The Harcourt — Restaurant in London

We came to the Harcourt for our family early christmas lunch. Every element of our meal was incredibly disappointing. Each guest was presented with a different menu, which we were then informed was the christmas menu (differing from the online christmas events menu, which I had called to request). We were then told what was on the menu and were expected to remember it - I took a photo of the manager's copy and had to send it to the rest of the group. There was no beer at the bar (at 6pm on a Monday?). The ham hock was covered in overpowering mustard and each guest had vastly different portion sizes. The winter tomato salad was covered in salt and was almost inedible. The main meals: the duck was not seared, was cold, and underseasoned. The accompaniments were soggy and bland. One guest's contained a hair (see photo). The steak was also cold, and was cooked incorrectly despite requests at point of ordering. It also did not match the menu description (no red wine jus, just butter). The chips were not salty, but the lettuce was inexplicably so (also inedible). I've never left a family christmas meal so disappointed, not worth £45. We left before dessert and had to stop on the way home to eat again as we were still hungry and disappointed. Don't put yourself...

We had our wedding reception here for 45 people, including 5 children. From the time of booking the event, 6 months earlier up to the day, there were 3 changes of management. This meant that communication was difficult and led to some uncertainty. Our wedding coordinator actually left the company, but we were not informed, which panicked us as we could not get hold of anyone as the event date approached. Eventually, Yana came through and took control of the situation. Apart from some minor adjustments to the table layout, everything was in place, in time, and the event went off without a hitch. The staff were attentive and welcoming, but they could have maybe done with one extra pair of hands as the service was just slightly slow at times. Everyone commented on how lovely the food was, especially the stake, and the chef went out of his way to accommodate any special dietary requirements. The venue looked lovely with the flowers and candles. It's just the right size for that number of people and the staff cleared the tables after dinner so that we could all have a boogie. In all, the event was a great success, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the evening. I would definitely recommend it as a venue for any celebration and it was very good value...

Had lunch at The Harcourt and was given the private dining organiser’s email as I was looking to organise an event there as I have been a loyal client in the past. This was on a Sunday and was assured that she would be in the office the following day. I sent her an email but a week went by without a response. As the deadline for the event approached I called up the restaurant to explain the situation but was abruptly told that she had in fact not been working this week and would reply upon her return. He did not even bother to ask if my enquiry was urgent or offer to take a message. Pretty poor customer service - if you are out of the office, have your email autoreply on! Im basically offering you a large sum of money to host an event and I have to chase YOU? Now that’s a first for me - in London with the amount of competition, businesses would need to be savvy to survive. I usually like The Harcourt but now I wonder if my latest experience is a sign of what’s to come in terms of customer service if I had chosen to host the event there. Really...