The Waterway — Restaurant in London

Awful - absolute disgrace of a place and I would avoid at all cost.

They can’t decide what they are. A river side bar ? A Gastro pub ? A posh restaurant?

We arrived and the place was packed. Was given a dodgy table that when folks walked past the table would jiggle about. So asked to move inside. Talk about jumping out the frying pan into the fire!

We had around 5 minutes of peace when our senses were assaulted by the sudden materialisation of a crèche. Loads of kids rocked up - the youngest probably a few weeks old if that, screaming, crying, throwing tantrums.

Absolutely vile how parents think the public should be saddled with screaming babies, toddlers and even a 10 year old was having a meltdown. Even worse none of the staff was bothered to ask them to handle the situation and their child. None of the parents went outside to calm the child instead just sitting there sipping wine and conveniently ignoring their screaming devils.

Then the food came. Starters the croquets tiny balls of mash fried and only 3 given in a sauce. Plain. Chicken wings tasteless, just tasted oil.

The mains - swordfish, small pieces draped over aubergine and lentil type of mash with zero seasoning. I’m from the Seychelles and we know how to prepare fish, for £30 this was a disgrace.

Even worse to come the chicken burger you wouldn’t serve to a serial killer, this dry, burned and over cooked piece of meat ( we think ? More like leather ) for his last meal. You would pity the poor fool. So why then are you charging £17 for this ? Alongside soggy brown horrid chips ?

The staff did not check on the food. The food we came for via the fork app wasn’t available, your menu was limited and I understand it was Mother’s Day - but don’t serve people sub par food or open if you don’t have the staff if you’re a busy location . Then you won’t be garnering reviews like this one.

Came here for a date and we stayed exactly one hour and bolted out of there quicker than you can say KFC - which is where we are now going to have proper chicken burgers.

We were charged full price and we had the 50 % fork app food festival. Nobody checked on us or the quality of the food and asked if we were okay - so we removed the service charge.

Terribly disappointing. Youre charging high end food prices to people and you can’t even provide a decent calm place for people to enjoy their meal. Everyone looked stressed out because the day was a bit warm and you had a few mothers in.

This is by far the worst restaurant I’ve been to for a long time and I fail to understand the high ratings, raise your standard people and stop applauding mediocrity and greed. This is all of those things. The pictures looks better than the food...

Disappointment is the polite word for our Waterway dining experience recently. As a local I've enjoyed the food (Euro modern), service, stunning location (edging the canal) and stylish setup of this bistro bar for several years, so, with confidence I invited friends along to share the pleasure. Unfortunately however, apart from the place itself, everything else was so awful that at meal end, we withheld the service charge. Perhaps management has completely changed and they've recruited brand new staff all round, but from the chef filtering down, no-one seemed to really know their jobs. The waitress though pleasant, didn't get our orders quite right and after each course, unceremoniously swooshed our plates away before we'd swallowed last mouthfuls. When we jokily commented on this, she said she had to because other people were booked for the table soon! The food itself incidentally, was very ordinary, neither cooked nor presented as as one would expect in a reasonably upscale bistro, or indeed, as I had always experienced in the past.

Other fails added insult to injury. When the wine arrived, the waiter delivering it, plonked it on the table and scampered off. We were dining alfresco under a covered canopy and when it rained (as expected), and sweeping in on us, we asked if we could be moved to the empty table alongside. No, because it was already booked. No apologies or attempts to help us move our table away from the onslaught. The expected party next to us had not arrived by the time we left an hour later by the way. We then moved indoors for a last evening cocktail. Everything we ordered came in wrong glasses, liqueurs barely covering the bottom of squat old fashioned glasses for example. It wasn't that they didn't have the correct ones, we could see the full range behind the bar, the bartenders just didn't seem to know their liqueur glasses from their beer glasses, wine glasses from cocktail glasses.

In summary, current Waterway staff need training and a new chef needs to be installed. The venue and location will always attract people but it's sad to see a former very cool place slide so badly. Covid, being blamed for everything by the way, cannot be blamed for bad food or service. I'll check this unique venue out again at some stage and fingers crossed it will have returned to its former...

We recently had a dinner with a group of three friends at a lovely restaurant. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a German gentleman with a distinguished white beard who was responsible for welcoming guests. Unfortunately, he turned out to be the rudest person we have ever encountered in the hospitality sector.

Initially, this gentleman mentioned that he would write our names on the waiting list and assured us that we would only have to wait for approximately 45 minutes to get a table outside. Surprisingly, we noticed an empty table outside the restaurant that remained unoccupied for over an hour. Given the circumstances, we politely approached the German gentleman and requested to be seated at that table. However, his response was extremely impolite and disrespectful towards us.

Despite waiting patiently for over 1.5 hours and politely requesting to change our table on three separate occasions, the German gentleman showed no empathy or willingness to accommodate our simple request. To our disbelief, he even went as far as threatening us, saying, "If you ask one more time, I am not going to move your table. You are irritating us." This behavior was completely uncalled for, especially considering the fact that we were paying customers who had already displayed great patience.

In contrast to this unpleasant experience, we must commend another waiter at the restaurant who was exceptionally kind and attentive towards us. Regrettably, the German gentleman verbally attacked this kind-hearted waiter without any justification. Such behavior is simply unacceptable, and it reflects poorly on the reputation of an otherwise pleasant establishment.

It is our sincere belief that no restaurant should hire an employee like this German gentleman. His rude and disrespectful attitude towards customers is detrimental to the overall experience and tarnishes the image of an otherwise reputable establishment. We hope that the management takes note of this incident and ensures that all staff members adhere to the principles of hospitality, kindness, and respect towards their...