Rail House Victoria — Restaurant in London

First opening week in Nova Victoria. A soft launch based on an "honesty policy" where diners only pay for what they had enjoyed then give feedback as payment for what they didn't. This is such a brilliant concept and shows the company actually cares about your experience.

The venue looks trendy with the floor to ceiling glass walls and decor. It was quite busy for the opening week so it was slightly noisy. Our waiter appeared a bit lost but this could be due to it being so new. We asked for some recommendations and he didn't deliver it very enthusiastically.

The dishes are modern European with an influence from Asia and were quite disappointing, especially the mains - 24 hour slow cooked lamb shoulder. The lamb was still quite tough. We had a side of roasted cauliflower which looked like it had maggots in (it wasn't, but it didn't look appealing). Lucky for them, dessert saved the day! Creme brulee with rhubarb. I was very sceptical about the rhubarb, but it was crunchy and contrasted the texture to the creme brulee which actually worked.

We spoke with Josh, the assistant manager, giving him our feedback which we sure didn't hold back on! He listened, like REALLY listened, taking in all our comments graciously and constructively. He actually offered to take everything off our bill except the drinks and dessert. He agreed and appreciated what we said and thanked us as the feedback would help improve the experience.

Wheelchair access: the venue is accessible but it's also quite busy and crowded so it was difficult to weave around the tables. The toilets are upstairs but there is a lift to take you up. I was escorted to the lift but when I got upstairs, the toilet required a RADAR key which I wasn't made aware of. Luckily I always have one on me so managed to gain access.

On a good note to the staff, no one knocked into my wheels whilst I was there, something which usually happens at...

Went for brunch today and definitely not coming back, and would advise to you spend your money elsewhere. Reasons why listed below: The service charge is 13.50% which is extortionate considering the service received and the standard being 10%-12.5%. We were given tap water without requesting it once we sat down, which was nice, but the bottle was extra small, barely allowing two glasses per person - we were two. They definitely had larger bottles as we could see these on other tables. Considering the service charge, you’d expect them to refill it whilst you are there, but not even. The assigned waiter didn’t came once to check we’re all set and/or whether we needed more water. They also took forever to take our order.

The food is hit and miss. My friend ordered the sweet potatoes frittata (12.80 GBP) and the plate was extremely disappointing; two eggs and a handful of sweet potato nuggets, as opposed to flat frittatas. We raise this with the manager and was understanding about this.

The waiters were too busy to attend us as they were mostly on their phones, hugging each other and gossiping amongst themselves. When the bill came, there was a small additional charge added - on top of the ridiculous service charge - for a charity donation of less than 1 GBP. Now, I don’t mind that but at least have the curtesy to ask whether we want to be charged that amount and provide context on the charity. We kindly asked the waiter to remove that charge, considering we were unhappy with the service and not very impressed with the food, she grabbed the bill and stormed away without saying a word! As she was amending the bill, she was aggressively tapping the ipad showing her discontent and then returned with the...

As a huge fan of Riding House Cafe, I was keen to try Rail House Cafe (I think they are owned by the same company). As we just wanted a coffee, I went inside and asked if that was ok. I was assured it was and the person asked where we would be sitting. I pointed out the seat and he said it would come soon.

After a quarter of an hour there was no coffee coming. I saw a waitress walking past and asked her if she could check to see if our coffees were coming. She looked disinterested and said that normally we can only sit outside if we are having food. Fair enough but nobody told us that and we would have gladly sat inside if that had been told to us.

She came back a few minutes later to say that our order had never been recorded (!) but that she had now processed the order. No apology, just matter of fact. At this point I went inside and said thanks but no thanks. We just wanted a nice coffee and there are plenty of other places.

Can't comment on the food as we did not have any but the attitude was very poor, they can't seem to process coffee orders very well and there seems to be a rule that you can't have only coffee outside but not all staff know this so customers get misleading information.

Disappointing, particularly as I have had such good experiences at Riding House Cafe.

UPDATE: Tried going there a couple more times but the service was the same. Very poor. We were shown to a corner sofa area and then promptly left for 20 minutes despite saying we had come for a coffee. Why not send a waiter?? We eventually got...