The Wolseley — Restaurant in London

Extremely Disappointing Dining Experience – Lacking Basic Competence This restaurant is a prime example of style over substance, relying on its Mayfair location, attractive decor, and a doorman to mask fundamental failures in its dining experience. It's baffling how an establishment in such a competitive market can get the fundamentals so wrong and still survive. The menu is a confused mess and makes no logical sense. It appears to be an amalgamation of concepts, perhaps trying to cater to all hours of the day, then stripped down and rehashed into an uninspired dinner menu. The main courses are incomplete, forcing you to purchase sides, some restaurants do it, fine, but the sides need to actually complement the main dishes. It feels like a committee-designed menu that's been through too many revisions, resulting in something utterly broken and confused. No wonder the chefs seem to be struggling to produce decent food. My strong recommendation: simplify the menu, offer fewer, well-executed dishes that your chefs can genuinely excel at. Find a competent head chef who can curate a menu they're proud of and empower your team to deliver it. The wine list is also problematic. While good-tasting wine is abundant, the offerings here only become "acceptable" at higher price points. For a Mayfair restaurant, one would expect a wine list that offers excellent choices across all price points, not just sadness and wine worse than the cheapest supermarket bottle. Did you lay off your sommelier? I don't think this is a cut management cannot afford to make, as "winging it" isn't working out. And as for cocktails, don't even bother – they're poorly made and feel like something a bargain-basement pub chain would be embarrassed to serve. Service was a highlight of the dysfunction. Instead of clearing plates between courses, new dishes were haphazardly stacked on top of used ones. When I tried to politely help by stacking plates and supportively handing them to our waiter to create space, it was met with confusion. Another staff member eventually cleared the table, making it feel like it was our fault it had gotten into that state. We were also expected to hold onto our cutlery throughout the meal, as it wasn't replenished, and simply bringing it to the attention of staff wasn't enough, as giving me cutlery doesn't fix the lack of cutlery for the rest of my table. The service can only be described as completely oblivious, which makes the included service charge particularly galling. Adding a supplementary charge for attendance is a bizarre and off-putting practice. It feels like a desperate attempt to extract more money. If you need the money, simply distribute that cost across your menu items. It's less about the money itself and more about the perception of how it's collected. Finally, even the coffee was terrible. In an age where good coffee is universally accessible, there's no excuse for serving something that tastes less desirable than cheap instant. To end on a slight positive, the doorman was friendly and attentive upon arrival. However, even this was marred by a difficult exit where we had to open the doors ourselves and navigate past chatting doormen obstructing our exit. It was definitely an experience I'll...

Becareful of coming here if you want a good experience, good service or enjoyable time.

We were looking forward to having a fancy high tea in London. And if we were going to pay this type of money for tiny sandwiches and desserts I was expecting to get our monies worth in good service...

I'm only talking about the waitress that served our section. Once you walk through the door, we were at the bottom right corner (corner of Piccadilly and Arlington, north-west corner).

The following is based on observation... I was sitting on the outside with my back to the room (wife was in the booth side), however there is a line of mirrors above the windows that allowed me to observe the rest of room. I assume the mirrors are there so no ninja waitpersons can sneak up on me and for me to accidently take out a tray of average tasting food. We are an Asian couple, the mother daughter to my right were Koreans, the couple to my left were European.

Firstly she dropped our cutlery from enough height to clash with the other cutlery on the table and made enough noise to startled us and stopped our conversation. From this I was now alert to see if this was the standard of service for the resturant. This did not happen to the table to my left, not sure if it happened to my right.

The tables are small, we had I high tea tray, a separate plate of scones, trays of cream and jam, two large teapots and it's accompanying accessories of a tea cup, tea strainer, and mini milk jar, cups for water, a plate of beef tartare, a plate of fish, a plate of oysters, our mini serving plates, all the cutlery, a candle, salt and pepper shaker, small vase of flowers... Get my point?Picture included was before most things came out ...

Now... I can see that she's looking at our empty plates, she walks over, good sign. Walks pass out table and proceeds to clear the table on my left (European couple) by doing TWO trips. She does not clear our table nor does she clear the table on my right (Korean fam). There was a nicer waiter that did clear our table once. Didn't get new plates when we went from eating beef tartare and oysters to sandwiches and scones (tried to get her attention but didn't want to wait any longer).

She refilled our water once after asking, she did refill the table to my left multiple times without asking. Not sure how often she refilled the table to my right.

After finally getting her attention, I asked for the bill. I could see where the payment terminal was, it was very close. She then proceeded to have a conversation with another waiter, and only after the waiter was pulled away to do his job did she proceed to get our bill organised. It took a few presses and less than 30secs and the bill was ready, ta da.

The waitress wasn't British, she had a European accent, but I couldn't make out which one.

If the service was good, not great, then the price of the food would be ok. But because of the lackluster service, it just made the food over priced.

Extremely disappointed in the service. And really unfortunate experience when it should of been...

A long-anticipated visit that turned out to be thoroughly (VERY)disappointing.

This was a place I had always intended to visit at least once in my life, but never quite made it—until now. Naturally, I arrived with great anticipation, only to be met with profound disappointment.

Let me begin with this: at a fine restaurant, one may forgive many things if the food is exceptional. However, when a place commands high prices, one expects not just culinary merit but also a certain standard of ambiance, service, and refinement. Sadly, this establishment failed to deliver on nearly every front.

First: 👉 “Do note that a separate cover charge is applied per person.” WHY???????

Reservation required a credit card to guard against no-shows. Fair enough; that’s become the norm.

Second: Upon arrival, we were left standing awkwardly at the entrance, ignored by the staff who were too busy chattering among themselves. When they did acknowledge us, it was with the tone and volume one might expect in a marketplace, not a dining room. Despite several empty tables and our having a reservation, we were inexplicably left waiting.

Third: While not directly the restaurant’s fault, the sheer volume of noise from other diners made it almost impossible to hear the serving staff. The acoustics were poor and the overall atmosphere chaotic.

Fourth: Feeling rather unwelcome, we limited our order to just the main courses. I must say, I have never encountered lamb that tough in my life. However, I will give credit where due—the sauces accompanying both the lamb and the chicken were quite delicious.

Fifth: When I politely enquired about the location of the lavatory, the response I received—“under the clock”—was delivered with an unmistakably unpleasant expression. I had asked using the proper British phrasing, and given the exterior suggested a formal establishment, I had not expected to be met with such brusqueness. I couldn’t help but wonder if this was a matter of inadequate training or simply poor manners.

Sixth: While the venue might appear elegant at a glance, there was no apparent dress code. Some diners looked as though they had just come from a jog or stepped in off the street in slippers. Whatever impression of sophistication this place hopes to project, it is swiftly undone by the casual presentation of its clientele.

Seventh: As we were leaving, not a single member of staff asked how our meal had been, whether we needed anything further, or even offered a farewell. We might as well have been walking out of a supermarket rather than a supposedly refined restaurant. It left a distinctly sour taste.

⸻

In summary: This establishment is sorely lacking in training, decorum, and genuine hospitality. A serious re-evaluation by management is...