ROKA Aldwych — Restaurant in London

Went to Roka for the first time yesterday for a friend's 60th birthday. 7 of us went, and we did the £55 deal. Plus, the £20 unlimited wine or prosecco. We booked a few months ago but due to popular demand we didn't get into the main restaurant we were seated in the bar area. Apparently, the restaurant area fills up very quickly. We arrived a little early and had to wait quite a while as the people on our table were running late. Had a glass of fizz whilst waiting. Once seated, the waiter was great. I told him about my nut allergy and being vegetarian. He showed me a separate menu, and I chose the baked eggplant as my main. The waiter then filled our glasses with either prosecco, rose, white, or red wine, whichever we wanted. The startes came, and they were all amazing. The waiter brought me my own starters that had had no cross contamination. The waiter made sure I had lots of different starters. Everyone else had the mixed sharing starters. Everyone, including me, loved the starters selection very fresh and lots of different flavours. All the time, the waiter was topping up our drinks and checking if we needed more food. Then the mains came once again. I was given mine separately. I had the eggplant, which came with asparagus time, tender stem broccoli, and grilled mushrooms. The others on the table had salmon, chicken, or ribs with different salads and potatoes. The food was amazing and there was lots of it. Then the dessert came once again. Mine was separate. Everyone else shared a huge platter, including mango Sorbet, chocolate chunks, chocolate cake, mango, pineapple, melon, strawberries, raspberries, lychee and little moons. All served on a bed of crushed ice. Dessert was amazing, so fresh, and something that suited everyone. I have to say this was some of the best food I had ever eaten. The £20 drinks package, I definitely got well over £20 of drink in the 2 and a half hours you get at the table. Service was amazing. The table we had in the bar area was lovely quiet and felt like we had our own little area. As a person with a severe nut allergy and being vegetarian, they catered so well for me, and I felt safe and well looked after. I would like to try the main restaurant next time as it has funky mood lighting and great decor, but saying that our table didn't lesson our experience. It was still amazing. The people there were a mixture of young and older. Lots of people looked liked models and very trendy. I would recommended this restaurant to anyone who...

To begin, I have 2 statements: I'm not the kind of person visiting fancy and expensive restaurants and I was not prepared for this level of establishment.

I love sushi, especially salmon nigiri. So, after a long walk and many visits to tourist attractions and wearing comfortable clothes, we saw this restaurant serving sushi. Mmm, that'll make my day.

Upon entering, we were greeted by a very nice man all dressed up in a good looking costume. The first part of the premises looked very nice. Started to wonder what kind of place this is.

Continuing to our seats, more and more I'm realising that this is not meeting down to our standards. When we got the menus, all leather inbound, it was a surprise to see the prices. Not really what I'm used to, even if I indulge myself at better places in my hometown. For drinks we ordered still water, wich came all the way from Norways clear springs and the label was printed in gold(color). We ended up ordering a total of 4 salmon Nigeria, just to taste them. All in all 31 pounds, from wich 14,5% was a serving rip-off.

Well, after 2 nigiris and a part of a exclusive Norwegian springwater I wanted to pay. I felt a bit embarrassed for our small dinner, so I had to explain our circumstances. Probably not the first guest doing the same. Well, how was the premises, explain my stars. The food was very good, compared to many others I have eaten. I have eaten better and for considerably lower price. But on the other hand, how big part of the yaste is my hunger... The service weren't any special. If it hadn't been for the 14,5% serving rip-off, I had given them 3 stars. The atmosphere was very nice, but all the music playing and people talking made it very noisy. Not my cup of tea, whole others like it. All in all, it was an experience. Absolutely no bad feelings about it, more laughing at ourselves since we weren't prepared for it.

If you got money, like noisy restaurants and Japanese food, this is the place for you.

Sidenote; this is by all means NOT a bad place, on the contrary it's very good. Instead, it wasn't meant for me.

Have fun and...

Do not recommend at all. They took the pudding away without us eating it.

The main issue is that my sister got spiked and the staff did not care. She was perfectly fine and I was told to pay the bill then went back to the table to see her eyes rolling and her swaying sideways, the male employee said we had to leave because she wasn’t feeling well and fainted.

I took her to the toilets once we paid the bill and she was vomiting, soon after she was unconscious for hours. When we asked a lady employee to help, she came to the toilets and shrugged her shoulders to say there’s nothing she can do and that we had to leave immediately.

They didn’t want to take responsibility or help at all. This is very disappointing for a reputable restaurant. ROKA ALDWYCH really need to reconsider their staff and ethics. How can someone not help two young girls who stayed to have brunch and a good time only for someone to fall sick and have 0 help.

My sister was unconscious and unaware of her surroundings luckily there were a few ladies, who were also at the bottomless brunch and they helped me.

Given my sisters health state, we had to call the ambulance as she was unconscious for hours, when told the ambulance would be an hour, the male employee still insisted we took her out of the restaurant because he didn’t want a scene.

In the bathroom no help was offered at all, we kept being told we had to leave. For someone paying £165.00+ the lack of service and comfort we had was horrific. When addressing the situation with the employee he became defensive but luckily the ladies helped and were witnesses to his and the female employee’s behaviour.

We finally got to the hospital and following some checks we were told she had been spiked.

DO NOT GO TO ROKA Aldwych until they completely reconsider their staff.

Very...