Sons + Daughters — Restaurant in London

The strong odour of (oxidised) cooking oil is the first thing that hits you when you enter the kings X premises. And then the tiny glasses for serving tap water (though my waitress was accommodating & pleasant with my repeated requests for a top up, one wonders why they don’t just plonk a bottle/jug/carafe of the stuff on the table)

The gem lettuce & pumpkin seed salad came with only a fork, which I found rather bizarre; and completely inadequate for dealing with whole (not shredded) lettuce leaves. I couldn’t pick up any of the other contents of the salad (the seeds, and the cress) from the bowl using just a fork. No problem requesting more cutlery, but it seemed strange to have to ask. The salad serving was small, but the dressing was tasty. The lettuce leaves were already browning at their stems. And my bamboo-melamine bowl had faded handwriting in a red-marker pen on the outside, that hadn’t fully come off in the wash. Which had me questioning hygiene, but mostly I just thought it was a thoughtless oversight to serve me with that.

My sandwich was tasty (egg), and it was an interesting twist to have crisps in it. I had really wanted a ‘cheese’ sandwich, and was surprised not to see one on the menu (except as an added ingredient to a Mortadella ham sandwich). Their sandwiches are waaaay overpriced (£8.50) for the size you get - and I had ordered the cheapest! The best news though is that they can accommodate a gluten-free version of ANY of the sandwiches on the menu! That alone is a big selling point I’d say (though they don’t advertise it. Or if they do, I didn’t notice it from my research).

And lastly, although background music is played and my waitress was helpful & accommodating, the vibe isn’t convivial. I can’t put my finger on it, but it didn’t feel a friendly place to be in. The bearded guy that made my sandwich hung out at the counter between times, but you didn’t hear the friendly banter between workmates that you normally would ‘on the shop floor’ as it were. Quite a serious tone to the place. As I said, can’t put my finger on it, and I left to have my post-prandial coffee elsewhere. A bit (ok, a lot!) more attention to detail, along with an injection of ‘welcoming’ vibes to get rid of the tense atmosphere could turn this around and make their prices ‘worth it’ for a city...

I've been past this unit before and been really interested to try their sandwiches as they looked right up my street. I went to Granary Square with my husband yesterday to meet some friends, and we all got takeaway food from the surrounding area. My husband kindly went to get me a chicken sandwich from S&D whilst I chatted to my friends in Granary Square.

The walk from S&D to Granary Square is about 30-45 seconds. In the time it took to collect my sandwich and bring it to me, the filling had completely soaked into the bread and turned it into a bready paste, meaning it completely disintegrated when I opened it. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the entire middle section of the sandwich fell out, leaving me holding just a dry crust. The middle of the sandwich was just a sloppy mess of chicken on greaseproof paper that I had to scoop from the paper with my fingers to try and eat. It's a misnomer to call this a sandwich - it was more a mixture of chicken and bread-paste on paper, which I really would have needed a knife and fork to eat properly. Yes, the filling was decent (so two stars) but if you can't actually eat it with your hands, it's not a sandwich. The bread needs to be much better quality to hold the fillings together and not leave you with a sloppy mess that's difficult to eat. Category error calling this a sandwich. £10 for this is a real disappointment. I could have spent £5 at Pret and actually...

When we approached your venue at Coal Drop Yard, we saw that there were available seats inside and asked the girl (with a handkerchief in her head) in the front window if we could eat in and she said yes. We were to seat in the table available and she said that that was the only large table she had and told us to seat in the corner of the bar. The other table available between this "large" one (4 people) and the one used by a single guy was for security distance. We sat in the bar and after 3 min. the single guy left the table. My wife approached her to ask if we could move to the table then and she replied that she had just gave the table to someone else outside. She could have asked us because we just did but ok. To our surprise, 2-3 min later, she took a new couple and sat them in the table she told us we couldn't because we were just 2. They were 2. I then approached her asking why and she said she couldn't move people from table to table and with no reason why she didn't allow us to seat in table and she did to other people (all British) just few minutes later. Didn't she like our Spanish accent?

This is the first time in 7 years living in London that we've felt discriminated in a place, with such shameful attitude from a staff's member. This is unacceptable and...