The Shisha Garden — Restaurant in London

Stressful experience from the start

Whilst I understand it has been a hard time for businesses in the time of COVID, I dont think it is good to push this stress along to customers. And COVID isn't an excuse for bad seating or service.

We booked a table of 4 for 8pm (2 weeks prior to coming) and were seated in a corner which felt like I was sitting in my own garden and not 'The Shisha Garden'.

When we asked to be moved, we were promised on two occasions that someone would get back to us and they never did. And then one of us literally had to walk all the way to the front desk in order to get moved because 30 mins out of our 2 hour slot was wasted, nobody was helping and we couldn’t get any staff’s attention to help whilst sat in the corner with a broken remote.

Eventually we were moved to an even tighter seating. Its a big place but I felt like for the purpose of getting as many people in as possible, they stuck seats in every corner of the venue and not considered if their customers are even comfortable or able to move. If you are a group of 2 or 5 and above then perhaps you will get better and more comfortable seating.

Covid compliance: Toilets - I had my buzzer and waiting 10 minutes for my turn to use the toilet as there is a 1 person policy for the toilets. When I was in the toilets 3 girls walked in. If you're going to follow a policy to comply with COVID, please make sure you enforce it as I was uncomfortable there were other girls in the toilet with me, especially as I had to wait and they walked straight in.

10pm closing time: Whilst I understand this rule only came into force 2 days before we came, I think there should be better communication with customers that they will start taking shishas at 9:45. Perhaps they could have messaged to ask us to come earlier than 8pm as they would be closing up quicker. Coming up to customers at 9:30 to inform them their shisha will be taken soon, after they had only been smoking for an hour, isn't acceptable.

Food: The dessert and pizza was good but a disappointment on the drinks.

Ordered mocktails and both came out looking like slush. As we were nearing to the new closing time the bar was packed with final orders, so our milkshake did not arrive till 15-20 minutes later.

Waiters: I get you're frustrated that you wanted to close but huffing and puffing and rolling your eyes at us and every other customer because they want to take pictures isn't nice. We weren't at your venue till 2am. It was 10pm.

If we had the option of cancelling or changing our booking as a result of the change in closing time then we would 100% have taken that but it was not an option that was presented to us.

2 stars because...

I went here on B Holiday Monday. Me & my friend were greeted with a man who wore all black. His blazer was unclean. Soon as we sat down . I asked to be moved as it was warm near the flame. I was told that they do not have any other seating. There were two tables free for the hour we stayed. We pressed the table buzzer three times waited 15mins and then grabbed hold of one the young staff who asked what we wanted to order, then she stood there and ignored us and said sorry each time we ordered an item off the list . She had no interest in her job or proving a services Quite rude and self obsessed.( Skinny white girl fake lashes) I advised that we been sitting and waiting and no body has taken our order. We made the order. Another young staff member walked to our table ten mins after saying if we would like to order. I explained we waited & had to call a staff to make order as we got fed up of waiting. The food arrived and no serviette was given . Agian the same young Asian girl asked if we would like to order. We explained the same thing agian. My friend ordered a rum and diet coke. Instead rum and a coke was bought out. ( Agian the staff member failed to listen and take the correct order)Buy this time we had all our food served and no servittes given with our starts and meals we ordered. I asked for salt and pepper. The staff neglected us and never came back. I had to call then after ten mins and ask agian. Then two young staff members ( black) walked over asking us to move because they had three guests on the next table. The food was okay . The atmosphere and ambience is what stands out. What ruined our night was the fact that only one staff member apologied but messed that up by coming to our table and telling us we have the wrong table buzzer. We pressed the buzzer to pay waited and nobody came. We decided to take pics with the plastic flowers that's the least we are entitled to considering customers are not a priority . The same girl who took the order. Said do you want to pay. I said we would if you came to the table. She said I was there but you had gone. We had to get up and pay and the girl blamed us for leaving the table . The odastey. The staff could not care less about the experience of the customer. I said you have us a defective buzzer and the whole night from beginning to end service was so appalling. Management fobbed us off and never came out to address the matter. Pretty annoyed wasting time ,money with unprofessional staff and management. I am not impressed and nor was my guest. I will not go agian. Your staff are young uninterested unprofessional & lack customer service. Waste of...

Service: Possibly the worst. It was just shocking- left us, a group of 11 who were there for a bday celebration mostly to our own devices. Didn’t know what the drinks were when bringing them and expected us to just accept them- had to ask them to be taken back and brought back when they knew what they were serving. Brought over a bottle of white wine when we ordered rosé, had to ask for it to be swapped and then bucket of ice for it and bottle opener because it was sealed. Had to ask for cutlery. Had to tell the waiter what cutlery is (fully appreciate if English is your second language but as a waiter, key words like “menu, table, cutlery” need to be in your vocab, come on). Asked for drink without ice and they brought me one with and one without and then told me if ordered both- I asked why I would do that? Brought virgin drinks in place of what was ordered and generally got everything thoroughly mixed up. Waited 40 mins for 10 tequila shots. Not 1 apology. Kept saying “we’re busy” as a sorry excuse when the place wasn’t even half full. Asked about 10 times throughout the evening to have plates taken away so we had to move them to the coffee table. I know writing every detail seems pedantic, but it’s just a build up of all the rubbish. One of the guests had to tell them “look, you’re not cutting it right now” and again, excuses and dodging of accountability only until the bill came and we had to explain to them (because they seemed gormless and completely unaware) how awful they’d been.

Not gonna talk about the cemetery of potted dead plants- if that’s what you want people to see, ok.

Toilets: are filthy, please clean them and mirror is right behind the door so if you’re checking yourself you’re right in the way of anyone coming or going.

There WAS a magician though who was great! Great tricks, presence and managed to lighten the mood a bit. We were having a great time as a group, but overall the venue...