Sycamore Covent Garden — Restaurant in London

I booked the Sycamore for my partner's birthday , we also had tickets to the live show at 8pm downstairs. On arrival the establishment shines and the excitement and expectations increase, a beautiful restaurant (the front half especially). We were greater and given a nice table . As we were out for a pre-planned event we ordered the special theatre menu which actually was very limited but read well, I am vegan so was limited to 1 starter and 1 main. When we sat down fresh Bread and olive oil arrived and a small plate of Italian style proscutio as I'm vegan I suggested some olives which were fresh and a delight.

We ordered the Bruschetta and the calamari to start but the calamari was off the menu and had the Burrata that was the replacement, the Bruschetta was simple but delicious and fresh and the Burrata simply served was a nice cheese but seemed slightly alone on a pinch of salad. For the mains a chicken paillard and an aubergine schnitzel was ordered, my partner said the plain grilled slices of chicken were pretty boring and dry served with a handful of their mixed curly leaves , chips were ordered as an extra. My schnitzel was well presented along with the same salad and broccoli, there was the red Romesco sauce on the plate, the dish was very plain and the sauce which would have lifted it was rather throat catching without too much roundness of flavour I think a different sauce and probably more may have been needed to influence the bland aubergine. (Traditional flame grilled aubergine would also be an improvement). For Dessert I had Sorbet to replace the ice cream and my partner Tiramisu the sorbet 2 balls in a glass. was fine and the tiramisu was homemade with a fresh coffee taste and pretty good there was a slight lack of alcohol although that's a choice when being made and may have been omitted for many reasons . We ordered an Italian wine which was out of stock and were offered one from Chile I persisted for Italian and a wonderful bottle arrived . The service by the waiting staff was excellent and friendly the sommelier was extremely knowledgeable and helpful and the ambiance was fabulous . I had a chat to the Italian chefs having lived there , they were nice guys and slightly constrained I believe with the menu , the pre theatre menu had not changed for 2 months so would limit visits if that was your desired route although in hindsight looking at the current price of £24 for 2 courses and £29.50 for 3 I do not see much of a deal over the main menu (I need to check the latest prices as this set menu has increased 25% over the Google maps prices) Cocktails and spirits were around £15 a glass The wine was £37 We followed on with the Live Saxophone event which fortunately we had a deal on drinks were similarly priced the sound system was a complete confused mess and the music well presented recent (20 years) pop tunes , I have seen similar many times in Vegas free in the hotels and I think it would work well on a cruise maybe, the venue was compact and atmospheric and the show 1hr15 before clearing as there are 2 shows a night. Front row seats (maybe 10) were £50 each I'll let you ponder on that one. We did met 2 ladies who said the sound is usually much clearer and they were very disappointed their 4th visit they obviously are fans ! Overall we had a somewhat enjoyable evening as the company was good I would probably drop in for a...

A hit and miss experience. The main thing is that the food is excellent and the cocktails are sublime. Service and atmosphere however are lacking.

First, the good.

Cocktails We started with an orange Negroni and spicy pineapple margaritas (all delicious), and they have a whole section dedicated for Negronis.

Food We shared dishes between three people, and started with the stuffed olives with sheep's milk labneh (perfect accompaniment with the Negroni), gorgonzola & sopressa dumplings (so good), and the burrata with tomatoes.

Secondi highlights were the vegan gnocchi with asparagus and nut free pesto, definitely a must! The pappardelle with slow braided short rib was also delicious, but the Tartufata truffle pizza was excellent, subtle truffle flavour, thin base and cheesy. We had a side of the green leaf salad.

We finished with the Torta Settevelli, which would have been better if served warmer, and the Tiramisu which was average.

Not Good

Wine The wine was not good at all. The Nero D'Avola was watery and bitter.

Service Our first server was excellent and attentive, but then it fizzled out. We ended up being there for well over 3 hours, and I had to wait over 20 minutes for a glass of wine. Considering there were only 3 other people, it was hardly busy.

Atmosphere As it's a hotel restaurant, you have a mix of rude guests talking loudly on their phone and a kid running around, and it doesn't have a buzzy atmosphere.

The food alone makes up for the faults, so id definitely recommend for good food...

We got 50% off but it's still way too expensive for the quality. The atmosphere is the only thing that maybe is worth the money. We were sat in the lobby waiting for a few mins for our friend to arrive and the host at the lobby came up to us and asked us to leave saying bloggers can’t take photos for free…. we were just sat waiting to go into the restaurant The starters and cocktails were good, but it went downhill from there. The mains were not cooked properly with very poor ingredients- bland, poorly prepared food. The chicken main was so dry that our friend couldn’t even finish it, and our crab linguine was so bad, it just smelled strongly of crab but there was barely any crab in it, the sauce was just tomato and cream thrown in a blender no flavour at all. we literally could’ve made that much better with some store bought ingredients for like £5 max. when the bill came we were shocked how expensive it was for such bad food, and when we asked to remove the service charge (nothing personal, because we just felt we were alr paying way too much) and when we told the waiter this he just made a remark saying he asked us if the food was ok already (he didn’t) so we were being unfair vibes were violent we ran...