ROKA Canary Wharf — Restaurant in London

Most disappointing food experience of the past few years! I've been to 2 of the other ROKA branches quite a few times and once would have recommend the Mayfair branch. That's was a lovely experience and good food last time I went. I'm going to be honest in this review for Canary Wharf though because the rest of these reviews are deceiving or something has changed since. This branch was dreadful and only has these rating and popularity because of the name, not the food. I was here for a birthday and all 7 of us regretted our decision to choose ROKA and wouldn't go back even if threatened. This place does a disservice to Japanese food!

The food: Expensive, bland and basic. Don't be deceived by pictures, the portion sizes look smaller in person!! The chicken wings were tiny and underseasoned. The squid, again lacked flavour. The portion sizes were ridiculous! If it was fine dining then absolutely, but this was 100% not fine dining. When a restaurant feels the need to put a lime slice on almost every starter plate we had, we know they know the flavour isn't where it should be without it. The lettuce dish was nice, but nothing special. The salmon maki rice was overcooked and stodgy, and again bland... They would be banned from Japan sushi restaurants for those rolls. The black cod gyōza were okay, but you get more flavourful frozen ones in complete honesty. The chicken and rice dish was basically a mushroom or chicken stock cube with no extra seasoning mixed into undercooked rice with very little chicken for around £22. We all tasted it and all agreed it tasted separated, very salty but lacked any favour. The ridiculous part as well is that when the waiter mixed it at the table, he brought 3 plates.... 3 plates for what? There wasn't enough chicken or protein in that dish for 1 person let alone 3. The friend who ordered it didn't want to complain, so we didn't bring it up but a good few of us really really wanted to.

Service: not up to standard. The service was slow once we all had ordered and the food took a while and we ended up waiting for a long time for one dish. There wasn't enough drinks menus between us and even when we asked for another one, we only got another 1 wine menu instead of a cocktail one like we asked for. We were then told that they needed the table back... Fine, but someone explain why we then had trouble getting someone to come over so we could pay? It was after they told us we needed to leave that someone remembered it was my friends birthday... And they brought over this tinyyy one scoop of vanilla ice cream... on a lotttt of ice... with a leaf. Why waste so much ice? Even worse, it wasn't nice vanilla ice cream. So... Why bother? It was sad and a bit offensive that you can spend hundreds at a restaurant and they do that. It would have been better not to get anything and just have had better service. Ironically on that note, when we decide not to pay all of the service charge, our waiter seemed to agree with our decision that the service hadn't been great... Your staff know.

Atmosphere: I was going to give it 2 stars but then there was a point where someone turned the lights down like just improve your presentation if you're self conscious about it. Even the women at the table next to us were complaining they couldn't read the menu fully because of the bad lighting... And we're all in our 20s, 0 eyesight issues but it was dark with 0 atmosphere. Ambience does not equal dark...

Overall: This experience has changed my opinion of ROKA. ROKA is a restaurant chain doing so well, but they don't celebrate their customers. They are cheap and stingy with their flavours, their portions, their lighting, and their service. I've never been so upset after a meal or had to eat again so quickly. Hundreds of pounds down the drain. All 7 of us are still upset and disappointed about it the next day, we wish we hadn't chosen ROKA especially for a birthday....

Favourable & Delightful Experience – But Not Perfect 4/5

Two of us came here for lunch with high expectations after reading glowing reviews and dining at many top establishments. We were very hungry and ready to be impressed.

Upon arrival, we were warmly greeted and taken to our seats. Our waiter was friendly, attentive, and took the time to explain his recommendations. We opted for the seasonal tasting menu at £88 per person, having been assured there would be plenty of food.

