The Gate Hammersmith — Restaurant in London

Poor experience from the outset.

I made a booking 3 days prior attending and on the day of the booking, my time was modified without any checking/discussion with me. I’d booked for family coming out of town, and already enroute so I had to call the venue to insist and rearrange my table booking to the time I’d originally fixed, which they did. It was not explained to me why they’d changed my time without discussion.

When we were seated there were 3-4 other tables also with guests, less than a quarter of their capacity. we ordered drinks, starters and mains. Starters came and were ok. Plates were collected, but then we were waiting in excess of 25mins more for our mains to follow, we queried staff when they’d be coming (at which point the restaurant was now full). We were told the kitchen was given our main order 5mins ago, we asked them to recheck as this did not make sense. We were then told the kitchen was given our order 10mins ago, when our starter plates were collected and we corrected them again, explaining our starter plates were collected 25mins earlier. The staff then checked and returned saying our mains were now being cooked. 10mins later 3 of our 4 mains were served but one guest was still waiting her main order which arrived split 5 and 10 minutes later again. Staff then explained the delay was due kitchen had lost our ticket order for the mains - but the table staff are recording our orders on iPads, so this doesn’t make sense. The final delayed item (chips) were offered free by way as apology. The other 2 chip servings (with beetroot burgers) were lukewarm and soggy. The food overall was very average at best.

Two of our table are vegetarian and vegan, and were both underwhelmed by the quality of the meals served.

Given the prices we expected much, much better for the food and service.

Needless to say we won’t...

So we decided to go to the Gate in Hammersmith last night before going to a concert at the Apollo.

Form the moment we walked in to the moment we left, it was odd and cold atmosphere. The servers literally were like they couldn’t be bothered to be there. When customers were leaving, the tables remained dirty for the entire time until we left.

We ordered the beetroot mousse and the courgette flower for starters and we were sharing the aubergine schnitzel with a side of polenta chips and broccoli. The starter presentation was lovely and we were excited to try the food.

The courgette flower was tasty and full of flavour, the beetroot mousse was very bizarre. The ratio from beetroot to the quinoa base was way off and the mousse ended up being dense and overbearing for the dish.

The aubergine schnitzel was just aubergine rolled in Panko breadcrumbs with some applewood vegan cheese and called a schnitzel. The ‘dauphinoise potatoes’ were more of a reheated pave than dauphinoise. I could’ve cooked a better meal at home if I’m honest.

I also probably would’ve bypassed the food had the service been good but it was mediocre at best. Nobody came to ask if the food was OK. When we asked the lady for the bill, she didn’t say anything apart from allow us to pay.

I say this all the time and maybe it was an off day but really don’t work in the service industry if you don’t want to provide good service. We paid £8 for the privilege or that service and I would’ve normally left a tip but I just wanted to get out of there.

Me and my wife woke up this morning to a bad tummy. Not the best and won’t be returning. The Gate has definitely gone down hill from the...

One of the first vegetarian/Vegan restaurants I've tried. Really impressed with the food, it didn't feel like we were eating pure veggie based foods. Some of us went for the three course festive menu (£36) which was a fantastic deal!

For the starter I had the wild mushroom risotto cake, it was served lukewarm/slight cold, though I'd preferred it served warm. The flavour was good, with mild mushroom and truffle taste. I'd say it's a pretty generous starter portion that we weren't expecting.

My favourite main dish was the aubergine schnitzel. I loved the layered veggies, fried perfectly and finished with a creamy horseradish sauce (I'm not a fan of horseradish so I'm glad the sauce didn't taste much of it). Overall, a well balanced flavour.

I also tried my friend's beetroot burger and it was surprisingly good! I didn't think I was eating a veggie burger at all. However, the salad served with the burger could do with some improvements. It looked unexciting and basic.

Finally, the desserts wrapped up the meal nicely for us. The dark chocolate sphere was delicious - loved the experience of pouring the hot chocolate sauce over the chocolate ball! We all agreed that the chocolate crumble was a great touch.

Compared to the chocolate sphere, the cranberry cheesecake tasted mediocre, though not a bad dessert at all. Personally I think the apple coulis was a little too sharp with the cheesecake.

All in all, a fantastic meal. We loved the dining atmosphere and the service was pretty good/attentive. Food was very enjoyable but most of all, we had great company :D

Will recommend this place to friends who are not vegetarian or...