The King's Head — Restaurant in London

What a disappointment, we met two friends there for a reunion after three years. Initially we asked for iced water and had to reask. We chatted, and chatted after 15 minutes a waiter came and we ordered one parfait, one shrimp and two cheese soufflé, a rump steak medium, I asked for it to be tender not chewy, two chicken , one with sweet fries and a gammon steak with no egg. The starters came, the cheese sauce with the soufflé was thin, soufflé under cooked, parfait and shrimp cam with limp and chewy toast. Main courses came both chicken meals had bacon strip that was impossible to cut or eat, chicken was not hot, the sweet potatoes were hot and crisp best thing, the other chicken meal came as per menus with very little amount of new potatoe. The gammon came with just meat and fries no garnish , when we asked were told no you can order a side dish as extra. We orders leaves salad, we had to ask three times for this and it arrived as our guest was finishing, it was a poor leave salad with possibly ten small leaves as was the one with the steak - very unappetising.The steak came, it was flabby rare not medium and very chewy. Fries were hot but looked out of a bag. We had three puddings, ice cream, fine, fruit with a type of rumbaba disc chewy, and a pistachio soufflé liquid in the centre.. We paid £190 for this meal. No we didn’t complain as we did not want to spoil our reunion and we would have had to complain at each course. The restaurant is a lovely space that feels welcoming staff are friendly and we enjoyed seeing our friends but the food will not bring us...

I’ve been going to the King’s Head for many years. The food has been fantastic, the service has been wonderful. Recently, however the food (the steak) has been terrible, to such a degree that they must have a new chef who doesn’t have a clue how to cook. Last week, the three steaks we ordered were massively overcooked. We ignored this as normally they are so good and it must have been an oversight whilst they were busy.

Today, we were told by a trainee manager that the overcooked Chateaubriand actually was medium rare even though it was brown throughout as “steak looks different when you look at it outside” and were shown a picture on a phone of what medium rare steak looks like if you look at it under the correct lighting conditions in the kitchen. Medium rare is not brown. Brown steak does not change under any light, and when the waitress cuts the steak for you, looks at it and says “I’m going to take this back” really sums up the issue, which no trainee’s denial is going to cover up.

To be told that “we have this every year” from a junior that has not even worked there for a year is terrible. On the plus side the waitress was lovely, and dealt with a terribly cooked steak in a way that suggests she’s had to deal with it more than once. Well done to her, but not to the chef or the trainee who both need to accept when bad is bad and correct the issues and not make sorry excuses.

Pretty poor show from somewhere that use to be damn...

Despite friends who live locally warning us of a drop in standards we thought we’d give it a chance. Initially things went well, a very good waitress who was attentive. Drinks and starters arrived quickly. The mains however were a different story - Sunday roast beef. Everything on the plate was lukewarm. My wife had 5 slices of beef however, having removed the top two, the remaining 3 were just slices of pure beef fat. The waitress did ask us if everything was ok as we started the meal to which we answered “yes, so far” but perhaps give us a chance to eat some of it before posing that question. I asked for the meal to be removed from our bill and a young manager/supervisor did offer to bring out more actual beef slices but the moment of enjoyment for my wife was gone. I was happy to pay for everything else but my wife’s meal, when the bill arrived it was still included. I asked for it to be removed along with the non voluntary gratuity which I felt the kitchen staff did not deserve. The young manager or petulant child clearly has not had training to deal with negative feedback, it was like dealing with a teenage son who has never been told ‘no’. And never throw a bill at a customer again, you can’t get the food right all the time. More training required Monsieur Blanc. We have been many times in the past but I would advise avoiding this place until high...