The Green Room Restaurant & Corporate Event Venue London — Restaurant in London

THE THEATRE RESTAURANT NOT SET UP FOR PRE-THEATRE CUSTOMERS...

I came to The Green Room when it first opened during it's first week.

Everything was wrong, but it was bedding in.

This is the first time I've visited since, well over a year ago (in fact approaching 2).

And sadly, everything is just as bad.

These staff weren't then and aren't now set up for the kind of speed and efficiency Pre & Post theatre diners require. Which in a Restaurant set up by the theatre seems spectacularly odd.

We arrive with 50 minutes to spare before our performance, the waitress isn't sure they'll be able to fit us in, in time (even though the restaurant is half-empty, they've just had a "large" booking of around 20 covers arrive).

We explain we just wan't two burgers and we'll be on our way to the theatre opposite in no time.

After much gnashing of teeth, she assures us she'll get someone to take our order immediately after seating us - she doesn't.

Staff move around the restaurant as is if swimming in treacle and have the observance skills of blind bats.

We eventually flag someone down and give them our ludicrously basic food order.

No offer of drinks is proffered by the waiter, nor no water brought.

We both order the Vegan Burger & Sweet Potatoe Fries - not inexpensive at £12.50 + tip.

One wonders if their Chef has ever attempted to eat one of these for himself. Because I realise quite quickly that I hadn't checked to see if the food is Gluten Free, it isn't, not a major problem but it didn't explain the ridiculously dry burger bun, which surrounded the already dry chickpea, sweet potato and cashews which made the experience like eating dry crackers.

It was a struggle. It needed lubricant (again, there were no drinks on the table) and no condiments were brought.

We finally attracted the attention of a waiter to bring us whatever sauces were appropriate. Ketchup & Mayo were duly brought in the smallest containers ever and were clearly meant to be shared.

I'm not a Vegan but it quickly dawned on me, had I been, I would have concluded that as I was eating a Vegan meal the Mayo would be vegan too, had I done this, I would have been spectacularly wrong.

We quickly got through them and searched out another waiter to bring more, this time they arrived in appropriately sized containers but which now felt like overkill.

We had to scour for staff to even bring our bill then pay it.

By this point we we were rushing for time. Not the way you should leave a restaurant that's just 2 minutes from the theatre your attending.

It's such a shame that this site is so wasted. Better menu, better service and this would be a great addition to the National as it is, better to eat inside the theatre itself and get those views over the Thames.

Needs a lot of work for me to...

Made reservations for New Years Eve in advance for our trip to London. Had to deal with multiple back and forth emails to set reservations then have them change the time 2 weeks later. It was only 15 min difference so no big deal. Then I get an email saying that I need to send in my order in advance via email so I do that. A few days later I get another email with a link to an online order form to pre-order a different way even though I already sent it in. After going through all that I'm thinking ok good at least after doing all that then my dinner will be seamless and I won't have to worry about them not having enough of the food I want. Then I get another email saying that I need to pick up wristbands in order to even get into the area. That is somewhat of an issue because I'm coming from the US on a large group trip that doesn't really allow for much spare time for me to do that in the 3 days prior to NYE. So I have to head out to the restaurant on my first evening there to get the wristband and just barely made it because they decided to close 2 hours early and everyone was about to leave when I got there. So fast forward to the night of NYE and after leaving an hour early and having to go through a crazy mess of people and a roundabout route to actually get to the restaurant, we made it there. We get shown to our table by the hostess who seemed like she was running and didn't really bother to make sure we were able to follow. After sitting for at least 15 min with nobody even acknowledging that we are there or bringing us any water, I finally went up to the wait stand which was right near our table and asked the waiter that was there if anyone was actually going to help us. We finally get water and then our champagne and start the dinner process. Each course took forever to come out and for the main course my wife was brought the wrong dish. They then had to ask what she ordered and then bring back the food a second time. Even after we were finally served our dessert and completely finished our meals we had to flag someone down to get the check and a to-go box and even that took 2 attempts. While the food was good, the entire process and the service was absolutely terrible. Definitely would have chosen somewhere else if I would have known that our experience would have been so poor. Definitely not worth that price or the hassle of trying to go to a restaurant on the south bank if you are staying north...

The Green Room has always been a fav of mine 10/10. A restaurant that I have always recommended to others, have booked for staff Christmas Lunches and have brought friends who are visiting from abroad to. Until last week (my birthday)........For a Friday evening, I was surprised how quiet it was. It has always been busy / had a nice vibe when I have had dinner / lunch at the GR but it seemed really dead on the night.

Came for dinner with a few mates (7pm), was asked shortly after arriving if we were having coffees and to order if we wanted coffee as they would soon be turning the coffee machine off. We hadn't even really looked at the menu for dinner and hadn't even thought about coffees which we may have had at the end of the evening.

Later we were asked the same with regards to if we wanted cocktails, as they wanted to turn the cocktail machine off / stop serving cocktails at a certain time (still relatively early in the evening)

Most of the guests didn't drink alcohol, and I might add that we were not a rowdy bunch, nor did we complain about anything (food/ service) while we were at the GR.

Nearing to the end of the evening (still early), we felt rushed to leave and the manager started putting all the kitchen lights off. We and the few other individuals at the GR got the message and we started to make our way to leave.

We asked for a pic before leaving, gentleman seemed annoyed / frustrated, took two snaps and handed the phone back and when we looked at the pic they were blurred anyway. I don't really care about the pic but more his attitude / feeling pushed to leave even after the group as a whole spent a few hundred pounds on dinner.

I had never had a bad meal at the GR before, but my husband mentioned when we got home that the fish was oily, that the service was bad and that he didn't ever want to go to the GR again.

Not sure if the GR needed to close early for whatever reason on the night or if the GR is under new owners / new management but the service was seriously lacking.

Shame that it was on my birthday and at a place I had raved to my friends about in terms of the atmosphere, food and service.

If this is one bad night I can understand, but if the GR is under new owners / managers and this is how they choose to treat their long standing customers / customers in general, then I doubt we will be returning to...