The Cheese Barge — Restaurant in London

We had dinner reservations for 19:15PM on 2nd October in Paddington. We arrived a bit early and were asked to return closer to the reservation ( about 20 minutes). It was really cold outside and I think it could of been suggested differently but I guess with the small space inside we kind of understood. We then returned and we got seated. We felt the attitude of the shift manager was rude, dismissive and his attitude towards his stuff completely arrogant and disrespectful. It didn’t made us feel comfortable at all. Thankfully the waiters were extremely nice and helpful and couldn’t fault them. They really tried to make the evening pleasant. We got a nice explanation on the menu from one of the waiters which was quite nice. We had a sharing platter with mushrooms and a drink. The order was taken by the same manager . We finished ordering and my friend was still checking the menu and the guy just snatched the menu from her without even paying attention that she is still checking or asking. She asked one of the waitresses to bring her menu back as we were looking for dessert. As for the food the raport quality vs price was quite disproportionate, despite being ok , it wasn’t Anything special. I wouldn’t quite recommend the platter. The mix of flavours is quite disproportionate and too greasy so it is not quite fit for a dinner being that heavy. The dessert was okish, we got panna cotta and some cake. Not the best we had but I guess for that price the quality is pretty decent. They are small though but given how rich the previous platter was , this is not a bad thing Towards the end we got the bill and kind of felt we are pushed out as more people were waiting. I must mention that we were told that we can stay for as long as we want as we couldn’t get the table we wanted as there was a booking in about an hour for 5 individuals and due to its position the tables couldn’t of been swapped. We was gonna go anyway as soon as we paid but the manager felt the need to come and collect the bill , after we paid, and some glasses and kind of made us feel we gotta go, he wants us out. I personally would not go back to the same location but I would try the other location, maybe the atmosphere would be a bit more friendly and calmer and...

The service was a bit overbearing, we were asked a bit too frequently and incessantly about ordering more from the menu. We also seemed to have three different people tend our table rather than one, which felt excessive given the small number of covers and the fact we didn't need to be asked/waited on so many times.

One of our servers knew nothing about the cheeses, including not knowing what the accompaniments were, and had to just read them off the menu to us - obviously we could do this ourselves so it was a bit annoying to have our conversation interrupted to be asked if we needed any help, just to have the menu read to us when we could have read it ourselves.

The tap beer was lukewarm, when it should have been cold. A replacement was offered that was the same temperature, I felt like this should have been offered to be removed from the bill but it wasn't.

One of our servers and the whole menu proudly professes to be "100% British cheese" but actually one of the cheeses is from the Republic of Ireland, which is not part of Britain, and it's quite offensive to many to say that it is. When we brought this up, the server laughed and said "yes we all love the British cheeses and hate that one" which was actually worse than the mis-categorisation of it as a "British" cheese.

That response was completely missing the point about the sensitivity between Ireland and Britain's history, but also suggesting that the only one from Ireland was poor quality and a laughing stock of the staff. So it actually made it worse and was a poor answer.

Overall not a brilliant experience and I won't be recommending the restaurant to others unfortunately. The cheese itself was decent but the experience overall...

Seeing the other reviews I guess I've been the unlucky one. As a cheese addict I would have expected more from this place. Service: the host was really nice whilst the waiter seemed to be on another planet that night. Food, Drinks and prices: I don't mind spending money for good food but in this instance I felt like we spent around £40 each to leave with almost an empty stomach. Wine only option is a 125ml glass or a full bottle. The grilled sandwiches: my stilton one was almost half the size of the cheddar my friend ordered, for a £9 worth portion I felt like I've eaten nothing. The Cheese board: I see pictures online of quite decent pieces of cheese, each piece of cheese was meant to be £4.50 or £14.50 for a choice of 3. Well we chose 6 to share and for the life of me these pieces were so tiny that the long thin one was the size of my index finger. All accompanied literally by 6 small crackers to share, which means I ended up eating my last bits of cheese without. £30 worth cheese board for such a small quantity. Regarding the quality I can't say anything, however the taste was quite mild and didn't find anything outstanding compared to other cheeses I tried before (not exaggerating but I do eat cheese every single day). Last thing, the dessert: we ordered a chocolate mousse each which we had to finish very quickly because our time at the table was expired. For chocolate mousse you would expect something creamy and soft, our was solid and crumbly when broken with the spoon, the taste was good but again, I was expecting something better. Probably the experience wasn't the best because it was Saturday evening, however I wouldn't go back just because it's a...