RAI Restaurant London — Restaurant in London

Good flavours, but rushed service, overcomplicated presentation, and disappointing for nearly £300 (two people) followed by a rough night with stomach discomfort.

Two days before our visit we were asked to change our reservation time, which didn’t sound like it was an option to say no — ok fine, just a bit inconvenient and took my time to rearrange calendar, coordinate & respond with alternative.

We tried the tasting menu— while most dishes were delicious, the overall experience was a big ‘meh’ for the price.

Service felt extremely rushed: the waiter spoke so fast it was stressful, pressed us to order within a minute we sat down. At least me, I’m unfortunately incapable of reading & processing 3 pages of menu that quickly, let alone making a decision within a minute sitting down, and being asked again to make the decision after just one other minute we have said we needed time. Made me feel like accepting changing the dining time was to help them squeeze another table for more profit, putting customer experience is on the lower priority. Also, the waiter was upselling really hard on those extra on top of the tasting menu, it’s really unpleasant. And, we initially ordered a small sake, but he pushed for taking a warm one without telling us there is a big price gap from the original choice (£40 showed up on the bill).

Food presentation was unnecessarily fussy: sashimi on some wooden logs and sea urchin shells — luckily I spotted a spike in one of my sashimi before eating it. A simple plate would have been enough as the sashimi was all really tasty. New dishes also arrived before we could finish the previous ones— we shared the feedback and appreciated things did slow down a bit.

Desserts were sadly on the below average end compared to the rest of the courses, but that’s just personal. And while the chef greeting us at the end could have been a nice touch, the special drink was presented by the waiter in a way that didn’t feel optional..

One other concerning part, both of us experienced stomach upset later that night — could have been just coincidence, but combined with the rushed service and pressured extras, left us with a poor impression. I feel sorry because I had spent some time researching and was hoping for a special evening with my partner away from home, but instead we left stressed and disappointed, felt trapped. Looking back, I should have taken the red flags in other reviews more seriously.

On top of all that, the bill experience was uncomfortable: the card machine was slid across under our phone and “tapped” before we could even check the amount, which our waiter just laughed about admitting oh yeh already tapped, and walked away with the machine.

Total was £262; in which £40 was for that sake we were unaware of the price gap, and £34 for...

A shaky and disappointing start for Rai.

Venue

The venue is not well ventilated and the ambience and decor was that of an average high street restaurant. The acoustics were such that everyone could hear each other’s conversations, and the music drowned out. The lighting could have been more dramatic and they could have used fresh flowers and locally made products in the bathroom and sanitizer.

Wine list / drinks

Largely wines and very few Japanese options. Very overpriced - a can of Kirin beer was £6.50 and was the only beer option. One umeshu and sake option - again extremely overpriced. Why not work with the many Japanese vendors in London to showcase their spirits?

A cocktail and mocktail menu would also not go amiss - we were looking forward to an aperitif but instead spent £15 on a 125ml glass of wine

Food

This was hit and miss - some dishes very underwhelming and the better ones were at best interesting. Some dishes claimed to have a certain ingredient - e.g. yamazaki 12 yo or truffle oil but the flavours did not come through at all. The fish was edible but frankly was not as fresh as other restaurant who charge half the price. The presentation was ok - some dishes quite instagrammable but we stopped photographing about 3 dishes in.

Service

The staff were rushed off their feet. The maitre d, whilst one could tell he was experienced, was brusque and without smile. You didn’t feel particularly relaxed or welcomed by his demeanour. The younger staff were friendlier and attentive, which helped the whole experience. They need a bit of coaching to polish up their service, which hopefully Rai will invest in.

Final thoughts

I contemplated if this experience was just Rai not having their act together yet. However this is London - a restaurant to present their A game from the start, lest the damning reviews affect its success. I’ve been to other restaurants when they were new, such as Evelyn’s Table - they were miles above Rai’s opening month. They had practiced their service, and every dish was a surprise and a winner. Beautiful ambience and well ventilated despite being a third of the size of Rai.

Rai would not have attracted this level of criticism for me if it were not for a) the brand and expectation they’ve been trying to cultivate in their marketing and b) the price point. The Omakase should be priced at about £50, and they need to sort out their drinks list range and prices. They need to offer glasses of wine or Japanese spirits starting from £8. The ambience needs work - who are they trying to attract? I’m not sure for what occasion I would come again. It’s not for a business lunch, or good for gatherings/catch ups nor was it romantic enough for couples. More thought in the whole customer journey needs...

Just had one of the worst restaurant experience of my life. I know restaurants have a hard time at this moment between Brexit and Covid, and I still eat out a few times a week (went to Kiln and Louie the two nights before) and never witnessed that.

First bad surprise with this high end Japanese restaurant was with the sake list: all the regular sakes were unavailable, we could choose only from the special ones: one sweet, one sparkling, one cloudy. We took the few bottles of sparkling one they had, then tried to order a white wine, which was also unavailable. At this point, we proposed a honorable resolution: paying them and go buy some sake elsewhere ourselves, but they wouldn't accept : it is against company policy (we are talking about a 2 restaurant company).

As I want to stay factual, I won't comment about the food, just want to say clearly most of the effort was put on the show and the instagramability of the dishes.

Then the pace of the service was extremely slow, and hadn't we cancelled the extras we ordered, we would never have finished before midnight, way after everyone else would have left. One couple had to run back home to arrive before midnight to free the nanny.

Then we paid and left, already gutted to have wasted our evening, but they called us back to tell us they gave us the wrong bill and we needed to pay more. So I made my way back, and it took them 3 tries to generate the correct bill - always adding stuff we didn't get.

When the correct bill was finally here, they tried to make me pay the full price as if we didn't pay a first bill.

All I see is an extremely poorly managed restaurant ready for anything to grab your money. When I came back home and realized it was the sister restaurant of Hot Stone, it all made sense, and I've learned my lesson not researching a bit more before booking.

Omakases and original Japanese restaurants are picking up in London, there are a lot that are amazing. Not. This. One.

Also actively deleting bad reviews,...