Quo Vadis — Restaurant in London

Jigsaw puzzles. You open the box, dump all the pieces out onto the table, and your initial impression is typically, “Huh? Do these pieces in any way match the puzzle that I THOUGHT that I bought?” 🤷‍♂️

Well it sure felt that way when gazing at the “Quo Vadis”menu tonight.

Me: “Pardon me. Is there any way that we could get a menu printed in English?”

Server: “Sir, your menu has been printed in English.”

Me: “Oh.”

So where exactly do you go from there? Well we thought it best to have an honest chat with our server (and once we utilized our decoder rings) we felt pretty good about our choices.

That is, until our meals arrived. After that we felt GREAT about our choices.

I spied an unknown substance on my plate, so those of you who know me (and my sensitive stomach), will be pleased to know that I shared that mysterious substance with another Review Team Member for evaluation. After that person sampled the entirety of that generous portion, I was soon informed that the “unknown substance“ was, in fact, horseradish. 🥵

Having no known allergic reactions to that flavor party, I heaped an equally large portion onto my first bite of steak and soon discovered what a series of fireworks being set off within your nostrils must feel like. 🔥 Restraint might dictate that we call it a night with the thunder sauce, but this was not destined to be regarded as a night of restraint.

(Note to self: Be sure to cancel that upcoming ENT appointment. All recent issues have seemingly been resolved; and bonus, I think I can see dead people now. 😳)

Near the conclusion of our meal a near tug o’ war occurred over the plates with which our meals arrived and the inevitable question was asked, “Look, if you’re gonna keep licking your plates, just know that we’re gonna eventually need those back, ok?”

And that’s…Henry’s...

I have been twice now and been disappointed on both occasions by various elements of the food. The eel sandwich is great but be warned, it’s extremely peppery. I also really love the pistachio cake with rhubarb, this is the best dessert they do. However, it goes downhill from here… The first time I visited I ordered the cured cod, courgette and salmoriglio. It was extremely bland. This week I went with a friend to order all of the puddings and try the legendary sticky toffee pudding. As someone who lives and dream by sticky toffee, I was expecting great things from Quo Vadis, especially considering I have heard it’s one of the best in London but I left truly heartbroken. I judge a sticky toffee pudding as it is, and therefore asked for the cream and custard on the side but when it arrived there was NO toffee sauce?! It was so dry. Yes, I am sure people will say but that’s what the custard is for but custard is not sticky toffee pudding. They are too separate things and I didn’t have the heart to tell our sweet waitress how upset I was. I will admit that the custard is good though, so that’s something at least. Also, the sorbet was absolutely fantastic and is definitely the superior dessert on the menu. Lastly, I have to share my disappointment in the trifle which had a very strange flavour that neither my friend nor I could place. An odd bitter after taste and excessive amount of custard and cream. I love Jeremy Lee and will continue to admire him from afar on instagram but I do not think I’ll return to Quo Vadis. It’s expensive and has let me down on both occasions. The staff are very sweet and it’s not their fault at all, the food just hasn’t met my...

I’d been looking forward to a meal here for many years and after our experience I had to wonder why. The food was mediocre and that’s being kind. We thought we were off to a good start, as the mackerel beetroot rhubarb and fresh horseradish hit all the right notes. The fish was lightly pickled, as were the other elements, each done in a slightly different brine, and it was fun, playful and tasty. The rest of the meal was a mess. A boiled artichoke was simply plunked on a plate and served with a thick vinaigrette. This is something we do at home all the time, but getting the inedible choke out was a real chore with a fork and dull knife- who wants to fight with their food at these prices? Mains were both hugely disappointing. A tough bit of sliced lamb rump was served with an oily mint sauce which didn’t do a thing for the dish. My pie of rabbit and Guinea fowl was full of bone. The sauce inside the pie was not creamy and rich but rather a very thin broth. While the flavour of the broth was good, it just didn’t belong underneath a crust. When I questioned the server he said that if a pie contains either rabbit or Guinea fowl, traditionally it’s served this way. I have to wonder why. We had some just okay drinks to start, and a glass of very ordinary Champagne with the mains. Though we were really looking forward to desserts which sounded delicious, we knew at this point they probably wouldn’t be so asked for the cheque. The room is nice and service was okay, but the food was inexcusable at this price. Sadly it seems like a tourist trap- the best thing about it?...