, you don’t need to reuse hand towels, you can just take another one! I’ve never heard such madness in my life. Neither have I ever experienced such an aggressive toilet attendant! I went outside and spoke at length with the manager about this. He actually apologised but to be honest, the damage was already done. The toilet attendant had said things to me along the lines of she doesn’t care if I report her to her superior Because she knows that they’re on her side. It was such an odd encounter which left such a bad taste in my mouth. From there we went on to Reign and were treated so nicely by the staff that.

Sincerely speaking, there are much more pleasant Mayfair establishments to go to for dinner. The food was also forgettable and it’s rather noisy and cringe in there. You’re better off...