The Pelican - Notting Hill — Restaurant in London

Overhyped and overpriced, definitely avoid. Despite being warned by a few friends who are locals in the area that this place was terrible, I’d read great things online and assumed they’d just gotten unlucky. Unfortunately, my experience was terrible. Upon arriving, the ambience for dinner was awful. The bar/pub area, just next to the dining area, was super packed and very noisy. We had to yell across the table to hear anything. Then, the waiter arrives only to announce that 2 out of a total of 4 mains were out of stock. Also the oysters. Out of all the dishes we ordered, only the venison tartar was deemed ok but us, though 70% of the dish is a sauce carelessly poured on the plate. Then the mains arrived. The onglet, despite being labeled as “onglet, shallot” was in fact “peppercorns, onglet”. Honestly there were so many peppercorns on the dish from the peppercorn sauce that most of the group I was with deemed it inedible. You could not taste the meat at all and only one of us finished their plate. I also ordered a side of chips, which did not arrive with the dishes and when I asked about it, the waiter said he forgot to include it in the order and could not add it because “the potato fryer was closed now”. Not only did this not result in any reduction on the bill, but they also had the audacity to charge us for FOUR BOTTLES OF WINE WHEN WE HAD TWO. An extra £100 added to the bill. We were a big group but luckily my friends spotted the issue. Extremely unprofessional. We then had to wait 15 mins for someone to come take payment, during which time one waitress came to remind us the restaurant was closing and we had to leave soon. We kindly reminded her we’d asked to pay 3 times and still no one had come.

Side note - I told them I had an allergy to celeriac. I explained this was the root of celery. They brought me my dish and in front of the table said “this is for the person who is celiac”. Not the same thing. Would expect better from a place that charges these prices.

Overall, this place is a complete disappointment. Everything that could go wrong did. The staff should be ashamed for how they treat customers. I will be sure to tell everyone I know to beware of the Pelican and avoid at all...

Booked Saturday evening for dinner. Arrived at the bar which was busy and very noisy but were quickly shown to our table in the restaurant section which was much quieter, candle lit and wood panelled - very nice. Waitress arrived very quickly to take our drinks order, was back just a few moments later with menus and back again (before our drinks had arrived) to ask for our food order. We asked for a little more time as we felt rushed, having only been there for less than 5 minutes. Food and drink were outstanding. Spider crab toast and fresh sardines to start and excellent Bavette and Monkfish on the bone for mains - wines by the glass were very good. HOWEVER - after just over an hour at the table (and still finishing desert and drinks) a waitress arrived to remind us that we would need to leave the table in 10 minutes time as it was booked for another customer. We remind her that we had a 2 hour reservation. She apologised and left only to return a few minutes later to ask to see confirmation that we had the table from 6.30 to 8.30. My wife showed her the booking on her phone calendar. Another apology. A minute late another staff member (manager?) arrived to say that an appointment in a phone diary wasn't sufficient and could they see the actual confirmation (which they had sent to us earlier that day) - my wife pulled the printed email out of her bag and showed it to the staff member. Another apology. We realise that restaurant need to turn tables, especially at this time of year - but really spoiled our evening when attempts were made to throw us off our table before we had finished our food and drinks and, in effect, having our honesty questioned by being asked to provide evidence of a booking which the restaurant had provided to us only a few hours earlier. Great food and drink but not the only place in London providing that - service and staff attitude was very disappointing - we'll remember that long after we've forgotten the...

I want to preface this by saying that I love it here; but just a couple of points that will hopefully be more of a helpful criticism than a complaint. We bought a £90 bottle of red wine - after cocktails and champagne - and ordered one of the more expensive on the menu (I think there were two reds that were slightly pricier), they brought out tiny little wine glasses, and when we asked for bigger ones the waitress responded with ‘the bigger glasses are for more expensive bottles of wine’ … and then she really made a song and dance about getting bigger ones - asking the manager and the likes. Bit odd. We also had booked for 3:30-5:30 and were basically pushed out the door to leave at 5:30, handed the bill and reminded several times that we were done and it’s time to go. We had waited a long time to have our order taken for food, and for drinks, so if they do want you to leave on time then I would suggest a faster service… We needed only probably 5-10 mins more to finish the wine, the restaurant was empty with the tables being re-set. We had to move to stand in the pub, and I totally get that if the table was rebooked immediately after but it wasn’t.. there was no one that arrived in the 10 mins we took to finish the wine and the further 10 while we waited outside for the Uber. Seems a bit strange to spend so much time and effort to curate a beautiful atmosphere and menu to have the experience somewhat ruined by little things like that. We had a great meal, oysters were lovely and the wine was nice, but the points that we are quick to remember and relay to people when they ask, is the negative parts because they really do impact the experience. A real shame because I probably wouldn’t come...