The Folly — Restaurant in London

Complain and you’ll be told it’s their turn to talk.

Latest when my very reasonable friend drew parallels to McDonalds, every good Maitre d’ would have realised their mistake. Instead, she was told to be quiet because now the manager needs to speak. And without so much acknowledging what my friend (or me before that) said, she went on about that rule book we knew nothing about.

Been for lunch and made a dinner reservation in person. Expressed my wish for a specific table next to the window. In evening I asked again but been told they don’t serve dinner in that section, drinks only. Dinner started wonderful on a table in main hall. Catch up with an old friend, felt in celebration mood, went for starter, main, a good bottle of wine. About an hour into the meal been told this table is booked and hurry up because you are running out of time. I protested, but the waitress would have none of it and my friend pointed out that we still have another 50 mins, which sounded reasonable. The waitress came back after 10 mins, telling us we actually have 30 mins left, and then back again to tell us time is almost up. It was unbelievably ridiculous. I told her I knew nothing about a time limit on the table, wouldn’t have gone for starters and mains and bottle of wine. She triumphantly exclaimed I should have read the small print in my confirmation email. Told her I made the reservation in person and wasn’t told. She countered that these are the rules and I have to obey. Hmmm….You treat me like a child, I become a child. I said no. Just like my 4 year old toddler who trained me well. Just no. Waitress got mummy, erm, the manager. Manager told me she had a table for us for drinks and I was half ready to be reasonable. I told her I don’t want to shout across a large table at my friend, it was already very loud in the restaurant. I don’t want to sit on a high chair and nor on a low settee either bearing in mind our fashion choice. She reassured me it was just like the table we were sitting on, and helas it was all but that and even worse when she made me walk to the newly offered table. So I said no, returned to my table where our mains were getting cold while the sharade was playing out. I explained again same thing I told the waitress, manager telling me again about the rule book, email confirmation etc. I was fairly irate by that point and regretted having spent any money in that place at all. Celebration mood all but gone. My friend tried the grown up method only to be told that it is now the manager’s time to speak. I think the turning point came when my friend leaned back and in astonishment said Ouff. International language for Are You Realising What You Are Saying Here? We were told straight away all good, apologies for the inconvenience, stay. And not seen another person coming to our table until we waved for the bill.

It would have been so easy for them, it hurts. Latest when the manager came to throw more insult on us, she could have actually said that our favourite table by the window is now available and they’ll carry everything over for us. We would have been wowed by such considerations, instead they lost two loyal guests for good.

The restaurant was packed on a Tuesday evening. Looks like they don’t need our...

Definition of a 'folly': Lack of sense or reason A costly ornamental construction with no practical purpose

Both accurate descriptions of the staff we encountered that evening.

What was meant to be a celebration turned into an utter disappointment. The service (or rather lack of) we received that evening brought nothing but shame on the Drake & Morgan brand.

For most of the night our waitress was M.I.A - nowhere to be seen - and she only came to serve us after we flagged her down. We had to do this several times, particularly as she had a habit of running off mid-way through our order. Trying to get someone else to take a drinks order from us was almost farcical, servers either ignored us or told us they 'weren't allowed' to take orders, only serve.

It was obvious some things had been forgotten or missed from our order. A missing starter, for example, arrived as we were mid-way through our mains - as did the steak knives. Better late than never I guess...

The state of the vegan burger when it arrived was simply appalling, as though it was thrown onto the plate without any pride. A sad-looking, unevenly cut roll (the kind you could get in the super market own brand section) with wilting rocket, a pitiful amount of coleslaw and a meatless 'burger patty' so dry it felt like I was biting through a cork coaster. When I complained to the server about its presentation (and my missing cheese) she became unduly defensive.

Staff management was an absolute shambles. Sure it was a Saturday night and restaurants/bars struggle to get the staff these days, but it was hardly busy. In fact it was half empty most of the time (pictured). And if they were so short staffed, then why weren't certain people chipping in? There was a guy whose sole job seemed to be lighting candles, which he did with all the skill of a chimp who had just discovered fire. There was also a scruffy-looking woman who stood idly by the hotplates seemingly just keeping warm. What was she actually doing? It certainly wasn't quality control.

You'd have thought the drinks would make up for it. But no. I ordered the 'Campfire' cocktail from the festive menu. It was largely ice with a pathetic dribble of what was meant to be the drink. The menu said it would also come with a toasted marshmallow. It came with what used to be a marshmallow - circa 2014 - and I ended up toasting it myself (thanks candle guy).

One of the security guys appeared to have had a few to drink and took it upon himself to come over to our table and declare: 'Cheer up, it's almost Christmas!' This followed a 20+ minute long argument on the stairwell leading to the toilets between this same bouncer and one of the bar staff. Customers wanting to use the toilets downstairs had to squeeze between the two as they were screaming abuse at each other.

We decided not to continue our meal and instead finished the night with dessert and drinks at good old Wetherspoons. But hey, cheer up, it's almost...

Not sure why you can't leave zero stars, as that would be a truer reflection than thinking there was something I liked about it ... Awful experience from start to finish. We were greeted by a security man at the door for our 7pm booking on Sun. He asked if we had a booking & when I said I did he asked for my name. Why I have no idea, as he simply pointed to the staff inside. First impressions were that we wanted to turn on our heels & leave as it was like a nightclub inside. I totally get that people were celebrating after running the marathon, which was great, but when the waiter has to crouch down to hear you or you have to shout across the table to your partner, it doesn’t make for a pleasant experience. A (very loud) open bar & restaurant don’t work if you want to have a conversation, but worse was to come. We placed our order (bao buns, piri piri chicken skewers & chips) plus a bottle of wine. It was at least 20mins before the wine was brought to the table. We were seated in full view of the open kitchen. I could clearly see chicken skewers & bao buns sitting on the pass being moved around, (the skewers in particular, were not under any heat) while other orders were being fulfilled (plus a large bowl of chips, which the suited man was serving), so it wasn’t like they were waiting for anything else. Sure enough when the food finally came after sitting for 15-20mins, the skewers were cold, so I sent them back. I saw the chef setting another portion on the pass & indicated to the suited man that they were for our table, to which he looked around for our waiter & not seeing him, pushed them aside, despite being less than 10 steps away from our table. I had to call another waiter & tell him I had seen my meal left on the pass & could he get them before they too were cold. Unfortunately, they weren’t worth the wait, the first lot were spicey & tasted of chicken, the second had no spice whatsoever & the texture was soft (like chicken thigh meat), I didn’t even want to eat it & couldn’t bring myself to chew most of it, but couldn’t be bothered sending it back again. The bao buns were hard & too thick & the duck was dry. The chips were just about passable & the only thing we finished. Quite a while after eating, our plates were cleared & the first waiter came with the dessert menu & didn’t reappear for 25mins. His first words were ‘do you want more wine’. I told him we had been waiting 25mins for him to come back & he said ‘you were still drinking’. What that has to do with anything I don’t know, but I asked him to remove the service charge from the bill, which he did, with no apology whatsoever. The only good thing about the whole experience was the wine, because they didn’t make it....