The Coral Room — Restaurant in London

I usually don’t write reviews, however I wanted to share my experience for improvement purposes 🙂

I have previously been to the Dalloway terrace which was an absolute delight, however the whole experience at the Coral room was not the best unfortunately…

I booked an afternoon tea for my birthday. I absolutely loved that they called me day before and send a confirmation email and message!

On the day I had a multiple meetings, and did everything to be on time for the reservation as they’re holding it for 15 minutes. Upon arrival I felt like the host was kind of looking at me up and down but didn’t pay attention to it. When I asked him can he give me something for my flowers which I have been gifted earlier in the morning he just ignored me.

Whatever. After I was sitting there by an empty table for 15 minutes before the waitress approached me. I understand that it was a busy day, but I think that you guys could improve this. I have previously worked in luxury hotels and would recommend looking at Forbes standards as it really makes a difference if someone attends the table within a minute to offer water.

The waitresses smile did made my day better, even though she might have forgotten some of our order, that’s fine and it happens. Overall she was very, very lovely. 💕

The tea and food was brilliant, and overall we did have a good time.

That was until we had to be leaving. The staff was really trying to make us leave and that made me feel very embarrassed in front of my guests.

We went to another restaurant for dinner that day and my guests have said how rude it was to take off the water glasses from the table when we still had large water bottles almost full.

No one said goodbye to us and I also didn’t felt any special about the fact that it’s my birthday.

After a delightful experience at the restaurant after I realised that I forgot my flowers at the coral room but after the unpleasant experience I didn’t feel that I want to go back and I don’t think that I ever will.

Anyway… I wish you all of the best in your business 🙂 It is truly very easy to make someone’s day if you pay...

All told, this was one of the more disappointing dining experiences I’ve ever had in my life. Perhaps it was just our day, but the staff seemed woefully untrained. The sweets and savouries served with the tea were the one exception to the otherwise sad service. What I write here is written considering the price for the tea (60 pounds per person). If we were on the Paddington Afternoon bus tea, my expectations would be different, but the Coral Room, with its rave reviews and mention in several “best of” lists for afternoon tea in London, is no Paddington bus tea.

From the moment we walked in, no one from the staff was present to greet guests. We were left wondering what to do or where we should go for several minutes. After eventually being seated we were initially told by one member of the staff that “I know you are thinking about drinks, but I’m not your waiter”. How could this be remotely considered professional?

Regularly we were left wondering where our server was. More the most part, we had to call on the staff for assistance rather than the staff checking in on us. At one point I wasn’t sure if they would ever bring us the tea itself. Maybe it would be better called “Afternoon Snacks” rather than “Afternoon Tea”.

Throughout the service (limited as it was), the staff that was (rarely) present seemed to be constantly stress and anxiety ridden, sometimes sighing when taking away dishes from the table and often seemed bothered by guests.

I’ve rarely written a bad review; however, the service was so terrible, I couldn’t help but say something. The whole experience was so disappointing, especially considering the cost for two people (135 pounds) and the fact that it was a surprise for my husband. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the whole thing left a pall over the rest of our day. My husband and I walked away in shock that such a highly reviewed and recommended restaurant could be so thoroughly...

EDIT: my original review from back in October 2024 was a one star review - I don’t like to fully remove my reviews because I feel that’s fake. But at that time we had cause to leave a poor review over service received / bad handling of a guest with a nut allergy during London Cocktail Week where they refused to accommodate by offering any nut-free alternative, effectively forcing us as a group of 3 people to leave. After I left my review, I was asked to reach out which I did at the time, but by mid-January 2025 I had not had a reply, so I further edited my review to reflect this.

As of late January 2025, I can report now that I have had a response to our concerns over how the allergy was handled and it seems that they have taken these on board and (I hope) been able to ensure that all staff are aware of the importance of showing respect and empathy for patrons who have potentially life threatening allergies and the importance of offering suitable alternatives so as to ensure no one of their guests is ever excluded.

We were invited to join them to see this in action and we were well looked after on the night by Emma. It is a lovely environment in The Coral Room, and the quality of food and drink was never in question (we particularly like the Banana Daiquiri cocktail) - our concern at that time was solely surrounding the handling of that one situation. Emma took time to make sure we enjoyed ourselves, advised on which cocktails were nut-free and has a really personable, and genuine, character. They recognised that at the time in October, what happened was something that they were unhappy we had experienced and it did feel like they were genuinely keen to prove that it shouldn’t have happened and that lessons had been learned. Thank you Emma for your kindness, your service personally was five star.

I have amended my review to reflect our overall experience from...