The Meal:

The dishes started to arrive, one by one: • Sake to Avokado Maki (raw salmon, avocado, and asparagus, with wasabi tobiko and tenkasu): Fresh, clean flavours, complemented nicely by the wasabi and ginger. Much better than any supermarket sushi. • Goma Fuumi no Horenso Salada (spinach leaves with sesame dressing – GF, VG): Light, tasty, and refreshing. A great addition to any meal – highly recommend. • Sashimi Moriawase (tuna, seabass, and salmon sashimi): Two small pieces of each fish. Very fresh, but a bit bland on their own. The soy sauce helped bring some life to them. • Hamachi no Taru Taru (yellowtail tartare, lemon, chilli, and ginger pearls – GF): Fresh and mildly flavoured, but didn’t stand out. Served with two thin edible crackers that reminded me of light Quavers – not very impactful in flavour. • Gyuniku to Goma no Gyoza (beef, ginger, and sesame dumplings): The highlight of the meal! Crispy outside, juicy and flavourful inside, paired with a delicious sauce, chillies, and cucumber. We only wished there were more – two each wasn’t enough! • Kuruma-Ebi (tiger prawn tempura with tentsuyu and spicy yuzu sauce): Another standout. Served hot and fresh, with a satisfying crunch. Left a warm, hearty feeling. • Kobuta no Ribs Yawaraka Nikomiyaki (baby back pork ribs with sansho and cashew nuts): Great flavour and texture, though the ribs were small with little meat.

Main Dishes: Hinadori no Lemon Miso Yaki (cedar roast baby chicken with chilli and lemon – GF): My favourite main dish. Bold, mouthwatering flavours. Served hot and packed a punch. Konasu (eggplant in mirin, ginger, and soy – GF, VG): Moist and sweet with a distinct flavour. If you’re a fan of eggplant, you’ll enjoy it – though it wasn’t quite to my taste. Tai no Miso-Yaki (seabream fillet, ryotei miso, and red onion – GF): Very soft and fresh, with delicate flavours. A nice contrast to the other dishes, though it didn’t stand out in terms of taste.

Dessert:

We ended with the Roka Dessert Platter. Everything was enjoyable except the sticky toffee pudding, which was overcooked, dry, and tough – a real letdown.

Extras:

We had four Diet Cokes between us and a bottle of water, priced at £5.95. There’s also a £1 charity donation added to the bill and a 14.5% service charge (optional, but included automatically).

Final Thoughts:

Our total came to £226.51 for two. It’s definitely on the expensive side, and while the service was excellent and many dishes impressed, not everything lived up to the hype. Some items lacked depth or portion size for the price.

That said, we still had a great experience. I’d highly recommend select dishes (like the gyoza, prawn tempura, and baby chicken), but others I’d probably...

When I arrived at 1300 for a 1330 reservation I asked the receptionist if it was okay to sit at the bar (waiting for my guest) until our reservation time. My guest arrived shortly after myself. 1350 I called over one of the staff working in the bar area and asked if he would remind the lady on reception who had clearly forgotten us that we were still waiting to be seated (bear in mind the restaurant and bar was only 25% full) imagine how long we might have had to wait if they were busy with this particular receptionist Shortly after my speaking to the member of staff the receptionist collected us from the bar and took us into the restaurant Our problems continued though, as when booking I had requested a certain table (which of course I fully appreciate and understand that this can only be accommodated if available) the receptionist took us to an alternate table (so not aware of my request for a particular table - not bothered to check) when rather insulting the table i requested was empty. Obviously I asked if we could sit at the table I had asked for - in summary the front of house was very poor indeed and would get a "0" if this was an option. How can you forget clients and not check any notes on the booking system when this should be your main primary role.

The person serving at our table was very polite indeed but sadly not very attentive as we had to continually look around to get service and it appeared there was limited or little attention to customers and it was more important to talk to their own colleagues. Thankfully the food itself was exceptional which overall made the lunch seem more reasonable and accepting of the poor service After lunch we went back to the bar and again the bar staff spent more time behind their grey cloth screen chatting to each other than paying attention to any customer in the bar and perhaps this is borne from their own manager sitting at the bar on his laptop talking loudly on his mobile phone When you consider there is a very high price to pay the least they could do (the staff) is make you feel welcome and available to assist with any requests you may have. Why are staff who are being paid a lot of money (well at least we are being charged a lot of money) for serving customers not customer focused This entire experience cost in excess of £500 which when you evaluate after the event is really poor considering what we were subjected to We did have another booking for Monday 25th but to be honest considering how poor the overall experience was (other than the food) we are going to...